He has hijacked the democratic plebescite. He has personified himself as the people. He has shut down opposition media outlets in his country. Now Communist-sympathizer and presidential usurper Hugo Chavez of Venezuela wants to ban guns in public places.
Another country reported one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Individuals could walk freely in their communities without fear of reprisal from criminal elements. This was Germany under Nazi rule in the 1930's, when Chancellor Adolph Hitler instituted a massive gun-control initiative. He also routinely and arbitrarily arrested "miscreat elements" including political opponents, drug users, and other marginal types who in fact posed no threat to the communal integrity of the nation, and these policies he had initiated long before the Nuremberg laws were passed in 1935.
Latin American caudillo Hugo Chavez has eroded the power of the citizen and his efficacy in the political process. It will be a dark day indeed if the people of Venezuela permit their erstwhile savior to challenge their power to protect themselves from the government.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Limiting Wildfire Liability
I support Governor Brown's proposal for a cap on liability for the federal government's fire protection and land restoration.
A court of law is not a proper place for collecting extensive handouts from the state or private investors. Certainly, the costs of protecting and maintaining forestry should be permitted as much as possible, but to permit the federal government to demand six times the value of the land and the resources used to put out fires -- that is a flagrant violation of ethics and state sovereignty.
Whether Governor Brown is making this move to shore up support from the timber and the private forestry industries in the state or not, voters in the state of California should be glad that a Democratic governor, and a progressive one at that, is talking seriously about tort reform.
A court of law is not a proper place for collecting extensive handouts from the state or private investors. Certainly, the costs of protecting and maintaining forestry should be permitted as much as possible, but to permit the federal government to demand six times the value of the land and the resources used to put out fires -- that is a flagrant violation of ethics and state sovereignty.
Whether Governor Brown is making this move to shore up support from the timber and the private forestry industries in the state or not, voters in the state of California should be glad that a Democratic governor, and a progressive one at that, is talking seriously about tort reform.
Keep the Filibuster
Regarding the filibuster, not only should the United States Senate be commended for holding on to this dilatory parliamentary tactic, the states should press for its protection, for they cannot afford to lose a procedure which protects them from the tyranny of larger or smaller states.
A diligent minority of states, including New York and California, contain the larger part of the country's population. A dedicated majority of states represented by their pairs of Senators should not be allowed to coalesce into a faction that can overrun the minority of states who represent the majority of this country. Imagine the land-locked Midwestern states initiating an immense tax on ports to fund railways in the heartland. With the majority of states not touching any coastline, they could easily pass such onerous legislation to the hurt of the coastal states, if the Gulf states and the other sea-side states did not have the filibuster.
Since the Senate decides matters exclusively, like the ratification of international treaties as well as the appointment of federal judges, which affect every state, a super-majority should be required before appointing or imposing such leadership. The filibuster allows differing states to assert their opinion in the face of unwanted appointments, especially circuit or Supreme Court judges.
Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and even our first President George Washington noted that legislation should not be prodded and promoted by popular protest or the motivation of the masses. The Senate is the august, more elite institution in Congress, one where extended deliberation is encouraged by its members and required for the well-being of the country.
What this country needs now more than ever is traction and delay, especially in appropriations and military ventures. Not only should we applaud the Senate for holding on to a maneuver which politicians and pundits have deemed inconvenient and obsolete, the House of Representatives ought to consider reintroducing a similar procedure.
A diligent minority of states, including New York and California, contain the larger part of the country's population. A dedicated majority of states represented by their pairs of Senators should not be allowed to coalesce into a faction that can overrun the minority of states who represent the majority of this country. Imagine the land-locked Midwestern states initiating an immense tax on ports to fund railways in the heartland. With the majority of states not touching any coastline, they could easily pass such onerous legislation to the hurt of the coastal states, if the Gulf states and the other sea-side states did not have the filibuster.
Since the Senate decides matters exclusively, like the ratification of international treaties as well as the appointment of federal judges, which affect every state, a super-majority should be required before appointing or imposing such leadership. The filibuster allows differing states to assert their opinion in the face of unwanted appointments, especially circuit or Supreme Court judges.
Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and even our first President George Washington noted that legislation should not be prodded and promoted by popular protest or the motivation of the masses. The Senate is the august, more elite institution in Congress, one where extended deliberation is encouraged by its members and required for the well-being of the country.
What this country needs now more than ever is traction and delay, especially in appropriations and military ventures. Not only should we applaud the Senate for holding on to a maneuver which politicians and pundits have deemed inconvenient and obsolete, the House of Representatives ought to consider reintroducing a similar procedure.
John McCain, Give it a Rest
Citizens United put an end to the shackles on political donations to political campaigns.
Senator John McCain has filed another brief to the Supreme Court, this time requesting that they reconsider their landmark 2010 ruling.
The state of Montana has banned corporate donations for a century, according to the brief, jointly filed with liberal Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse. If there is any political move which should prompt the voters of Arizona to slap themselves with shame for sending back a maverick-moderate to Washington, this move to bolster shameful limitations on donations should do it.
Senator McCain wants to control the flow of political donations into the electoral system. What are the senators doing, however, about the defict spending and national debts which are robbing our future while wasting away our present standing in the world?
The Supreme Court ruled supremely well on the matter of campaign donations, which count as political speech, whether anyone wishes to catalogue corporations as people or not.
Senator John McCain has filed another brief to the Supreme Court, this time requesting that they reconsider their landmark 2010 ruling.
The state of Montana has banned corporate donations for a century, according to the brief, jointly filed with liberal Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse. If there is any political move which should prompt the voters of Arizona to slap themselves with shame for sending back a maverick-moderate to Washington, this move to bolster shameful limitations on donations should do it.
Senator McCain wants to control the flow of political donations into the electoral system. What are the senators doing, however, about the defict spending and national debts which are robbing our future while wasting away our present standing in the world?
The Supreme Court ruled supremely well on the matter of campaign donations, which count as political speech, whether anyone wishes to catalogue corporations as people or not.
Kaplan's Audacious Take on the "Crapshoot" 2012 Election
To read Marty Kaplan's latest article on the subtle stirrings of billionaires hijacking the American political process, one would think that Joseph Goebbels had risen from the dead and joined the GOP Brain Trust, along with the Ghost of Richard Nixon and Posters of Big Brother brandished in every swing-sate.
However, I do not accept the latent, blatant line of reasoning, first proposed by the late and political unaffluent Kenneth Galbraith, which smugly assumes that the average consumer -- and thus voter -- is so stupid, that he would be easily swayed by the persuasive glitz of political campaigns.
Ebay CEO Meg Whitman sunk $100 million dollars in the 2010 California Governor's race, and lost by 10 points. Senator-turned-Governor (and now disgraced CEO) Jon Corzine sunk million of his own fortune into a statewide race in 2009, all with the help of recently elected President Barack Obama, yet he lost the governor's race in New Jersey to Chris Christie, a red-blood Tea Party favorite. Newt Gingrich was a favored front-runner assaulted mercilessly with Super-Pac money, only to surge to victory by double-digits in South Carolina. Governor Mitt Romney has endured a host of detractions and discrimination from the media and conservative lights to the right of the Republican establishment. His ascent to his party's nomination has slowed considerably, but that has not prevented him from honing his message and zero-ing on the failed incumbents incapacity to bring the promised hope and change that this county needs.
Despite the rise in propaganda, this nation has grown weary and wary of the growing waves of political advertising, less of which has swayed the minds of individual citizens, armed with easier and quicker access to up-to-date information on candidates, their positions, and their foibles. If the political process has been hijacked, we should not demonize the Tea Party, Occupy Everywhere, or even the billionaires with lots of money to burn. Instead, let us hold ourselves accountable for tolerating an entitlement culture which has looked to government as the solution to our problems as opposed to providing a limited level playing field according the simple mandates enumerated in the Constitution.
On a side note, rather than directing and limiting who can say what through public media, Let us also focus on improving the crass and crumbling education system, which is now beholden to standardized testing and un-rigorous standards, along with the over-influence of school boards and teachers' unions at the expense of parents and communities. Pushing students through to graduation has followed from the intense and building pressure from administrators on teachers. The lack of competition and accountability in our public school system has deprived our youth of the capacity to judge and discern properly beyond sound-bytes, mixed metaphors, and hazy slogans.
Campaign Finance reform will only buttress more regulation, more government, and ultimately more corruption. Super-Pacs are doing a fine job decimating their own rhetoric, neutralizing their effect on voters and viewers across the country. Big Money cannot buy Campaigns, although Big Business in league with Big Government is bankrupting our country and leaving us a legacy of waste and debt.
Beinart and the Israeli 1% in the West Bank
There is no reason why the Arabs living in the West Bank or Gaza should remain part of the elusive "99%" compared to the wealthy and profiting Israeli "1%" as alleged by Peter Beinart.
If the Palestinians despise their current status as the "99%", they have only themselves to blame, having rallied behind terrorist leaders and myopic handlers who train death squads and suicide bombers. Instead, the Arabs could scrap the demonizing of the Jews and the West, promote the peace and freedom of the Arab people, which would include a healthy respect and recognition of the political and cultural prosperity of the Jewish state.
Am I reading Suissa correctly? He actually considers "criticizing Israel" a "Jewish value?"
With friends like those, Israel need not worry about the Arab enemies in her midst!
I am saddened that after all these years, the press insists on ignoring the Council of Despair which has arisen in the Middle East. No matter how many concessions offered by Israel, the enemy Arab states still demand that the Jews be pushed into the sea, followed by the world-wide expansion of Sharia Law. Radical Islam is the real culprit for the oppressed “99%” among the Palestinians.
"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
A broad, sometimes comic yet fully harrowing aspersion of what is to come, Yeats' dire predictions of a future where "the center cannot hold", where authority and order give way to decay and chaos details with quite certainty that the rumblings of modern moral relativism have dire consequences.
At the outset, Yeats presents an unstable and foreboding phenomenon, a "gyre", or a circular or spiral form; a vortex. In another sense, a "gyre" may refer exclusively to the motions, like an ocean current.
Either way, the image of a maelstrom which threatens to snap a ship in two, or of a drain which draws down everything, leaving nothing to sight comes to view. The sense of dragging down is magnified by the dizzying repetition of "turning and turning", the damaging effects of which grow menacing with the adjective "widening", indicating a downward spiral which is taking down as much as possible.
"The falcon cannot hear the falconer;" Yeats incorporates medieval imagery in the second line, a trice to the glancing eye, yet inevitably stored with implications. The traditions, the myths of the past, for example, no longer withstand the onslaught of the widening vortex which disrupts and destroys everything in its wake. "Falcon" incorporated in "falconer" speaks to the essential identity and relationship of leader and led, yet the connection of both, even if based on essence, no longer remains intact. The falcon, a bird well-trained in hunting and returning to its master, cannot hear the calls any longer of the one who had trained him, a telling metaphor indicting the failures of the older generation to call out and call back the students, the disciples, taken in by the swirling vortex of opinion, the siren songs of fashion and popularity.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
"Things fall apart" -- so banal a turn of phrase in contrast to sweeping ocean currents and the romance of the hunt, yet arresting for the fundamental scope of decay which wreaks havoc on order. "The centre" could refer to commerce, to the focal point of a ministry, the direction of a ship, a "centre" which accounts for the integrity of the whole, which is not able to withstand and maintain the entire element.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
Almost a sly joke, "mere anarchy" implies that the disorder of the modern age is weak in spite of its damage intensity on the world around it. The agent of this anarchy is not identified, perhaps weakening its power, yet also enhancing the forbidding menace of this force.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
Tying in with the gyre of the first line, the reader gathers a growing glimpse of a violent tirade tiding against the world. The "ceremony of innocence" is a rich phrase, one encapsulating the traditions of men which create a sense of security in a world fraught with more doubts and growing questions. One ceremony of interest floating weakly through the "blood-dimmed tide" include birth or death, or baptism which signifies both a death from the old identity into a new life, free from the sins of the former man, the corruption of sin put away, as described in the New Testament writings of Paul the apostle. Yet in a perverse twist, the ceremony of baptism itself is drowned, losing its value, the subject, the essence never resurging, granting not witness to itself or to the world any efficacy or certainty of perfection of purification. The watering down of water immersion is "everywhere", swallowed up in the widening gyre of chaos and disorder.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
In "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death", Yeats ties together taut, almost sophomoric contrasts of life and death, poor and rich, wide disparities. The preceding neat conceit conveys a greater intensity, one which captures the obvious yet overwhelming trend of immoral dissolution in the world. "The best lack all conviction." ""Conviction" speaks not just a confident sense of the truth, but also the internal mandate that they must do something. They feel no pang about letting the world slip into crude emptiness. "The worst are full of passionate intensity". "The play on words with ""passionate" is sickening in its deep irreverence, conjuring up the image of Christ's "Passion", which He endured with intense conviction, whereas now, according to the poet, the "worst", the evil elements of the world are now committed, but their commitment is to a heedless, hedonist hatred of all order, a moral relativism which scorns at dying for anything. They have a materialist intensity, one which they are "full" of, not motivated, not inspired, but merely "full", a static element which means or moves nothing.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
"Surely. . .Surely" the poet knows that something imminent, dangeround, foreboding has come, but what? He repeats this assertion to himself, refering obliquely to "some revelation," The certainty of ill-tidings, wrapped in uncertainty, all the more magnifies the troubles of the modern era, one in which people are lost, yet know no where to go or even how to find out where. "The Second Coming is at hand." The poet repeats, inaccurately, an amalgam of Scripture. Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God is "at hand," but His Second Coming will be a shock, a surprise which will arrest the attention of the entire universe, not a gradual overtaking for which mankind may still bide his time.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight:
The inarticulate nature of the vision articulates the maddening disturbance of the poet's fears. Some "Spiritus Mundi", a world-spirit, Weltgeist or Zeitgeist, but in Latin, a vain appeal to the aching rigors of the Catholic Church, an institution which is also rocking the world, whose rot, propagated by human hierarchies dressed up in religious trappings, has spread and exposed the decay of tradition and temporal authority shrouded in mysteries. The very words Second Coming" elicit this vision, one that troubles his sight, one that causes him to question what he sees, to review what he views, to shake and tremble, blurring the presence before him. His vision, his viewing, his perception all betray a reluctant doubt regarding what he is beholding, much like the shifting views and values of modern times causes man to doubt what he fears, and to doubt his own doubts.
a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
What does the poet see here? Some mirage from the Valley of Kings, perhaps? "A shape with lion body and the head of a man" conjures up the tombs of ancient Pharaohs. Yet this "shape", indefinite in its mixed description, "is moving", with birds flocking around it. Raw power, vain attempts to shade one's authority in the learnings, the awesome size and scope of ancient artifacts, has moved many to read the past in order to justify their present circumstances, to enshrine their life and world-view on something which smacks of permanence. Yet the mythic, and comical, apparition of a man-with-lion-body defies the stability of the past, reminding the reader of little children who cut out pictures in diverse magazines and paste together fantastic creatures. This creature moves about in a "waste of desert sand", a redundancy which mirrors the stark bleakness of the man's view as well as vision of the future.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
"Darkness drops again", yet what causes the darkness initially? The modern age, the mixing of metaphors, the inability to articulate even the ineffable. to explain the trials and troubles of a world which has discarded the means and distinctions of right and wrong, or authority and submission, or direction and station. The twenty centuries, tied with "rocking cradle" and "Bethlehem to be born" all speak of the Son of God's birth, which also connects with the poet's apprehension of the "Second Coming." The momentous first appearance frightened kings, precipitated divisions and wars, forced a culture and people to rethink their origins, to renew their understanding of Scripture, while inviting alienated nations to enter into the community of grace and life with God. The political tumults and turmoils, the disruptions of class, status, race, and creed did not dissolved into massive confusion following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The structures, the traditions, the divisions among men which have followed, however, have broadened the widening of gyres, the loss of direction for leader and servant. To claim that the mixed creature of "Sphynx-like" extraction will inaugurate a new era leaves much to be desired. The Second Coming, according to the Scriptures, will not follow from a birth, but from the mighty and ultimate coming of Jesus Christ.
Yeats' poem exemplifies the modern dilemma of man, one in which man has been allowed to discard the principles, the myths, the legends, the culture which defined his experience, which informed his identity in a world which he did not create. Now pressed to create himself, to define his path in a fallen world which still cries out that something is coming, he now has no knowledge, no wisdom, no legacy, no authority to explain to him what is happening. The mixing of metaphors, the obscurity of the menacing Spiritus Mundi, the failing of manmade institutions, has created a widening mess of mankind which he cannot contain or control, let alone define.
Without question, the poet cannot end his dire anti-dirge but with a question, a wandering wondering which pieces together a narrative from times and deeds immemorial, yet lost through decay and disrespect.
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
A broad, sometimes comic yet fully harrowing aspersion of what is to come, Yeats' dire predictions of a future where "the center cannot hold", where authority and order give way to decay and chaos details with quite certainty that the rumblings of modern moral relativism have dire consequences.
At the outset, Yeats presents an unstable and foreboding phenomenon, a "gyre", or a circular or spiral form; a vortex. In another sense, a "gyre" may refer exclusively to the motions, like an ocean current.
Either way, the image of a maelstrom which threatens to snap a ship in two, or of a drain which draws down everything, leaving nothing to sight comes to view. The sense of dragging down is magnified by the dizzying repetition of "turning and turning", the damaging effects of which grow menacing with the adjective "widening", indicating a downward spiral which is taking down as much as possible.
"The falcon cannot hear the falconer;" Yeats incorporates medieval imagery in the second line, a trice to the glancing eye, yet inevitably stored with implications. The traditions, the myths of the past, for example, no longer withstand the onslaught of the widening vortex which disrupts and destroys everything in its wake. "Falcon" incorporated in "falconer" speaks to the essential identity and relationship of leader and led, yet the connection of both, even if based on essence, no longer remains intact. The falcon, a bird well-trained in hunting and returning to its master, cannot hear the calls any longer of the one who had trained him, a telling metaphor indicting the failures of the older generation to call out and call back the students, the disciples, taken in by the swirling vortex of opinion, the siren songs of fashion and popularity.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
"Things fall apart" -- so banal a turn of phrase in contrast to sweeping ocean currents and the romance of the hunt, yet arresting for the fundamental scope of decay which wreaks havoc on order. "The centre" could refer to commerce, to the focal point of a ministry, the direction of a ship, a "centre" which accounts for the integrity of the whole, which is not able to withstand and maintain the entire element.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
Almost a sly joke, "mere anarchy" implies that the disorder of the modern age is weak in spite of its damage intensity on the world around it. The agent of this anarchy is not identified, perhaps weakening its power, yet also enhancing the forbidding menace of this force.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
Tying in with the gyre of the first line, the reader gathers a growing glimpse of a violent tirade tiding against the world. The "ceremony of innocence" is a rich phrase, one encapsulating the traditions of men which create a sense of security in a world fraught with more doubts and growing questions. One ceremony of interest floating weakly through the "blood-dimmed tide" include birth or death, or baptism which signifies both a death from the old identity into a new life, free from the sins of the former man, the corruption of sin put away, as described in the New Testament writings of Paul the apostle. Yet in a perverse twist, the ceremony of baptism itself is drowned, losing its value, the subject, the essence never resurging, granting not witness to itself or to the world any efficacy or certainty of perfection of purification. The watering down of water immersion is "everywhere", swallowed up in the widening gyre of chaos and disorder.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
In "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death", Yeats ties together taut, almost sophomoric contrasts of life and death, poor and rich, wide disparities. The preceding neat conceit conveys a greater intensity, one which captures the obvious yet overwhelming trend of immoral dissolution in the world. "The best lack all conviction." ""Conviction" speaks not just a confident sense of the truth, but also the internal mandate that they must do something. They feel no pang about letting the world slip into crude emptiness. "The worst are full of passionate intensity". "The play on words with ""passionate" is sickening in its deep irreverence, conjuring up the image of Christ's "Passion", which He endured with intense conviction, whereas now, according to the poet, the "worst", the evil elements of the world are now committed, but their commitment is to a heedless, hedonist hatred of all order, a moral relativism which scorns at dying for anything. They have a materialist intensity, one which they are "full" of, not motivated, not inspired, but merely "full", a static element which means or moves nothing.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
"Surely. . .Surely" the poet knows that something imminent, dangeround, foreboding has come, but what? He repeats this assertion to himself, refering obliquely to "some revelation," The certainty of ill-tidings, wrapped in uncertainty, all the more magnifies the troubles of the modern era, one in which people are lost, yet know no where to go or even how to find out where. "The Second Coming is at hand." The poet repeats, inaccurately, an amalgam of Scripture. Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God is "at hand," but His Second Coming will be a shock, a surprise which will arrest the attention of the entire universe, not a gradual overtaking for which mankind may still bide his time.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight:
The inarticulate nature of the vision articulates the maddening disturbance of the poet's fears. Some "Spiritus Mundi", a world-spirit, Weltgeist or Zeitgeist, but in Latin, a vain appeal to the aching rigors of the Catholic Church, an institution which is also rocking the world, whose rot, propagated by human hierarchies dressed up in religious trappings, has spread and exposed the decay of tradition and temporal authority shrouded in mysteries. The very words Second Coming" elicit this vision, one that troubles his sight, one that causes him to question what he sees, to review what he views, to shake and tremble, blurring the presence before him. His vision, his viewing, his perception all betray a reluctant doubt regarding what he is beholding, much like the shifting views and values of modern times causes man to doubt what he fears, and to doubt his own doubts.
a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
What does the poet see here? Some mirage from the Valley of Kings, perhaps? "A shape with lion body and the head of a man" conjures up the tombs of ancient Pharaohs. Yet this "shape", indefinite in its mixed description, "is moving", with birds flocking around it. Raw power, vain attempts to shade one's authority in the learnings, the awesome size and scope of ancient artifacts, has moved many to read the past in order to justify their present circumstances, to enshrine their life and world-view on something which smacks of permanence. Yet the mythic, and comical, apparition of a man-with-lion-body defies the stability of the past, reminding the reader of little children who cut out pictures in diverse magazines and paste together fantastic creatures. This creature moves about in a "waste of desert sand", a redundancy which mirrors the stark bleakness of the man's view as well as vision of the future.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
"Darkness drops again", yet what causes the darkness initially? The modern age, the mixing of metaphors, the inability to articulate even the ineffable. to explain the trials and troubles of a world which has discarded the means and distinctions of right and wrong, or authority and submission, or direction and station. The twenty centuries, tied with "rocking cradle" and "Bethlehem to be born" all speak of the Son of God's birth, which also connects with the poet's apprehension of the "Second Coming." The momentous first appearance frightened kings, precipitated divisions and wars, forced a culture and people to rethink their origins, to renew their understanding of Scripture, while inviting alienated nations to enter into the community of grace and life with God. The political tumults and turmoils, the disruptions of class, status, race, and creed did not dissolved into massive confusion following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The structures, the traditions, the divisions among men which have followed, however, have broadened the widening of gyres, the loss of direction for leader and servant. To claim that the mixed creature of "Sphynx-like" extraction will inaugurate a new era leaves much to be desired. The Second Coming, according to the Scriptures, will not follow from a birth, but from the mighty and ultimate coming of Jesus Christ.
Yeats' poem exemplifies the modern dilemma of man, one in which man has been allowed to discard the principles, the myths, the legends, the culture which defined his experience, which informed his identity in a world which he did not create. Now pressed to create himself, to define his path in a fallen world which still cries out that something is coming, he now has no knowledge, no wisdom, no legacy, no authority to explain to him what is happening. The mixing of metaphors, the obscurity of the menacing Spiritus Mundi, the failing of manmade institutions, has created a widening mess of mankind which he cannot contain or control, let alone define.
Without question, the poet cannot end his dire anti-dirge but with a question, a wandering wondering which pieces together a narrative from times and deeds immemorial, yet lost through decay and disrespect.
Christ Himself is Crucial to Our Understanding of Scripture
When Jesus rose from the dead, He accompanied two disillusioned believers on the way to Emmaus. Hiding His identity from His crest-fallen followers, Jesus asked Cleopas and his partner to explain why they were sad:
"Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
"And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
"And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
"But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done." (Luke 24: 18-22)
As Pastor Prince pointed out in one sermon, their primary focus was not Jesus Christ the Messiah, but the (political) redemption of Israel.
For the remainder of their travel to Emmaus, Joseph corrected their focus:
"Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. " (Luke 24: 25-27)
They did not believe, and they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken of the Messiah, and not just of Himself but what He was called to suffer and the glory which He entered. Christ Himself, His Cross, His Suffering, His Resurrection: these are the focus of Scriptures, these are crucial to our understanding of all that we read in the Bible. When we understand that through Him, through His death, through His life, we are freed from death in our trespasses and receive His life, we are set free form potential errors, strifes, and dissensions over doctrines, traditions, and hierarchies.
If there is a discrepancy in scripture, if there is a misunderstanding, if there is any difficult, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Any reading, any argument, which does not give Him the Highest place and prominence must be reevaluated and reviewed in light of Himself.
"Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
"And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
"And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
"But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done." (Luke 24: 18-22)
As Pastor Prince pointed out in one sermon, their primary focus was not Jesus Christ the Messiah, but the (political) redemption of Israel.
For the remainder of their travel to Emmaus, Joseph corrected their focus:
"Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. " (Luke 24: 25-27)
They did not believe, and they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken of the Messiah, and not just of Himself but what He was called to suffer and the glory which He entered. Christ Himself, His Cross, His Suffering, His Resurrection: these are the focus of Scriptures, these are crucial to our understanding of all that we read in the Bible. When we understand that through Him, through His death, through His life, we are freed from death in our trespasses and receive His life, we are set free form potential errors, strifes, and dissensions over doctrines, traditions, and hierarchies.
If there is a discrepancy in scripture, if there is a misunderstanding, if there is any difficult, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Any reading, any argument, which does not give Him the Highest place and prominence must be reevaluated and reviewed in light of Himself.
Christ and His Holy Spirit are Crucial to Our Understanding of Scripture
As explained in the previous post, we read scripture in order to learn about Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done for us, and how through Him we live obedient lives.
Other scriptures from Jesus Himself also testify that the Scripture is not for expounding obscure doctrines, not that the Truth about Jesus and His Work is not important, but that and discussion, any disagreement can easily be resolved, any doubt can be easily dissolved to the degree that we magnify Jesus and His love for us, demonstrated at the Cross.
The Pharisees were well-read in God's law, but they did not recognize the Messiah when they say Him:
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5: 39)
We all seek eternal life, but eternal life is Jesus Christ, who through His Holy Spirit indwells every believer. Jesus' indictment against the blind Pharisees goes deeper:
"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
"I receive not honour from men.
"But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you." (John 5: 40-42)
Just as we must have a growing understanding of God's love for us in order to forgive others, to walk in His love, to be kindhearted toward others, we must receive the revelation of God's love for us to understand the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is intimately entwined in this truth:
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5: 5)
The Holy Spirit supplies the presence, the power, and the purpose of Jesus Christ in our lives:
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14: 16-18)
Now, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us and justifying us before God the Father (Romans 8). Yet He also lives and dwells in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through Him we also sit at the right hand of the Father in Christ! Not only has the Holy Spirit ensured that we are not orphans, but through Him we receive Christ's power and preeminence on earth:
"Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. " (1 John 4: 13)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Who we are is forever-linked and defined in Christ Jesus! Let us learn as much about Him as possible!
Other scriptures from Jesus Himself also testify that the Scripture is not for expounding obscure doctrines, not that the Truth about Jesus and His Work is not important, but that and discussion, any disagreement can easily be resolved, any doubt can be easily dissolved to the degree that we magnify Jesus and His love for us, demonstrated at the Cross.
The Pharisees were well-read in God's law, but they did not recognize the Messiah when they say Him:
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5: 39)
We all seek eternal life, but eternal life is Jesus Christ, who through His Holy Spirit indwells every believer. Jesus' indictment against the blind Pharisees goes deeper:
"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
"I receive not honour from men.
"But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you." (John 5: 40-42)
Just as we must have a growing understanding of God's love for us in order to forgive others, to walk in His love, to be kindhearted toward others, we must receive the revelation of God's love for us to understand the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is intimately entwined in this truth:
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5: 5)
The Holy Spirit supplies the presence, the power, and the purpose of Jesus Christ in our lives:
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14: 16-18)
Now, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us and justifying us before God the Father (Romans 8). Yet He also lives and dwells in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through Him we also sit at the right hand of the Father in Christ! Not only has the Holy Spirit ensured that we are not orphans, but through Him we receive Christ's power and preeminence on earth:
"Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. " (1 John 4: 13)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Who we are is forever-linked and defined in Christ Jesus! Let us learn as much about Him as possible!
Christ and His Love is Crucial to Our Understanding of Scripture
Why do we read the Bible? To get tips on how to live? To get pointers on how to make do through hard times? No! We read the Scripture to learn more about Jesus Christ and His Finished Work, to learn who we are in Christ!
First of all, we must ascertain for ourselves once and for all that the Christian life is not a life that we live in our own effort. In truth, it is Christ living His life in us:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
This faith comes to us by hearing. and hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10: 17). As we learn more about Jesus, who He is, what He has done for us, and evermore what He is doing for us, He causes us to reign in life.
Before that, Jesus told His disciples that it is His life that would live and thrive through them:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 4-5)
In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul impresses upon the believers in Ephesus to gain a greater awareness of all that they have in Christ, who through His death and resurrection has raised us from the dead, infused us with His life, even to placing us in heavenly places with Him.
In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that they would gain a greater understanding, one which covers every direction, of God's love for them:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3: 17)
We must know and believe in God's love for us, never to be moved from us, no matter how we feel or what we are thinking. When we gain a greater understanding of His love for us, in us, and through us, then we can walk in Him with confidence, with no fear of being taken off course:
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:" (Ephesians 4: 13-15)
We grow in unity with other believers through our greater knowledge of Jesus! Because we are rooted and grounded in His love, fully aware of Himself and His Work on our behalf, aberrant doctrines and errors will not dissuade us from the Truth of Him! Because we know and believe in His infinite love for us, we can then speak the Truth with love.
In fact, we then walk in obedience with others based on our growing knowledge and of God's grace and love for us:
"Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4: 25)
Why lie? We have His truth living in us
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
"Neither give place to the devil." (Ephesians 4: 26-27)
We will still get angry at evil, for love does not rejoice in iniquity. But because we are filled with God's love for us, we will no longer respond in sinful, fleshly wrath, but being led by the Spirit of God will rebuke with love.
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4: 32)
How are we able to kind, easy going, tolerant of others, even forgiving them? Because we are receiving a greater revelation of God's love for us, that He has forgiven all of our sins, that we now receive sonship in Christ. that in Him we have no need to fear anything. In fact. the power to forgive is God's power in us!
We walk in God's love:
"1e ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." (Ephesians 5: 1-2)
How can we walk as dear children, unless we know and believe that we are His dear children?:
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 5-6)
God has taken us into His family. Through Jesus Christ, we know become sons of God! (John 1: 12)
Who we are in Christ inform us of who we are, what we have, and how to walk, and it is He who is working within us to known and do His good pleasure!
First of all, we must ascertain for ourselves once and for all that the Christian life is not a life that we live in our own effort. In truth, it is Christ living His life in us:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
This faith comes to us by hearing. and hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10: 17). As we learn more about Jesus, who He is, what He has done for us, and evermore what He is doing for us, He causes us to reign in life.
Before that, Jesus told His disciples that it is His life that would live and thrive through them:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 4-5)
In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul impresses upon the believers in Ephesus to gain a greater awareness of all that they have in Christ, who through His death and resurrection has raised us from the dead, infused us with His life, even to placing us in heavenly places with Him.
In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that they would gain a greater understanding, one which covers every direction, of God's love for them:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3: 17)
We must know and believe in God's love for us, never to be moved from us, no matter how we feel or what we are thinking. When we gain a greater understanding of His love for us, in us, and through us, then we can walk in Him with confidence, with no fear of being taken off course:
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:" (Ephesians 4: 13-15)
We grow in unity with other believers through our greater knowledge of Jesus! Because we are rooted and grounded in His love, fully aware of Himself and His Work on our behalf, aberrant doctrines and errors will not dissuade us from the Truth of Him! Because we know and believe in His infinite love for us, we can then speak the Truth with love.
In fact, we then walk in obedience with others based on our growing knowledge and of God's grace and love for us:
"Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4: 25)
Why lie? We have His truth living in us
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
"Neither give place to the devil." (Ephesians 4: 26-27)
We will still get angry at evil, for love does not rejoice in iniquity. But because we are filled with God's love for us, we will no longer respond in sinful, fleshly wrath, but being led by the Spirit of God will rebuke with love.
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4: 32)
How are we able to kind, easy going, tolerant of others, even forgiving them? Because we are receiving a greater revelation of God's love for us, that He has forgiven all of our sins, that we now receive sonship in Christ. that in Him we have no need to fear anything. In fact. the power to forgive is God's power in us!
We walk in God's love:
"1e ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." (Ephesians 5: 1-2)
How can we walk as dear children, unless we know and believe that we are His dear children?:
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 5-6)
God has taken us into His family. Through Jesus Christ, we know become sons of God! (John 1: 12)
Who we are in Christ inform us of who we are, what we have, and how to walk, and it is He who is working within us to known and do His good pleasure!
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