Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 22:15:16 +1000
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: terms


Eric,

Yep, underground canaries are doomed.  Philosphers are more owlish.  Owls
are fierce meat-eaters who see in the dark.

I thought the ancient Greeks still respected many gods, and Socrates asked
all those questions just to get attention.  Which he did.

However, the ancient Jews limited themselves to just one God and declared
Christ was an impostor.

If you had been an ancient Greek philosopher your lifestyle would have
required slaves.

The Jews, like the Greeks had slaves. In the Bible, they are manservants and
maidservants, but if the master put out their eyes he was commanded to set
them free..
Such a BLOODY book.

I used to think I "ought" to read Kafka, even started a few times.  I did
see the movie
"The Castle",  liked it, similarities to "No Exit". Once read a few
paragraphs K. wrote about being in Paris.

Speaking of  birds and singing, a verse::

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake:
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past or passing or to come.
                          --Yeats

and recommend the other 3 verses.

Hugh

Original Message -----
From: Eric
To: lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 11:34 AM
Subject: RE: terms


           Eric wrote:
Hugh,

One of the things that attracts me to ancient philosophy, especially that of
the Epicureans, Stoics, and Cynics, is that for them philosophy was a good
deal more than theory. It had everything to do with how one lived one's
life. Philosophy back then was a viable and respectable alternative to
religion and god.

I am still trying to figure how to do this today since we live in a time
when economics forces us to live against our inclinations.  I just read a
quote where someone said - to be socialist means to favor the social over
economics.

I admit I personally find it difficult to live 'heroically' outside the
pressures of the kind of world economics dictates and, yet, I feel
profoundly conflicted and even Kafkaesque, living within such a world.  My
only hope is that others younger than me will find the strength to resist
this world more than I have.

I sometimes feel like a canary inside a golden cage trapped inside a coal
mine.  In times like these, every song echoes death.

eric