The final movement of Beethoven’s immortal Fifth Symphony (conducted by my new favourite composer, Herbert von Karajan, in the video above) is a heart-stopping finale to one of the greatest works of musical composition in all of human history. It is also, for me, the soundtrack of my personal struggle and triumph over adversity, and … Read more
The last several months have been a period of discovery. I have delved deep into Dostoevsky, I am now discovering the magic of Thomas Hardy, and I am probing the wisdom of George Eliot. I am acquiring the rudiments of a literary education. In the sphere of music, I am working my way through the … Read more
This was very disturbing reading. Have a look for yourself. I am going to add nothing of my own, as I think the victim should speak in her own words. Appalling, but not shocking in light of my own understanding of this sect and it’s cult-like nature.
Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Self-Reliance’
Anyone who has read my post on Janja Lalich and her concept of bounded choice in a cult will appreciate this piercing observation by Nietzsche: 301. “STRENGTH OF CHARACTER.”-“What I have said once I will do.” – This manner of thinking is believed to indicate great strength of character. How many actions are accomplished, not … Read more
And though I hope not unscathed to go, Who conquers me shall find a stubborn foe. The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall From lips that now may seem imbued with gall; Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise The meanest thing that crawl’d beneath my eyes: But now, so callous … Read more
In Alan Woods’ recent article from last month on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he has adopted a markedly more pessimistic tone about the Russian invasion: It is difficult to say how the war is progressing. The information of the military situation in the media is so sparse as to be almost non-existent. And the constant predictions … Read more
Over the past month I have read both Jonathan Sperber’s Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life and Gareth Stedman Jones’ Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. Both books have their strengths and weaknesses. Both do a convincing job of correcting the record on Marx and his relationship to the doctrine that bears his name. They put him … Read more