Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's almost midnight, and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note:  Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will not be put through.  If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here. 

Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says.  And further:  I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

(The image? I've finished the sequence of my published books; while I decide what I want to do next, I have some memes to share.)

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I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***

Comments

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[anonymoose_canadian]

I'd also add, having seen this dynamic play out, sometimes people become convinced that some horrific outcome is inevitable, and try to bring it about in a way that will be "less bad". If, to use your example, blanket surveillance is inevitable, would you rather it be done by someone who is bound by laws, or someone who is not?

If it really is inevitable, then it really does make sense to try to be the first so you can guide things in a less destructive direction.

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[ecosophia]

Except that it never works out that way. Once the system is in place, it gets taken out of the hands of the "less bad" brigade and taken to its logical extremes. A glance at the history of nuclear weapons is a good case study here, with Oppenheimer in the "less bad" category and Teller in the "as bad as it can get" category.

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[scotlyn]

A Wendell Berry quote might be apt here:
"The discipline of ends is no discipline at all. The end is preserved in the means; a desirable end may perish forever in the wrong means. Hope lives in the means, not the end."
From "Discipline and Hope" in A Continous Harmony

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[robertmathiesen]

I actually met Edward Teller once, in my 'teens. That very brief encounter left me thoroughly shaken.

I was schoolmates and friends with his son, Paul (who was one year/grade younger than I), and I went to his house once to visit him. Paul was out, but his father answered the door and told me Paul wasn't at home just then. That was the one and only time I even met the man. But those few seconds at the door have stayed with me ever since.

What struck me then was the man's intensity, for lack of a better word. He was the most intense person I had ever encountered up to then, and maybe ever since. He struck me as utterly consumed with boundless fury against the whole living world, a ferocity barely held in check by his iron self-control and very high intelligence. I came away from those few seconds with a new and somewhat frightening appreciation of the potential of humankind.

Something of the same sort seems to have been perceived by others in him. The University of California's memorial for him contains this striking characterization: "he was a force of nature as much as a human being." [senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/inmemoriam/html/EdwardTeller.htm]


So ... "as bad as it can get" seems right on target to me.

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[(Anonymous)]

I gotta ask out of sheer curiosity--what was his son like in terms of intensity/playfulness/creativity/intelligence/etc?

Re: The Apocalyptic Impulse

[robertmathiesen]

i don't know whether JMG will put this through so late, but I just now saw your question. Paul was a humble and kind person. I remember him as wearing sandals or flip-flops most of the time IIRC, he was an advocate for world peace. his father mentioned him only very, very briefly in his autobiography: "my gentle son Paul." Paul's sister, Wendy, was mentioned more often in their father's book. Paul became a professor of philosophy. I haven't been in touch with him for more than half a century now.