Breaking the Cycle of Violence
Apr. 18th, 2004 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
create_destinyI wish my friends would stop bickering. It's really bringing me down.
"Stop shedding our blood so we can stop shedding yours."
-Osama bin Laden
To break the cycle of violence someone must be willing to take a blow and resist the temptation to strike back. If we can't do this on a personal level how can we expect to do it on a bigger level?...i.e. communal, societal, national, global.
"The machine" is an external manifestation of what has first been born in the heart of man. Industrial society is born and perpetuated by unchecked human greed, by lust for material objects and for entertainments. A certain religion, namely Eastern Orthodox Christianity, asks it's adherents to check this greed (in accordance to each person's strength and conscience) by fasting and prayer.
Some who despise our industrial society born of greed, will rage and scream "OPPRESSION! LIES! TYRANNY!", if asked to restrain themselves from the very impulses which have birthed the machine they despise.
"Better that the whole world be destroyed and perish utterly than that a free man refrain from an act to which his nature moves him."
-Karl Marx
"The United States is one of the highest and most extreme achievements of the rational quest for the good life according to nature".
-Allan Bloom
The point I'm trying to make is that the world is being destroyed as the masses rush to fulfill the insatiable desires of their fallen NATURE--the desire for excessive material comforts and sensual pleasures, the desire for "the good life"--the very fulfillment of these desires has brought about the current crisis of war and mass environmental destruction.
Anyone who checks their own greed and lust for material objects or sensual pleasures (for example, by refraining from the consumption of meat or dairy products or by walking or riding a bike rather than driving a car) has embraced a vital tenant of ancient Christianity.
Anyone who seeks to break the cycle of violence (and pettiness) by not seeking revenge against a person who has insulted or hurt them in some other way has embraced a vital tenant of ancient Christianity.
"Stop shedding our blood so we can stop shedding yours."
-Osama bin Laden
To break the cycle of violence someone must be willing to take a blow and resist the temptation to strike back. If we can't do this on a personal level how can we expect to do it on a bigger level?...i.e. communal, societal, national, global.
"The machine" is an external manifestation of what has first been born in the heart of man. Industrial society is born and perpetuated by unchecked human greed, by lust for material objects and for entertainments. A certain religion, namely Eastern Orthodox Christianity, asks it's adherents to check this greed (in accordance to each person's strength and conscience) by fasting and prayer.
Some who despise our industrial society born of greed, will rage and scream "OPPRESSION! LIES! TYRANNY!", if asked to restrain themselves from the very impulses which have birthed the machine they despise.
"Better that the whole world be destroyed and perish utterly than that a free man refrain from an act to which his nature moves him."
-Karl Marx
"The United States is one of the highest and most extreme achievements of the rational quest for the good life according to nature".
-Allan Bloom
The point I'm trying to make is that the world is being destroyed as the masses rush to fulfill the insatiable desires of their fallen NATURE--the desire for excessive material comforts and sensual pleasures, the desire for "the good life"--the very fulfillment of these desires has brought about the current crisis of war and mass environmental destruction.
Anyone who checks their own greed and lust for material objects or sensual pleasures (for example, by refraining from the consumption of meat or dairy products or by walking or riding a bike rather than driving a car) has embraced a vital tenant of ancient Christianity.
Anyone who seeks to break the cycle of violence (and pettiness) by not seeking revenge against a person who has insulted or hurt them in some other way has embraced a vital tenant of ancient Christianity.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 02:22 pm (UTC)All alone, I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by"
no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 08:51 pm (UTC)Here's some more really deep lyrics:
"Granny's in the cellar.
Lordy can't you smell her!
Makin' granny biscuits by the stove.
There's a yellow kind of matter
That keeps drippin in the batter.
And the snot keep a-runnin' down her nose.
Down her nose!
Down her nose!
And the snot keeps a-runnin' down her nose."
no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 09:31 pm (UTC)How did you italize those lyrics?
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 07:36 am (UTC)For more detailed information and all the different things you can do, go to www.htmlgoodies.com.