by netage | General |
I’m an Italian-born US citizen. I currently live in southern California. I’m the only member of my family living in America. All of my relatives live in Italy. There is a rivalry that defines Italy. Northern Italians look down on southern inhabitants. With little effect, as southern Italians don’t look up to their northern compatriots. Even more culturally detached from the Italian peninsula are the Sicilians who don’t consider themselves Italian.
Prior to becoming a US citizen I lived in Montreal, Canada, where I immigrated when I was five years old. Later, in my mid-thirties, I moved to Los Angeles where I found a similar attitude: Northern Californians look down on southern dwellers, especially citizens of Los Angeles.
When I was living in Montreal I noticed a similar characteristic about Canadians: They felt superior to Americans. This feeling was mostly shared among colonizing English-speaking Canadians, due in part to their hereditary loyalty to the British Crown. As far as I know Americans consider Canadians as well-mannered lefties to the north whose leadership is still loyal to British crown.
In the US, there is a historical resonance about north~south rivalry dating back to the Civil War. Today this rivalry could be described as the axis of San Francisco~Sacramento, Chicago and New York city looking down to south central America.
The word superior literally means to be situated above other things or beings. Feelings of superiority among people living in northern countries seem to confirm the definition of the word.
People who have lived any number of years in Europe might have noticed a similar rivalry and to some extent, animosity, between northern and southern countries: Northern Europeans look down at the southern, mostly Latin countries like France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It’s somewhat of a consolation to realize that Latin people don’t look up to the northern inhabitants.
Northern territories have colder weather and have a greater percentage of their economy based on heavy industry whereas southern areas have a warmer climate and typically have a greater percentage of their economy that relies on agriculture and tourism. Nordic climate is favorable for beer production and drinking whereas southern weather is better for wine making and drinking.
The war in Ukraine has damaged the cohesion of the European Union (EU). It also exposed an alarming dictatorial disposition coming from the leaders of the EU, with a growing warmongering coming mostly from the Nordic countries. An attitude that may increase the risk for a potential dissolution of their political union.
The current head of the EU commission is held by Ursula von der Leyen, a German. She was not elected to her position by the people of Europe. It remains a mystery and should be a concern who appointed her President of political Europe.
The current chief diplomat of the EU is Kaja Kallas. Her statements reveal that she is a vocal Russia-phobic. Not a good disposition for a diplomat. The fact that she has little access to powerful diplomatic circles will not be helpful to promote the standing of the EU in the world. Case in point, she is shunned by USA and China diplomatic delegations.
Von der Leyen is German and Kaja Kallas is a citizen of Estonia. A northern country bordering Russia with a small population of ~1.4 million. These two political officials reveal a dominant political power of northern countries at the expense of the southern nations. A situation set to increase the tension between north and south.
Brussels, the capital of Belgium is a showcase of the historical European political division. In many respects, the city is a dividing line between northern and southern Europe. The EU Parliament and NATO’s headquarters are both located in Brussels. A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so to speak of the concentration of political and military power. Members of each institution know each other and mingle, generating a big interconnected bureaucratic fortress.
Belgium has a contentious past. The country is made up of two ethnic groups; a majority of Germanic-speaking Flemish to the north and of French-speaking Walloon to the south. Northern Belgium is mostly Protestant and the southern regions are mostly Catholic. During the 1970s and 1980s during a resurgence of linguistic, religious and economic tensions almost culminated in a civil war. That makes Brussels the likely center of a political devolution of the EU.
The plan to expand the EU’s membership and the expansion of NATO alliance to the north may prove to be fatally misguided. The EU’s elusive goal of toppling the Kremlin in order to take over Russia’s vast resources will likely turn out to be a big strategic mistake. And the potential collapse of Ukraine’s military will put added pressure on Europe’s Union.
In order to salvage a European cohesion, northern political leaders have proposed policies that include reducing the welfare state in order to replace it with a warfare state. These goals will only add a tax burden on a population and inevitably increase a resentment against their political leaders.
I will conclude with an exception to the rule example. Argentina is located at the very bottom of South America. It nonetheless considers itself superior to most of the countries located to the north.
by netage | Media, Internet and Spirituality, General |
Every year as winter sets in, people go through a yearly ritual called the Holidays. For some, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, a religious event. For others, it’s a secular season of gift giving and receiving. For most, it’s a consumer driven event. Weeks prior December 25th mainstream media revives images of a mythical Santa Claus to set in motion a festive mood that will entice consumer spending. In most minds Santa Claus is an American icon rather than a fictional alteration of Saint Nicholas. A character conjured up by newspaper articles and advertising. As a result he has been known as a secular icon rather than a Saint. This beckons the question: How did this transformation of a Saint into a marketing ploy occur?
Christmas and 25 of December
In 274 AD Emperor Aurelius decreed the celebration of Sol Invictus –Unconquered Sun, god patron of soldiers of the later Roman Empire– to be celebrated on December 25th. Less than a century later the Christian hierarchy had settled in Rome. And in 354 AD, in order to settle a growing dispute regarding Jesus’ birth date and foster peace among the increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds of Christian converts, Pope Liberius dedicated December 25th as the commemoration of the birth of Jesus. The Church had no factual evidence on the historical date of Jesus’ birth, nonetheless the magisterium decided that a reasonable way to displace the pagan celebration of Sol Invictus would be to replace it with the commemoration of the birth of the Son of God.
Enter Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra during the 4th century AD. He was known for his kindness and generosity to children. One account of his life reveals that he gave gold coins as a marriage dowry to three girls in order to save them from prostitution. Legend also has it that he threw money from windows to poor children while remaining hidden. Regardless of his kindness, he was imprisoned during the most ruthless persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian. He was later released from prison during the rule of Emperor Constantine. He is officially celebrated on December 6th, the day of his death. The Church documented several miracles that occurred during his life. And he was canonized and became a patron Saint of children.
Soon after Saint Nicholas’ death his reputation grew home and abroad. He was buried in Myra and by the 6th century the burial grounds became the site of a popular shrine. In 1087, a band of Italian sailors who heard stories about Saint Nicholas stole the Saint’s remains and brought them back to their home town of Bari. Once his remains were in Italy, the Saint’s popularity spread all over the country. A basilica was built to shelter Saint Nicholas’ relics and in time the shrine became one of most popular pilgrimage centers in the country.
A few years later a French knight named Charles Aubert traveling through Bari took a piece of the relic and brought it back home. The relic became a sanctuary and the site of the basilica of Saint-Nicholas Le Port near Nancy, France. From Bari, the celebrated protector of children made its way north. Over the next 700 years his cult would spread to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and beyond – so much so that a great part of Europe celebrated Saint Nicholas.
The Reformation put a hold to the saint’s devotion in Germany and throughout the Protestant world. Martin Luther did not look kindly on the domineering power of Rome and its veneration of saints. Nonetheless, the devotion to the saint persisted in the Netherlands. In order to circumvent Luther’s admonition, the saint became known as Sinterklaas, a man dressed in a long red robe with a white beard who brings gifts and candy to children on December 6th.
Sinterklaas and Santa Claus
Sinterklaas
Centuries later, a number of Dutch immigrants who sailed to the New World brought the devotion of their Saint with them. They landed on a location they named New Amsterdam. It did not take long before the prized piece of real estate was coveted by English-speaking settlers. In the aftermath of the Anglo-Dutch war, the city became known as New York. The varied nationalities established themselves in different neighborhoods and coexisted somewhat peacefully. The Dutch kept their cultural traditions, including the celebration of Sinterklaas. The English-speaking population took a liking to the patriarchal figure and adopted him. In time he became known in its English pronounced version of Santa Claus.
Christian faithful of the New World ended with two holidays dedicated to children in the same month; the first on December 6th dedicated to Saint Nicholas, and the second on December 25th celebrating the birth of Jesus. Americans, known for their propensity to simplify things, combined the two holidays into one: The celebration of a Saint and of the birth of Christ became a festivity dedicated to children and gift-giving.
In A History of New York, a book written by Washington Irving in 1809, Saint Nicholas was no longer depicted as “lanky bishop,” but portrayed as a portly bearded man who smokes a pipe with a peculiar habit of coming down chimneys. The book was meant to be a parody about the overindulgence of New York City inhabitants. Nonetheless, the account of a chubby character who was able descend a chimney ironically became part of Santa’s accepted behavior.
On December 23, 1823, the Sentinel, a newspaper based in Troy, New York, printed a Christmas poem by Clement Clark Moore entitled, A Visit From St. Nicholas. The story depicted Saint Nick as a broad faced character, “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf” dressed in white fur spotted with ash and soot. The poem introduced the idea of Santa traveling through the cold night skies in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. The American poem seemingly captured the imagination of readers and its popularity spread all over the country. Santa Claus was slowly overshadowing the story of an old Bishop riding on a cart pulled by an aging donkey.
What Moore conjured up with words, Thomas Nast framed Santa’s image with sketches. Nast’s portraits of Father Christmas were seemingly inspired by New York writers and journalists rather than by a concern of reproducing a historic Saint. Over the years he added varied details of his own about St. Nick’s personal life, including that the he lived in the North Pole. From 1863 to the turn of the century, Nast’s depictions eventually established a framework of what Santa Claus would look like. One memorable print shows Santa depicted with children sitting on his knees enumerating their Christmas presents wish list.
During the course of the nineteenth century, Santa was depicted wearing costumes of varied colors. Prior to red, he was pictured in white, green and purple dress. In Nast’s first sketch, Santa was dressed in a patriotic star and stripes costume. In his later renditions the red suit was the preferred color, perhaps to keep with the tradition of Sinterklaas’ long red robe. However, Santa could hardly take care of business wearing a long robe, so the Americanized Father Christmas was dressed in a more sporty attire consisting of a short coat, bonnet, sizable belt and boots to face winter and sneak down chimneys.
Further contribution to imprint Santa’s image was introduced by Louis Prang with his Christmas postcards. Prang is known as the father of the Christmas card for starting this commercial tradition of buying and sending Christmas cards. This custom originated in England in 1874 and it spread to the United States a few years later. His first Christmas card was created in 1885 depicting Santa in a red costume.
A side note: The bodily contrast between the meager Saint and the portly Santa reflects that corpulence has been regarded throughout the ages as a sign of wealth and material abundance. In this regard, Santa reflected the US’ growing economic wealth, generosity and power.
Then came the tradition of a live Santa in department stores. The custom was introduced in 1890 by James Edgar, a Massachusetts businessman who is credited with coming up with the idea of having a Santa impersonator attract customers to his store. This marketing tool was so successful that children from all over the state dragged their parents to see Santa in Edgar’s dry goods store.
The most memorable contribution to Santa’s image was made during the roaring 1920s. In order to promote drinking cold drinks in winter, the management of a famous cola drink hired an established advertising agency to begin a nationwide campaign by placing ads in popular magazines. The image of Santa that is most recognizable today is attributed to illustrations created by Haddon Sundblom who relied on Moore’s poem A Visit from St. Nicholas as an inspiration to draw his portraits. As it happens, red and white were the official colors of the famous soft drink company. Thereafter Santa has been portrayed as a jovial and plump father figure in red and white attire.
World War II
In 1939, the United States was still struggling to revive a stagnant economy that began with the great depression. The following years, young men of legal age were sent abroad to fight the dual evils of dictatorship and fascism while older men and women stayed at home to engineer and build an industrial powerhouse. The US and its allies’ victory created an economic prosperity that would last several decades and a recovery that also lifted the Old World out of its economic doldrums.
The American troops that landed on the shores of Italy and France pushed back the occupying forces into a final retreat. The victory gave way to a welcome reception to soldiers who freely shared their name brand supplies with the people: chewing gum, cigarettes, soft drinks, music, movies and Santa Claus. The war liberated a great part of Europe. And it just happens that the military also opened a new market for corporate America’s goods. For most Europeans, US soldiers were generous liberators carrying with them precious gifts; a relief from years of rations and starvation. However, not everybody felt the same way about their generosity.
On December 23, 1951, a priest set an effigy of Santa Claus on fire in front of the Cathedral of Dijon. The priest was venting his indignation toward a growing popularity of Santa Claus who he considered to be a poor travesty of an honorable Saint.
Secularization and the Sacred
The priest from Dijon might have been overly touchy about his religious devotion to the Saint. He might also have been alerted by the invasion of a foreign symbol representing globalization. He nonetheless embodied a concern about an irrevocable shift in the representation of the sacred in popular culture.
This process is referred to as secularization, which is commonly understood as a decrease in church attendance. A more apt description is when various elements of human life cease to be administered by religious institutions. Whereas, the historical definition of secularization is the confiscation of Churches property by the State or a sovereign for worldly ends. In other words, the priest was objecting to the transfer – or symbolic confiscation – of a religious figure being converted it into an idol for commercial purposes.
The transformation of Saint Nicholas was made possible with the help of media; newspaper articles, poems, books, postcards, sketches and advertising. Santa became a mythical icon conjured from a patchwork of different sources. As a result, he is no longer Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas. He is an entirely different character transformed by media into a supernatural being whose mission is no longer to help children in distress but to be a corporate marketing agent.
Saint, Holy and Sacred
Sainthood is an official declaration by the Church in Rome stating that a deceased member of the congregation has attained a holy status and is elevated in heaven among other saints. To attain sainthood a person must be morally righteous and his good behavior corroborated by testimonies made by the people who knew the candidate.
The terms holy and sacred are synonym. The former is the preferred term used by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Both words mean; to set apart from the ordinary or common use. They have the same sense and function in most religious narratives and practices. The sacred today does not have the same traditional religious recognition as it did in the past, it nonetheless plays the same role in society, albeit subliminally.
In order to be considered sacred, a being or a thing needs to be set apart, separated and elevated above the ordinary or common use. In our day and age, global corporations stand out as the most powerful body to propagate its own doctrine in culture, the economy and in politics through corporate owned media. Today logos and trademarks have a similar sacred status as religious object did in the past. They are elevated by media in heaven, so to speak, to be highly visible symbols and set apart from common/ordinary use, sheltered and protected by law.
In a postmodern era, corporate media has imposed itself as the provider of the good news. It displaced the priesthood as the mediator between the sacred and the believers. As a result it provides mediated models of conduct setting new grounds for acceptable behavior, a role previously held by the priesthood who were theoretically concerned with preaching moral rules of conduct.
In time, the media became the gateway to an unlimited source of worldly gratification, a technological medium between an invisible power source to promote a new standard of amoral conduct. At the outset, believers used to congregate in churches to celebrate their Saint. Later they assembled in malls to meet Santa and shop. Currently viewers are segregated, captive to their preferred form of online media.
What is at stake is more than a transfer of the sacred for commercial purpose. It is a challenge to the traditional role played by the priesthood. Priests, ministers, mullah, rabbis and reverends are intermediaries between God and the faithful. They are human beings that interpret the Word of God and administer rites to facilitate access to the divine. In essence, they are a live medium opposed to a corporation that is defined as an artificial person.
What the changes in Santa Claus shows is that secularization has not eliminated the sacred. It merely shifted elsewhere to a different entity. One that is in control of media and through it culture, the economy and politics. As a result it shifted peoples’ alliance from a spiritual devotion to a Saint to a subliminal amoral artificial person.
by netage | Culture, Ideology and Religion, General |
Several books have been published about Google’s questionable business practices. Not many addressed how this overreach happened and what it means for the political landscape of the world going forward. Keeping in mind that this misrepresentation does not only apply to Google but to most global corporations.
One hypothesis about Google’s amoral activity is traced to the nature of moneyed corporation and its massive proliferation since the nineteenth century. Corporations today dominate the world’s economy. This domination has been instrumental in advancing a corporate doctrine that now permeates the policies of the West.
This doctrine in many respects runs counter, challenges and encroaches on the nature of human speech, human congregation and human civilization.
This belief system is defined in these terms: A corporation is an artificial person and as such it is an amoral entity with the sole purpose to be profitable for sake of its shareholders. There is no other prerogative than expansion, growth and profits. One must also take into account the misplaced identity of a corporation defined as a “U.S. Person” and as a lawful permanent resident.
When these corporations congregate in an organization like World Economic Forum (WEF) their aggregate market and monetary power allows them to prescribe and lobby policies that encroach and sidestep citizens’ benefits in favor of corporate interests.
Since the nineteenth century moneyed corporations have seen their power increase and used it to influence government policies. During the past century corporations have embarked on a media campaign to promote the status of the consumer while overshadowing the state of the citizen. With the introduction of World Wide Web, the power of Big Tech has increased exponentially to such an extent that global corporations are challenging the legitimacy of nations-states and their respective constitutions.
Amoral Person
By amoral is meant neither moral or immoral, but lacking in moral capacity. Alphabet (GOOG) is a corporation, as such it has a legal definition of “artificial person” as opposed to a human being defined as “natural person”. The definition reflects a fundamental difference between an artificial person, as an amoral entity, and a human being who is born with a free will and a moral aptitude to choose between good and evil.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page have endorsed the company’s motto Don’t Be Evil because as individual human beings they have the ability to discern ‒and express‒ the difference between what is good and what is evil and make appropriate decisions. This human prerogative outlines the fundamental difference between a natural as opposed to an artificial person. The distinction is illustrated by what former Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt replied when asked how does a company like Google determine what is evil? He said: “Evil is whatever Sergey says is evil”.
When an individual becomes a shareholder of a moneyed corporation he or she abdicates his or her individual sovereignty as a moral being and becomes incorporated into an association that is defined by its charter. Consequently the greater the number of shareholders the greater the dilution of morality. The only concern of a moneyed corporation is to increase its market share and its stock valuation.
The Spoken and Written Word
An essential principle that defines a human being versus an artificial person is language.
Language re-produces —re-creates— reality. Society is only possible and only exists through language; and through language the individual.
Emile Benveniste, Problems in General Linguistics
Benveniste also describes how stories about the creation of the world relate the divine power of language. In Genesis 1:3, God literally uses his speech to create the world. Language is God’s primordial tool. Without it he could not reveal his existence, neither could he communicate to his people the world described in the Bible. It might be inferred that before the first words of Genesis are written there is nothingness, and before the order of syntax is put forth there is chaos.
Gen. 1:3 And God said…
In similar fashion, numerous ancient myths provide a good example of the creative power of the divine word. In ancient Egypt the god Ptah of Memphis, in a comparable fashion, created the world through his spoken word. While Sumerian myths describe how divinities first plan their creation by thinking, and then the world comes into being through the power of speech.
In the first verse of the Gospel of John, the apostle identifies Christ with the Word in the beginning. The verse is an important confirmation about the nature of language in God’s creative endeavor.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The point Benveniste is trying to make is that although language has a mysterious beginning, and for many a divine origin, it reflects the unique human faculty to communicate. More so, it is the ability to create and re-create the world we live in to enable the spread of our human cultural heritage; like mythology, religion, music, science, math, software codes and hypertext markup language, so on and so fort.
Corporations use language for advertising purposes to promote products and services to entice sales and generate profits. Ads are also used to modify behavior by converting people into loyal consumers. It’s safe to say that the language used in ads to portray a product does not reflect the real thing but is a make believe it’s a real thing. The product becomes a mediated artifact. The language of advertising has become the prevalent voice of mainstream media blurring the boundary between fact and fabrication promoting an artificial reality disconnected from the natural world.
Who Is Speaking and Says What?
At the SEC Registration Statement of Google’s IPO, Larry page in his Letter from the Founders wrote the following:
Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company…
We will live up to our “don’t be evil” principle by keeping user trust and not accepting payment for search results…
Larry Page spoke as a moral individual. It is assumed that he believed his intention to do good when he wrote the letter. However, a fundamental change occurred when Google was incorporated. The change alienated the two creators from their creation setting the stage for a divided self between moral individuals and an amoral association. Another change occurred with Google’s IPO. It widened its fiduciary duty to shareholders located all around the world making the corporation global in scope.
Once incorporated, Larry Page’s good intentions were no longer relevant. The motto became an emblem of Google’s amoral predicament. The corporate charter and the language of advertising took over leaving behind any moral prerogative previously held by the individuals who created the search engine.
Artificial Person
The meaning of person has been carefully manicured since the Robber Barons. The ensuing court battles since then have created a deceptive confusion about the definition of an elusive someone. In 1886 Chief Justice Waite cut the argument short in court when he ruled that corporations are legal persons. What he omitted to do was define what a person is.
The court does not wish to hear argument on the question [whether corporations are persons]. We are all of the opinion [that they are].
Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite
The original Latin meaning for person is persona, a mask worn by an actor. One must keep in mind that the mask is a prop that allows an actor to perform a theatrical impersonation. An actor does not embody himself as a human being but is a mediated character. The misunderstanding of what a person is also stems from the fact that the Latin meaning of corporation is corpus or body. The word body in this sense does not mean a physiological organism commonly understood as a human body, but a society or an association.
Here the person is one of the “things” about which we speak rather than itself a speaking subject… The person, therefore, remains on the side of the thing about which we speak rather than on the side of the speakers themselves who designate themselves in speaking.
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself As Another
Paul Ricoeur explains that a person is a “thing” that we speak about, not a “thing” that speaks back to us. By definition a person does not have the ability to partake in a conversation. And it might be inferred that an artificial person does not have the physiological capacity to speak. And as such it does not have the same First Amendment rights as “people” have. This characteristic is exemplified by the joke: I’ll believe a corporation is a person when they put one in jail.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Furthermore, a corporation cannot procreate. This is illustrated by the oxymoron of corporate citizen. Citizenship is granted either by birth or through the process of citizenship, a ceremony that involves taking the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The Fourteenth Amendment: First Article
Sergey Brin was born in Moscow in 1973. Russia was still part of the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). His family immigrated to the US in 1979. He later became a citizen. To become a US citizen Sergey had to recite the pledge of allegiance. As for Larry, it is assumed that in the course of his life he recited the pledge of allegiance to the flag, the symbol of the nation-state.
With Google’s IPO Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s stake in the company caused a change in their individual integrity. They became involved in two separate ruling systems. As citizens they are subject to laws enacted by the government of the people. And by being major shareholders of Alphabet they submit to rules defined by the rules of the market.
Many of us own shares in varied companies or mutual funds, have an IRA or ROTH account, or receive benefits from a pension fund that is invested in the stock market. Over the decades the overwhelming speculation in the stock market, made by a wide range of market players, has given corporations a dominating role in all aspects of our lives, especially in government.
Marshall McLuhan explained; it is the medium ‒the corporation is the medium of all economic activity‒ that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. In other words, corporations were successful in promoting their doctrine on governments with the incursion of non-elected corporate appointees in crucial government positions. The intrusion has enabled the implementation of an alien corporate doctrine that is a direct challenge to the U.S. Constitution created by the Founding Fathers.
The conflicting influence is evidenced by a “pandemic” where global agencies, private institutions, corporate media, charitable foundations and NGOs ‒aligned as a body of global corporations‒ used the authority of government to imposed their medical agenda and remedy without an open, transparent and scientific debate. As it happens, the policies that have been enacted have favored stock evaluations of global corporations at the expense of the safety and health of the population at large.
A Divided Self
Google dominated the World Wide Web by comoditizing users’ private data. It distorted human communication with advertising and encroached on human rights in the process.
Educated citizenship today requires more than an understanding of government, which is just the tip of the iceberg of social organization. It also demands an understanding of the companies that influence our government and culture. The firms that order the Internet and direct the flow of capital have outsized influence in Washington.
Frank Pasquale, The Black Box Society
What lays ahead is a conflict between We The People as a mystical body versus a divided self U.S. Person representing global corporate interests rather than citizens.
By mystical is meant a people having a spiritual character by virtue of a union that transcends human comprehension. A union that includes people of different ethnic backgrounds, language, age and varied religious beliefs who are inspired and guided by the principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and by being connected to the land and their respective communities.
In contrast to a franchise economy that is estranged from the people and the location from which a corporation extract its profits.
Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.
President Grover Cleveland
The warning President Grover Cleveland gave during the State of the Union Address on December 3rd, 1888, fell on deaf hears. As a result the Congress faces a battle to stop a global U.S. Person from taking over the whole body politic.
by netage | General |
By philosophy I mean the love of wisdom as it applies to understanding the spiritual synergy of language, namely the “Word” as narrative viewed in conjunction with speech that enables us to communicate our thoughts as an expression of our being. This process is outlined by linking John’s “Word in the beginning” to the creation texts of Genesis, whereby the Evangelist defines Antichrist as the negation of the divine essence of speech.
In Antichrist: A Historical Perspective, I explain that Luther singled out the Pope as Antichrist who came to power due to the backing of his wealthy banking family. During his reign, The Pontiff emphasized the material, artistic and political operations of the Church at the expense the spiritual legacy established by Simon, the fisherman whom Jesus called the rock on which he built his living Church.
In Antichrist: Theological Perspective, John’s Antichrist is described as an apostate who has turned his back on a Christian community of which he was once part. Once he left the congregation, he denied the human nature of Christ and negated that Jesus was the Son of God. Both these principles are linked by the Evangelist to the creative power of the “Word in the beginning”.
To explain the process I’ll use a practical example:
When a person reads Genesis, he or she brings to life the inspired Word of God. This process involves the reader’s utterance of God’s creative activity in the beginning of the Bible.
God’s inspiration
writer/editor
˅
Word/text
˅
reader/speaker > God’s spoken words
This spiritual experience can be illustrated in the following terms: A copy of the Bible sits on a table. The book is a external and non-existent object without the presence of a reader. A person appears and picks up the Bible. He or she opens the book and begins to read Genesis. Words become alive as the reader utters the order of syntax and reproduces God’s creative activity. What was initially an external reality becomes an inspirational and a wholly external~internal spiritual experience, linking past and present with human speech.
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Emile Benveniste pointed out that language reproduces reality. In Genesis, God’s creation and existence is reproduced by human speech. This process transcends time and space of words that were written in the beginning. It is important to note that language should not be confused with speech. The former is defined as a communication system, while the latter is a human capacity to reproduce a reality: A spiritual experience of divine being and presence.
God is a noun. What defines God or a deity is its attribute or verb. In Genesis 1:3 God speaks and creation is formed. God’s creation consists of words~symbols like light and darkness, day and night, days of the week, the naming of animals, of man and woman. These words are essential for the world of the Bible to exist.
In this sense creationists are correct. God did create the world of the Bible. However, Genesis does not mention particles, molecules, biological or astronomical evolution, which are all acknowledged by science and scientists. The Bible presents a reality distinct from the language of science.
It is important to note that during the time of Genesis’ writing, only priests and scribes were able to read or write. This was a closely guarded family skill. Interestingly, at the center of the Garden of Eden stands a prominent symbol of genealogy; a tree. This symbol represents the lineage of priests who were responsible for teaching their descendants how to read and write, making it a closely guarded skill.
Priests were the only ones with the ability and authority (note that the word authority comes from “author”) to read the Torah to the faithful. By reading and speaking God’s words to an audience they acted as a medium between God and the assembly of believers.
The invention of the printing press changed this dynamic by allowing any reader to become a medium. This promoted individualism, contemplation, prayer, meditation and the direct communication of God’s words and presence.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The emphasis here is not on the “Word” as noun, but on the verb “was” which suggests active speech in the beginning of creation. Through speech, the reader is able to read and speak the “Word”, thereby re-creating the presence and existence of God.
Additionally, the original meaning of inspiration is the action of inhaling or breathing in. Its also means the act of inspiring or enlightening the mind and soul. In a metaphysical and mystical sense, this means the human soul is a recipient God’s Spirit. And by expiring, the breathing out by using the vocal cords, words becomes speech, the ultimate means of communication. It is worth noting that in Hebrew the words spirit, breath and wind are synonymous. Furthermore, the Hebrew language is made up of only consonants without vowels. In other words, a speaker must breathe out the spirit to vocalize the vowels with the help of vocal cords in order to make a word comprehensible.
In conclusion, the Antichrist refers to the entity or being that denies the holy origin life and the divine source of human speech without which God could not communicate His will to his or her reader or hearer of the “Word”.
by netage | New Testament Tradition, General |
Theology is the study and interpretation of the Word of God. Keep in mind, that any interpretation by a theologian is influenced by his or her religious affiliation. A Catholic theologian will have a different interpretation of the Holy Scriptures than a Lutheran or a Presbyterian or a member of any other denomination. This is especially the case when interpreting specific topics such as the meaning of Church, penance, the priesthood or salvation.
Theology is not about ministry or preaching. Theologians are scholars who focus on academic research and institutional interpretation as it applies to the Word of God.
There is no official religious doctrine on Antichrist. The term is loosely used to describe an impostor who challenges the divine identity and power of Jesus Christ.
Among the traditions concerning the last days, the belief of Antichrist has a special pastoral function to fulfill. It serves to arm the believing community to do battle with the compact forces of darkness, in the form in which they encounter them in their own age.
K. Frör
This second article focuses on the meaning of “Antichrist” in the First and Second Letters of John, the semantic content of which is linked to the Gospel of John and the creation narrative in Genesis. The goal is to reveal the relevance and meaning of key words to identify what the author says about Jesus’ humanity and divinity. Attributes that are negated by the Antichrist.
The term Antichrist appears only in 1 and 2 John. It does not appear in Revelation to John, also known as Apocalypse of John. The word Antichrist, from the Greek antichristos, refers to an impostor with equal influence and power who stands as an adversary to Jesus Christ. In terms of biblical etymology, the word “apocalypse” is synonymous with “revelation”, and the word “Satan” is synonymous with “adversary”.
There is no scholarly consensus on the authorship of the First and Second Letters of John. However, it is agreed that the First Letter shares similar vocabulary, ideas, themes and style with the Gospel of John. All narratives attributed to John are dated to the end of the first century CE. John the Evangelist did not know Jesus personally. His written testimony relies on varied oral accounts and narratives describing the life of Jesus.
One John relates to “end of times”, or the “final hour”, not as a distant future but as an imminent threat to Christians and their community by a deceiver(s) or seducers(s) who claims that Jesus is not Christ, did not exist in the flesh, and is not the Son of the Father. These claims are made by individuals who were once members of the community and have since left, spreading false information about Christ’s humanity and divinity.
1 John 2:18 Children this is the final hour;
You have heard that the Antichrist is coming,
and now many Antichrists have already come;
from this we know that it is the final hour.
19 They have come from among us,
but they never really belong to us;
if they had belonged to us they would have stayed with us.
1 John 2:22 Who is the liar,
if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ?
This is the Antichrist,
who denies both the Father and Son.
1 John 4: 2 This is proof of the spirit of God:
any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ,
come in human nature, is from God,
3 and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God;
is the spirit of Antichrist,
whose coming you have heard;
he is already at large in the world,
2 John 7 There are many deceivers at large in the world, refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in human nature. They are the Deceiver; they are the Antichrist.
The main point made by the Deceiver is that Jesus is neither not human or God. Thus, it is central to understand what the Evangelist means by Christ’s humanity. Let’s start with John’s first three verses which reveals key words about Christ’s essence of being. They are; beginning, hearing, seeing, touching, the Word of Life made visible.
1 John 1 Something which has existed since the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes,
which we watched and touched with our own hands,
the Word of Life ‒this is theme.
That life was made visible;
we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
declaring to you the eternal life,
which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us.
John explains the eternal of life embodied by Jesus Christ has existed since the creation of the world. God made this life visible by sending his Son, Jesus, in the flesh for us to see and hear. Specifically, “we have heard…seen… touched the” “Word of life… was made visible” is linked to “In the beginning was the Word” and “The Word became flesh” in the Gospel of John.
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being,
not one thing came into being except through him.
4 What has come into being in him was life,
life that was the light of men;
5 and light shines in darkness,
and darkness could not overpower it.
1:14 The Word became flesh,
he lived among us, and we saw his glory,
the glory that he has from the Father only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
Jesus’ humanity is outlined by his presence among his disciples, his followers and the people he healed and raised from the dead. However, the most critical aspect of his humanity is identified as the Word became flesh. John highlights an often-overlooked aspect of Jesus’ humanity: Jesus spoke his message to his faithful. Without God’s creative essence to speak, the world would not have known the Son of God. As such, speech is a divine attribute that connects the beginning and the present. The Word IS eternal, and Jesus made the Word alive by his presence. Speech is what makes Jesus fully human and divine, without which his message of love could not be revealed.
In Genesis, God spoke creation into being. He created heaven and earth. And he made man with the dirt taken from earth’s soil, and “God blew the breath of life into his nostrils and man became a human being”. In Hebrew, the words for Spirit, breath and wind are synonymous, exemplifying the divine essence of human breath and life.
God created man and woman in his image and in his likeness. In Genesis 1:26, tselem is the Hebrew word for “image”, is loosely translated into shadow, or contours of a shadow. Demut is the Hebrew word for “likeness”, conveys a resemblance in terms of bloodline, akin to progeny or descendants, and, to a certain extent, procreation of human life.
God created Adam and Eve in his likeness with ability to hear his Word, speak, and procreate. Throughout the Old Testament, God spoke to his chosen people. He spoke to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses and his prophets. Speech is God’s primal essence, without which he could not communicate his will to his people. Ultimately, God is made present by whomever reads and speaks His Words.
John’s perspective on Jesus’ humanity is that he came to this world in the flesh and could speak his Word to the people. This is revealed through the presence he shared with his followers, to whom he spoke his message of love, sharing and forgiveness.
John’s Antichrist is a person who was once a member of the Christian community but abandoned the congregation. After leaving, he and other renegades spread lies about Jesus, denying he came in the flesh or was the Son of God. The Deceiver spread falsehoods claiming Jesus is neither Christ nor the Lord, nor the human incarnation of the Word from the beginning. Denying his Word is eternal and sovereign.
1 John 1 Something which has existed since the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes,
which we watched and touched with our own hands,
the Word of Life ‒this is our theme.
by netage | General |
I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating.
Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers.
What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control.
Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU).
Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy.
A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away.
We’ve been fed a lie.
We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech.
By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological.
So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.
Prior to becoming a US citizen I lived in Montreal, Canada, where I immigrated when I was five years old. Later, in my mid-thirties, I moved to Los Angeles where I found a similar attitude: Northern Californians look down on southern dwellers, especially citizens of Los Angeles.
