The Climate Of Each Soul

(here is my dialogue with a friend in myspace IM, edited and reprinted with her permission)

Two years ago, I spent a lot of time at literature forums...
and wrote about things like Milan Kundera "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
and Thomas Pynchon "The Crying of Lot 49"
and "Gravity's Rainbow"



She: I read that and could not understand it - Kundera



Me: OK... well.... here is a tip about Lundera's book... (oh, and the movie on DVD is THREE HOURS) AND it has a 3 hour commentary about the movie as well

anyway.... in the middle of the book... he starts talking about their dog,... Karenin

Now, Karenin is the male form of the name in Russian, but his wife is KARENINA which is the feminine ending so, it is a allusion to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

and the first sentence of that novel is very famous,

namely "Happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unique in its unhappiness"

So, I will have to read it again with new insight. I find that to be all too true!

now.... this ties in with something which Kundera states about happiness, with relation to that dog, Karenin

Kundera says that human beings were CAST OUT of paradise... but the animals were NEVER cast out...

He seemed to have trouble believing in the existence of God.

so, Kundera explains,... that happiness, for the animals, for the dog, is CIRCULAR... and involves repetition, routine, and consistency...

they play a game with the dog Karenin, holding a biscuit in their mouth, teasing him, and then letting him eat it

Kundera says that the dog EXPECTS that circular repetition...



Now, all this ties in with the very last page...



The couple vacations at a small inn/tavern, which has rooms upstairs...

in the tavern, there is music,... celebration...

A chapter earlier, we learn that they later die in an auto accident...

but, there is a flashback to the scene where they mount the stairs in the inn, to their room which i think is number SIX

SIX is the first perfect number, being the sum of its prime factors

as they open the door, and turn on the light... they startle a nocturnal moth

who slowly CIRCLES the room....

Kundera wrote some essays collected and published under the title "The Art of the Novel"

to read those essays makes clear what Kundera is trying to do with his novels...

now, the last page ties in with the first chapter, the first several pages, which is the only place that he discusses the circular nature of Nietzsche's "eternal return"....

Nietzsche speculates that everything repeats over and over, endlessly, e.g. The French Revolution (all the beheadings by Robespierre)

Do you mean the eternal moment?

so Kundera says, that if this is true, then each of us must feel like Christ nailed to the cross,... if it is the case that each of our actions shall be repeated endlessly

BUT... the opposite situation, not circular, but linear,... that everything is a straight line, happening once, and ending forever...

well that is the UNBEARABLE lightness of being....

namely that, there are no consequences,... that it happens once, and then.... nothing

complicated!

yes...

but then at the end of the first 3 pages... Kundera throws in the concepts of light and heavy that Parmenides uses...

but, Kundera says it is difficult to know which is heavy and which is light (the circular or the linear)...

I like Nietszche's concept of the eternal moment. Live each moment as if you will have to do it over and over again for eternity.

yes, that is the heaviness, the burden, the crucifixion, of action... that we have responsibility as the author of our action

puts the responsibility on us for being the masters of our own fate and its consequences, which is overwhelming

She: What do you think he meant when he said "God is Dead?" literally ?

Me: well, Nietzsche was a bit unstable, and something of a maverick, somewhat antisocial

perhaps he meant that modern man does not need god the way the ancients did

or, does not take god seriously, the way the ancients did

Alice Miller says he was an abused child. Those are good possible explanations

My favorite quotation is from psychologist Alfred Adler

after a lecture, Adler was asked by someone in the audience "And what of God, Dr. Adler, what do you say"

Adler said, "If there is a God, the I would hope he is pleased with how I have chosen to lead my life."

She: Why did he break with Freud?

Me:well, stop and think, literally everyone broke with Freud, who was anyone

especially Jung

there is a book "Years of Friendship, Years of Loss" about the Jung Freud friendship and break up

but, you see Freud was very controlling...

he wanted to be certain that his creation of psychoanalysis would live on after him

So Freudian theories have been discredited, although he is still considered the father of psychoanalysis

he feared anti-Semitism, and Jung was a Christian who could carry on without that anti-Semitism

and look at Karen Horney (pronounced Horn-eye)

she was possibly the first woman MD in Germany

Freud studied people in a society of Victorian sexual repression.... and felt that the repression caused neurosis

I have always thought of Jung as something of a mystic, a believer in the best of human potential

but, Horney came to America and realized that, in a permissive sexual environment, it was the shy people who were neurotic

And he did not believe their stories of incest. He thought it was fantasy.

yes, that Canadian scholar, who wrote of how Freud suppressed the child abuse

the cover of the book has Freud with his glasses on backwards....

My friend who took psychology in college swears Freud was addicted to cocaine

one of Freud's students, who went on to invent an orgone machine....

yes, Freud was a cocaine addict

Freud came within months of discovering the legitimate use of cocaine as a local anesthetic

but someone else beat him to the punch....


Wilhelm Reich Freud disciple

tells of being a very small boy, and of his female caretakers doing sexual things with him...



She: I like the writings of Melanie Klein and Alice Miller





Me: I never got into Klein and Miller

Alice Miller grew up in the Nazi era and she wondered why so many respectable Germans followed Hitler and obeyed his orders. She is interested in the roots of violence.

There is a book called "Hitler's Willing Assassins" ,... the first page speaks about the role played by Martin Luther of the Protestant reformation, laying down the foundation of antisemitism

the Spanish Inquisition started as the popes attack on the Talmud

I never thought Martin Luther was anti-Semitic, I knew he was against the Catholic Church, but that was all I knew he wrote against.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen "Hitler's Willing EXECUTIONERS" THAT is the title

Martin Luther wrote a pamphlet called "The Jews and their Lies"

that suggested something similar to a holocaust

Oh, my goodness, well I never learned that in school. Was it against them for not believing in Jesus or for being Jews in general?

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther-jews.html

there are some excerpts from Luther's pamphlets

Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and vehement his eyes on them.

Wow, and he is such a respected figure in religion and history

yes,.... but....one can easily see Luther's selfish evil side.... by one simple consideration...

In the Old Testament, it is written "Better never to vow at all, than to vow and not pay"

and in the Psalms, "Make your vows and pay them to the Lord"

Luther of his own free will took lifetime vows of celibacy

but... when he could not endure that....

he changed the religion, to say that celibacy is demonic

then he married a nun and had 12 children

Well, he was obviously more complex that I had ever been led to believe. I thought he was a great reformer

well.... in Judges, or one of those books,.... Jepethah made a vow during a battle to sacrifice the first thing he saw, when he returned home...

and it was his daughter he saw...

but she forced him to keep his vow...

so there is a teaching of how grievous a vow is

but.... Luther did not want to think of such passages

Luther was correct to see corruption in the Papacy... BUT, he could have gone to the eastern Orthodox, and kept his vows

his monastic vows

but such was not Luther's hidden agenda

and, his sermons are filled with lewd references to Mary's breasts, bursting with milk, feeding the baby Jesus...

Luther was a disturbed man

very, and we all think he is the great reformer. My friend Marcus is Lutheran. I wonder if he knows all this?

, and.... consider the Epistle of 2nd Peter, Ch. 3, (paraphrased) "Paul has written some things which are difficult to understand, and those weak in mind twist and distort such passages to their own destruction, as they do with other biblical verses"

well.... look.... Mohammed the Prophet: to me it is very obvious, but those raised Muslim are blind to his faults

he was very violent and yet they say "Peace be upon him."

Stop and think,... one of the most spectacular prophets of the Old Testament was Elijah, the great wonderworker... and Elijah was celibate

and, Jesus says of John the Baptist, "No greater man is born of woman", and John the Baptist was celibate

She: so you think there is a connection between greatness and celibacy?

Me: and Jesus says to the apostles, "Some are born eunuchs, some are made eunuchs by others, and others make eunuchs of themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For those to whom that grace has been given, let them take it up.

so there are three arguments why there is an important place for celibacy...

yet the protestants leave no role for celibacy to play....

other than to say that one need not marry, and it is not a sin...

but what does Paul say, "It is better to marry than to burn, but I would that all could be as I am (celibate"


for the Greek and Russian eastern orthodox,.... a priest may be married, but a bishop must be a celibate monastic

well, but... the tradition has been set down in the scriptures for many centuries...

so, when the church no longer resembles the scriptures, then, what can one say

Yes, but we do not respect that tradition. that it has modernized.

the first 1000 years of Christianity knew nothing, absolutely nothing, of protestant doctrine and practice

well.... i can put a lampshade on my head and declare myself grand puh-bah of the universe.... but what does it mean...

there would be no tradition, no heritage....

It means you are transforming the institution into what YOU want it to be.

well, yes... precisely

just because a nation has elections and a constitution does not make it a democracy

as one example



Many want the Catholic Church to change including most American and European Catholics

people want to have their cake and eat it too

they want a religion of convenience and the assurance of salvation with little effort

Then Catholicism will be a new religion. Precisely

Charles Stanley's son, also a preacher, gave a sermon on his dad's broadcast, entitled "The Cost of Discipleship"

saying "Salvation is free, but discipleship costs"

A religion that does not demand too much discipline and sacrifice and a promise of paradise to come

perhaps inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Cheap Grace"

Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran minister who returned to Germany and attempted to assassinate Hitler, but failed and was hanged by the Nazis

anyway... the whole argument of Charles Stanley is his "Eternal security of Salvation"

namely, that once you ask Jesus to be your savior (the magic words), then, nothing, absolutely nothing that you can do in the rest of your life can lose that salvation...

even becoming a serial killer...

there are protestants who object to Stanley's doctrine

I find that hard to believe. It lets you off the hook. It is too easy. nothing more is required of you

but, anyway, his son elaborated to say "salvation is free" (say the magic words), but discipleship costs (meaning, one day, your conscience will ask you to do something difficult

That I can accept.

one young man was suicidal, and went to his pastor and asked

"if i commit suicide will i go to hell"

that pastor preached the doctrine of eternal security of salvation

so the pastor said that there is no way to lose your salvation

not even suicide

... so, the young man committed suicide

true story

I often wonder if those who fight in wars are sinning and going to hell. That probably sounds strange, but I wonder.

aha... the movie "Zentropa"...

a German film with subtitles

a young idealistic German American returns to occupied Germany, to help with reconstruction... after WWII,

in the opening scenes, he meets a catholic priest and asks...

"Since both sides, German and allied, prayed to God for victory,... how does God decide, since only one side can win?

the priest answered, "It is written 'You are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, so I spew you out of my mouth

and then explained...

that it is not the absolute position of the governments, or sides... but it is each individual, on both sides.... the hmmmm... how shall i say, the "climate of their soul"

which, if it is true, makes judgment quite a subjective matter

but... consider David's 51st psalm, where he repents of coveting Bathsheba, and sending her husband Uriah, to the front lines, to certain death

Which allows us to do anything

no, not anything.... but merely that it is subjective

for example.... there is NOTHING in the actions of David which was sinful...

David was Commander of the Army, and could send whom he pleases to the front lines....

As king, he could take many wives....

Once Bathsheba was a widow, David was free to marry her....

but, the sin does not lie in the objective action....

the sin is in the wickedness of the intention...

such as a suicide bomber?

I forget the phrase just now, but there is a long motif in Old Testament about the darkness of the imagination

the wickedness of the human heart...

So if a soldier thinks his intentions are honorable, is he sinning?

well, it gets complex... and, who can know the mind of God, to have some calculus, and weigh each human life in the balance

but.... obviously, sin is not in the objective action per se, but in the intention of the imagination

So if you think your cause is righteous, your actions are justified and not sinful?

there is an old Chinese Taoist saying

When the wrong man employs the right methods, then the right methods yield the wrong results

One can see this in a way in Ursula LeGuinn's "The Lathe of Heaven"

a sci-fi story about a young man with a rare power of "effective dreams".... whenever he has an "effective dream", it changes all reality, past and present

but, a doctor of "oneirology" (the science of dreams), tries to harness that power, to "make the world right"....

but, the more the doctor tries to improve the world, the worse it becomes

until he is on the verge of destroying the universe with his megalomania ambition

you see, if things were not as I describe,... then we could have a "cookbook morality", such that

if you follow a certain recipe, you will always achieve the same results

religions which claim to be "the one true faith", fall prey to the danger of such a cookbook mentality

that one set of rules and teachings is right for all people in all times...

I once worked with a young woman who was a very modest, devout Jehovah's Witness, very proper....

One day, I said to her, "There is one circumstance in which it would be our duty to have sexual relations, and a sin if we did not" ... She was startled, but I explained, "if we were the last surviving male and female..."

and the very first commandment in Genesis is "be fruitful and multiply"

then, we would be bound by religious duty to try and produce offspring...

you see, in is not the action by itself, but the subjective circumstance, which determines the morality...

now,... in a world of six billion people.... if one million wanted to take vows of celibacy... there would seem to be no sin...

That seems to be saying there is no set morality, just changing circumstances.

but, if all six billion took lifetime vows of celibacy... then, it would be equal to a suicide of the human species

now,... if all six billion took a vow to have 20 children... then, this would be equally destructive to human life...

An act against Genesis.

now, here is a paradox.... consider the molecules in a chamber of gas....

each molecule appears to be totally free to behave in a random pattern... each with a different direction, thermal energy...

BUT, collectively, that chamber of gas, with millions of molecules, obeys very precise laws of temperature and pressure

so,.... individual people seem to enjoy a great latitude of personal freedom in their life choices...

but, collectively, an nations economy and politics obeys certain rules, and reflects the collective effects of all those individual choices

and if not-chaos?

aha, but, there is order in chaos

and there is chaos in order

on a galactic scale,.... we see very orderly movements of planets and solar systems.... but, on a subatomic quantum level, we see a frenzy of fluctuation between being/non-being, where time and space seem to lose meaning

and yet, those orderly galaxies are built up from that quantum chaos

so, chaos gives rise to order

and order harbors chaos

quantum physics is too abstract for me to get a handle on.

the details are difficult, but the conclusions are obvious, contrasting order on a galactic scale, with chaos on a subatomic scale

that makes more sense. is this the branch of mathematics called fuzzy logic?

yes, there is something called fuzzy logic.... which is specialized

but for the average person, even well educated... many things are "fuzzy"

we all use the internet, but few of us could assemble a computer, or explain how packets of information are structured