Nietzschean Christianity
Posted on March 20, 2011 in Hypocrites Morals & Ethics
Forms of American Christianity prove endlessly creative when it comes to combining affirmations of faith with worldly life. Consider, for example, the new fad of “pole dancing for Jesus“. The thing that makes this possible isn’t a biblical text (and never let it be [[The Letter of James]] which says that you shall be judged by your works!), but a variety of existentialism that has been attached to it.
[[Frederich Nietzsche]] wrote of two kinds of morality. One of them he called Slave morality. The statement which exemplifies this is “I did it because it was right.” The other he called the Master morality: “It was right because I did it.”
Christians who practice what [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] called “cheap grace” hold, in part, that all you need to do to be held as a Christian is to say that you are one or that you accepted Jesus into your life and that’s that. It doesn’t matter what you do, just that you do it. It is these so-called Christians who have so neatly combined Nietzsche with Christ (and in the end denying Christ) by introducing a new morality: “It is right because I am saved.” There’s no costly grace involved, no Christ of the Gospels who calls for more than mere declaration that the light bulb of salvation has lit up in your soul and moved you to put a bumper sticker on your car. You don’t have to help the poor through your vote or your words. You can be just as mean and obstinate as you were before because one thing has “changed”: how you describe yourself spiritually.
Is it implausible that these have set their moral compass to the Tea Party? Should it surprise us that they have gone directly against the Bible and declared that their wealth and prosperity makes them paragons of Christian virtue? Speak of community to these and they accuse you of communism. Speak of hope and they rage against you. Give them the Beatitudes to sign and they accuse you of being subversive. Respect a Muslim and they wail about your undermining religious freedom. They have abandoned Christianity for modern megachurchs that thrive on their donations and the publicity they earn through the awe of the numbers they attract rather than genuine acts of charity.
They are the eternal opposites of Christ because they read the Bible for loopholes past its jeremiads against greed and contempt for the weak. It is easier to stick a rope through the eye of a needle than for these to do real good. God calls on them to be servants, but they want to be the overlords.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #89
Posted on March 20, 2011 in Roundup
As all wars do, the no-fly zone being implemented over Libya has me saddened. Long time readers of this blog know my pacifist leanings. But there are some conflicts that I give more energy to opposing than others. Such was the case with Afghanistan in the beginning. Such is the case with Libya now because in my estimation, it amounts to a just war where only military objectives are targeted. Still, I wish Gaddafi would just step down and give his country a rest. This may cause him to retreat into obstinacy and that may prove bad for Libya. But I don’t know.
- What if we’re not broke? — And the Big Duh of the week goes to the Washington Post — didn’t they think about this while they watched us cut millionaire and billionaire taxes in the middle of a stock market surge?
- What Caused Inequality to Grow? — Two words: Ronald Reagan. Also here.
- Why isn’t the I-Phone Made in America? is another article on a tangential theme from those immediately above. See this, too.
- A Small-Minded Town — If the New Federalism that Ronald Reagan promised doesn’t deliver, traffic tickets become a way for local governments to make their living
- Japan Earthquake Swarm Google Earth Animation
- Weighing the Consequences of Nuclear Power — The nuclear power industry spin has been dizzying. This article guides you to a broader perspective.
- The End of the Nuclear ‘Renaissance’? — I am really ~on the line~ when it comes to nuclear power. The collection of quotes in this article, however, made me laugh.
- Japanese Should Be Drinking To Stave Off Radiation Poisoning — Damn I would be in a fix if San Onofre went up — couldn’t they synthesize the single ingredient in red wine as a pill?
- The myth of the panicking disaster victim — Now the panicking news reporter is a fact.
- Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media — Just shout it through a bullhorn over and over again
- Study: Majority of Consumers Obtain News From Online Sources — ‘Cause we can’t stand being bombarded by television news is the reason why, I think.
- Gay families more accepted than single moms — A sad state of affairs. Single parents should be treated as well as any two-parent family head. But the deadbeat dad lobby is powerful and its voice immense.
- The Self-Reported Moral Behavior of Ethics Professors — Unfortunately, it is the C students who grow rich and become Tea Party candidates
- 100 Years of Set Locations — What was filmed in your neighborhood?
- One-in-five Brits believe lightsabers are real — Not so long ago, in a universe called Birmingham….
- We’ve built a flying saucer, boasts Iran (even if it does look like it belongs in a 1950s B-movie) — This one just barely edges out Karl Rove’s anti-union commercials for the most bogus news story of the week.
- Daylight Saving Can Be Hazardous to Your Health — I’ve suspected that the sleep deprivation harms me in a number of ways, mostly having to do with my bipolar disorder.
- Mental Illness is Only a Problem When Mental Illness is a Problem
- Surrounded by Bipolar Disorder — Reality should sink in after you read this.
Picture: a trilobite orgy from ScienceDaily
You can find me on Twitter and Dailybooth as “EmperorNorton”. Ask nicely and I might invite you to follow me on Facebook.
Dream
Posted on March 16, 2011 in Dreams
After observing someone take their cumulatives while kneeling between their professors, I watch a television show where the leader of a right wing extremist group who looks like [[Woody Harrelson]] shows off his store of explosives and announces to the world that his organization is going to track me down and blow me up. I go to visit my father who has grown a lush beard. I tell him what I saw on the television. “What are we going to do? How are we going to hide you?” he asks. “What about your telephone listing,” I ask him. “Remove it from the directory so they can’t find us.”
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #88
Posted on March 13, 2011 in Roundup
Lynn says “It’s not fair. It’s not fair that Japan should have to deal with these meltdowns after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” We live a little more than twenty miles from San Onofre Nuclear Power Station which is built on an inactive earthquake fault within a stone’s throw of Nixon’s Western White House. I’m told that San Onofre can stand up to a 7.0 earthquake, but Japan was hit with an 8.9. What would happen if the earth ruptured like this near us? Would Southern Orange County become a wasteland?
- List of earthquakes by magnitude — The Sendai earthquake is number 5.
- Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
- If It Sounds Too Good … What You Need to Know, but Don’t, About Privatizing Infrastructure — You end up spending more thanks to contract obligations
- Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Now Has the Power to Suspend the Rights of the People — Where “running government like a business” means single-party rule and dictatorship.
- The Screaming Hypocrisy of Congressman Peter King b– What about the right wing terrorists who have killed more people since 9-11?
- Vintage VIDEO: Scott Walker: David Duke a “Media Creation” & Duke’s Issues “Not Extreme” — This is your real Tea Party, folks.
- Taking Back Our Language — Obamacare means “Obama cares”. And the GOP doesn’t. Think about it.
- Ideology using legalities to stifle scientific critique — The law gets abused all over the world like this. Creationists here, quacks in the U.K.
- The ‘Godzilla’ Incident: Did Twitter Users Gang Up on CNN Earthquake Anchor? — A provocative read about the way that tweeters respond to natural disasters and their coverage. (But again, Al Jazeera beat out CNN.)
- Ten Ways to Lose Your Nursing License — Host a porno site, lose your license, at least in Pennsylvania
- The New Humanism — David Brooks leaves the middle for the left?
- Collecting Rainwater Now Illegal In Many States As Big Government Claims Ownership Over Our Water — Is this happening in California or New York? No, in “small government” Utah
- Why Most Published Research Findings Are False — A heavy article that is worth the read — and reread — and reread — until you understand it.
- New Discovery: Largest Molecules in Space Hint at a Life-Centric Universe — Oooo! Buckyballs!
- Update on Cat Island, Japan: Good News! — Cats are doing better after the earthquake. Still need help.
- NH GOP State Congressman Says Disabled and Mentally Ill Are ‘Defective People’ And Should Be Shipped To Siberia – The GOP has repudiated him, but ask yourself what attracted him to them.
- U.S. has highest bipolar rate in 11-nation study — Are we here because of the settler effect or because life here is just more stressful?
New Privacy Policy
Posted on March 6, 2011 in Site News
Due to Facebook’s aggressive campaign to collect and sell information on its subscribers, I have decided to instigate a privacy policy which will protect users who do not wish to become cattle to comment on this blog without needing a Facebook ID. I believe in an InterNet which allows people privacy and freedom to comment without their words being broadcast to the world.
The new policy is:
Pax Nortona does not share or sell your email address to anyone. Furthermore, it does not subscribe to or otherwise utilize any service that does.
If you become aware of any person or website harvesting this site for personal information, please contact me so that appropriate blocks may be set in place.
Please keep our commitment to you in mind when commenting here.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #87
Posted on March 6, 2011 in Roundup
The joke that went around last week goes like this: “A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies…looks at the tea partier and says, “Watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie!”
- How you can boycott the Kochs
- It’s all about the Benjamins, what? — A chart showing what is proposed to be cut and what was lost to the Bush tax cuts
- GOP Wants Tax Payer Money For Nascar… Seriously
- The United States isn’t a Company and It isn’t a Family — It’s a Country — A little common sense thinking that defies the pundits
- America is not Broke — We’re the wealthiest country in the world. We can afford the best if we raise taxes on the uberrich
- The Breakdown: Do Corporations Deserve ‘Personhood’? — The Supreme Court has been sending mixed messages on this
- The most typical face on the planet — Ah, but we are all atypical
- Liver, Not Brain, May Be Origin of Alzheimer’s Plaques — Which might explain why so many alcoholics develop Alzheimer’s?
- California Islands Give Up Evidence of Early Seafaring: Numerous Artifacts Found at Late Pleistocene Sites on the Channel Islands
- Natalie Portman: Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Uber Talented — Damn, girl! You rock!
- Exploiting Charlie Sheen — Another way in which enablers in the media help keep some of us sick for entertainment purposes. Also see here.
- Stare at boobs for longer life: Study — Lynn has given me permission to do so based on this. But I will still exercise.
You can find me on Twitter and Dailybooth as “EmperorNorton”. Ask nicely and I might invite you to follow me on Facebook.
Enabling Bipolar
Posted on March 1, 2011 in Bipolar Disorder Stigma Suicide
The question comes up sometimes when a family member has been coping with someone who is suicidal. Let’s say the suicidal person ((Long time readers know that this pattern fits me to a T)) has been sending you text messages describing his last will and testament. He wants to die and is exploring the resources on hand for their utility in promoting the abrupt sensation of all feeling forever. What do you do?
The literature of recovery, I have found, doesn’t define very well the boundaries of enabling when it comes to bipolar disorder and similar complaints. Some people think that by going to the rescue of the person — by calling their psychiatrist, by driving them to the hospital, by getting them to a place of safety where they won’t hurt themselves — you are enabling suicide threats. The logic is that by paying any attention at all, you are promoting the behavior. They draw the parallel to people who get drunk and fall on your doorstep. What do you do in that case? Do you pick them up or let them lie in their own vomit?
The drunk has brought the situation on her or himself. S/he lives in denial. “My addiction is not a problem.” Or to put it as a popular t-shirt puts it: “I don’t have a drinking problem. I drink. I get drunk. I fall down. No problem!” To protect the person from the effects of her/his alcoholism is to allow the problem to perpetuate itself. They keep drinking because you keep protecting them from the effects.
Saving a person from suicide is more like an intervention. The disease can no longer be denied. You can’t pretend it is not there because there is a serious problem: the one you love wants to die. In my case, this came about because I have a brain dysfunction that clouded my mind and made me think that ending my life was the solution to my problems. Lynn acted to get me attention from my psychiatrist who, in turn, saw to it that I checked myself into what was then called South Coast Medical Center. They were not perpetuating my disease but taking a decisive step to save my life. This is not enabling even if they have to do it a thousand times. They are saving a life.
Can people enable bipolar disorder? It happens all the time. It happens when people tell you that your highs and lows are just personality quirks. It happens when they tell you to just tough out your low moods even if they are crippling you and putting you in a bed. It happens when they tell you that you are the life of the party. It happens when they tell you there is a big conspiracy of the pharmaceutical industry that is striving to keep you addicted to their meds and that the best thing is to just feel your own mind, free and clear as it is.
It happened on CNN the other night:
On Piers Morgan’s nightly exhibition of ratings neediness, the star ([[Charlie Sheen]]) dismissed doctors’ mentions of bipolar disease and then Morgan stepped up to give him a clean bill of mental health, telling Sheen he is “alarmingly normal.”
And what can we say about [[Tom Cruise]]? It has been said, believe me.
Not every bipolar enabler is a [[Scientology|Scientologist]] ((For a honestly biased anti-Scientology site, visit http://www.xenu.net/. For any Scientologists who want to diss my point of view because I suffer from bipolar disorder, remember you don’t believe in mental illness.)) . Many are family members who just don’t want the shame of a diagnosis in their families. Some are like [[Robert_Whitaker_(author)|Robert Whittaker]] who misreads scientific studies to suggest that schizophrenics are better off not taking their medication when the actual study says that schizophrenics who don’t take their meds say they are doing better than those who do ((Which is sounds like schizophrenics who don’t take meds are in denial about what their illness is doing to themselves and those around them)) . It’s about waging a reign of terror against those who choose to take medications to keep their illness in check. When you enable, you give the illness the upper hand. And you shorten and diminish the life that is being lived. I know because I tried life without medications until I was 47. I have lost my career and my self-respect for it. People who say that I am a dupe aren’t my friends.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #86
Posted on February 28, 2011 in Roundup
The last time I did one of these, I was cautiously celebrating the fact that Obama had won the Iowa Caucuses! The big news today was that the police union refused to oust the teachers’ union which busted the Wisconsin governor’s balls. I’m not calling us out of the tunnel just yet. Oh we are living in dire times now, but I have plenty of stuff to share that just might keep you engaged!
- It’s IGNORE SARAH PALIN WEEK! — You betcha!
- Buffalo Beast Poses as David Koch, Calls WI Gov. Walker — Probably the choicest and most disturbing story of the week. Also here
- Is Pro-Life Actually Pro-Abortion? — Another progressive notes that the so-called Pro-Life movement does very little to change the conditions that lead women to have abortions.
- I’ve just about had it with Ed Schultz — raises the question of just where were all these people who are mad as hell with Walker last November? Hmm?
- George Soros — He’s No Koch Brother — And unlike Glenn Beck, he is a GREAT man
- Starting With Your Own Answers to The Big Questions Leads to Reducing Stigma In Others — A psychiatrist who is also a patient considers religion
- How Corporations Have Mastered the Art of Not Paying Their Fair Share of Taxes
- Louisiana Just Printing Out Wikipedia Pages, Calling It History — No one writes their own inscriptions anymore.
- Vatican confirms report of sexual abuse and rape of nuns by priests in 23 countries – I’m waiting for Pope Benedict to blame this on homosexuals
- Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who ‘Contributes’ to Public Workers’ Pensions? – O’Really?
- Cops shut down Ga. Girl Scout cookie stand — I confess to stalking Girl Scouts for their cookies, but this is pure Chamber of Commerce
- Stop Buying Bottled Water Immediately! (INFOGRAPHIC)
- Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators — You got to love these guys
- The Death of Organized Labor, or its Rebirth?
- Paris Hilton’s birthday cake burgled! — At $3212, what did it taste like?
- The Man Who Wrote the Revolution Rulebook — Gene Sharp
- Introducing the American Dream Movement — One of many great answers to the Tea Party
- How to Build A Progressive Tea Party — The most important article of 2011 and, perhaps, the decade
In a Sad Corner of the Multiverse
Posted on February 26, 2011 in Depression Humor? Science
My current reading consists of three books crammed into my Kindle — Styron’s [amazonify]0679736638::text::::The Confessions of Nat Turner[/amazonify], Metaxas’s [amazonify]1595551387::text::::Bonhoeffer[/amazonify], and a curious but apparently true work of physics by Brian Greene called [amazonify]0307265633::text::::The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos[/amazonify].
I have to admire anyone who wades through piles of scientific papers in an attempt to explain how parallel universes — or taken collectively, a multiverse — arise from taking theoretical physics to its logical extremes. I don’t pretend to understand the math, so I am taking Greene at his word.
The concept shoves me into a place of despair. In its crudest form, consider that there are parallel Milky Ways with parallel earths ((Anyone who has watched Star Trek knows the theme)). On many of these there is another Joel, perhaps pecking away at his computer like I am, except his history has been different. Due thanks to the Universe issues from my lips that this is not the somewhere he lives on the streets (having never met his wife) or is even dead. But there’s a depressing thought that emerges as I read this and I find myself cursing conditions here.
It is possible, you see, that a new universe comes into existence every minute or so. And from this fruition, come new realities. One of these realities has brought me to a better place than this where I am successful or at least secure in a world where the politics are sane. I make a difference in that world. So why, I ask, did I get stuck in this time stream? Why have I deteriorated alongside the rest of the country? Why don’t I get to travel in a better one and stay there?
The despair grows unbearable when I think: “What if this is the best universe?” Ah, then it is tragedy all the way down.
Fork the multiverse. It’s screwed me.
The Paranoid Experience
Posted on February 26, 2011 in Depression
Paranoia burns both as one of the brands of stigma and as a symptom experienced by sufferers of bipolar disorder, major depression, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. In my experience, the psychosis afflicts me both in mania and in depression, but the feel of it is different in each state of mind.
Manic paranoia is exciting. Roll the tapes for Mission Impossible or The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Imagine me as The Fugitive. The chase is on! The CIA is after me! I’ve got to assume my alias, change my email, check out the window to be sure that no one is watching the house.
One time during the days of the early Gulf War when I was volunteering heavily for PeaceNet, this kind of paranoia had me in its grasp. I was driving with my wife to get my hair cut when I noticed a car in my rear view mirror run a stop light seemingly to avoid losing me. I parked my car, went inside, and sat down. I swear to this day that a man came into the shop after me. He looked at me and then walked out. It had to be the same guy, right? My wife never saw him.
Depressive paranoia is humiliating: It’s a dark, tragic hour. I am all alone and no one wants to hear me while I expose the doom that is about to befall me. Or I think I am radiating a presence that just drives people away so I hide to avoid their soul-crushing gaze.
I can fall into the latter simply by reading the news too much which is dismal enough some days, but in depression I take it a few steps farther and see people specifically out to get me.
I forgot to take my morning meds a couple of days ago — a bad news day — so I was despairing by bedtime. Yesterday, after taking a doubled dose of my antidepressant and getting some treadmill time in at the gym, I feel more realistic about what is happening. But I pay as little attention to the news as possible.
Yet this other feeling — that I have been putting people off and am ultimately responsible for the world’s failures — lingers. Pieces of that may be true, but the depression intensifies the wariness. I may be killing myself — sans gun or knife or poison — with the stress.
Bipolar Disorder and Accountability
Posted on February 23, 2011 in Bipolar Disorder Responsibility
A few weeks ago, I got into a Facebook discussion about the effects of labeling. The only other person in the thread said that she thought that people who called themselves “bipolar” did so they could excuse bad behavior, that this was in fact the primary reason why people like myself chose to so identify ourselves. I held back my anger and hurt — I was not, after all, in episode. In fact, I chose not to argue the point at all. But I still admit that I live with bipolar disorder, that I suffer from bipolar disorder and that sometimes it plays hell with my life.
I also feel moments of anxiety that have nothing to do with my bipolar disorder such as when I discovered that it was going to snow in the desert this weekend and motels.com had a non-cancellation policy ((Don’t worry. It has been worked out.)) . There’s a fuzzy line between my bipolar disorder and the bad habits I have accumulated that may be a result of having that disease or not. And it is for this reason that I take a different tack from others when it comes to accepting responsibility for things I do while manic or depressed or in a mixed state.
“You did those things while you were suffering from bipolar disorder,” say therapists, “so you aren’t responsible for them ((I haven’t discussed this with my present therapist so I don’t know how she will see this. I hope she will hear me out before she works on it with me.)) .” But I have a problem with this: it entails dividing myself. To be sure a thunder, rain, and hail stormed in my brain, but that was not someone else. That was and is me. I am the continuation of what happened in the past. I am the self that was and the self that will be. If I deny my past, I can’t explain my present. My identity develops with a gap that makes it impossible for me to express what I am to others. Though the disease caused me to spend $40,000 in credit card fees and neglect my teeth to the point of ruin, I offer it as explanation for some of what I did not excuse. The whole picture is more complicated than that and I choose to own it all.
A Mobile Doubt
Posted on February 23, 2011 in Anxiety PTSD Relationships Therapy
My new therapist assures me that relationships go both ways; that no situation is the product of merely one of the partners. I am afflicted by what can be termed as a mobile doubt. Sometimes I feel the other party is all at fault. At other times, I feel that the fault lies entirely with me. It’s either the rage and bitterness at what the other has done or the guilt for one’s own screw-ups.
Then there are the relationships where one has been thoroughly rejected. They are like being murdered without the mercy of the consequent freedom from pain.
This I live through.
