Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
This thread is to discuss the concept of Limits and Structure as defined by Limits and the Importance and Crucial Nature of Termination, the Terninus, End Point, Triangle, Goal, Finality, Conclusion, Multiplication of Form or Duplicates and Multiples 333 9 999 27, the Perfect Cube and things made of threes and 9s, and everything being based on Limitation not Unlimitation which is a base state of the Power. This also has to do with hierarchy, organization, construction, projects and works, and The State including the True State, The Solid State, and the Dominion, connecting back to and through multiple themes in my threads and posts including Arch. I may edit my posts and threads if and when necessary and possible to add more, please keep using them, reading them deeply for multiple layers and levels of meanings and interpretations which should be beneficial and synthesized and inclusive of as much useful information and as many helpful and profound reminders as possible, but Limits are also Relief.
Hours 60 split 30 30, Minutes 60 split 30 30, Seconds 60 split 30 30
Years, Months, Days
1.Angra Mainyu Void and Chaos
2.Ahura Mazda Care and Ordering (as sorting and commanding and all senses of the word such as setting and placing)
3.Zurvan Time and Limited sets
4.Nature, the World and the Seasons and Directions.
I put this thread in the lounge originally due to unlimited video posting because I might be posting more than these two videos. This is my 3rd to last post, I have 2 more left before the complete set of 666.
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[hr]
" so please do explain a bit further about your view on this. "
The numbers and symbols are arbitrary, but can be used to remind people of or contain references to various things for people when explained to them and turned that way and converted to use that way.
The modern "Alien Gods" thing is a deliberate re-casting of Ancient mythologies with science fiction. By definition, God who is like Nothing, and the Angels, are Extra-Terrestrial because of the meaning of that word, they are not bound to or dependent on the world. Angels are dependent on God and are described as Extra-Planetary, they go away, far away, from Earth. In Ancient Semitic Language Family myths and explanations, El or Allah is from whom all things are extensions dependent on the Supreme King and controlled by God as puppets and attributes and forms and symbols and remotely controlled or possessed objects and apparitions and themes and events. The Angels are one such obedient extension tied and enslaved just as the humans are.
The Triangle can be used as a symbol for linking and binding as well as many other things. It can also be considered a doorway towards Death which is the 0 and the 1, and one crosses the desire or loses it if going through the triangle back towards God who is like Nothing. The Desire can be represented by a 1 and a 0 combined or a 1 inside a zero like Sauron's Cat Eye or the Symbol of the Deathly Hallows from Harrow Potter and being reminscent of Desire in the sense of sex too as a phallus in a vagina or gap or void space.
So the first is like Nothing, then the first who is 1 and Power to create which has long been associated with the phallus and the wand has the drive or desire to act, then from the second which has to do with generation comes the closed for or object, the three because if you take two lines you don't have a Limit or Closed Set until you have /_\ to close it which is the act of binding through limiting. In the Kabbalah this was understood as Ayin creating a contraction to generate space for limited things, limiting from the unlimited. The second area is associated with the mouth also, like the vagina, as giving birth to Forms from the Nothing, Action, which is the Invisible and Unseeable God spoken through and revealed in Words which are Set Limited Objects with distinctions and boundaries, Triangles, Measured things.
In any case, that doesn't mean "these ARE the numbers meanings" but that these "CAN" be used that way to remind people of good things and put to good use.
369 for example can bring to mind multiplicity and doubling, 3 and 3 is six and 3 and 3 and 3 is 9, 3 and 3 is 6 the second number, etc.
In the Powerful Videos & Lyrics thread it is written "The act of Creation itself is an act of Evil and what is truly wielder of Power and a Creator can only ever be Evil. Not only that, but creating anything is creating it limited and obstructed by boundaries which distinguish what it is, it is by nature "not God", and in order to be anything at all or distinguished in any way it must be limited. So another curse from the beginning from the Lord of the Binding Rings." which may bring to mind also the Evil Eye and Attention or Care known as Agape (the second, which is what they refer to when they say God is Love, they are talking about Agape meaning Attention, it is linked also to The Word or Logos the Command and to speak what is then seen or made Manifest).
"
What about it? "
For example the above statements are just some of the thoughts one can put towards the importance of Limits and Terms and Boundaries.
Takhisis
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kFoyauextlH
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Takhisis
Last edited by kFoyauextlH on Fri Sep 26, 2025 1:20 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
as i said elsewhere, i dont agree on your 666 so i expect answers when i post in reply to yours or in other threads. and yes im bossy ;)
i do get the sequence about 369 etc. but what about the old cultures with different length of weeks and how about our own 7 day calendar. its not around very long. yes its nice to see the 369 back in our clock, but there used to be other time measurements.
i myself am more clingy to 11235813etc, but i know others who revel in Pi.(which ive done myself as well for a while) so why should the 369 be so proud and ruling?and most of all why does it create that prison?
i wasnt allowed to circle the square anymore, i even was told im not welcome in saoudi anymore. must be my dancing on the cube...
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeIJmciN8mo[/video]
there are 2 cubes in this vid a white and a black one. and theres of course the starship lore. makes me wonder about enuma elish and their ancient alien lore thats entwined in the abrahamic religions. if i recall well there is a sura in the quran that says something like we come from this or that constellation in the sky, if ye would only understand etc. etc.
the 369 is very often connected with god and when i combine these things i wonder why these aliens want to put a limiter on us. so please do explain a bit further about your view on this.
i do get the sequence about 369 etc. but what about the old cultures with different length of weeks and how about our own 7 day calendar. its not around very long. yes its nice to see the 369 back in our clock, but there used to be other time measurements.
i myself am more clingy to 11235813etc, but i know others who revel in Pi.(which ive done myself as well for a while) so why should the 369 be so proud and ruling?and most of all why does it create that prison?
i wasnt allowed to circle the square anymore, i even was told im not welcome in saoudi anymore. must be my dancing on the cube...
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeIJmciN8mo[/video]
there are 2 cubes in this vid a white and a black one. and theres of course the starship lore. makes me wonder about enuma elish and their ancient alien lore thats entwined in the abrahamic religions. if i recall well there is a sura in the quran that says something like we come from this or that constellation in the sky, if ye would only understand etc. etc.
the 369 is very often connected with god and when i combine these things i wonder why these aliens want to put a limiter on us. so please do explain a bit further about your view on this.
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atreestump
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Re: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
This thread is to discuss the concept of Limits and Structure as defined by Limits and the Importance and Crucial Nature of Termination, the Terninus, End Point, Triangle, Goal, Finality, Conclusion, Multiplication of Form or Duplicates and Multiples 333 9 999 27, the Perfect Cube and things made of threes and 9s, and everything being based on Limitation not Unlimitation which is a base state of the Power. This also has to do with hierarchy, organization, construction, projects and works, and The State including the True State, The Solid State, and the Dominion, connecting back to and through multiple themes in my threads and posts including Arch. I may edit my posts and threads if and when necessary and possible to add more, please keep using them, reading them deeply for multiple layers and levels of meanings and interpretations which should be beneficial and synthesized and inclusive of as much useful information and as many helpful and profound reminders as possible, but Limits are also Relief.
What about it?
-
kFoyauextlH
- Posts: 950
- Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2025 3:53 pm
Re: Takhisis: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
This is really creepy. The way these people specifically say that they support "The State Department" seems to indicate that they are paid for agents of the "State Department", and not who they often pretend to be or be for. I always thought they were unbearable in their ways of communicating, but that seems to be part of their State Department funded operational goals, to control people and channel their energy away from doing anything to the things upholding the dangerous tyranny of the State upon the people, not only under the particular State, but the entire world, everywhere, that this "entity" tries to insinuate itself, through more than financial structures and violent means, but also through language and numerous methods to keep itself alive, even though it is a spectre and a force that these people think they are in control of, when it is controlling them, and harnessing it, or thinking that they are harnessing it, is simply proliferating every harm and anti-sane response:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1 ... ATROCITIES
These articles might appear a little misleading, I consider every one of the people being mentioned to be deeply evil and working for the cause of evil, "The State" which is in overk*ll, pitting every possible demographic against the other, attempting to make such the norm worldwide, to solidify its total power, and "Tr*mp" is not the issue at all, this thing was before him and will be after him too, and if anything, lots of people hate him because they are told to perceive him as a delay to the desires and goals of The State. The State is not the Divine State, though it is controlled by such and is seemingly totally malign and being used as a harm and a manifestation of almost every evil and injustice.
It also operates using blackmail and predatory networks of people who are deviants and criminals.
Very soon, it is possible that every push towards increased corruption and destruction of individuals and their "innocence" will be attacked and distorted, to push everything formerly considered inhuman and vile as a norm to prove its total power over what people say, think, and must do. It is practically like Sodom and Gomorrah stuff, open PDF stuff is going to just be out in the open and practically imposed on everyone.
https://media.christendom.edu/2001/12/t ... new-world/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3825001135
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8888370/
https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir ... ligica.pdf
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/w ... o/ch01.htm
https://braveneweurope.com/the-spectre- ... am-d-dixon
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The authors define state capitalism as an expansion of the state’s role in the world economy through state-capital hybrids (such as sovereign wealth funds, state enterprises and banks embedded in states), and increasingly statist policies (including industrial and development policies and economic nationalism). They argue that this expansion of the state’s economic and political role is not contingent. It is ‘structured by deep-seated, secular transformations’ in global capitalism (15). The economy itself they understand as ‘a world-historical totality’ (13), and not just a collection of disparate institutions and states.
Alami and Dixon compare their own work to previous scholarship clearly. Business school scholarship investigates state capitalism as a form of organization and governance at the level of the firm, but rarely considers how firms relate to the state, why the state involves itself in the economy, or puts increasing state involvement in any historical context. Comparative capitalism takes states as the unit of analysis, rather than the firm, and is concerned with differences between states’ economies. This approach looks more at state intervention in economies, how the state and businesses relate to each other and the state itself. But Alami and Dixon argue that starting with the state as the unit of analysis makes it hard to ‘explain the transnational dimensions of state capitalism’ (33).
Alami and Dixon argue that these problems result from three flaws: i) the lack of a theory of the capitalist state; ii) a lack of attention to history; and iii) a lack of attention to the geographies of state capitalism. So, the American military is rarely discussed as an example of state capitalism, nor is quantitative easing, but it is hard to know what is a part of the state if not them; properly understanding what the state is can help us to avoid such blind-spots. The failure to think historically shows up in periodizations, or in Polanyian arguments that we are just seeing a swing of the pendulum away from disembedded neoliberalism towards a more socially embedded economy. Neither of these arguments can explain why the phenomena they describe are taking place now. Finally, geography often enters the study of state capitalism only at the level of the nation-state. Here again, we are not given any convincing explanation for why state capitalism seems to be expanding; instead, we are just told that such-and-such a nation-state chooses mercantilist policies, and that is why we have seen a growth in mercantilist policies. We must rather explain the global, geographical context of those policy choices.
Alami and Dixon try to overcome these problems with their ‘problématique of state capitalism.’ They argue that we should see state capitalism not as a category, but as a puzzle; that we should relate state capitalism to ‘other fundamental political economic categories’ such as the state and capital accumulation; and that we should think about state capitalism historically and geographically in terms of ‘uneven and combined state capitalist development’ (50-51). Doing so will also make state capitalism a critical concept. We can use it to show how the ‘normal’ separation of state and economy is historical and political. In short, Alami and Dixon aim to accurately describe the present; to explain how and why our global economy exists in the form that it presently does; and to make possible a critique of the present and its history.
Alami and Dixon’s theory of the state incorporates well-known Marxist approaches (55). They see individual states as necessarily capitalist. States try to make capital accumulation possible at the global level, while also trying to improve their own economic position by attracting capital to the domestic market. And they do so amid ‘changing constellations of the international division of labor’ (67). The authors argue that the uneven growth of the global economy and those changing constellations are the necessary result of global capitalist development. These non-contingent economic changes cause the institutional and political differences studied by the literature of comparative capitalisms.
Alami and Dixon use this theory of the state and the global economy to investigate a huge body of data. States have used state capitalist strategies to deal with stagnation and overcapacity, a reduction in the demand for labor, an increasing surplus labor supply and the fragmentation of organized labor (80-81). These changes have led to slow growth, low investment and a savings glut. To cope with, or profit from, these changes, states have directly intervened in the production process (as with industrial policies and development banks); engaged in financial manoeuvres to protect firms from toxic assets and debt (as with quantitative easing); stabilized their economies by, for example, holding low-risk, liquid assets offshore; and disciplined their own populations through authoritarian policies, or the populations of other states through warfare.
All of these political economic actions, then, are the result of state actors trying to deal with large scale economic change at the global level. But their actions are not isolated. Alami and Dixon show how states act on and react to each other, by copying successful strategies, supporting each other or competing to strengthen their economic positions relative to other states. This appears as a global ‘spiral’ of mutual reinforcement between states (138), which, the authors argue, will lead to continuing ‘institutional heterogeneity’ (140).
The last section of the book looks at how the discourse of ‘state capitalism’ works in geopolitics and ideology. Alami and Dixon suggest, persuasively, that it is an updated Cold War rhetoric, which removes even the suggestion that there could be an alternative to global capitalism – since what they (outside the ‘liberal West’) now practice is ‘not a competing mode of production [but] a deviant, perverted version of the very selfsame one’ (182). Putting the difference between, say, China and the US in these terms allows people in both states to imagine an existential battle over principles where there is really only a power struggle, and thus legitimate the disciplining of the domestic population along with other ‘significant domestic policy adjustments’ (191).
Alami and Dixon conclude with thoughts about the future. They argue that there has been no clean break between neoliberal policies and state capitalism. Rather, neoliberalism ‘is gradually seeking to incorporate state ownership into its mainframe’ (237). At the same time, there is little reason to believe that we will soon return to the neoliberal projects of the 1990s. Both economic and climate crises demand increased state intervention. This may have at least one unintended, beneficial effect, if ‘the capitalist economy appears in plain sight for what it is […] an irreducibly political construct that is fundamentally […] underpinned by political power and public authority in the form of the state’ (252).
Much of this is convincing, but only if the reader accepts Alami and Dixon’s analysis of economic history. They frame the global economy in terms of the division of labor, declining productivity and slow growth – a very traditional-Marxist understanding of the realm of production. But are those terms adequate to the path of the global economy over the last few decades? A reader can agree that ‘state capitalism’ needs to be explained by a materialist analysis, without accepting that this particular analysis is the right one, or the most relevant. To play devil’s advocate, we might imagine a much simpler claim: neoliberal policies have enriched previously poor areas of the globe – most obviously China, but also Vietnam, the petro-states, India and so on. Those states have played the neoliberal game very well, using their own state institutions to draw in investment and increase their productivity, while exporting their goods to (supposedly) free markets in the US, Europe and so on. Now, though, the newly rich states are genuine competitors in higher-value production (technology, finance and so on). Therefore, the more performatively free-market states are forced to do away with their anti-statist position, and strengthen the role of state institutions in their economies. This then starts the ‘spiral’ that Alami and Dixon have identified. This analysis seems to explain ‘state capitalism’ just as well as the division of labor/fall in productivity/slow growth framework. The difference is that the latter suggests an orthodox Marxist faith in the coming crisis. For better or worse, the crisis never seems to arrive.
"
https://developingeconomics.org/2020/03 ... apitalism/
https://cssprepforum.com/the-less-contr ... -the-mind/
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The deeper meaning behind the word „state“ is really fascinating to me. State in terms of nature or quality or condition or status or even character. State is kind of a super-power-word. A person’s state defines his point of view, how he feels and looks at the world — his perception. And this is transferable to companies as well. Companies can also have good or bad views of their state. They can develop indirect perceptions. Because I am targeting people behavior more than company behavior I am adding the „mind“ to the term state. The „state of mind“ for me includes the mental, emotional and spiritual condition and combines them to a representative assembly for any human being’s situation.
YOUR STATE DEFINES THE INFLUENCE ON EVERY MOMENT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DfKY ... ure=shared
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DARPA is interested in developing new capabilities to enable national security decisionmakers to optimize strategies for deterring or incentivizing actions by adversaries. As such, the agency is is searching for new technical solutions in this space.
Actions are determined by situational awareness, ideas of risks and rewards, and overarching strategy. The goal of an upcoming program will be to develop an algorithmic theory of mind to model adversaries’ situational awareness and predict future behavior. The program will seek to combine algorithms with human expertise to explore, in a modeling and simulation environment, potential courses of action in national security scenarios with far greater breadth and efficiency than is currently possible. This would provide decisionmakers with more options for incentive frameworks while preventing unwanted escalation.. The program will seek not only to understand an actor’s current strategy but also to find a decomposed version of the strategy into relevant basis vectors to track strategy changes under non-stationary assumptions.
DARPA is issuing this Special Notice to express interest in this field as it explores an upcoming program to advance state-of-the-art in theory of mind and deterrence and compellence. Researchers and organizations that are interested in developing technologies related to this or other technologies are encouraged to learn more about working with DARPA at https://www.darpaconnect.us. DARPAConnect is a free resource established to help facilitate new and nontraditional performers to work with DARPA. This notice is not a request for information or solicitation. This information is subject to change in content, relative importance, or other meaningful ways without further notification.
"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/theory-mind- ... 15881.html
https://www.polisciconnect.com/organic-theory-of-state/
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/ ... anism.html
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/political-id ... the-state/
https://socialscienc.blogspot.com/2015/ ... e.html?m=1
"
The basic idea of the organic theory is to show that the state is, in its nature, like a biological organism or a living being and that the relation between the state and the individual is the same as between an organism and its cell. The organismic theory is essentially a biological concept which describes the phenomena of the state in biological terms.
Organic Theory
According to this theory, the state is not a mere aggregation of individuals, but an organism having parts and organs which arc related to one another in the same way as the different organs of an animal or a plant are related to one another.
The theory is as old as political thought itself. Plato compared state to 'A' and man to 'a': it is an individual magnified. He compared the rulers, warriors and working classes to wisdom, courage, and appetite of the individual respectively.
Aristotle drew a comparison between the symmetry of the state and symmetry of the body and believed that the individual is an intrinsic part of the society.
Cicero, a Roman philosopher, also makes a passing reference to this theory. He likened the head of the state to the spirit that rules the body. Hobbes compared the state to a huge, imaginary monster called the Leviathan, which is but an artificial man, of great strength and stature. According to him the state could suffer from human ailments like pleurisy, scabies and boils etc.
Rousseau, a French philosopher, too, compared the "body politic" to the "Human body", both of which he said possessed the "motive power" of "force" and "will" (the legislative power and the executive power). The former was the "heart" of the state; the latter its "brain".
Blunschli, a German philosopher, found a striking resemblance between the state and an organism. According to him the state is not a lifeless mechanism. It has life and spirit. It is not merely a collection of individuals just as an oil painting is not merely a collection of drops of oil-paint.
The state has its own personality independence as that of the individual comprising the state. Idealists described the state as a moral organism but according to Spencer the state is a living organism. He draws an elaborate analogy between the state and a living organism in the following manner:
Both state and an organism show a similar process of growth and evolution from simplicity to complexity. State in the beginning was just a tribal organization but it has developed from that primitive stage to the modern complex structure with a multiplicity of functions. An organism also exhibits similar process of growth. An embryo in the body of the mother is just a lump of flesh but slowly grows to a complete whole with various organs having variety of functions. Both grow from inside outwards. Each evolves by adjustment and response to environments. In process of growth each undergoes individualization, specialization and differentiation of both organs and functions.
Both state and organism have three main systems; a sustaining system; a distributor system; a regulating system. Sustaining system of an organism consists of digestive system by which food is digested and life of an organism is sustained. In the case of the state there is a corresponding sustaining system which consists of agriculture and indus¬tries by virtue of which the State is sustained. The distributing system in an organism consists of circulatory system by which blood is distributed to various parts of the body. In the case of the state, the distributing system consists of transport and communication. The regulating system of an organism consists of brain and nerves. Governmental and Military system constitute the regulating system in the State. There is thus a parallelism between the ways in which animal and social life is preserved.
As an organism is composed of cells, so the state is composed of individuals. In both cases, the component units contribute to the life of the whole.
An organism is constantly subjected to the process of constant wear and tear. Old and worn out cells die out and their place is taken by the fresh cells formed by the blood. In the case of social organism as well old and decrepit individuals die out and their place is taken by the newborns.
Health of an organism depends upon the health of the cells organs. In case they get diseased, the whole organism suffers. In the similar way, health of the state depends upon the moral and physical health of the individuals, and associations of individuals. In case they do not work properly the efficiency and performance of the state is bound to suffer. There is thus a complete interdependence of the parts and the whole in both cases.
Both organism and state exhibit a "similar cycle of birth, growth, decay and death. From these points of agreement, the conclusion is drawn that state is an organism and there is a lot of identity between the two. The state lives, grows and develops much as an individual does.
Conclusions:
The theory inevitably leads to the assumption that the individuals comprising the state are completely subordinated to the state just as the cells of the body depend for their life and existence on the organism. Chop off a part of the skin, it ceases to exist. This theory leads us, therefore, to the conclusion that an individual cannot exist outside the state. The theory thus hits at individual freedom and inevitably leads to the idea of the establishment of totalitarian state or fascism.
"
https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items ... kerich.pdf
https://www.politicalscienceview.com/th ... the-state/
https://www.christiancentury.org/featur ... cal-demons
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/04/3127/
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles ... d-culture/
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how- ... -election/
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/scie ... neal-asher
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -democracy
"
The YouTube clip I return to most often is David Bowie being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight in 1999. Bowie is talking about what the internet might do: “I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think that the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.”
“It’s just a tool, isn’t it?” condescends Paxman. “It’s an alien life form,” insists Bowie. “Is there life on Mars? Yes, and it’s just landed here.”
At the time of that Bowie interview I was writing a university dissertation titled Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace: the Challenge the Internet Poses to the Constitution of the United States. It was a heady time. The peak of internet utopia, with tech idealists promising that the decentralising nature of the internet would radically reform power dynamics, and democracy could be reborn.
Fast forward 25-odd years and we know the opposite has happened: truth and trust have been eroded, democracy has failed to reform for the digital age and the relationship between those in power and those who elect them is strained to breaking point. It’s at this moment that we are seeing the proliferation of generative AI, and understandably the response has been a mixture of hysteria and hope.
"
https://futuretodayinstitute.com/wp-con ... _final.pdf
"
In Steiner's spiritual philosophy, Ahriman is a spiritual entity representing forces of materialism, dry intellect, and soul-hardening. A counterpoint to the Luciferic influence, Ahriman's activity is associated with nationalism, literalism, and a focus on physical well-being. Steiner described a future incarnation of this being in the West, and the human task is to achieve inner balance by spiritualizing Ahrimanic tendencies rather than succumbing to them.
Ahriman's Nature and Influence
Materialism and Physicality: Ahriman seeks to fully embed humanity into its physical existence, fostering dull, materialistic attitudes and a coarse, dry intellect.
Nationalism and Literalism: His influence can be seen in phenomena like nationalism and literalism, which can lead to a disconnection from spiritual reality.
A Deceptive Offering: Ahriman will present himself through "cunning artifice," offering mankind earthly well-being, honor, and physical comfort to entice people into submission.
A Counterbalance to Lucifer: Ahriman and Lucifer are seen as two opposing forces that humanity must learn to balance.
The Incarnation of Ahriman
A Prophecy: Steiner spoke of Ahriman's impending physical incarnation in the Western world, to occur before a part of the third millennium had passed.
"
https://en.anthro.wiki/Ahriman
The State, it is not Ahriman but what they are calling Ahriman is the entity that I am calling The State, it is subordinate to Ahriman, who is The Super State, and this poison is one of Ahriman's weapons against certain populations, it "turns" people into evildoers and is "Godlessness", since the people become wholly devoted to Earthly Power but are constrained by various pressures, like their lifespan and a lack in the belief in anything truly except material fantasies and falsehoods that they can't really swallow as true, even if they pretend.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/ChrLuc_index.html
https://www.organism.earth/library/docu ... nd-ahriman
I'm not agreeing what what is being said in these, but it provides clues and inspiration, as it is coming from a State Drone.
https://footnotes2plato.com/2024/08/13/ ... -organism/
"
He was an undergraduate at the Vienna Institute of Technology between 1879 and 1883, where he began to encounter the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who is mostly known as a poet, though some also know him as a statesman, a member of the cabinet of Duke Carl August of Weimar. But Goethe was also a scientist.
Steiner was particularly interested in Goethe’s scientific work because it represented an alternative to the mechanistic, Newtonian form of science that Steiner was learning about at his technical college. Goethe offered an approach that allowed us to relate to nature as a living organism and thus to human society in a living way as well. After Steiner obtained his undergraduate degree, he was asked to edit Goethe’s scientific works. He worked extensively on the German national literature edition, known as the Kürschner edition, which eventually comprised five volumes by the end, with the last volume published in 1897. Steiner worked on this project for almost two decades through the 1880s and 1890s.
During this time, Steiner also edited magazines and was deeply engaged in the political questions of the day. He worked at the Goethe-Schiller Archives in Weimar in the late 1890s, having earned his doctorate in 1891. His dissertation focused on the German idealist philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who championed the concept of the “I” or the self. Steiner believed that Fichte had made contact with the core human capacity from which all freedom, imagination, and creativity spring. Fichte’s focus on the self provided a balance to Steiner’s interest in Goethe, who emphasized the natural world around us. Steiner’s task was to hold these two poles together—the Fichtean focus on the self and the Goethean focus on nature.
Steiner moved to Berlin in 1897, where he edited a literary magazine for a few years and taught at a worker’s school until 1904. In Berlin, Steiner engaged directly with the lives of the working class and accepted the socialist understanding of the plight of the workers and the injustice of capitalist class-based society. For five years, he taught workers, getting up close and personal with the rising socialist and Marxist sentiments in Europe, where workers had to sell their labor while a capitalist class owned the means of production.
During this period, in 1902, Steiner was also nominated as the General Secretary of the Theosophical Society. So while teaching workers in a Marxist or historical materialist school one day, he then lectured the next day for the Theosophical Society on the spiritual world. Steiner lived in multiple worlds at once—engaged in both the material and the spiritual realms. As the first decade of the 20th century progressed, Steiner became increasingly involved with the Theosophical Society. He hosted a conference in Munich in 1907. But he eventually found that the Society was moving in a direction that did not align with his views. Steiner was deeply inspired by the Christ impulse, not as a member of any Christian church, but because he perceived that the Christ being was central to the spiritual evolution of humanity. The Theosophical Society, on the other hand, began to focus more on Eastern spirituality.
"
European people, Westerners, maybe many others across the world, become infected by The State, something you have hopefully largely fought against, but may still be impacted by, it is similar to a virus, it enters people through all sorts of means which might not be so obvious, like through various membranes, orifices, and starts becoming the main way in which people transmit and filter information, even in one's own thinking, it is extremely difficult not to be infected and to free oneself from the infection. Steiner was fully consumed by The State, this dead thing which lives, like how they can't figure out if a virus is living or not but changes the way people seem to act and function to keep transmitting itself.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_threefolding
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_War
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In the city Mansoul, there are three esteemed men, who have lost their authority due to admitting Diabolus into the city. The mayor's understanding is hidden from the light. The recorder has become a madman, sinning at times and condemning the sin of the city. But worst of all is "Lord Willbewill," who no longer desires to serve his true Lord, but desires to serve Diabolus instead. With the fall of these three men, Mansoul will need to turn back to Shaddai of his own free will, which seems impossible. Salvation can only come if Emmanuel is victorious.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... arfare.jpg
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Some of the main places of The Holy War are listed below.[citation needed]
Mansoul: The town, built for the glory and enjoyment of Shaddai, who in its wickedness forsakes their King for Diabolus.
Eye-Gate: One of the most significant of the five gates entering into Mansoul.
Ear-Gate: Also one of the most significant gates entering into Mansoul, it is the one which is first assaulted by Diabolus.
Mouth-Gate: The Gate where proclamations are read and petitions sent.
Feel-Gate: A weakly guarded gate where Diabolus sends the Doubters to attack after Emmanuel had reclaimed the city.
Nose-Gate: The least of the five gates of Mansoul.
Hell-Gate Hill: The place where Diabolus initially flees after losing possession of Mansoul.
"
People are afflicted by The State even before they are born, while exposed to chemicals from pharmaceutical companies within the womb which then impact them their entire lives.
https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/john-buny ... tionalism/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bunyan
The State is not the people who are controlled by it, but it waits and grows within people and spreads.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus
Humans as Superorganisms: How Microbes, Viruses, Imprinted Genes, and Other Selfish Entities Shape Our Behavior
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177948/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/mi ... 58064/full
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Although it is widely taught that all modern life descended via modification from a last universal common ancestor (LUCA), this dominant paradigm is yet to provide a generally accepted explanation for the chasm in design between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Counter to this dominant paradigm, the viral eukaryogenesis (VE) hypothesis proposes that the eukaryotes originated as an emergent superorganism and thus did not evolve from LUCA via descent with incremental modification. According to the VE hypothesis, the eukaryotic nucleus descends from a viral factory, the mitochondrion descends from an enslaved alpha-proteobacteria and the cytoplasm and plasma membrane descend from an archaeal host. A virus initiated the eukaryogenesis process by colonising an archaeal host to create a virocell that had its metabolism reprogrammed to support the viral factory. Subsequently, viral processes facilitated the entry of a bacterium into the archaeal cytoplasm which was also eventually reprogrammed to support the viral factory. As the viral factory increased control of the consortium, the archaeal genome was lost, the bacterial genome was greatly reduced and the viral factory eventually evolved into the nucleus. It is proposed that the interaction between these three simple components generated a superorganism whose emergent properties allowed the evolution of eukaryotic complexity. If the radical tenets of the VE hypothesis are ultimately accepted, current biological paradigms regarding viruses, cell theory, LUCA and the universal Tree of Life (ToL) should be fundamentally altered or completely abandoned.
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"
Although the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis and the universal Tree of Life are very powerful paradigms, they are under challenge as several major tenets of the synthesis are being questioned (e.g., Doolittle, 1999; Dagan and Martin, 2006; Koonin, 2009; Koonin and Wolf, 2012). One challenge is their incompatibility with endosymbiotic processes operating at the origin of the eukaryotic domain (Koonin, 2009). Since the mitochondrion initially evolved separately from the ancestor of the eukaryotic cytoplasm, it arose via a symbiotic event (i.e., saltation) rather than an autogenous incremental process expected under the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis paradigm. An endosymbiotic mitochondrion also makes the eukaryotic cell the product of a merger of at least two separate lineages, which is incompatible with a simple bifurcating tree representing the relationship between eukaryotes and the two prokaryotic domains (Dagan and Martin, 2006). Although a symbiotic origin of chloroplasts was postulated over 100 years ago (Mereschkowsky, 1905), symbiosis ran counter to the dominant evolutionary paradigm of the day and was rejected by the scientific community (Martin et al., 2015). The theory was modernised by Margulis (1975), but in a clear demonstration of how paradigms guide our understanding of phenomena, it took several decades before symbiogenesis became the accepted paradigm for the origin of both chloroplasts and mitochondria (Gray, 1999).
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holobiont
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A holobiont is an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit through symbiosis,[2] though there is controversy over this discreteness. The components of a holobiont are individual species or bionts, while the combined genome of all bionts is the hologenome. The holobiont concept was initially introduced by the German theoretical biologist Adolf Meyer-Abich in 1943,[3] and then apparently independently by Dr. Lynn Margulis in her 1991 book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation.[2] The concept has evolved since the original formulations.[4] Holobionts include the host, virome, microbiome, and any other organisms which contribute in some way to the functioning of the whole.[5][6] Well-studied holobionts include reef-building corals and humans.[7][8]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virome
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Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, but challenges in detecting, isolating, and classifying unknown viruses have prevented exhaustive surveys of the global virome.[25] Over 5 Tb of metagenomic sequence data were used from 3,042 geographically diverse samples to assess the global distribution, phylogenetic diversity, and host specificity of viruses.[25]
In August 2016, over 125,000 partial DNA viral genomes, including the largest phage yet identified, increased the number of known viral genes by 16-fold.[25] A suite of computational methods was used to identify putative host virus connections.[25] The isolate viral host information was projected onto a group, resulting in host assignments for 2.4% of viral groups.[25]
"
"
Many viruses specialize in infecting related hosts.[25] Viral generalists that infect hosts across taxonomic orders may exist.[25] Most CRISPR spacer matches were from viral sequences to hosts within one species or genus.[25] Some mVCs were linked to multiple hosts from higher taxa. A viral group composed of macs from human oral samples contained three distinct photo-spacers with nearly exact matches to spacers in Actinobacteria and Bacillota.[25]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virosphere
https://mindmatters.ai/2021/11/neurosci ... ome-sense/
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Viruses cannot reproduce on their own, but they can invade living organisms, hijack their life systems, and multiply. In brief, they are not living but can become parasitic of the living and make a “pseudo” living while, in most instances, destroying the life that allows them to continue their ambiguous existence and promoting the manufacture and dissemination of “their” nucleic acids. And on that point, in spite of their nonliving status, we cannot deny viruses some fraction of the non-explicit variety of intelligence that animates all living organisms beginning with bacteria. Viruses carry a hidden competence that manifests itself only once they reach suitable living terrain.
Antonio Damasio, “IN THE BEGINNING WAS NOT THE WORD” at The Scientist, (November 1, 2021)
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"
And, to complicate the picture, giant viruses like Mimivirus can behave in some ways like the one-celled life forms to which both Shapiro and Damasio are prepared to credit some type of cognition. As Harvard neuropsychiatrist Jon Lieff put it a few years ago:
The Mimivirus is extremely complex and, like cells, is able to to repair it’s own DNA (see post), correct errors in reproduction, create mRNA and translate these into proteins. It has genes never before described in a virus. A major debate now occurring is whether this virus is a deteriorated cell, or a unique evolutionary organism… Viruses appear to have functions, different in nature but comparable in complexity to bacteria. If bacteria have a form of sentience, then can we really say that viruses don’t?
Jon Lief, “Virus Intelligence: Are Viruses Alive and Sentient?” at Microbes (June 18, 2012)
For what it is worth, people who study and work with viruses compare their behavior to that of insects and animals. Here area few instances from the last twenty-five years:
1998: Coronaviruses attract attention for their “intelligence:” “Researcher teases out secrets from surprisingly ‘intelligent’ viruses”:
Viruses are very intelligent. They can think. They do things that we do not expect. They adapt to the environment. They change themselves in order to survive,” said [Michael] Lai, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.” “That’s part of what got Lai interested in studying the coronavirus, which is made up of 31,000 nucleotides and has the longest known viral RNA genome. “Conventional wisdom would say that having such a large RNA genome wouldn’t work, that the virus would become defective. But coronavirus seems to have broken all the rules,” he said.”
Eva Emerson, “Researcher teases out secrets from surprisingly ‘intelligent’” at USC News (October 30, 1998)
2010: Some viral strategies are reminiscent of those of insects:
A tactic familiar from insect behaviour seems to give viruses the edge in the eternal battle between them and their host… The video catches viruses only a few hundred nanometres in size in the act of hopping over cells that are already infected. This allows them to concentrate their energies on previously uninfected cells, accelerating the spread of infection fivefold.
Jessica Hamzelou, “Viruses use ‘hive intelligence’ to focus their attack” at New Scientist(21 January 2010)
2014: Some of the adaptations that help viruses spread sound like the tricks that animals sometimes use:
In this lecture entitled ‘Viruses travel tricky routes’, recorded as part of the Science-Inspired Tales series, Dr Russell says understanding how “clever” viruses are can help us to outsmart them. Each virus has its own unique ways of spreading to new victims, he says… For example, rabies makes animals paranoid and thus more likely to bite other animals and spread the disease to new hosts,” says Dr Russell, adding that rabies-infected animals also avoid water which increases the concentration of viruses in their saliva.
Editorial Team, “Viruses Are ‘Smart’, So We Must Be Smarter” at Vaccines Today (January 7, 2014)
2021: We are told that “Adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 virus to the immune system not purely random”:
Research shows that the emergence of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 are not purely random. Rather, the virus has repair and adaptation mechanisms in its genome that can accelerate the occurrence of particularly dangerous mutations. In the light of these findings, it appears that the most effective strategies to combat the pandemic are those that aim to achieve the lowest possible incidence rates… Systems capable of solving problems with a higher rate of success than might be expected with random processes, can indeed be called ‘intelligent’, even if the virus is not actually ‘thinking’ or ‘planning’.
News, “Coronavirus: “intelligent” mutants” at Test Biotech (25 February 2021)
So… the problem-solving systems of the virus that causes COVID can be called “intelligent” even though the virus itself is not doing any thinking and there is a dispute among scientists about whether it is even alive? That points to an intelligence underlying or within nature that the viruses did not themselves create. The question should be seen in the larger context of the growing popularity of panpsychism in science — the approach that consciousness underlies and pervades the universe and that all entities share in it to some degree.
Panpsychism is not theism (the universe was created by God). At the same time, it is not materialism, which more usually seeks to show either that consciousness does not really exist or that it is merely a state of matter. The implausibility of materialism has caused many scientists to lean more toward panpsychism.
The clash between panpsychism and materialism will make for an interesting watch in years ahead.
"
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/08 ... s-systems/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/
https://iep.utm.edu/panpsych/
https://c2cjournal.ca/2022/07/when-the- ... tarianism/
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-ps ... -of-trauma
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/11 ... us-stigma/
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... ng/500774/
https://philosophynow.org/issues/121/Th ... anpsychism
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1 ... ATROCITIES
These articles might appear a little misleading, I consider every one of the people being mentioned to be deeply evil and working for the cause of evil, "The State" which is in overk*ll, pitting every possible demographic against the other, attempting to make such the norm worldwide, to solidify its total power, and "Tr*mp" is not the issue at all, this thing was before him and will be after him too, and if anything, lots of people hate him because they are told to perceive him as a delay to the desires and goals of The State. The State is not the Divine State, though it is controlled by such and is seemingly totally malign and being used as a harm and a manifestation of almost every evil and injustice.
It also operates using blackmail and predatory networks of people who are deviants and criminals.
Very soon, it is possible that every push towards increased corruption and destruction of individuals and their "innocence" will be attacked and distorted, to push everything formerly considered inhuman and vile as a norm to prove its total power over what people say, think, and must do. It is practically like Sodom and Gomorrah stuff, open PDF stuff is going to just be out in the open and practically imposed on everyone.
https://media.christendom.edu/2001/12/t ... new-world/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3825001135
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8888370/
https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir ... ligica.pdf
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/w ... o/ch01.htm
https://braveneweurope.com/the-spectre- ... am-d-dixon
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The authors define state capitalism as an expansion of the state’s role in the world economy through state-capital hybrids (such as sovereign wealth funds, state enterprises and banks embedded in states), and increasingly statist policies (including industrial and development policies and economic nationalism). They argue that this expansion of the state’s economic and political role is not contingent. It is ‘structured by deep-seated, secular transformations’ in global capitalism (15). The economy itself they understand as ‘a world-historical totality’ (13), and not just a collection of disparate institutions and states.
Alami and Dixon compare their own work to previous scholarship clearly. Business school scholarship investigates state capitalism as a form of organization and governance at the level of the firm, but rarely considers how firms relate to the state, why the state involves itself in the economy, or puts increasing state involvement in any historical context. Comparative capitalism takes states as the unit of analysis, rather than the firm, and is concerned with differences between states’ economies. This approach looks more at state intervention in economies, how the state and businesses relate to each other and the state itself. But Alami and Dixon argue that starting with the state as the unit of analysis makes it hard to ‘explain the transnational dimensions of state capitalism’ (33).
Alami and Dixon argue that these problems result from three flaws: i) the lack of a theory of the capitalist state; ii) a lack of attention to history; and iii) a lack of attention to the geographies of state capitalism. So, the American military is rarely discussed as an example of state capitalism, nor is quantitative easing, but it is hard to know what is a part of the state if not them; properly understanding what the state is can help us to avoid such blind-spots. The failure to think historically shows up in periodizations, or in Polanyian arguments that we are just seeing a swing of the pendulum away from disembedded neoliberalism towards a more socially embedded economy. Neither of these arguments can explain why the phenomena they describe are taking place now. Finally, geography often enters the study of state capitalism only at the level of the nation-state. Here again, we are not given any convincing explanation for why state capitalism seems to be expanding; instead, we are just told that such-and-such a nation-state chooses mercantilist policies, and that is why we have seen a growth in mercantilist policies. We must rather explain the global, geographical context of those policy choices.
Alami and Dixon try to overcome these problems with their ‘problématique of state capitalism.’ They argue that we should see state capitalism not as a category, but as a puzzle; that we should relate state capitalism to ‘other fundamental political economic categories’ such as the state and capital accumulation; and that we should think about state capitalism historically and geographically in terms of ‘uneven and combined state capitalist development’ (50-51). Doing so will also make state capitalism a critical concept. We can use it to show how the ‘normal’ separation of state and economy is historical and political. In short, Alami and Dixon aim to accurately describe the present; to explain how and why our global economy exists in the form that it presently does; and to make possible a critique of the present and its history.
Alami and Dixon’s theory of the state incorporates well-known Marxist approaches (55). They see individual states as necessarily capitalist. States try to make capital accumulation possible at the global level, while also trying to improve their own economic position by attracting capital to the domestic market. And they do so amid ‘changing constellations of the international division of labor’ (67). The authors argue that the uneven growth of the global economy and those changing constellations are the necessary result of global capitalist development. These non-contingent economic changes cause the institutional and political differences studied by the literature of comparative capitalisms.
Alami and Dixon use this theory of the state and the global economy to investigate a huge body of data. States have used state capitalist strategies to deal with stagnation and overcapacity, a reduction in the demand for labor, an increasing surplus labor supply and the fragmentation of organized labor (80-81). These changes have led to slow growth, low investment and a savings glut. To cope with, or profit from, these changes, states have directly intervened in the production process (as with industrial policies and development banks); engaged in financial manoeuvres to protect firms from toxic assets and debt (as with quantitative easing); stabilized their economies by, for example, holding low-risk, liquid assets offshore; and disciplined their own populations through authoritarian policies, or the populations of other states through warfare.
All of these political economic actions, then, are the result of state actors trying to deal with large scale economic change at the global level. But their actions are not isolated. Alami and Dixon show how states act on and react to each other, by copying successful strategies, supporting each other or competing to strengthen their economic positions relative to other states. This appears as a global ‘spiral’ of mutual reinforcement between states (138), which, the authors argue, will lead to continuing ‘institutional heterogeneity’ (140).
The last section of the book looks at how the discourse of ‘state capitalism’ works in geopolitics and ideology. Alami and Dixon suggest, persuasively, that it is an updated Cold War rhetoric, which removes even the suggestion that there could be an alternative to global capitalism – since what they (outside the ‘liberal West’) now practice is ‘not a competing mode of production [but] a deviant, perverted version of the very selfsame one’ (182). Putting the difference between, say, China and the US in these terms allows people in both states to imagine an existential battle over principles where there is really only a power struggle, and thus legitimate the disciplining of the domestic population along with other ‘significant domestic policy adjustments’ (191).
Alami and Dixon conclude with thoughts about the future. They argue that there has been no clean break between neoliberal policies and state capitalism. Rather, neoliberalism ‘is gradually seeking to incorporate state ownership into its mainframe’ (237). At the same time, there is little reason to believe that we will soon return to the neoliberal projects of the 1990s. Both economic and climate crises demand increased state intervention. This may have at least one unintended, beneficial effect, if ‘the capitalist economy appears in plain sight for what it is […] an irreducibly political construct that is fundamentally […] underpinned by political power and public authority in the form of the state’ (252).
Much of this is convincing, but only if the reader accepts Alami and Dixon’s analysis of economic history. They frame the global economy in terms of the division of labor, declining productivity and slow growth – a very traditional-Marxist understanding of the realm of production. But are those terms adequate to the path of the global economy over the last few decades? A reader can agree that ‘state capitalism’ needs to be explained by a materialist analysis, without accepting that this particular analysis is the right one, or the most relevant. To play devil’s advocate, we might imagine a much simpler claim: neoliberal policies have enriched previously poor areas of the globe – most obviously China, but also Vietnam, the petro-states, India and so on. Those states have played the neoliberal game very well, using their own state institutions to draw in investment and increase their productivity, while exporting their goods to (supposedly) free markets in the US, Europe and so on. Now, though, the newly rich states are genuine competitors in higher-value production (technology, finance and so on). Therefore, the more performatively free-market states are forced to do away with their anti-statist position, and strengthen the role of state institutions in their economies. This then starts the ‘spiral’ that Alami and Dixon have identified. This analysis seems to explain ‘state capitalism’ just as well as the division of labor/fall in productivity/slow growth framework. The difference is that the latter suggests an orthodox Marxist faith in the coming crisis. For better or worse, the crisis never seems to arrive.
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https://developingeconomics.org/2020/03 ... apitalism/
https://cssprepforum.com/the-less-contr ... -the-mind/
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The deeper meaning behind the word „state“ is really fascinating to me. State in terms of nature or quality or condition or status or even character. State is kind of a super-power-word. A person’s state defines his point of view, how he feels and looks at the world — his perception. And this is transferable to companies as well. Companies can also have good or bad views of their state. They can develop indirect perceptions. Because I am targeting people behavior more than company behavior I am adding the „mind“ to the term state. The „state of mind“ for me includes the mental, emotional and spiritual condition and combines them to a representative assembly for any human being’s situation.
YOUR STATE DEFINES THE INFLUENCE ON EVERY MOMENT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DfKY ... ure=shared
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DARPA is interested in developing new capabilities to enable national security decisionmakers to optimize strategies for deterring or incentivizing actions by adversaries. As such, the agency is is searching for new technical solutions in this space.
Actions are determined by situational awareness, ideas of risks and rewards, and overarching strategy. The goal of an upcoming program will be to develop an algorithmic theory of mind to model adversaries’ situational awareness and predict future behavior. The program will seek to combine algorithms with human expertise to explore, in a modeling and simulation environment, potential courses of action in national security scenarios with far greater breadth and efficiency than is currently possible. This would provide decisionmakers with more options for incentive frameworks while preventing unwanted escalation.. The program will seek not only to understand an actor’s current strategy but also to find a decomposed version of the strategy into relevant basis vectors to track strategy changes under non-stationary assumptions.
DARPA is issuing this Special Notice to express interest in this field as it explores an upcoming program to advance state-of-the-art in theory of mind and deterrence and compellence. Researchers and organizations that are interested in developing technologies related to this or other technologies are encouraged to learn more about working with DARPA at https://www.darpaconnect.us. DARPAConnect is a free resource established to help facilitate new and nontraditional performers to work with DARPA. This notice is not a request for information or solicitation. This information is subject to change in content, relative importance, or other meaningful ways without further notification.
"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/theory-mind- ... 15881.html
https://www.polisciconnect.com/organic-theory-of-state/
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/ ... anism.html
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/political-id ... the-state/
https://socialscienc.blogspot.com/2015/ ... e.html?m=1
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The basic idea of the organic theory is to show that the state is, in its nature, like a biological organism or a living being and that the relation between the state and the individual is the same as between an organism and its cell. The organismic theory is essentially a biological concept which describes the phenomena of the state in biological terms.
Organic Theory
According to this theory, the state is not a mere aggregation of individuals, but an organism having parts and organs which arc related to one another in the same way as the different organs of an animal or a plant are related to one another.
The theory is as old as political thought itself. Plato compared state to 'A' and man to 'a': it is an individual magnified. He compared the rulers, warriors and working classes to wisdom, courage, and appetite of the individual respectively.
Aristotle drew a comparison between the symmetry of the state and symmetry of the body and believed that the individual is an intrinsic part of the society.
Cicero, a Roman philosopher, also makes a passing reference to this theory. He likened the head of the state to the spirit that rules the body. Hobbes compared the state to a huge, imaginary monster called the Leviathan, which is but an artificial man, of great strength and stature. According to him the state could suffer from human ailments like pleurisy, scabies and boils etc.
Rousseau, a French philosopher, too, compared the "body politic" to the "Human body", both of which he said possessed the "motive power" of "force" and "will" (the legislative power and the executive power). The former was the "heart" of the state; the latter its "brain".
Blunschli, a German philosopher, found a striking resemblance between the state and an organism. According to him the state is not a lifeless mechanism. It has life and spirit. It is not merely a collection of individuals just as an oil painting is not merely a collection of drops of oil-paint.
The state has its own personality independence as that of the individual comprising the state. Idealists described the state as a moral organism but according to Spencer the state is a living organism. He draws an elaborate analogy between the state and a living organism in the following manner:
Both state and an organism show a similar process of growth and evolution from simplicity to complexity. State in the beginning was just a tribal organization but it has developed from that primitive stage to the modern complex structure with a multiplicity of functions. An organism also exhibits similar process of growth. An embryo in the body of the mother is just a lump of flesh but slowly grows to a complete whole with various organs having variety of functions. Both grow from inside outwards. Each evolves by adjustment and response to environments. In process of growth each undergoes individualization, specialization and differentiation of both organs and functions.
Both state and organism have three main systems; a sustaining system; a distributor system; a regulating system. Sustaining system of an organism consists of digestive system by which food is digested and life of an organism is sustained. In the case of the state there is a corresponding sustaining system which consists of agriculture and indus¬tries by virtue of which the State is sustained. The distributing system in an organism consists of circulatory system by which blood is distributed to various parts of the body. In the case of the state, the distributing system consists of transport and communication. The regulating system of an organism consists of brain and nerves. Governmental and Military system constitute the regulating system in the State. There is thus a parallelism between the ways in which animal and social life is preserved.
As an organism is composed of cells, so the state is composed of individuals. In both cases, the component units contribute to the life of the whole.
An organism is constantly subjected to the process of constant wear and tear. Old and worn out cells die out and their place is taken by the fresh cells formed by the blood. In the case of social organism as well old and decrepit individuals die out and their place is taken by the newborns.
Health of an organism depends upon the health of the cells organs. In case they get diseased, the whole organism suffers. In the similar way, health of the state depends upon the moral and physical health of the individuals, and associations of individuals. In case they do not work properly the efficiency and performance of the state is bound to suffer. There is thus a complete interdependence of the parts and the whole in both cases.
Both organism and state exhibit a "similar cycle of birth, growth, decay and death. From these points of agreement, the conclusion is drawn that state is an organism and there is a lot of identity between the two. The state lives, grows and develops much as an individual does.
Conclusions:
The theory inevitably leads to the assumption that the individuals comprising the state are completely subordinated to the state just as the cells of the body depend for their life and existence on the organism. Chop off a part of the skin, it ceases to exist. This theory leads us, therefore, to the conclusion that an individual cannot exist outside the state. The theory thus hits at individual freedom and inevitably leads to the idea of the establishment of totalitarian state or fascism.
"
https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items ... kerich.pdf
https://www.politicalscienceview.com/th ... the-state/
https://www.christiancentury.org/featur ... cal-demons
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/04/3127/
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles ... d-culture/
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how- ... -election/
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/scie ... neal-asher
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -democracy
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The YouTube clip I return to most often is David Bowie being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight in 1999. Bowie is talking about what the internet might do: “I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think that the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.”
“It’s just a tool, isn’t it?” condescends Paxman. “It’s an alien life form,” insists Bowie. “Is there life on Mars? Yes, and it’s just landed here.”
At the time of that Bowie interview I was writing a university dissertation titled Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace: the Challenge the Internet Poses to the Constitution of the United States. It was a heady time. The peak of internet utopia, with tech idealists promising that the decentralising nature of the internet would radically reform power dynamics, and democracy could be reborn.
Fast forward 25-odd years and we know the opposite has happened: truth and trust have been eroded, democracy has failed to reform for the digital age and the relationship between those in power and those who elect them is strained to breaking point. It’s at this moment that we are seeing the proliferation of generative AI, and understandably the response has been a mixture of hysteria and hope.
"
https://futuretodayinstitute.com/wp-con ... _final.pdf
"
In Steiner's spiritual philosophy, Ahriman is a spiritual entity representing forces of materialism, dry intellect, and soul-hardening. A counterpoint to the Luciferic influence, Ahriman's activity is associated with nationalism, literalism, and a focus on physical well-being. Steiner described a future incarnation of this being in the West, and the human task is to achieve inner balance by spiritualizing Ahrimanic tendencies rather than succumbing to them.
Ahriman's Nature and Influence
Materialism and Physicality: Ahriman seeks to fully embed humanity into its physical existence, fostering dull, materialistic attitudes and a coarse, dry intellect.
Nationalism and Literalism: His influence can be seen in phenomena like nationalism and literalism, which can lead to a disconnection from spiritual reality.
A Deceptive Offering: Ahriman will present himself through "cunning artifice," offering mankind earthly well-being, honor, and physical comfort to entice people into submission.
A Counterbalance to Lucifer: Ahriman and Lucifer are seen as two opposing forces that humanity must learn to balance.
The Incarnation of Ahriman
A Prophecy: Steiner spoke of Ahriman's impending physical incarnation in the Western world, to occur before a part of the third millennium had passed.
"
https://en.anthro.wiki/Ahriman
The State, it is not Ahriman but what they are calling Ahriman is the entity that I am calling The State, it is subordinate to Ahriman, who is The Super State, and this poison is one of Ahriman's weapons against certain populations, it "turns" people into evildoers and is "Godlessness", since the people become wholly devoted to Earthly Power but are constrained by various pressures, like their lifespan and a lack in the belief in anything truly except material fantasies and falsehoods that they can't really swallow as true, even if they pretend.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/ChrLuc_index.html
https://www.organism.earth/library/docu ... nd-ahriman
I'm not agreeing what what is being said in these, but it provides clues and inspiration, as it is coming from a State Drone.
https://footnotes2plato.com/2024/08/13/ ... -organism/
"
He was an undergraduate at the Vienna Institute of Technology between 1879 and 1883, where he began to encounter the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who is mostly known as a poet, though some also know him as a statesman, a member of the cabinet of Duke Carl August of Weimar. But Goethe was also a scientist.
Steiner was particularly interested in Goethe’s scientific work because it represented an alternative to the mechanistic, Newtonian form of science that Steiner was learning about at his technical college. Goethe offered an approach that allowed us to relate to nature as a living organism and thus to human society in a living way as well. After Steiner obtained his undergraduate degree, he was asked to edit Goethe’s scientific works. He worked extensively on the German national literature edition, known as the Kürschner edition, which eventually comprised five volumes by the end, with the last volume published in 1897. Steiner worked on this project for almost two decades through the 1880s and 1890s.
During this time, Steiner also edited magazines and was deeply engaged in the political questions of the day. He worked at the Goethe-Schiller Archives in Weimar in the late 1890s, having earned his doctorate in 1891. His dissertation focused on the German idealist philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who championed the concept of the “I” or the self. Steiner believed that Fichte had made contact with the core human capacity from which all freedom, imagination, and creativity spring. Fichte’s focus on the self provided a balance to Steiner’s interest in Goethe, who emphasized the natural world around us. Steiner’s task was to hold these two poles together—the Fichtean focus on the self and the Goethean focus on nature.
Steiner moved to Berlin in 1897, where he edited a literary magazine for a few years and taught at a worker’s school until 1904. In Berlin, Steiner engaged directly with the lives of the working class and accepted the socialist understanding of the plight of the workers and the injustice of capitalist class-based society. For five years, he taught workers, getting up close and personal with the rising socialist and Marxist sentiments in Europe, where workers had to sell their labor while a capitalist class owned the means of production.
During this period, in 1902, Steiner was also nominated as the General Secretary of the Theosophical Society. So while teaching workers in a Marxist or historical materialist school one day, he then lectured the next day for the Theosophical Society on the spiritual world. Steiner lived in multiple worlds at once—engaged in both the material and the spiritual realms. As the first decade of the 20th century progressed, Steiner became increasingly involved with the Theosophical Society. He hosted a conference in Munich in 1907. But he eventually found that the Society was moving in a direction that did not align with his views. Steiner was deeply inspired by the Christ impulse, not as a member of any Christian church, but because he perceived that the Christ being was central to the spiritual evolution of humanity. The Theosophical Society, on the other hand, began to focus more on Eastern spirituality.
"
European people, Westerners, maybe many others across the world, become infected by The State, something you have hopefully largely fought against, but may still be impacted by, it is similar to a virus, it enters people through all sorts of means which might not be so obvious, like through various membranes, orifices, and starts becoming the main way in which people transmit and filter information, even in one's own thinking, it is extremely difficult not to be infected and to free oneself from the infection. Steiner was fully consumed by The State, this dead thing which lives, like how they can't figure out if a virus is living or not but changes the way people seem to act and function to keep transmitting itself.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_threefolding
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_War
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In the city Mansoul, there are three esteemed men, who have lost their authority due to admitting Diabolus into the city. The mayor's understanding is hidden from the light. The recorder has become a madman, sinning at times and condemning the sin of the city. But worst of all is "Lord Willbewill," who no longer desires to serve his true Lord, but desires to serve Diabolus instead. With the fall of these three men, Mansoul will need to turn back to Shaddai of his own free will, which seems impossible. Salvation can only come if Emmanuel is victorious.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... arfare.jpg
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Some of the main places of The Holy War are listed below.[citation needed]
Mansoul: The town, built for the glory and enjoyment of Shaddai, who in its wickedness forsakes their King for Diabolus.
Eye-Gate: One of the most significant of the five gates entering into Mansoul.
Ear-Gate: Also one of the most significant gates entering into Mansoul, it is the one which is first assaulted by Diabolus.
Mouth-Gate: The Gate where proclamations are read and petitions sent.
Feel-Gate: A weakly guarded gate where Diabolus sends the Doubters to attack after Emmanuel had reclaimed the city.
Nose-Gate: The least of the five gates of Mansoul.
Hell-Gate Hill: The place where Diabolus initially flees after losing possession of Mansoul.
"
People are afflicted by The State even before they are born, while exposed to chemicals from pharmaceutical companies within the womb which then impact them their entire lives.
https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/john-buny ... tionalism/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bunyan
The State is not the people who are controlled by it, but it waits and grows within people and spreads.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus
Humans as Superorganisms: How Microbes, Viruses, Imprinted Genes, and Other Selfish Entities Shape Our Behavior
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177948/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/mi ... 58064/full
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Although it is widely taught that all modern life descended via modification from a last universal common ancestor (LUCA), this dominant paradigm is yet to provide a generally accepted explanation for the chasm in design between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Counter to this dominant paradigm, the viral eukaryogenesis (VE) hypothesis proposes that the eukaryotes originated as an emergent superorganism and thus did not evolve from LUCA via descent with incremental modification. According to the VE hypothesis, the eukaryotic nucleus descends from a viral factory, the mitochondrion descends from an enslaved alpha-proteobacteria and the cytoplasm and plasma membrane descend from an archaeal host. A virus initiated the eukaryogenesis process by colonising an archaeal host to create a virocell that had its metabolism reprogrammed to support the viral factory. Subsequently, viral processes facilitated the entry of a bacterium into the archaeal cytoplasm which was also eventually reprogrammed to support the viral factory. As the viral factory increased control of the consortium, the archaeal genome was lost, the bacterial genome was greatly reduced and the viral factory eventually evolved into the nucleus. It is proposed that the interaction between these three simple components generated a superorganism whose emergent properties allowed the evolution of eukaryotic complexity. If the radical tenets of the VE hypothesis are ultimately accepted, current biological paradigms regarding viruses, cell theory, LUCA and the universal Tree of Life (ToL) should be fundamentally altered or completely abandoned.
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Although the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis and the universal Tree of Life are very powerful paradigms, they are under challenge as several major tenets of the synthesis are being questioned (e.g., Doolittle, 1999; Dagan and Martin, 2006; Koonin, 2009; Koonin and Wolf, 2012). One challenge is their incompatibility with endosymbiotic processes operating at the origin of the eukaryotic domain (Koonin, 2009). Since the mitochondrion initially evolved separately from the ancestor of the eukaryotic cytoplasm, it arose via a symbiotic event (i.e., saltation) rather than an autogenous incremental process expected under the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis paradigm. An endosymbiotic mitochondrion also makes the eukaryotic cell the product of a merger of at least two separate lineages, which is incompatible with a simple bifurcating tree representing the relationship between eukaryotes and the two prokaryotic domains (Dagan and Martin, 2006). Although a symbiotic origin of chloroplasts was postulated over 100 years ago (Mereschkowsky, 1905), symbiosis ran counter to the dominant evolutionary paradigm of the day and was rejected by the scientific community (Martin et al., 2015). The theory was modernised by Margulis (1975), but in a clear demonstration of how paradigms guide our understanding of phenomena, it took several decades before symbiogenesis became the accepted paradigm for the origin of both chloroplasts and mitochondria (Gray, 1999).
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holobiont
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A holobiont is an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit through symbiosis,[2] though there is controversy over this discreteness. The components of a holobiont are individual species or bionts, while the combined genome of all bionts is the hologenome. The holobiont concept was initially introduced by the German theoretical biologist Adolf Meyer-Abich in 1943,[3] and then apparently independently by Dr. Lynn Margulis in her 1991 book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation.[2] The concept has evolved since the original formulations.[4] Holobionts include the host, virome, microbiome, and any other organisms which contribute in some way to the functioning of the whole.[5][6] Well-studied holobionts include reef-building corals and humans.[7][8]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virome
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Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, but challenges in detecting, isolating, and classifying unknown viruses have prevented exhaustive surveys of the global virome.[25] Over 5 Tb of metagenomic sequence data were used from 3,042 geographically diverse samples to assess the global distribution, phylogenetic diversity, and host specificity of viruses.[25]
In August 2016, over 125,000 partial DNA viral genomes, including the largest phage yet identified, increased the number of known viral genes by 16-fold.[25] A suite of computational methods was used to identify putative host virus connections.[25] The isolate viral host information was projected onto a group, resulting in host assignments for 2.4% of viral groups.[25]
"
"
Many viruses specialize in infecting related hosts.[25] Viral generalists that infect hosts across taxonomic orders may exist.[25] Most CRISPR spacer matches were from viral sequences to hosts within one species or genus.[25] Some mVCs were linked to multiple hosts from higher taxa. A viral group composed of macs from human oral samples contained three distinct photo-spacers with nearly exact matches to spacers in Actinobacteria and Bacillota.[25]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virosphere
https://mindmatters.ai/2021/11/neurosci ... ome-sense/
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Viruses cannot reproduce on their own, but they can invade living organisms, hijack their life systems, and multiply. In brief, they are not living but can become parasitic of the living and make a “pseudo” living while, in most instances, destroying the life that allows them to continue their ambiguous existence and promoting the manufacture and dissemination of “their” nucleic acids. And on that point, in spite of their nonliving status, we cannot deny viruses some fraction of the non-explicit variety of intelligence that animates all living organisms beginning with bacteria. Viruses carry a hidden competence that manifests itself only once they reach suitable living terrain.
Antonio Damasio, “IN THE BEGINNING WAS NOT THE WORD” at The Scientist, (November 1, 2021)
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And, to complicate the picture, giant viruses like Mimivirus can behave in some ways like the one-celled life forms to which both Shapiro and Damasio are prepared to credit some type of cognition. As Harvard neuropsychiatrist Jon Lieff put it a few years ago:
The Mimivirus is extremely complex and, like cells, is able to to repair it’s own DNA (see post), correct errors in reproduction, create mRNA and translate these into proteins. It has genes never before described in a virus. A major debate now occurring is whether this virus is a deteriorated cell, or a unique evolutionary organism… Viruses appear to have functions, different in nature but comparable in complexity to bacteria. If bacteria have a form of sentience, then can we really say that viruses don’t?
Jon Lief, “Virus Intelligence: Are Viruses Alive and Sentient?” at Microbes (June 18, 2012)
For what it is worth, people who study and work with viruses compare their behavior to that of insects and animals. Here area few instances from the last twenty-five years:
1998: Coronaviruses attract attention for their “intelligence:” “Researcher teases out secrets from surprisingly ‘intelligent’ viruses”:
Viruses are very intelligent. They can think. They do things that we do not expect. They adapt to the environment. They change themselves in order to survive,” said [Michael] Lai, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.” “That’s part of what got Lai interested in studying the coronavirus, which is made up of 31,000 nucleotides and has the longest known viral RNA genome. “Conventional wisdom would say that having such a large RNA genome wouldn’t work, that the virus would become defective. But coronavirus seems to have broken all the rules,” he said.”
Eva Emerson, “Researcher teases out secrets from surprisingly ‘intelligent’” at USC News (October 30, 1998)
2010: Some viral strategies are reminiscent of those of insects:
A tactic familiar from insect behaviour seems to give viruses the edge in the eternal battle between them and their host… The video catches viruses only a few hundred nanometres in size in the act of hopping over cells that are already infected. This allows them to concentrate their energies on previously uninfected cells, accelerating the spread of infection fivefold.
Jessica Hamzelou, “Viruses use ‘hive intelligence’ to focus their attack” at New Scientist(21 January 2010)
2014: Some of the adaptations that help viruses spread sound like the tricks that animals sometimes use:
In this lecture entitled ‘Viruses travel tricky routes’, recorded as part of the Science-Inspired Tales series, Dr Russell says understanding how “clever” viruses are can help us to outsmart them. Each virus has its own unique ways of spreading to new victims, he says… For example, rabies makes animals paranoid and thus more likely to bite other animals and spread the disease to new hosts,” says Dr Russell, adding that rabies-infected animals also avoid water which increases the concentration of viruses in their saliva.
Editorial Team, “Viruses Are ‘Smart’, So We Must Be Smarter” at Vaccines Today (January 7, 2014)
2021: We are told that “Adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 virus to the immune system not purely random”:
Research shows that the emergence of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 are not purely random. Rather, the virus has repair and adaptation mechanisms in its genome that can accelerate the occurrence of particularly dangerous mutations. In the light of these findings, it appears that the most effective strategies to combat the pandemic are those that aim to achieve the lowest possible incidence rates… Systems capable of solving problems with a higher rate of success than might be expected with random processes, can indeed be called ‘intelligent’, even if the virus is not actually ‘thinking’ or ‘planning’.
News, “Coronavirus: “intelligent” mutants” at Test Biotech (25 February 2021)
So… the problem-solving systems of the virus that causes COVID can be called “intelligent” even though the virus itself is not doing any thinking and there is a dispute among scientists about whether it is even alive? That points to an intelligence underlying or within nature that the viruses did not themselves create. The question should be seen in the larger context of the growing popularity of panpsychism in science — the approach that consciousness underlies and pervades the universe and that all entities share in it to some degree.
Panpsychism is not theism (the universe was created by God). At the same time, it is not materialism, which more usually seeks to show either that consciousness does not really exist or that it is merely a state of matter. The implausibility of materialism has caused many scientists to lean more toward panpsychism.
The clash between panpsychism and materialism will make for an interesting watch in years ahead.
"
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/08 ... s-systems/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/
https://iep.utm.edu/panpsych/
https://c2cjournal.ca/2022/07/when-the- ... tarianism/
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-ps ... -of-trauma
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/11 ... us-stigma/
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... ng/500774/
https://philosophynow.org/issues/121/Th ... anpsychism
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kFoyauextlH
- Posts: 950
- Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2025 3:53 pm
Re: Takhisis: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takhisis
"
Takhisis was responsible for the corruption of the chromatic dragons, and appeared in one form as a dragon with heads the colors of blue, black, white, red, and green. Takhisis is also referred to as Dragon Queen (among elves), Nilat the Corrupter (among the barbarians of the plains), Tamex, the False Metal (among dwarves), Mai-tat, She of Many Faces (among the people of Ergoth), Queen of Many Colors and None (among the Knights of Solamnia), the Dark Queen, Erestem, Tii'Mhut, Lady Chaos, Mwarg, the One God, the Dark Warrior, and Shadow Sorcerer. Jeff Grubb believes that she is Tiamat,[1] Goddess (or Queen) of evil dragons in many other Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. However, the two are separate entities according to Dragonlance creator, Tracy Hickman[2] and others.[3] The 4th Edition Draconomicon books confirm that Takhisis is Tiamat in fourth edition.[citation needed] This is confirmed again in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide.[4]
Takhisis most often takes the form of a five-headed dragon; each head is represented by the color of one of the evil dragons (red, blue, green, black, and white).[2][5] She also often uses the form of a beautiful temptress, said to be so lovely that no man can resist her. Additionally, she has another form known as the Dark Warrior.
Within the Dragonlance universe, Takhisis is the most ambitious of the gods, frequently making plans to upset the balance and take over the world for herself. In Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, for example, Takhisis attempts to take control of all magic.[7] After being driven back by Huma Dragonbane in the Third Dragon War and sealed from the world, she bides her time in the Abyss, always looking for new ways into the world. This brings about the War of the Lance, where the dark goddess is ultimately thwarted by the Heroes of the Lance,[8] and subsequently contributes to the Chaos War and the War of Souls.
Raistlin Majere attempts to destroy Takhisis and assume her role as head god of evil. He succeeds in one timeline, but destroys the world of Krynn in the ensuing magical battle. His brother Caramon, with the aid of a time-travelling device, dissuades him from this path
After the Chaos War, Takhisis steals the world from the rest of the gods and becomes the "One God" of the world. When the rest of the gods return to Krynn, they realize that Takhisis has gone too far. Although Sargonnas has generally been loyal to her, the actions leading up to her being made mortal lead Sargonnas to declare she has gone too far and to support the decision.
Takhisis is key to the Dragonlance world creation myth as the primordial source of evil. This central role is crucial to how creation myths are presented.[10]
In the neo-pagan press, a series of books published by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, looks at Takhisis in the Dragonlance world and compares her to the Babylonian and Dungeons & Dragons version of Tiamat. The book is written as a school book for young wizards and witches of the neo-pagan sort. Takhisis is described for her role in the wars of good vs. evil.[5]
This ultimate source of the theme of evil is discussed again in a presentation by Dr. Stefan Ekman of Lund University in Sweden. Dr. Ekman compares Takhisis and other fantasy "dark lords," such as Lord Foul and Sauron, to the biblical Satan. In particular he states, "Even though not all of the Dark Lords above signify the ultimate source of evil, Lord Foul, the Dark One, and Takhisis certainly do. And all of them are ultimately actants, characters whose raison d’être is to provide the final threat".[11]
This theme of good versus evil, and humans versus gods, is expanded in Dragonlance, a Shared World of Fantasy Fiction and Role-Playing Games. The central focus of this thesis is the struggle of the human characters versus Takhisis. This struggle is compared with the human, or at least mortal, heroes of the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.[12]
Tiamat, in her Dragonlance/Krynn incarnation is also the subject of in the Dragon Gods and Evil dragons sections of the Practical Guide to Dragons. She is discussed in universe style with sidebars detailing her real-world publishing significance.[13] This is continued in the follow-up series The Dragon Codices, in which Takhisis is the main, if somewhat hidden, antagonist.[14]
"
https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Takhisis
https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Dragonarmy
https://www.victorshammas.com/s/Shammas ... as-God.pdf
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/06/08/ ... comes-god/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10. ... 9.11750509
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welltail
•
4y ago
„Es ist der Gang Gottes in der Welt, daß der Staat ist, sein Grund ist die Gewalt der sich als Wille verwirklichenden Vernunft." The mysticism is actually created by a sloppy translation in this case - the sentence merely states that the state exists by necessity, i.e. that the state is a rational form of self-organization and as such has reasonable grounds. It is not entirely unlike Hegel to use God as a metaphor for the absolute aspect of reason. But as the comment before mine indicates, a lot of ink has been spilt over these lines by people who haven't or couldn't have read the German...
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yelbesed
•
4y ago
Well. * the being of the bone is Spirit*. All we know a words. Geist. So of course the State too.
"
https://journals.uio.no/JEA/article/download/6601/5825
https://files.libcom.org/files/Bakunin% ... 0State.pdf
https://faithequip.org/the-state-god/
https://www.marxists.org/reference/arch ... /index.htm
https://mises.org/mises-daily/hegel-state-gods-will
"
On Hegel’s worship of the state, Popper cites chilling and revealing passages:
The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth … We must therefore worship the State as the manifestation of the Divine on earth … The State is the march of God through the world … The State must be comprehended as an organism … To the complete State belongs, essentially, consciousness and thought. The State knows what it wills … The State … exists for its own sake … The State is the actually existing, realized moral life.7
All this rant is well characterized by Popper as “bombastic and hysterical Platonism.”
Much of this was inspired by Hegel’s friends and immediate philosophical predecessors, men like the later Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, Schiller, Herder, and Schleiermacher. But it was Hegel’s particular task to turn his murky doctrines to the job of weaving apologetics for the absolute power of the extant Prussian state. Thus Hegel’s admiring disciple, F.J.C. Schwegler, revealed the following in his History of Philosophy:
The fullness of his [Hegel’s] fame and activity, however, properly dates only from his call to Berlin in 1818. Here there rose up around him a numerous, widely extended, and … exceedingly active school; here too, he acquired, from his connections with the Prussian bureaucracy, political recognition of his system as the official philosophy; not always to the advantage of the inner freedom of his philosophy, or of its moral worth.8
With Prussia as the central focus, Hegelianism was able to sweep German philosophy during the 19th century, dominating in all but the Catholic areas of southern Germany and Austria. As Popper put it, “having thus become a tremendous success on the continent, Hegelianism could hardly fail to obtain support in Britain from those who [felt] that such a powerful movement must after all have something to offer … “ Indeed, the man who first introduced Hegel to English readers, Dr J. Hutchinson Stirling, admiringly remarked, the year after Prussia’s lightning victory over Austria, “Is it not indeed to Hegel, and especially his philosophy of ethics and politics, that Prussia owes that mighty life and organization she is now rapidly developing?”9 Finally Hegel’s contemporary and acquaintance, Arthur Schopenhauer, denounced the state-philosophy alliance that drove Hegelianism into becoming a powerful force in social thought:
Philosophy is misused, from the side of the state as a tool, from the other side as a means of gain.… Who can really believe that truth also will thereby come to light, just as a byproduct?… Governments made of philosophy a means of serving their state interests, and scholars made of it a trade. (emphasis Schopenhauer’s)10
In addition to the political influence, Popper offers a complementary explanation for the otherwise puzzling widespread influence of G.W.F. Hegel: the attraction of philosophers to high-sounding jargon and gibberish almost for its own sake, followed by the gullibility of a credulous public. Thus Popper cites a statement by the English Hegelian Stirling: “The philosophy of Hegel, then, was … a scrutiny of thought so profound that it was for the most part unintelligible.” Profound for its very unintelligibility! Lack of clarity as virtue and proof of profundity! Popper adds,
philosophers have kept around themselves, even in our day, something of the atmosphere of the magician. Philosophy is considered a strange and abstruse kind of thing, dealing with those things with which religion deals, but not in a way which can be “revealed unto babes” or to common people; it is considered to be too profound for that, and to be the religion and the theology of the intellectuals, of the learned and wise. Hegelianism fits these views admirably; it is exactly what this popular superstition supposes philosophy to be.11
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The State has taken the place of God; that is why, seen from this angle, the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship. But the religious function cannot be dislocated and falsified in this way without giving rise to secret doubts, which are immediately repressed so as to avoid conflict with the prevailing trend towards mass-mindedness. The result, as always in such cases, is overcompensation in the form of fanaticism, which in its turn is used as a weapon for stamping out the least flicker of opposition. Free opinion is stifled and moral decision ruthlessly suppressed, on the plea that the end justifies the means, even the vilest. The policy of the State is exalted to a creed, the leader or party boss becomes a demigod beyond good and evil, and his votaries are honored as heroes, martyrs, apostles, missionaries. There is only one truth and beside it no other. It is sacrosanct and above criticism. Anyone who thinks differently is a heretic, who, as we know from history, is threatened with all manner of unpleasant things. Only the party boss, who holds the political power in his hands, can interpret the State doctrine authentically, and he does so just as suits him.
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The Undiscovered Self: The Problem of the Individual in Modern Society by Carl Jung
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/ ... icks1.html
https://traversingtradition.com/2018/08 ... te-as-god/
https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/sta ... na-crisis/
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/ ... devil.html
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The Bible offers two slightly different accounts of King David's census: 2 Samuel 24:1 says God incited David, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 says Satan incited him. This apparent contradiction is often explained by the theological concept that God, in His sovereignty, allowed Satan to tempt David for His own purposes, such as to discipline and teach a lesson about pride and self-reliance, which was the underlying sin in the census itself. The act of counting people was a sin because it demonstrated David's pride and his reliance on military strength rather than on God.
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https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/davids-census
https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/ ... great-sin/
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A census was preliminary to a draft of soldiers and a levying of taxes.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigouvian_tax
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_efficiency
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_economics
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-being
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_interest
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_paradox
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contradiction
"
In social choice theory, Condorcet's voting paradox is a fundamental discovery by the Marquis de Condorcet that majority rule is inherently self-contradictory. The result implies that it is logically impossible for any voting system to guarantee that a winner will have support from a majority of voters; for example, there can be rock-paper-scissors scenarios where a majority of voters will prefer A to B, B to C, and also C to A, even if every voter's individual preferences are rational and avoid self-contradiction. Examples of Condorcet's paradox are called Condorcet cycles or cyclic ties.
In such a cycle, every possible choice is rejected by the electorate in favor of another alternative, who is preferred by more than half of all voters. Thus, any attempt to ground social decision-making in majoritarianism must accept such self-contradictions (commonly called spoiler effects). Systems that attempt to do so, while minimizing the rate of such self-contradictions, are called Condorcet methods.
Condorcet's paradox is a special case of Arrow's paradox, which shows that any kind of social decision-making process is either self-contradictory, a dictatorship, or incorporates information about the strength of different voters' preferences (e.g. cardinal utility or rated voting).
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_standoff
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When a Condorcet method is used to determine an election, the voting paradox of cyclical societal preferences implies that the election has no Condorcet winner: no candidate who can win a one-on-one election against each other candidate. There will still be a smallest group of candidates, known as the Smith set, such that each candidate in the group can win a one-on-one election against each of the candidates outside the group. The several variants of the Condorcet method differ on how they resolve such ambiguities when they arise to determine a winner.[18] The Condorcet methods which always elect someone from the Smith set when there is no Condorcet winner are known as Smith-efficient. Note that using only rankings, there is no fair and deterministic resolution to the trivial example given earlier because each candidate is in an exactly symmetrical situation.
Situations having the voting paradox can cause voting mechanisms to violate the axiom of independence of irrelevant alternatives—the choice of winner by a voting mechanism could be influenced by whether or not a losing candidate is available to be voted for.
Two-stage voting processes
edit
One important implication of the possible existence of the voting paradox in a practical situation is that in a paired voting process like those of standard parliamentary procedure, the eventual winner will depend on the way the majority votes are ordered. For example, say a popular bill is set to pass, before some other group offers an amendment; this amendment passes by majority vote. This may result in a majority of a legislature rejecting the bill as a whole, thus creating a paradox (where a popular amendment to a popular bill has made it unpopular). This logical inconsistency is the origin of the poison pill amendment, which deliberately engineers a false Condorcet cycle to kill a bill. Likewise, the order of votes in a legislature can be manipulated by the person arranging them to ensure their preferred outcome wins.
Despite frequent objections by social choice theorists about the logically incoherent results of such procedures, and the existence of better alternatives for choosing between multiple versions of a bill, the procedure of pairwise majority-rule is widely-used and is codified into the by-laws or parliamentary procedures of almost every kind of deliberative assembly.
Spoiler effects
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Condorcet paradoxes imply that majoritarian methods fail independence of irrelevant alternatives. Label the three candidates in a race Rock, Paper, and Scissors. In one-on-one races, Rock loses to Paper, Paper loses to Scissors, and Scissors loses to Rock.
Without loss of generality, say that Rock wins the election with a certain method. Then, Scissors is a spoiler candidate for Paper; if Scissors were to drop out, Paper would win the only one-on-one race (Paper defeats Rock). The same reasoning applies regardless of the winner.
This example also shows why Condorcet elections are rarely (if ever) spoiled; spoilers can only happen when there is no Condorcet winner. Condorcet cycles are rare in large elections,[19][20] and the median voter theorem shows that cycles are impossible whenever candidates are arrayed on a left-right spectrum.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_set
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The Smith criterion is a voting system criterion that formalizes a stronger idea of majority rule than the Condorcet criterion. A voting system satisfies the Smith criterion if it always picks a candidate from the Smith set.
Though less common, the term Smith-efficient has also been used for methods that elect from the Smith set.[3]
Here is an example of an electorate in which there is no Condorcet winner: There are four candidates: A, B, C and D. 40% of the voters rank D>A>B>C. 35% of the voters rank B>C>A>D. 25% of the voters rank C>A>B>D. The Smith set is {A,B,C}. All three candidates in the Smith set are majority-preferred over D (since 60% rank each of them over D). The Smith set is not {A,B,C,D} because the definition calls for the smallest subset that meets the other conditions. The Smith set is not {B,C} because B is not majority-preferred over A; 65% rank A over B. (Etc.)
In this example, under minimax, A and D tie; under Smith//Minimax, A wins.
In the example above, the three candidates in the Smith set are in a "rock/paper/scissors" majority cycle: A is ranked over B by a 65% majority, B is ranked over C by a 75% majority, and C is ranked over A by a 60% majority.
Other criteria
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Any election method that complies with the Smith criterion also complies with the Condorcet winner criterion, since if there is a Condorcet winner, then it is the only candidate in the Smith set. Smith methods also comply with the Condorcet loser criterion, because a Condorcet loser will never fall in the Smith set. It also implies the mutual majority criterion, since the Smith set is a subset of the MMC set.[2] Conversely, any method that fails any of those three majoritarian criteria (Mutual majority, Condorcet loser or Condorcet winner) will also fail the Smith criterion.
Complying methods
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The Smith criterion is satisfied by ranked pairs, Schulze's method, Nanson's method, and several other methods. Moreover, any voting method can be modified to satisfy the Smith criterion, by finding the Smith set and eliminating any candidates outside of it.
For example, the voting method Smith//Minimax applies Minimax to the candidates in the Smith set. Another example is the Tideman alternative method, which alternates between eliminating candidates outside of the Smith set, and eliminating the candidate who was the plurality loser (similar to instant-runoff), until a Condorcet winner is found. A different approach is to elect the member of the Smith set that is highest in the voting method's order of finish.
Methods failing the Condorcet criterion also fail the Smith criterion. However, some Condorcet methods (such as Minimax) can fail the Smith criterion.
"
Meanwhile:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
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Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage[1] and eventually, death. The term inanition[2] refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation by outside forces is a crime according to international criminal law and may also be used as a means of torture or execution.
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3505000780
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolescence
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Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in a biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when compared with the corresponding part of other organisms.[1][2] The international standard IEC 62402:2019 Obsolescence Management defines obsolescence as the "transition from available to unavailable from the manufacturer in accordance with the original specification".[3]
Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that has, in sum, more advantages compared to the disadvantages incurred by maintaining or repairing the original. Obsolete also refers to something that is already disused or discarded, or antiquated.[4] Typically, obsolescence is preceded by a gradual decline in popularity.
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Out ... man_Beings
The State does not require large amounts of people except for keeping itself alive in that form and less at risk of having nothing to build up in again as easily. The people more consumed by any tricks it puts out to control people, like fighting and winning for their preferred identity group or word of preference, like a digital costume in a computer game in their mind, the more they are willing to see things through like exterminations because The State is unaffected by such things, they become possessed by Death, which is apathetic, senseless, it is numb and separated from the visceral suffering. The State also tries to secure the brains it lives in most to never feel much physically, to the point of becoming physically numb and sedated.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataraxia
Added in 33 minutes 4 seconds:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_flayer
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Mind flayers had utterly alien thought processes and enigmatic objectives.[14] They saw themselves as masterminds that twisted others into serving their own sinister and far-reaching schemes.[1][16] While some individuals could show extreme variance in mindset, the majority shared many common beliefs and precepts.[21]
Illithids were megalomaniacal in the extreme, tyrants driven by an immense ambition[16] and intrinsically ruled by an overwhelming sense of self-importance.[22] The mind flayers sought nothing less than world domination,[16] knew their destiny was mastery over the universe,[22] and the ultimate prize they yearned for was complete dominion over all the planes of existence, with the power to reshape reality and all within it to fit their otherworldly designs.[16] However, mind flayers did not believe themselves to be horrifying monsters.[21]
In the minds of the illithids, their kind acted as agents of "Order", forces of law tasked with taming a chaotic and unguided universe. They saw the various races in its confines as potential thralls with no supervision, living out aimless existences and working with no direction. In this role as multiversal caretakers, the mind flayers constantly worked for what they saw as the betterment of the cosmos, asserting their ultimate control to provide the restoration of order that only their superior species could bestow to all the multiverse.[21][23]
The mind flayers strongly believed in their manifest destiny, and viewed the task of bringing the multiverse to heel as one of great importance. The illithids instructed all who questioned this view to look at the biological facts, how they stood at the top of the food chain and how all others naturally fell beneath them.[23] While the illithids recognized that other creatures resisted their control, they perceived this as a natural result of reality's current state, the unknowing thralls within not knowing any better than to fight their masters.[24]
Oh, most delicious morsel, perceive my appreciation of your unique gifts: Your brow―exquisite in its simple symmetry―is shapely, hinting at the delicacies contained therein. It is merely the wrapping, a fragile package concealing tangy treasure. Snuggled close, warm and moist beneath pale bone, fatty coils of succulent gray meat quiver to be plucked, to be exposed for the appreciation of all, before inevitable, ardent consumption… Ah, that hits the spot.
A mental quote from a mind flayer.[25]
Utterly arrogant, mind flayers were elitists who believed all creatures to be inferior to themselves, livestock fit to fulfill only three purposes: to die as their food, work as their slaves, or serve as vessels for more of their kind.[6][16] Even so, the mind flayers did feel a sense of gratitude towards lesser beings. In truth, they truly appreciated the "gifts" of those they feasted upon, and sincerely felt that they were giving their livestock a gift of their own when they consumed their brains.[21]
The illithids had to dominate not only to achieve their goals, but to fulfill certain basic needs of their own. Without a mind to control, a mind flayer would feel incomplete. They actually had an intimate relationship with their own thralls, suffering when they died (whether by sickness, age, or physical harm) and sometimes going mad from loneliness without their constant companionship. Illithids were known to postpone their other goals just to renew an emptied retinue of thralls[23] and every illithid had at least one personal thrall. When they found one they favored, illithids would go out of their way not to eat personal thralls in bouts of hunger or anger, and might even grant them toys and trinkets to occupy themselves with when not working.[26]
Individuality
While almost every illithid sought the dominion of their race, each was an incredibly intelligent, individual entity with different ideas on how to make that happen.[2][27] Some would do so with military might, creating grand thrall armies to conquer the world, while others sought to use their psionics to create powerful magic items to use in their quest. Their intentions in given situations could seem bizarre, sometimes to the point of being incomprehensible, but almost every action taken was meant, in some way, to help them achieve their racial supremacy.[27]
Despite their emphasis on order, mind flayers were actually incredibly competitive, as well as individualistic, to the point where they seemed hesitant to work as a team. However, while competitiveness was common, this personal desire for success served to enhance the group overall. Each mind flayer recognized that, in order to contribute to their collective intelligence, every member of the community had to obtain as much wisdom and experience as possible. When the individual failed, the community would put aside their ambitions for the greater "good".[21][28]
A mind flayer's natural desire to compete, combined with their high levels of intelligence, meant that they were incredibly innovative beings able to come up with unique solutions to their problems. Whether using psionics, alchemy, magic, mundane technology, or some combination of the four, they were creatures of immense creativity and cunning constantly spurred on to reach new heights of individual achievement.[28][29]
Knowledge
Being as intelligent as they are, endowed with psionic powers, and as physically weak as they are, the illithids believe that the mind is everything and all-important... They consume that which is important to them.
A githyanki on the mind flayers.[10]
Most illithids understood that knowledge equaled power,[8] basing their existence on vast volumes of shared information,[30] and so the mind flayers sought to expand their knowledge in all fields.[22] They used varied methods to obtain information, always sourcing, verifying, and cross-checking acquired knowledge, for they understood better than any how personal perception and interpretation could twist the truth.[31]
In their thirst for knowledge, illithids bargained, collected, interrogated, spied, stole, and plundered, obtaining their information from abandoned crypts, enemy storehouses, captive minds, wandering traders, and unwitting pawns. Through these activities they collected arcane secrets, forgotten lore, recent news, supernatural discoveries, and items of power.[16][31][32] Different illithids placed varying values on certain pieces of information; some believed that there was nothing to be learned from lesser beings, while others thought that all information was valuable.[2]
Illithids had a unique understanding of time in that they only believed that the present mattered. The past was an environment for the eidetic elder brain, a living record who shifted through a colony's collective memory for information relevant to current circumstance. This disregard for the past could become a circular issue; illithids did not care for the past, and so kept no written historical records of their empires or communities, and their lack of hard records made them more indifferent towards the past.[23]
Illithids also had a different concept of the "future" viewing it simply as an inevitable but unrealized part of the present.[23] However, illithids did not believe the future (and therefore their destiny) was set in stone. For example, they recognized that it was possible for their race to die out, which would alter the future, and so complacency was not an option. Only by collecting more knowledge could the illithids accurately predict the future, and thus fulfill their destiny.[22]
Emotions
To non-illithids, mind flayers seemed calm and collected at almost all times, dispassionate and seemingly emotionless outside of their constant desire to dominate others.[23][33] They dismissed basal emotions like pride as fatal flaws and founded themselves on a pragmatic outlook.[30] While they might occasionally seem furious, it was difficult to discern if this was actual feeling or a ruse to manipulate others. Theories on this ranged from the belief that the mind flayers had no emotions, very few, or extreme levels of self-control, but all of these were incorrect. In truth, illithids had a whole spectrum of emotions and felt them intensely,[23][33] sometimes even behaving irrationally because of them,[30] but these feelings were almost entirely internalized and not evident even during moments of raging inner turmoil.[33]
Mind flayer conclave
Mind flayer conclave.
However, while mind flayers did indeed have a range of emotions, these emotions were almost entirely negative. They felt anger and hate when foiled and stymied in their ascent to sovereignty,[23][33] fear when faced with hostile minds they could not control, shame when incapable of controlling minds,[23][24] envy towards vast knowledge that was not their own,[22] abhorrence towards a wasteful use of thralls,[34] disgust for those that would engage with lesser beings on an equal basis, and sadness when a compatriot died far from home. These emotions, and related feelings such as anxiety and contempt, made up most of an illithid's emotional repertoire.[23][33]
The most commonly experienced illithid emotion was frustration, discontentment rooted in the fact that they had not yet achieved dominion, and this dissatisfaction was a subtle, undercurrent that constantly defined them and colored their other emotions and thoughts.[23] The same principle of underlying negativity could be found in the illithids overall; mind flayers had no sense of true happiness, and so did not plan to become happy.[33]
The closest most illithids came to being happy was the delight of consuming a brain, but even then the act had such sadistic overtones that it still wouldn't be "happiness" as normally defined. A mind flayer's highest emotional state was that of self-satisfaction, whether that be from a personal sense of pride or the satiation of their curiosity, and it was this that motivated their behavior.[33] They sought to live in luxury, to feast on the minds of well-bred thralls and master their psionic birthright.[27] Love, or even friendship outside of acquaintances, was almost unheard of, for they had supernatural means of filling these emotional voids.[35]
Morality
Overall, the illithids were cold and calculating creatures[32] rarely matched in cruelty and wholly evil.[4][14] They were known to inflict pain on captives purely for amusement and force others to participate in various gladiatorial games.[6] If an illithid ever treated a member of another race as an equal, it was in all likelihood feigning friendship for its own purposes. They might behave respectfully (though never deferentially) when it suited them, but each had the instinctive knowledge that the other party would serve better as a thrall at best or meal at worst,[22][25] and chances were that by the time an alliance was formed they had already decided how and when to betray the new partner.[16]
Furthermore, a major factor holding back the mind flayers and blocking their attempts at world domination were their own inherent, self-serving attitudes.[27] Few illithids truly perceived anything, whether cause or companion, worth dying over,[32] and they would rarely put their own lives at risk. Each illithid viewed its own life as supremely important and invaluable,[16] and the most minor setbacks were often enough to drive the unreliable aberrations to retreat in the interest of self-preservation.[27][32]
Despite the myriad of inherent desires and inclinations that would prevent such a thing, (their dietary requirements if nothing else) it was possible for mind flayers to move away from evil. Most were simply incapable of true good, but on occasion, it was possible for an exceptional individual to change their ways to become morally neutral, and in extreme cases, good.[32] Some were known to question the necessity of dominating the weak and devouring brains,[36] but those in a community who would deny the maxim of dominion were quickly rooted out and would be killed if discovered.[23]
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Furthermore, these beings were not worshiped in the same sense other races knew it.[8][22] Rather than the orthodox way, mind flayers revered two beings as manifestations of idealized mental states, both psionic and philosophical, doing so in a form resembling worship, including meditating and performing certain physical actions to help them achieve the desired attitudes.[2][49] When it came to true worship however, mind flayers were simply incapable, for while they might revere deities (perhaps because they believed they were worthy of worship or even just for personal gain) their innate egos prevented them from going beyond this.[8][22]
The broader entity was known as Ilsensine, which embodied a mastery of one's own mind and a union with universal knowledge. Mind flayer colonies interpreted this concept in different ways.[2] Some viewed it as a promise of power and domination to its followers, a feature that was also attractive to non-illithid followers.[49] Others interpreted these objectives as attainable through dominance or replacement of the deities associated with knowledge.[2]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ilsensine
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Ilsensine (meaning "great brain" or "powerful brain" in Undercommon)[15][3][note 1] was the patron deity and creator of the illithids,[2] and the Tentacled Lord embodied their ideals of mental prowess, unlimited knowledge, and willful dominion over all other lifeforms.[11] Although predominantly focused on mind flayers, the God-Brain was the patron of all beings that enslaved the thoughts of others.[9]
Ilsensine was known as such by the sages and scholars of most races, but illithids identified them differently. Rather than a name, telepathically communicating mind flayers used a series of visual images and symbolic denotations to represent it.[16] A psionic inflection used to mark Oryndoll as a holy place of Ilsensine was enough to cause fear in those minds the name was projected into.[17]
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A being of the mind and spirit, Ilsensine lacked any physical body, instead incarnating as a cohesive thought.
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Alien and elusive,[22] Ilsensine's thoughts were a relentless tide of dark deceptions and unimaginable deviancy. According to elven myths, before the creation of mortal beings, it surpassed all its divine peers in subversive intent, always striving to undo what others accomplish and defy established convention, and even loosing the mind flayers to act as a counter-creation after mortals came into existence.[13] It was a cold and calculating being[11] of practically limitless knowledge, and its philosophies mirrored that of the illithids, holding information as the greatest commodity, darkness the greatest illumination, and the mind the greatest strength.[19]
Another dominating facet of Ilsensine's unending thoughts was megalomania[5] for its motivation was the supremacy of the greatest race in its mind; its own illithid creations. Of all those that it knew of, it judged them the most worthy mortals, and sought for them to conquer all planes. Its thoughts unceasingly insisted that they were meant to rule all reality, enslaving, using and consuming the rampant "cattle", and enjoying the conquest as they did so.[13][5][9][14][19] This was to be done through mental domination, superior knowledge, and the expression will and force of mind that was magic.[14]
Despite its many strengths, Ilsensine was not infallible. Aside from being supremely arrogant,[14] Ilsensine was not impervious to emotion, and in fact, could be overtaken by it. Litanies of hatred constantly radiated from its mind, mercilessly hammering any nearby with its insane (by non-illithid standards) declaration of the illithid manifest destiny. The deeper one delved into its lair, the worse it became, growing from a whisper to a buzz until obscenities were being screamed directly into the unfortunate's mind.[5] More crucially than simply feeling emotions however, Ilsensine's feelings could drive it towards problematic behavior.[22]
Though Ilsensine had experienced fury before,[23] a relatively recent incident raised its anger such that it qualified as a new and strange sensation. It had not only lost a shard of its consciousness, but had no idea how it happened. In its anger, Ilsensine shocked the mind flayers into looking for the artifact, and yet was either not fully aware or didn't care about how its anger affected its people.[22] Even leaving anger aside, despite mind flayers legends on its extraordinary deliberation,[16] Ilsensine had allegedly made mistakes out of impatience in the past. In its discontent with its rate of information reception and craving for mental essences to feast upon it, Ilsensine may have accidentally created a force it was incapable of controlling.[24]
Advertisement
Powers
Ilsensine was ultimately about one thing; power, specifically raw, psychic power. Such was the force of its psionic thought waves that everyone that approached its true form, psionically attuned or otherwise, could sense its energy, and only the mindless could ignore it. This created a condition within its realm known as brain burn, describing the constant sizzle that one could only hope to endure. Within its proximity, psionic powers became nulled and no secrets could stay hidden, nor dark thought or mental illness remain unrevealed, as all willpower and consciousness was inexorably ripped and drained by the god-brain.[5]
Illithids correctly believed Ilsensine's mental power to be omnipresent, depicting its tendrils as coiling across not only all space, but also all time.[16] It was possessed of an eidetic memory[5] and an enormous, all-sensing mental capacity,[19] its far-reaching nerves letting it gather information from across the worlds and planes simultaneously[13] and through doing so tap into all knowledge that existed.[19] It was important to note however that Ilsensine was not omniscient (although it was possible they knew more than any other being),[13] for there were realms beyond even its reach, the happenings of which it could not perceive.[25]
A being of mental energy, Ilsensine lacked a physical form, and as such physical strength, fortitude, or agility, although its avatar could move by levitating through the air. Compensating for this was its incredible magical might, granting its avatar the power to cast any spell the most powerful of wizards could. In particular, it could cast mass charm and mass suggestion each thrice a day, project a prismatic spray once per day, and mind blast at will.[14]
Simply attempting to bring harm to Ilsensine was a formidable task, as it was not only impervious to spells of mental control but also those that would affect a physical body. Weaker magics could not affect it at all, weapons of a +2 enchantment could harm it, and it was further immune to inflict wounds magic, energy draining, paralysis, and petrification. Its own tentacles could only be blocked through magical equipment, draining the minds of those struck (and its choice on whether they sapped intellect or intuition), restoring itself, and reducing those fully drained into mindless juju zombies.[14]
Ilsensine's zombies were thoughtless puppets totally enslaved to the god-brain's will, controlled by a psionic link without which they would be nothing but lifeless husks. Though not particularly dangerous themselves, Ilsensine could channel all its psionic powers through them, albeit at the cost of instantly destroying the conduit. Aside from the touch of its tentacles, as well as poking too hard at its ganglia allegedly frying the brain, all those who remained subject to Ilsensine's brain-burn for long would become zombies, although mind-shielding magic could forestall this indefinitely for as long as it held.[5]
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I gave Ilsensine a recursive song, a tuneful little ditty in which the last verse leads directly back into the first, forming a closed loop. Ilsensine couldn't get the tune out of his head and with his powerful brain, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, his mind power being what it is, it spread to his priests.
Finder Wyvernspur explaining how he once bested Ilsensine.[18]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki ... of_Thought
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The Caverns of Thought were cold and heartless, consisting of black, slimy tunnels just cold enough to be uncomfortable without being chilly, the stone slick with fungus save for the spots speculated to be Ilsensine's nerves that warmly pulsed as if alive. There was no secret within its realm that Ilsensine did not know and no movement its nerves it did not sense. The twisting caverns crossed and recrossed each other, but like the inescapable Mazes of Sigil itself, all paths lead to one place, Ilsensine's court at the heart of the realm.[5]
The only condition that really mattered within the Caverns of Thought was the characteristic brain burn caused by the mind-wracking drone of Ilsensine's loathsome thoughts. This wore down the minds of anyone wandering within the caverns, the rate at which they had to struggle against its influence increasing in speed the deeper in they went. The struggle was daily at less than a mile in, twice a day at less than five miles, and hourly less than ten miles in (this also being the point psionics ceased functioning). Past ten miles in it was every ten minutes and once in Ilsensine's court they would have to fight for every minute they stayed.[27][5]
Ilsensine's realm was primarily occupied by zombies, either the petitioners or planars who stayed too long. Only the very lucky left with their minds intact, and those few who left Ilsensine's court would be wise to question their wits, for none could stand before them for long without changing at least a little.[5] However, there were also mind flayer petitioners present, much the same in appearance and behavior as they were in life,[10] and it was suspected secret portals to the Lower Planes were present as darker fiends of the Lower Planes also took up residence in and around the area when visiting the Outlands.[27] Even so, the only structures present were bits of wall and bedding left by those that attempted to establish themselves within.[5]
In the Great Wheel Cosmology, Ilsensine shared their realm with Gzemnid, the lesser beholder god of illusion and obscurement. It being rumored that the Gas Giant interwove their realms so Ilsensine would keep both bound to the Outlands, and it was often unclear if they shared one realm or for whatever reason refrained from differentiating them. Their knotwork of tunnels often intertwined, further making it difficult to figure out where one was as psychic force drained the mind.[2][27] In the World Tree cosmology, the Caverns of Thoughts were part of the greater Deep Caverns where dwelt the Great Beholder Mother and Laogzed.[10]
Ilsensine was not welcoming of others into its realm, preferring those it could control.[27] Between that and the brain burn there was little reason to visit the Caverns of Thought save for one. If one could gain the god-brain's favor, likely requiring the surrender of part of one's mind (such as memory and/or sanity) as payment, they could beseech its cosmic knowledge. With Ilsensine's constant, reality-spanning sensory input and perfect memory, it likely knew more of dark secrets than any being in the cosmos, such as the weakness of any given foe.[5] From here it was said, one could learn the answer behind almost any planar activity, assuming they could stay sane enough to ask the question,[27] and most that got as far as Ilsensine's court never came back in the first place.[5]
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Where they come from I cannot tell - there are too many images of too many places - but in all of these there is a common thread. It is a pulsing green vein that is the cord to a master who steals secrets from others. [It] is the eyes and ears of its lord, gathering in all it sees and hears to please that ravenous power. A thousand eyes gather a thousand scenes all at once.
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Sages cannot deny the existence of a being named Ilsensine residing in the Outer Planes, as described more fully later in this tome. Reliance upon the Ilsensine creation myth as the utter truth relieves seekers from odious searches, translations, and the cross-referencing of abstruse concepts among dusty texts of questionable value. However, an easy route to knowledge does not always guarantee accuracy.
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“
Knowledge is the only power.
”
— Ilsensine
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Ilsensine was a mystery of the cosmos, their true origin nigh-impossible to discern.[13] This origin was made even more confusing given the origins of the mind flayer race in the future prior to their grand act of time travel[19] and the conception that the god-brain's omnipresence extended throughout time.[16]
In any case, Ilsensine was held by the illithids as the Creator God,[16] and allegedly existed alongside other deities before they created mortals.[13] Illithids held that while other divine beings blundered in the Material Plane trying to stake claims with proto-creations, Ilsensine patiently perfected its own, the mind flayers being the result of an aeons-long series of experiments to craft the perfect species.[16]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Gzemnid
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Maanzecorian
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Like his superior Ilsensine, the vain Philosoflayer believed the illithids to be the natural rulers of all planes and worlds and born dominators of all other races, those lesser breeds fit only to be their food and slaves.[6][10] However, the sagacious deity also considered that there were valuable things to be learned from other minds before consumption, the act of devouring brains a delight made all the sweeter if looked forward to and indulged in later on.[6]
The mind flayer god of secrets was a veritable treasure trove of lore and knowledge, some of it of multiversal importance and other pieces seemingly innocuous bits of trivia and personal information.[9] The Philosoflayer had a desire for omniscience so great as to be a risk to his own life.[11]
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This is the ad that is there on the page as I look at all this:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/al- ... 3e4a56.jpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xipe_Totec
Added in 1 day 20 hours 26 minutes 46 seconds:
They have created technology and are working on refining it, to enter into the mind and influence dreams and thoughts, but also have ways to aim devices which can put sounds that only the person or area targeted can hear it in.
They've probably tested all kinds of horrible things on disenfranchised and vulnerable communities and people, the poor, the mentally ill, the disabled, and those locked into their "open air concentration camp(s), and prisoners in jails, as well as soldiers, even passengers on transit and workers in companies and farms, basically anyone, but particularly people who can't get anyone to easily believe them, who they can just ignore, pretending like they are crazy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Told_Me_To
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_(The_X-Files)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwired
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"Wetwired" is the twenty-third episode of the third season and the 72nd episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files.
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Mulder contacts Scully, who is growing increasingly paranoid. Hearing possible clicks while on the phone with Mulder, she frantically searches her hotel room for monitoring devices. When Mulder knocks at her door, Scully fires her weapon at it and runs off. Mulder believes her to be suffering from paranoid psychosis. The Lone Gunmen believe the device to be some sort of subliminal mind control device. Mulder was not affected due to his color blindness.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improba ... e_X-Files)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia
https://globalnews.ca/news/11405090/bla ... ifies-god/
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A report commissioned after the attack found that Donnelly had been allowed out of Colony Farm on day passes 99 times without incident, but that an incident like the Chinatown attack was “more likely to occur at some point than not.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUWv ... ure=shared
https://www.bethinking.org/bible/old-te ... s-killings
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_disaster
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_disasters
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster
https://nypost.com/2018/09/03/notorious ... onfession/
https://nypost.com/2025/09/18/us-news/s ... v2-zSXarIa
"
R*pes are up by 27.5% in the Bronx so far this year, with 380 such attacks reported compared to 298 during the same period in 2024, according to the latest NYPD data.
Citywide statistics show a similar surge, with 1,484 rapes reported across the five boroughs so far this year – about a 21 percent increase from the 1,182 reported during that time frame in 2024.
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael ... sh_killer)
This is the third time recently that I've been brought back to the year 1974, possibly the 4th mention of it though, but three things connecting to 1974 more directly.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 50b2332a28
"
Before Rader was captured, he lived an intensely ordinary life and went to church every Sunday. His father, who died in 1996 after retiring as a plant operator at a utility company’s generating station, was described by friends as “strict, but never cruel.”
But in the documentary, it was revealed that while Rader’s father worked long hours, his mother reportedly dedicated her time to reading and watching television, giving little attention to her children.
“I got along real well with dad,” Rader recalled. “But mom wasn’t always quite happy. I’ve always loved her. I still love her, greatly. But I did have a little … a little bit of grudge against momma.”
"
https://oavcrime.com.br/wp-content/uplo ... 4x1024.jpg
"
On January 15, 1974, Rader murdered four members of the Otero family in Wichita.[44] The victims were Joseph Otero Sr. (38), Julia Maria "Julie" Otero (33), Joseph "Joey" Otero II (9) and Josephine "Josie" Otero (11). Their bodies were discovered by the family's three older children, who had been at school at the time of the killings.[44][45] After his 2005 arrest, Rader claimed that he first targeted the family two months prior, when he spotted Julie leaving to take her children to school, and stalked them for two to three weeks.[46]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-ra ... tic_device
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethic ... ted_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethic ... imentation
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4822534/
"
Takhisis was responsible for the corruption of the chromatic dragons, and appeared in one form as a dragon with heads the colors of blue, black, white, red, and green. Takhisis is also referred to as Dragon Queen (among elves), Nilat the Corrupter (among the barbarians of the plains), Tamex, the False Metal (among dwarves), Mai-tat, She of Many Faces (among the people of Ergoth), Queen of Many Colors and None (among the Knights of Solamnia), the Dark Queen, Erestem, Tii'Mhut, Lady Chaos, Mwarg, the One God, the Dark Warrior, and Shadow Sorcerer. Jeff Grubb believes that she is Tiamat,[1] Goddess (or Queen) of evil dragons in many other Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. However, the two are separate entities according to Dragonlance creator, Tracy Hickman[2] and others.[3] The 4th Edition Draconomicon books confirm that Takhisis is Tiamat in fourth edition.[citation needed] This is confirmed again in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide.[4]
Takhisis most often takes the form of a five-headed dragon; each head is represented by the color of one of the evil dragons (red, blue, green, black, and white).[2][5] She also often uses the form of a beautiful temptress, said to be so lovely that no man can resist her. Additionally, she has another form known as the Dark Warrior.
Within the Dragonlance universe, Takhisis is the most ambitious of the gods, frequently making plans to upset the balance and take over the world for herself. In Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, for example, Takhisis attempts to take control of all magic.[7] After being driven back by Huma Dragonbane in the Third Dragon War and sealed from the world, she bides her time in the Abyss, always looking for new ways into the world. This brings about the War of the Lance, where the dark goddess is ultimately thwarted by the Heroes of the Lance,[8] and subsequently contributes to the Chaos War and the War of Souls.
Raistlin Majere attempts to destroy Takhisis and assume her role as head god of evil. He succeeds in one timeline, but destroys the world of Krynn in the ensuing magical battle. His brother Caramon, with the aid of a time-travelling device, dissuades him from this path
After the Chaos War, Takhisis steals the world from the rest of the gods and becomes the "One God" of the world. When the rest of the gods return to Krynn, they realize that Takhisis has gone too far. Although Sargonnas has generally been loyal to her, the actions leading up to her being made mortal lead Sargonnas to declare she has gone too far and to support the decision.
Takhisis is key to the Dragonlance world creation myth as the primordial source of evil. This central role is crucial to how creation myths are presented.[10]
In the neo-pagan press, a series of books published by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, looks at Takhisis in the Dragonlance world and compares her to the Babylonian and Dungeons & Dragons version of Tiamat. The book is written as a school book for young wizards and witches of the neo-pagan sort. Takhisis is described for her role in the wars of good vs. evil.[5]
This ultimate source of the theme of evil is discussed again in a presentation by Dr. Stefan Ekman of Lund University in Sweden. Dr. Ekman compares Takhisis and other fantasy "dark lords," such as Lord Foul and Sauron, to the biblical Satan. In particular he states, "Even though not all of the Dark Lords above signify the ultimate source of evil, Lord Foul, the Dark One, and Takhisis certainly do. And all of them are ultimately actants, characters whose raison d’être is to provide the final threat".[11]
This theme of good versus evil, and humans versus gods, is expanded in Dragonlance, a Shared World of Fantasy Fiction and Role-Playing Games. The central focus of this thesis is the struggle of the human characters versus Takhisis. This struggle is compared with the human, or at least mortal, heroes of the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.[12]
Tiamat, in her Dragonlance/Krynn incarnation is also the subject of in the Dragon Gods and Evil dragons sections of the Practical Guide to Dragons. She is discussed in universe style with sidebars detailing her real-world publishing significance.[13] This is continued in the follow-up series The Dragon Codices, in which Takhisis is the main, if somewhat hidden, antagonist.[14]
"
https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Takhisis
https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Dragonarmy
https://www.victorshammas.com/s/Shammas ... as-God.pdf
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/06/08/ ... comes-god/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10. ... 9.11750509
"
welltail
•
4y ago
„Es ist der Gang Gottes in der Welt, daß der Staat ist, sein Grund ist die Gewalt der sich als Wille verwirklichenden Vernunft." The mysticism is actually created by a sloppy translation in this case - the sentence merely states that the state exists by necessity, i.e. that the state is a rational form of self-organization and as such has reasonable grounds. It is not entirely unlike Hegel to use God as a metaphor for the absolute aspect of reason. But as the comment before mine indicates, a lot of ink has been spilt over these lines by people who haven't or couldn't have read the German...
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yelbesed
•
4y ago
Well. * the being of the bone is Spirit*. All we know a words. Geist. So of course the State too.
"
https://journals.uio.no/JEA/article/download/6601/5825
https://files.libcom.org/files/Bakunin% ... 0State.pdf
https://faithequip.org/the-state-god/
https://www.marxists.org/reference/arch ... /index.htm
https://mises.org/mises-daily/hegel-state-gods-will
"
On Hegel’s worship of the state, Popper cites chilling and revealing passages:
The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth … We must therefore worship the State as the manifestation of the Divine on earth … The State is the march of God through the world … The State must be comprehended as an organism … To the complete State belongs, essentially, consciousness and thought. The State knows what it wills … The State … exists for its own sake … The State is the actually existing, realized moral life.7
All this rant is well characterized by Popper as “bombastic and hysterical Platonism.”
Much of this was inspired by Hegel’s friends and immediate philosophical predecessors, men like the later Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, Schiller, Herder, and Schleiermacher. But it was Hegel’s particular task to turn his murky doctrines to the job of weaving apologetics for the absolute power of the extant Prussian state. Thus Hegel’s admiring disciple, F.J.C. Schwegler, revealed the following in his History of Philosophy:
The fullness of his [Hegel’s] fame and activity, however, properly dates only from his call to Berlin in 1818. Here there rose up around him a numerous, widely extended, and … exceedingly active school; here too, he acquired, from his connections with the Prussian bureaucracy, political recognition of his system as the official philosophy; not always to the advantage of the inner freedom of his philosophy, or of its moral worth.8
With Prussia as the central focus, Hegelianism was able to sweep German philosophy during the 19th century, dominating in all but the Catholic areas of southern Germany and Austria. As Popper put it, “having thus become a tremendous success on the continent, Hegelianism could hardly fail to obtain support in Britain from those who [felt] that such a powerful movement must after all have something to offer … “ Indeed, the man who first introduced Hegel to English readers, Dr J. Hutchinson Stirling, admiringly remarked, the year after Prussia’s lightning victory over Austria, “Is it not indeed to Hegel, and especially his philosophy of ethics and politics, that Prussia owes that mighty life and organization she is now rapidly developing?”9 Finally Hegel’s contemporary and acquaintance, Arthur Schopenhauer, denounced the state-philosophy alliance that drove Hegelianism into becoming a powerful force in social thought:
Philosophy is misused, from the side of the state as a tool, from the other side as a means of gain.… Who can really believe that truth also will thereby come to light, just as a byproduct?… Governments made of philosophy a means of serving their state interests, and scholars made of it a trade. (emphasis Schopenhauer’s)10
In addition to the political influence, Popper offers a complementary explanation for the otherwise puzzling widespread influence of G.W.F. Hegel: the attraction of philosophers to high-sounding jargon and gibberish almost for its own sake, followed by the gullibility of a credulous public. Thus Popper cites a statement by the English Hegelian Stirling: “The philosophy of Hegel, then, was … a scrutiny of thought so profound that it was for the most part unintelligible.” Profound for its very unintelligibility! Lack of clarity as virtue and proof of profundity! Popper adds,
philosophers have kept around themselves, even in our day, something of the atmosphere of the magician. Philosophy is considered a strange and abstruse kind of thing, dealing with those things with which religion deals, but not in a way which can be “revealed unto babes” or to common people; it is considered to be too profound for that, and to be the religion and the theology of the intellectuals, of the learned and wise. Hegelianism fits these views admirably; it is exactly what this popular superstition supposes philosophy to be.11
"
"
The State has taken the place of God; that is why, seen from this angle, the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship. But the religious function cannot be dislocated and falsified in this way without giving rise to secret doubts, which are immediately repressed so as to avoid conflict with the prevailing trend towards mass-mindedness. The result, as always in such cases, is overcompensation in the form of fanaticism, which in its turn is used as a weapon for stamping out the least flicker of opposition. Free opinion is stifled and moral decision ruthlessly suppressed, on the plea that the end justifies the means, even the vilest. The policy of the State is exalted to a creed, the leader or party boss becomes a demigod beyond good and evil, and his votaries are honored as heroes, martyrs, apostles, missionaries. There is only one truth and beside it no other. It is sacrosanct and above criticism. Anyone who thinks differently is a heretic, who, as we know from history, is threatened with all manner of unpleasant things. Only the party boss, who holds the political power in his hands, can interpret the State doctrine authentically, and he does so just as suits him.
"
The Undiscovered Self: The Problem of the Individual in Modern Society by Carl Jung
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/ ... icks1.html
https://traversingtradition.com/2018/08 ... te-as-god/
https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/sta ... na-crisis/
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/ ... devil.html
"
The Bible offers two slightly different accounts of King David's census: 2 Samuel 24:1 says God incited David, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 says Satan incited him. This apparent contradiction is often explained by the theological concept that God, in His sovereignty, allowed Satan to tempt David for His own purposes, such as to discipline and teach a lesson about pride and self-reliance, which was the underlying sin in the census itself. The act of counting people was a sin because it demonstrated David's pride and his reliance on military strength rather than on God.
"
https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/davids-census
https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/ ... great-sin/
"
A census was preliminary to a draft of soldiers and a levying of taxes.
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigouvian_tax
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_efficiency
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_economics
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-being
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_interest
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_paradox
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contradiction
"
In social choice theory, Condorcet's voting paradox is a fundamental discovery by the Marquis de Condorcet that majority rule is inherently self-contradictory. The result implies that it is logically impossible for any voting system to guarantee that a winner will have support from a majority of voters; for example, there can be rock-paper-scissors scenarios where a majority of voters will prefer A to B, B to C, and also C to A, even if every voter's individual preferences are rational and avoid self-contradiction. Examples of Condorcet's paradox are called Condorcet cycles or cyclic ties.
In such a cycle, every possible choice is rejected by the electorate in favor of another alternative, who is preferred by more than half of all voters. Thus, any attempt to ground social decision-making in majoritarianism must accept such self-contradictions (commonly called spoiler effects). Systems that attempt to do so, while minimizing the rate of such self-contradictions, are called Condorcet methods.
Condorcet's paradox is a special case of Arrow's paradox, which shows that any kind of social decision-making process is either self-contradictory, a dictatorship, or incorporates information about the strength of different voters' preferences (e.g. cardinal utility or rated voting).
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_standoff
"
When a Condorcet method is used to determine an election, the voting paradox of cyclical societal preferences implies that the election has no Condorcet winner: no candidate who can win a one-on-one election against each other candidate. There will still be a smallest group of candidates, known as the Smith set, such that each candidate in the group can win a one-on-one election against each of the candidates outside the group. The several variants of the Condorcet method differ on how they resolve such ambiguities when they arise to determine a winner.[18] The Condorcet methods which always elect someone from the Smith set when there is no Condorcet winner are known as Smith-efficient. Note that using only rankings, there is no fair and deterministic resolution to the trivial example given earlier because each candidate is in an exactly symmetrical situation.
Situations having the voting paradox can cause voting mechanisms to violate the axiom of independence of irrelevant alternatives—the choice of winner by a voting mechanism could be influenced by whether or not a losing candidate is available to be voted for.
Two-stage voting processes
edit
One important implication of the possible existence of the voting paradox in a practical situation is that in a paired voting process like those of standard parliamentary procedure, the eventual winner will depend on the way the majority votes are ordered. For example, say a popular bill is set to pass, before some other group offers an amendment; this amendment passes by majority vote. This may result in a majority of a legislature rejecting the bill as a whole, thus creating a paradox (where a popular amendment to a popular bill has made it unpopular). This logical inconsistency is the origin of the poison pill amendment, which deliberately engineers a false Condorcet cycle to kill a bill. Likewise, the order of votes in a legislature can be manipulated by the person arranging them to ensure their preferred outcome wins.
Despite frequent objections by social choice theorists about the logically incoherent results of such procedures, and the existence of better alternatives for choosing between multiple versions of a bill, the procedure of pairwise majority-rule is widely-used and is codified into the by-laws or parliamentary procedures of almost every kind of deliberative assembly.
Spoiler effects
edit
Condorcet paradoxes imply that majoritarian methods fail independence of irrelevant alternatives. Label the three candidates in a race Rock, Paper, and Scissors. In one-on-one races, Rock loses to Paper, Paper loses to Scissors, and Scissors loses to Rock.
Without loss of generality, say that Rock wins the election with a certain method. Then, Scissors is a spoiler candidate for Paper; if Scissors were to drop out, Paper would win the only one-on-one race (Paper defeats Rock). The same reasoning applies regardless of the winner.
This example also shows why Condorcet elections are rarely (if ever) spoiled; spoilers can only happen when there is no Condorcet winner. Condorcet cycles are rare in large elections,[19][20] and the median voter theorem shows that cycles are impossible whenever candidates are arrayed on a left-right spectrum.
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_set
"
The Smith criterion is a voting system criterion that formalizes a stronger idea of majority rule than the Condorcet criterion. A voting system satisfies the Smith criterion if it always picks a candidate from the Smith set.
Though less common, the term Smith-efficient has also been used for methods that elect from the Smith set.[3]
Here is an example of an electorate in which there is no Condorcet winner: There are four candidates: A, B, C and D. 40% of the voters rank D>A>B>C. 35% of the voters rank B>C>A>D. 25% of the voters rank C>A>B>D. The Smith set is {A,B,C}. All three candidates in the Smith set are majority-preferred over D (since 60% rank each of them over D). The Smith set is not {A,B,C,D} because the definition calls for the smallest subset that meets the other conditions. The Smith set is not {B,C} because B is not majority-preferred over A; 65% rank A over B. (Etc.)
In this example, under minimax, A and D tie; under Smith//Minimax, A wins.
In the example above, the three candidates in the Smith set are in a "rock/paper/scissors" majority cycle: A is ranked over B by a 65% majority, B is ranked over C by a 75% majority, and C is ranked over A by a 60% majority.
Other criteria
edit
Any election method that complies with the Smith criterion also complies with the Condorcet winner criterion, since if there is a Condorcet winner, then it is the only candidate in the Smith set. Smith methods also comply with the Condorcet loser criterion, because a Condorcet loser will never fall in the Smith set. It also implies the mutual majority criterion, since the Smith set is a subset of the MMC set.[2] Conversely, any method that fails any of those three majoritarian criteria (Mutual majority, Condorcet loser or Condorcet winner) will also fail the Smith criterion.
Complying methods
edit
The Smith criterion is satisfied by ranked pairs, Schulze's method, Nanson's method, and several other methods. Moreover, any voting method can be modified to satisfy the Smith criterion, by finding the Smith set and eliminating any candidates outside of it.
For example, the voting method Smith//Minimax applies Minimax to the candidates in the Smith set. Another example is the Tideman alternative method, which alternates between eliminating candidates outside of the Smith set, and eliminating the candidate who was the plurality loser (similar to instant-runoff), until a Condorcet winner is found. A different approach is to elect the member of the Smith set that is highest in the voting method's order of finish.
Methods failing the Condorcet criterion also fail the Smith criterion. However, some Condorcet methods (such as Minimax) can fail the Smith criterion.
"
Meanwhile:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
"
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage[1] and eventually, death. The term inanition[2] refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation by outside forces is a crime according to international criminal law and may also be used as a means of torture or execution.
"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3505000780
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolescence
"
Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in a biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when compared with the corresponding part of other organisms.[1][2] The international standard IEC 62402:2019 Obsolescence Management defines obsolescence as the "transition from available to unavailable from the manufacturer in accordance with the original specification".[3]
Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that has, in sum, more advantages compared to the disadvantages incurred by maintaining or repairing the original. Obsolete also refers to something that is already disused or discarded, or antiquated.[4] Typically, obsolescence is preceded by a gradual decline in popularity.
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Out ... man_Beings
The State does not require large amounts of people except for keeping itself alive in that form and less at risk of having nothing to build up in again as easily. The people more consumed by any tricks it puts out to control people, like fighting and winning for their preferred identity group or word of preference, like a digital costume in a computer game in their mind, the more they are willing to see things through like exterminations because The State is unaffected by such things, they become possessed by Death, which is apathetic, senseless, it is numb and separated from the visceral suffering. The State also tries to secure the brains it lives in most to never feel much physically, to the point of becoming physically numb and sedated.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataraxia
Added in 33 minutes 4 seconds:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_flayer
"
Mind flayers had utterly alien thought processes and enigmatic objectives.[14] They saw themselves as masterminds that twisted others into serving their own sinister and far-reaching schemes.[1][16] While some individuals could show extreme variance in mindset, the majority shared many common beliefs and precepts.[21]
Illithids were megalomaniacal in the extreme, tyrants driven by an immense ambition[16] and intrinsically ruled by an overwhelming sense of self-importance.[22] The mind flayers sought nothing less than world domination,[16] knew their destiny was mastery over the universe,[22] and the ultimate prize they yearned for was complete dominion over all the planes of existence, with the power to reshape reality and all within it to fit their otherworldly designs.[16] However, mind flayers did not believe themselves to be horrifying monsters.[21]
In the minds of the illithids, their kind acted as agents of "Order", forces of law tasked with taming a chaotic and unguided universe. They saw the various races in its confines as potential thralls with no supervision, living out aimless existences and working with no direction. In this role as multiversal caretakers, the mind flayers constantly worked for what they saw as the betterment of the cosmos, asserting their ultimate control to provide the restoration of order that only their superior species could bestow to all the multiverse.[21][23]
The mind flayers strongly believed in their manifest destiny, and viewed the task of bringing the multiverse to heel as one of great importance. The illithids instructed all who questioned this view to look at the biological facts, how they stood at the top of the food chain and how all others naturally fell beneath them.[23] While the illithids recognized that other creatures resisted their control, they perceived this as a natural result of reality's current state, the unknowing thralls within not knowing any better than to fight their masters.[24]
Oh, most delicious morsel, perceive my appreciation of your unique gifts: Your brow―exquisite in its simple symmetry―is shapely, hinting at the delicacies contained therein. It is merely the wrapping, a fragile package concealing tangy treasure. Snuggled close, warm and moist beneath pale bone, fatty coils of succulent gray meat quiver to be plucked, to be exposed for the appreciation of all, before inevitable, ardent consumption… Ah, that hits the spot.
A mental quote from a mind flayer.[25]
Utterly arrogant, mind flayers were elitists who believed all creatures to be inferior to themselves, livestock fit to fulfill only three purposes: to die as their food, work as their slaves, or serve as vessels for more of their kind.[6][16] Even so, the mind flayers did feel a sense of gratitude towards lesser beings. In truth, they truly appreciated the "gifts" of those they feasted upon, and sincerely felt that they were giving their livestock a gift of their own when they consumed their brains.[21]
The illithids had to dominate not only to achieve their goals, but to fulfill certain basic needs of their own. Without a mind to control, a mind flayer would feel incomplete. They actually had an intimate relationship with their own thralls, suffering when they died (whether by sickness, age, or physical harm) and sometimes going mad from loneliness without their constant companionship. Illithids were known to postpone their other goals just to renew an emptied retinue of thralls[23] and every illithid had at least one personal thrall. When they found one they favored, illithids would go out of their way not to eat personal thralls in bouts of hunger or anger, and might even grant them toys and trinkets to occupy themselves with when not working.[26]
Individuality
While almost every illithid sought the dominion of their race, each was an incredibly intelligent, individual entity with different ideas on how to make that happen.[2][27] Some would do so with military might, creating grand thrall armies to conquer the world, while others sought to use their psionics to create powerful magic items to use in their quest. Their intentions in given situations could seem bizarre, sometimes to the point of being incomprehensible, but almost every action taken was meant, in some way, to help them achieve their racial supremacy.[27]
Despite their emphasis on order, mind flayers were actually incredibly competitive, as well as individualistic, to the point where they seemed hesitant to work as a team. However, while competitiveness was common, this personal desire for success served to enhance the group overall. Each mind flayer recognized that, in order to contribute to their collective intelligence, every member of the community had to obtain as much wisdom and experience as possible. When the individual failed, the community would put aside their ambitions for the greater "good".[21][28]
A mind flayer's natural desire to compete, combined with their high levels of intelligence, meant that they were incredibly innovative beings able to come up with unique solutions to their problems. Whether using psionics, alchemy, magic, mundane technology, or some combination of the four, they were creatures of immense creativity and cunning constantly spurred on to reach new heights of individual achievement.[28][29]
Knowledge
Being as intelligent as they are, endowed with psionic powers, and as physically weak as they are, the illithids believe that the mind is everything and all-important... They consume that which is important to them.
A githyanki on the mind flayers.[10]
Most illithids understood that knowledge equaled power,[8] basing their existence on vast volumes of shared information,[30] and so the mind flayers sought to expand their knowledge in all fields.[22] They used varied methods to obtain information, always sourcing, verifying, and cross-checking acquired knowledge, for they understood better than any how personal perception and interpretation could twist the truth.[31]
In their thirst for knowledge, illithids bargained, collected, interrogated, spied, stole, and plundered, obtaining their information from abandoned crypts, enemy storehouses, captive minds, wandering traders, and unwitting pawns. Through these activities they collected arcane secrets, forgotten lore, recent news, supernatural discoveries, and items of power.[16][31][32] Different illithids placed varying values on certain pieces of information; some believed that there was nothing to be learned from lesser beings, while others thought that all information was valuable.[2]
Illithids had a unique understanding of time in that they only believed that the present mattered. The past was an environment for the eidetic elder brain, a living record who shifted through a colony's collective memory for information relevant to current circumstance. This disregard for the past could become a circular issue; illithids did not care for the past, and so kept no written historical records of their empires or communities, and their lack of hard records made them more indifferent towards the past.[23]
Illithids also had a different concept of the "future" viewing it simply as an inevitable but unrealized part of the present.[23] However, illithids did not believe the future (and therefore their destiny) was set in stone. For example, they recognized that it was possible for their race to die out, which would alter the future, and so complacency was not an option. Only by collecting more knowledge could the illithids accurately predict the future, and thus fulfill their destiny.[22]
Emotions
To non-illithids, mind flayers seemed calm and collected at almost all times, dispassionate and seemingly emotionless outside of their constant desire to dominate others.[23][33] They dismissed basal emotions like pride as fatal flaws and founded themselves on a pragmatic outlook.[30] While they might occasionally seem furious, it was difficult to discern if this was actual feeling or a ruse to manipulate others. Theories on this ranged from the belief that the mind flayers had no emotions, very few, or extreme levels of self-control, but all of these were incorrect. In truth, illithids had a whole spectrum of emotions and felt them intensely,[23][33] sometimes even behaving irrationally because of them,[30] but these feelings were almost entirely internalized and not evident even during moments of raging inner turmoil.[33]
Mind flayer conclave
Mind flayer conclave.
However, while mind flayers did indeed have a range of emotions, these emotions were almost entirely negative. They felt anger and hate when foiled and stymied in their ascent to sovereignty,[23][33] fear when faced with hostile minds they could not control, shame when incapable of controlling minds,[23][24] envy towards vast knowledge that was not their own,[22] abhorrence towards a wasteful use of thralls,[34] disgust for those that would engage with lesser beings on an equal basis, and sadness when a compatriot died far from home. These emotions, and related feelings such as anxiety and contempt, made up most of an illithid's emotional repertoire.[23][33]
The most commonly experienced illithid emotion was frustration, discontentment rooted in the fact that they had not yet achieved dominion, and this dissatisfaction was a subtle, undercurrent that constantly defined them and colored their other emotions and thoughts.[23] The same principle of underlying negativity could be found in the illithids overall; mind flayers had no sense of true happiness, and so did not plan to become happy.[33]
The closest most illithids came to being happy was the delight of consuming a brain, but even then the act had such sadistic overtones that it still wouldn't be "happiness" as normally defined. A mind flayer's highest emotional state was that of self-satisfaction, whether that be from a personal sense of pride or the satiation of their curiosity, and it was this that motivated their behavior.[33] They sought to live in luxury, to feast on the minds of well-bred thralls and master their psionic birthright.[27] Love, or even friendship outside of acquaintances, was almost unheard of, for they had supernatural means of filling these emotional voids.[35]
Morality
Overall, the illithids were cold and calculating creatures[32] rarely matched in cruelty and wholly evil.[4][14] They were known to inflict pain on captives purely for amusement and force others to participate in various gladiatorial games.[6] If an illithid ever treated a member of another race as an equal, it was in all likelihood feigning friendship for its own purposes. They might behave respectfully (though never deferentially) when it suited them, but each had the instinctive knowledge that the other party would serve better as a thrall at best or meal at worst,[22][25] and chances were that by the time an alliance was formed they had already decided how and when to betray the new partner.[16]
Furthermore, a major factor holding back the mind flayers and blocking their attempts at world domination were their own inherent, self-serving attitudes.[27] Few illithids truly perceived anything, whether cause or companion, worth dying over,[32] and they would rarely put their own lives at risk. Each illithid viewed its own life as supremely important and invaluable,[16] and the most minor setbacks were often enough to drive the unreliable aberrations to retreat in the interest of self-preservation.[27][32]
Despite the myriad of inherent desires and inclinations that would prevent such a thing, (their dietary requirements if nothing else) it was possible for mind flayers to move away from evil. Most were simply incapable of true good, but on occasion, it was possible for an exceptional individual to change their ways to become morally neutral, and in extreme cases, good.[32] Some were known to question the necessity of dominating the weak and devouring brains,[36] but those in a community who would deny the maxim of dominion were quickly rooted out and would be killed if discovered.[23]
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Furthermore, these beings were not worshiped in the same sense other races knew it.[8][22] Rather than the orthodox way, mind flayers revered two beings as manifestations of idealized mental states, both psionic and philosophical, doing so in a form resembling worship, including meditating and performing certain physical actions to help them achieve the desired attitudes.[2][49] When it came to true worship however, mind flayers were simply incapable, for while they might revere deities (perhaps because they believed they were worthy of worship or even just for personal gain) their innate egos prevented them from going beyond this.[8][22]
The broader entity was known as Ilsensine, which embodied a mastery of one's own mind and a union with universal knowledge. Mind flayer colonies interpreted this concept in different ways.[2] Some viewed it as a promise of power and domination to its followers, a feature that was also attractive to non-illithid followers.[49] Others interpreted these objectives as attainable through dominance or replacement of the deities associated with knowledge.[2]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ilsensine
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Ilsensine (meaning "great brain" or "powerful brain" in Undercommon)[15][3][note 1] was the patron deity and creator of the illithids,[2] and the Tentacled Lord embodied their ideals of mental prowess, unlimited knowledge, and willful dominion over all other lifeforms.[11] Although predominantly focused on mind flayers, the God-Brain was the patron of all beings that enslaved the thoughts of others.[9]
Ilsensine was known as such by the sages and scholars of most races, but illithids identified them differently. Rather than a name, telepathically communicating mind flayers used a series of visual images and symbolic denotations to represent it.[16] A psionic inflection used to mark Oryndoll as a holy place of Ilsensine was enough to cause fear in those minds the name was projected into.[17]
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A being of the mind and spirit, Ilsensine lacked any physical body, instead incarnating as a cohesive thought.
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Alien and elusive,[22] Ilsensine's thoughts were a relentless tide of dark deceptions and unimaginable deviancy. According to elven myths, before the creation of mortal beings, it surpassed all its divine peers in subversive intent, always striving to undo what others accomplish and defy established convention, and even loosing the mind flayers to act as a counter-creation after mortals came into existence.[13] It was a cold and calculating being[11] of practically limitless knowledge, and its philosophies mirrored that of the illithids, holding information as the greatest commodity, darkness the greatest illumination, and the mind the greatest strength.[19]
Another dominating facet of Ilsensine's unending thoughts was megalomania[5] for its motivation was the supremacy of the greatest race in its mind; its own illithid creations. Of all those that it knew of, it judged them the most worthy mortals, and sought for them to conquer all planes. Its thoughts unceasingly insisted that they were meant to rule all reality, enslaving, using and consuming the rampant "cattle", and enjoying the conquest as they did so.[13][5][9][14][19] This was to be done through mental domination, superior knowledge, and the expression will and force of mind that was magic.[14]
Despite its many strengths, Ilsensine was not infallible. Aside from being supremely arrogant,[14] Ilsensine was not impervious to emotion, and in fact, could be overtaken by it. Litanies of hatred constantly radiated from its mind, mercilessly hammering any nearby with its insane (by non-illithid standards) declaration of the illithid manifest destiny. The deeper one delved into its lair, the worse it became, growing from a whisper to a buzz until obscenities were being screamed directly into the unfortunate's mind.[5] More crucially than simply feeling emotions however, Ilsensine's feelings could drive it towards problematic behavior.[22]
Though Ilsensine had experienced fury before,[23] a relatively recent incident raised its anger such that it qualified as a new and strange sensation. It had not only lost a shard of its consciousness, but had no idea how it happened. In its anger, Ilsensine shocked the mind flayers into looking for the artifact, and yet was either not fully aware or didn't care about how its anger affected its people.[22] Even leaving anger aside, despite mind flayers legends on its extraordinary deliberation,[16] Ilsensine had allegedly made mistakes out of impatience in the past. In its discontent with its rate of information reception and craving for mental essences to feast upon it, Ilsensine may have accidentally created a force it was incapable of controlling.[24]
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Ilsensine was ultimately about one thing; power, specifically raw, psychic power. Such was the force of its psionic thought waves that everyone that approached its true form, psionically attuned or otherwise, could sense its energy, and only the mindless could ignore it. This created a condition within its realm known as brain burn, describing the constant sizzle that one could only hope to endure. Within its proximity, psionic powers became nulled and no secrets could stay hidden, nor dark thought or mental illness remain unrevealed, as all willpower and consciousness was inexorably ripped and drained by the god-brain.[5]
Illithids correctly believed Ilsensine's mental power to be omnipresent, depicting its tendrils as coiling across not only all space, but also all time.[16] It was possessed of an eidetic memory[5] and an enormous, all-sensing mental capacity,[19] its far-reaching nerves letting it gather information from across the worlds and planes simultaneously[13] and through doing so tap into all knowledge that existed.[19] It was important to note however that Ilsensine was not omniscient (although it was possible they knew more than any other being),[13] for there were realms beyond even its reach, the happenings of which it could not perceive.[25]
A being of mental energy, Ilsensine lacked a physical form, and as such physical strength, fortitude, or agility, although its avatar could move by levitating through the air. Compensating for this was its incredible magical might, granting its avatar the power to cast any spell the most powerful of wizards could. In particular, it could cast mass charm and mass suggestion each thrice a day, project a prismatic spray once per day, and mind blast at will.[14]
Simply attempting to bring harm to Ilsensine was a formidable task, as it was not only impervious to spells of mental control but also those that would affect a physical body. Weaker magics could not affect it at all, weapons of a +2 enchantment could harm it, and it was further immune to inflict wounds magic, energy draining, paralysis, and petrification. Its own tentacles could only be blocked through magical equipment, draining the minds of those struck (and its choice on whether they sapped intellect or intuition), restoring itself, and reducing those fully drained into mindless juju zombies.[14]
Ilsensine's zombies were thoughtless puppets totally enslaved to the god-brain's will, controlled by a psionic link without which they would be nothing but lifeless husks. Though not particularly dangerous themselves, Ilsensine could channel all its psionic powers through them, albeit at the cost of instantly destroying the conduit. Aside from the touch of its tentacles, as well as poking too hard at its ganglia allegedly frying the brain, all those who remained subject to Ilsensine's brain-burn for long would become zombies, although mind-shielding magic could forestall this indefinitely for as long as it held.[5]
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I gave Ilsensine a recursive song, a tuneful little ditty in which the last verse leads directly back into the first, forming a closed loop. Ilsensine couldn't get the tune out of his head and with his powerful brain, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, his mind power being what it is, it spread to his priests.
Finder Wyvernspur explaining how he once bested Ilsensine.[18]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki ... of_Thought
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The Caverns of Thought were cold and heartless, consisting of black, slimy tunnels just cold enough to be uncomfortable without being chilly, the stone slick with fungus save for the spots speculated to be Ilsensine's nerves that warmly pulsed as if alive. There was no secret within its realm that Ilsensine did not know and no movement its nerves it did not sense. The twisting caverns crossed and recrossed each other, but like the inescapable Mazes of Sigil itself, all paths lead to one place, Ilsensine's court at the heart of the realm.[5]
The only condition that really mattered within the Caverns of Thought was the characteristic brain burn caused by the mind-wracking drone of Ilsensine's loathsome thoughts. This wore down the minds of anyone wandering within the caverns, the rate at which they had to struggle against its influence increasing in speed the deeper in they went. The struggle was daily at less than a mile in, twice a day at less than five miles, and hourly less than ten miles in (this also being the point psionics ceased functioning). Past ten miles in it was every ten minutes and once in Ilsensine's court they would have to fight for every minute they stayed.[27][5]
Ilsensine's realm was primarily occupied by zombies, either the petitioners or planars who stayed too long. Only the very lucky left with their minds intact, and those few who left Ilsensine's court would be wise to question their wits, for none could stand before them for long without changing at least a little.[5] However, there were also mind flayer petitioners present, much the same in appearance and behavior as they were in life,[10] and it was suspected secret portals to the Lower Planes were present as darker fiends of the Lower Planes also took up residence in and around the area when visiting the Outlands.[27] Even so, the only structures present were bits of wall and bedding left by those that attempted to establish themselves within.[5]
In the Great Wheel Cosmology, Ilsensine shared their realm with Gzemnid, the lesser beholder god of illusion and obscurement. It being rumored that the Gas Giant interwove their realms so Ilsensine would keep both bound to the Outlands, and it was often unclear if they shared one realm or for whatever reason refrained from differentiating them. Their knotwork of tunnels often intertwined, further making it difficult to figure out where one was as psychic force drained the mind.[2][27] In the World Tree cosmology, the Caverns of Thoughts were part of the greater Deep Caverns where dwelt the Great Beholder Mother and Laogzed.[10]
Ilsensine was not welcoming of others into its realm, preferring those it could control.[27] Between that and the brain burn there was little reason to visit the Caverns of Thought save for one. If one could gain the god-brain's favor, likely requiring the surrender of part of one's mind (such as memory and/or sanity) as payment, they could beseech its cosmic knowledge. With Ilsensine's constant, reality-spanning sensory input and perfect memory, it likely knew more of dark secrets than any being in the cosmos, such as the weakness of any given foe.[5] From here it was said, one could learn the answer behind almost any planar activity, assuming they could stay sane enough to ask the question,[27] and most that got as far as Ilsensine's court never came back in the first place.[5]
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Where they come from I cannot tell - there are too many images of too many places - but in all of these there is a common thread. It is a pulsing green vein that is the cord to a master who steals secrets from others. [It] is the eyes and ears of its lord, gathering in all it sees and hears to please that ravenous power. A thousand eyes gather a thousand scenes all at once.
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Sages cannot deny the existence of a being named Ilsensine residing in the Outer Planes, as described more fully later in this tome. Reliance upon the Ilsensine creation myth as the utter truth relieves seekers from odious searches, translations, and the cross-referencing of abstruse concepts among dusty texts of questionable value. However, an easy route to knowledge does not always guarantee accuracy.
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“
Knowledge is the only power.
”
— Ilsensine
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Ilsensine was a mystery of the cosmos, their true origin nigh-impossible to discern.[13] This origin was made even more confusing given the origins of the mind flayer race in the future prior to their grand act of time travel[19] and the conception that the god-brain's omnipresence extended throughout time.[16]
In any case, Ilsensine was held by the illithids as the Creator God,[16] and allegedly existed alongside other deities before they created mortals.[13] Illithids held that while other divine beings blundered in the Material Plane trying to stake claims with proto-creations, Ilsensine patiently perfected its own, the mind flayers being the result of an aeons-long series of experiments to craft the perfect species.[16]
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https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Gzemnid
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Maanzecorian
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Like his superior Ilsensine, the vain Philosoflayer believed the illithids to be the natural rulers of all planes and worlds and born dominators of all other races, those lesser breeds fit only to be their food and slaves.[6][10] However, the sagacious deity also considered that there were valuable things to be learned from other minds before consumption, the act of devouring brains a delight made all the sweeter if looked forward to and indulged in later on.[6]
The mind flayer god of secrets was a veritable treasure trove of lore and knowledge, some of it of multiversal importance and other pieces seemingly innocuous bits of trivia and personal information.[9] The Philosoflayer had a desire for omniscience so great as to be a risk to his own life.[11]
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This is the ad that is there on the page as I look at all this:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/al- ... 3e4a56.jpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xipe_Totec
Added in 1 day 20 hours 26 minutes 46 seconds:
They have created technology and are working on refining it, to enter into the mind and influence dreams and thoughts, but also have ways to aim devices which can put sounds that only the person or area targeted can hear it in.
They've probably tested all kinds of horrible things on disenfranchised and vulnerable communities and people, the poor, the mentally ill, the disabled, and those locked into their "open air concentration camp(s), and prisoners in jails, as well as soldiers, even passengers on transit and workers in companies and farms, basically anyone, but particularly people who can't get anyone to easily believe them, who they can just ignore, pretending like they are crazy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Told_Me_To
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_(The_X-Files)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwired
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"Wetwired" is the twenty-third episode of the third season and the 72nd episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files.
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Mulder contacts Scully, who is growing increasingly paranoid. Hearing possible clicks while on the phone with Mulder, she frantically searches her hotel room for monitoring devices. When Mulder knocks at her door, Scully fires her weapon at it and runs off. Mulder believes her to be suffering from paranoid psychosis. The Lone Gunmen believe the device to be some sort of subliminal mind control device. Mulder was not affected due to his color blindness.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improba ... e_X-Files)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia
https://globalnews.ca/news/11405090/bla ... ifies-god/
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A report commissioned after the attack found that Donnelly had been allowed out of Colony Farm on day passes 99 times without incident, but that an incident like the Chinatown attack was “more likely to occur at some point than not.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUWv ... ure=shared
https://www.bethinking.org/bible/old-te ... s-killings
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_disaster
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_disasters
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster
https://nypost.com/2018/09/03/notorious ... onfession/
https://nypost.com/2025/09/18/us-news/s ... v2-zSXarIa
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R*pes are up by 27.5% in the Bronx so far this year, with 380 such attacks reported compared to 298 during the same period in 2024, according to the latest NYPD data.
Citywide statistics show a similar surge, with 1,484 rapes reported across the five boroughs so far this year – about a 21 percent increase from the 1,182 reported during that time frame in 2024.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael ... sh_killer)
This is the third time recently that I've been brought back to the year 1974, possibly the 4th mention of it though, but three things connecting to 1974 more directly.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 50b2332a28
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Before Rader was captured, he lived an intensely ordinary life and went to church every Sunday. His father, who died in 1996 after retiring as a plant operator at a utility company’s generating station, was described by friends as “strict, but never cruel.”
But in the documentary, it was revealed that while Rader’s father worked long hours, his mother reportedly dedicated her time to reading and watching television, giving little attention to her children.
“I got along real well with dad,” Rader recalled. “But mom wasn’t always quite happy. I’ve always loved her. I still love her, greatly. But I did have a little … a little bit of grudge against momma.”
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https://oavcrime.com.br/wp-content/uplo ... 4x1024.jpg
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On January 15, 1974, Rader murdered four members of the Otero family in Wichita.[44] The victims were Joseph Otero Sr. (38), Julia Maria "Julie" Otero (33), Joseph "Joey" Otero II (9) and Josephine "Josie" Otero (11). Their bodies were discovered by the family's three older children, who had been at school at the time of the killings.[44][45] After his 2005 arrest, Rader claimed that he first targeted the family two months prior, when he spotted Julie leaving to take her children to school, and stalked them for two to three weeks.[46]
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-ra ... tic_device
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethic ... ted_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethic ... imentation
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4822534/
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Re: Takhisis: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
https://criticallegalthinking.com/2010/ ... zophrenia/
https://files.libcom.org/files/Anti-Oedipus.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6175004/
https://www.abdulymalik.com/writing/mr- ... capitalism
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Many people who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia have this fear of an overarching government conspiracy to spy on them and hide cameras and such. How would a medieval peasant with this condition be affected since they didn't have much of the technology at the time that we have now, to worry about?
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sunagainstgold
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7y ago
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It's true that no one would ever use the term "medieval surveillance state." However, the problem with that phrase is state, not surveillance.
You might be familiar, in media discussions, of the idea that we live (or in these accounts, lived) in a narrow band of history where there could be an expectation of privacy in the Western world. The typical image invoked is the village small enough that everyone knows everyone else's business. But that's still a fairly recent view.
Rewinding to the Middle Ages, we meet a concept called fama. This is a Latin word that means reputation or word on the street or rumor, some combination of those--and in medieval courts, fama was a legal principle with concrete implications.
Bad fama was used to discredit witnesses or reject their testimony altogether. According to 13th century French legal texts, in a lawsuit between someone with bonne renomee and someone with mals renome, the first person would receive the benefit of the doubt automatically. In some cases, bad fama would cause a person's lawsuit to be dismissed out of hand, or permit them to push for charges of fraud.
F. R. P. Akehurst citing civil jurist Philippe de Beaumanoir gives this exemplum of the power of fama--and who had control over it:
An innkeeper with a good reputation could avoid charges of having stolen property from his guests, but if his reputation were not very good he would be the most likely suspect, even if there were signs of forced entry and broken chests. In such a case, the reputation of the innkeeper would be determined by a judicial inquiry.
The only kind of evidence such an inquiry would turn up would be oral: what people said about a person could make or break him. The inquiry also delved into what other people thought of a person, what they remembered of him.
While Beaumanoir is writing a prescriptive text, Akehurst compares the procedures listed favorably in terms of reflecting contemporary practice. So we should take seriously what Beaumanoir is saying here: forensic or physical evidence did not determine the case; other people's opinions of a person close to the crime did. Gossip made reality.
There is also, for the late Middle Ages into the early modern era, the question of the sacrament of confession. This has a vast and contentious historiography, so in advance, I want to be clear that we have to distinguish between "the population at large" and "some individuals here and there"--that is, not everyone has the same experience or depth of exposure/intensity/care.
In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council very famously (well, okay, very famously to medievalists, which is not really very famously at all) decreed that all Christians of both sexes must confess their sins to their parish priest once a year. The actual point wasn't confession itself, of course--it was that lay Christians must receive the Eucharist once a year, and confession was necessary to cleanse one's soul before what was central enough to be just called "the sacrament."
In practice, however, the confession-Eucharist connection amounted to a strong focus on both sacraments in religious instruction: the Eucharist, that it was the genuine body and blood of Christ and reception was necessary for salvation; confession, what sins were and what was moral behavior and the necessary contrition-confession-penance triad. Oh, yeah, and that really you needed to confess to a priest and receive sacramental absolution; just shouting at the sky was insufficient for salvation purposes.
Now, this doesn't mean that in 1216, every Christian in the medieval West was confessing their sins on Palm Sunday just like that. However, participation ramped up over time; by the fifteenth century there were dioceses mandating confession more than once a year, and others reporting it was offered more frequently to certain groups ("women and students" being my favorite example).
Medievalists have absolutely called confession an attempted tool for social control or discipline. It's not an accident that even into the 15th century, German-language (not Latin!) texts on awareness and avoidance of sin divide wrath into murder, war, and arson--these are real issues people struggle with.
And as Pierre Payer pointed out, instructional manuals for confessors focus on sexual sins at a rate from twice as often as anger and greed (Robert Grossteste) to seventy-six times as often (Robert of Sorbon, we know who you are in the dark). The Church had long made the definition of marriage and attempt to control sex a centerpiece of its play for power over the Church on Earth to make sure it became the Church in heaven as well.
So looking at late medieval guides to confession, for priests and for lay people alike, scholars like Steven Ozment and Jean Delumeau argue for the late Middle Ages as a period of immense social anxiety over confession, over having to scrutinize every inch of your soul for every possible sin lest you miss a tiny thing that punts you to purgatory or even hell. The problem is, to this end they cite almost exclusively post-Reformation Protestants, especially Martin Luther. A significant chunk of whose theological game was that terror over confession and penance and never being good enough was part of the spiritual crisis and temptation of the devil that pushed him towards the 'breakthrough'. These are, in other words, absolutely not objective accounts.
Looking at medieval sources, we find a much more diverse picture. Standards for behavior/recognition of one's sins to the point of emotional self-mutilation became a hagiographical trope for women "living saints" like Dorothea von Montau and Elisabeth Achler. They're confessing every day, confessing every sin of their childhood over and over, etc etc.
And usually their hagiographer (also their confessor) is noting that these women should be examples of spiritual excellence, NOT role models to follow. There is also evidence from 15th and 16th century sermons that some theologian-priests were preaching that the desire to be saved, along with the sacraments, was enough even if one couldn't live up to behavioral standards.
Unfortunately, we can't do what we really want, which is to get down in a confession session between a priest and penitent and find out what confessors actually demanded. Did they scroll down the list of Latin questions about sins and translate to the vernacular on the fly? (These include things like "did you kill anyone" to "did you throw snowballs at someone passing by your house") Were they "one and done"-ing assembly line offering services? Of course, there was probably a variety of severity...and by the 15th century, lay people were gradually winning the right to choose their own confessors.
Which brings us, in fact, back to fama.
Confession today brings up mental images of "the confessional," the closed little private box, hushed voices. The confessional is an early modern invention. While priests were required to keep the so-called seal of the confessional, the actual practice of it would be the penitent standing next to the priest with a long line of their neighbors standing right there--easily in a position to overhear, popular literature attests.
I've illustrated, I think, the immense difficulty of securing emotional (not necessarily physical) privacy in the later Middle Ages, far beyond 'nosy neighbor' nostalgia for early 20th century Main Street, USA or 19th century prairie towns. I've also shown that people reacted with different intensity to aspects of this culture. That's not to say anything about 'mental illness' at all, you understand; I just want to start by breaking down a monolithic medieval Christian society in terms of responses to what we might see as "popular surveillance."
I am in general going to let the psychologists talk about schizophrenia and its history as a disorder, but I want to make a few remarks on how historians approach neuropsychiatric disorders. A lot of things about the Middle Ages scream "superstition!" to us today--fear of the devil, belief in mystical visions can easily read as delusions and paranoia. We need to distinguish what was quite normal to most medieval people from what can read as sliding into paranoia today.
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sunagainstgold
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What we think of as "mental illness" (or your preferred term) today is really a web of symptoms, many of which occur in many cases. There's significant blurring of boundaries and ambiguity, both between named disorders and between, well, dysfunction and function.
Now, the most famous medieval example doesn't really apply to schizophrenia. That's Caroline Walker Bynum's revelation (an appropriate word, given its impact in scholarship) that severe food asceticism--not eating--was a significant aspect of the perception of medieval women's holiness in the late Middle Ages, in many cases, THE most important. One can in fact find references to some of the other physical signs (amenorrhea) and behaviors (secret binge eating) associated with the modern disease of anorexia nervosa. But medieval women's practice, while sharing a similar underlying physical etiology, occurred for vastly different reasons and was perceived by them and others entirely differently.
Historians of the medieval and early modern era have generally not seen the symptoms of schizophrenia translated in a neat and somewhat-self-contained package like that. (Some of the other signs of sanctity attributed to women with miraculous inedia would more commonly today be associated with depression, hence "somewhat"). Basil Clarke, in his study of the prevalence of "mental disorder" in medieval England, put forth a paradigm that is helpful here, functionality. He argued that medieval people didn't recognize different disorders as acutely in lists of symptoms as we do, but rather by how thoroughly people were able to be integrated into everyday society--how well they functioned.
This perspective has good support from scholarship on the legal status of "idiots" (congential developmental/mental disability) and "lunatics" (mental disorder acquired later in life) in late medieval England, and also in an intriguing 17th century text by an English doctor named Thomas Willis. Willis studied what he called "Stupidity" and "Foolishness," dividing them along the traditional lines of congenital and acquired. He lists different types of foolishness, one of which Paul Cranefield argues lines up very neatly with what we'd recognize as schizophrenia today. Winfried Schleiner has illustrated a similar phenomenon at work in theological and pastoral work from the sixteenth century. Obviously this is very much not medieval, but it's a good illustration of a continuity in perspective and of a functionality approach at work.
That's also the framework historians apply to divine and diabolical visions. We don't judge the validity; we judge what people perceived and how they responded. And one of the things we detect in terms of the role of the devil and demons in visions is a societal shift over the course of the Middle Ages, though illustrated by individual examples. In the twelfth century, Hildegard of Bingen successfully performed an exorcism on a woman declared possessed. The most fascinating thing about this case (besides that it appears to be somewhat of a case of celebrity worship; the victim insisted that ONLY Hildegard could do it, and ONLY in person) is that the woman was allowed to keep preaching the devil's message in public until the exorcism.
This is a very different attitude than we see from men writing about holy women in the late fourteenth and fifteenth century, when they discuss the excessive, terrible torments that demons visit on them. (Think St. Anthony in the desert turned up to eleven, or twenty). What's important here are a couple of things. First, when women do their own writing, there are cases where this is a bigger deal (Christine von Stommeln) and noted in passing, easily defeated (Katharina Tucher). Second, these clerical authors are the ones reflecting and helping set the societal tone of increasing diabolism.
So there's a lot in the mix here, but we need to be very, very careful about pathologizing either individuals or society. I'll let u/hillsonghoods talk about the history and historiography of mental illness to talk about the science behind it, and why it matters.
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[deleted]
•
7y ago
This is a very different attitude than we see from men writing about holy women in the late fourteenth and fifteenth century, when they discuss the excessive, terrible torments that demons visit on them. (Think St. Anthony in the desert turned up to eleven, or twenty).
Do you have any suggested readings about holy women being tormented by demons then? Is that unique to that time period?
Thanks for the great response.
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u/sunagainstgold avatar
sunagainstgold
•
7y ago
For u/freddymungo:
The book you definitely want to start with Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims: A Medieval Woman Between Demons and Saints! RBK does a really great job placing Ermine and her confessor in their social and religious contexts. The last part of the book includes some of the Visions in translation, too.
For a particular case that's utterly fascinating--magic used by a woman (at her brother's instruction) to acquire literacy that turns out to invoke demonic possession as well--the introduction and commentary in Nicholas Watson and Claire Fanger, John of Morigny’s Flowers of Heavenly Teaching: An Edition and Commentary. (Fanger also has Rewriting Magic on John and Bridget, but I find this book kind of grating with here "my scholarly personal journey is as important as my research" angle)
And for u/Chamale, unfortunately, I'm not aware of any of the summae confessorum in English translation themselves (or even better, the mock scripts intended to teach similar things). There are a couple of similar types of text in the Pastors and the Care of Souls in Medieval England anthology--a list of reasons people could be excommunicated, and a list of questions that Church officials investigating how good a priest was at his job should ask. A lot of those concern the conduct of the laity ("Whether any lay persons play sports in sacred places").
It's possible there is something in the Medieval Popular Religion anthology, but I don't have that in front of me so I couldn't tell you for sure.
The snowball example is quoted in Steven Ozment, The Reformation in the Cities, but if you go down that road be aware that his "medieval confession led to the Reformation" thesis is...disputed.
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u/zeeblecroid avatar
zeeblecroid
•
7y ago
In the twelfth century, Hildegard of Bingen successfully performed an exorcism on a woman declared possessed. The most fascinating thing about this case (besides that it appears to be somewhat of a case of celebrity worship; the victim insisted that ONLY Hildegard could do it, and ONLY in person) is that the woman was allowed to keep preaching the devil's message in public until the exorcism.
Yow. I'm seeing like a half-dozen separate rather interesting things in that half-paragraph alone.
If I were to go hunting for more information about that whole situation, where would I look?
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u/sunagainstgold avatar
sunagainstgold
•
7y ago
Barbara Newman, "Possessed by the Spirit: Devout Women, Demoniacs, and the Apostolic Life in the Thirteenth Century," Speculum 73, no. 3 (1998) is a good secondary source - Newman is one of the most important and best Hildegard scholars, and she talks about the case as background to the 13C.
The primary source is Hildegard's hagiography, chapters 20-22, which is translated in Anna Silvas (trans.), Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources - if you're at all interested in Hildegard, this is an awesome book to get. It has the vitae of Hildegard and Jutta, her mentor, excerpts from the chronicle of the monastery where she started her religious career (before founding the Rupertsberg), some contemporary letters, the miracle collection assembled for the medieval effort at canonization, and a few miscellaneous texts.
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u/vStrelets avatar
vStrelets
•
7y ago
Rewinding to the Middle Ages, we meet a concept called fama. This is a Latin word that means reputation or word on the street or rumor, some combination of those--and in medieval courts, fama was a legal principle with concrete implications.
Bad fama was used to discredit witnesses or reject their testimony altogether. According to 13th century French legal texts, in a lawsuit between someone with bonne renomee and someone with mals renome, the first person would receive the benefit of the doubt automatically. In some cases, bad fama would cause a person's lawsuit to be dismissed out of hand, or permit them to push for charges of fraud.
F. R. P. Akehurst citing civil jurist Philippe de Beaumanoir gives this exemplum of the power of fama--and who had control over it:
An innkeeper with a good reputation could avoid charges of having stolen property from his guests, but if his reputation were not very good he would be the most likely suspect, even if there were signs of forced entry and broken chests. In such a case, the reputation of the innkeeper would be determined by a judicial inquiry.
The only kind of evidence such an inquiry would turn up would be oral: what people said about a person could make or break him. The inquiry also delved into what other people thought of a person, what they remembered of him.
While Beaumanoir is writing a prescriptive text, Akehurst compares the procedures listed favorably in terms of reflecting contemporary practice. So we should take seriously what Beaumanoir is saying here: forensic or physical evidence did not determine the case; other people's opinions of a person close to the crime did. Gossip made reality.
A lot of this reminds me a lot of what I read in Foucault's Discipline and Punishment, especially about how valid one's statement was depended on their reputation, yet I've heard recently that a lot of his work has been cast into doubt because of historical inaccuracies. How truthful is that?
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hillsonghoods
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7y ago
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Edited 7y ago
Firstly, schizophrenia is a confusing disorder to define, and not everybody reading this will have a very clear understanding of what it is. There's been enough things in the media, I think, so that people know the difference between schizophrenia and 'multiple personality disorder', but schizophrenia as currently defined in a diagnostic manual like the DSM-V has quite a wide array of symptoms; some may be surprised to discover that it is perfectly possible to have schizophrenia according to the DSM-V and not exhibit delusions and hallucinations.
Additionally, there are controversies about the nature of schizophrenia reflected in the DSM-V definition - it looks to many practitioners that the difference between bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia is more of a spectrum than very clearly delineated separate disorders; each of them involve oscillations between positive and negative periods, to some extent, and each of them involves changes in behaviour and thinking which diverge from the normal. And it's worth reminding people that schizophrenia is not set in stone as an idea - as an idea, it's currently not much more than a common constellation of symptoms which are helpful in diagnosis because it suggests a method of treatment. I mean, recent research suggests that we don't necessarily know if conditions like schizophrenia are actually a singular disorder, or whether it's a set of similar conditions that manifest similarly; the media often reports interesting research on various neurological causes and correlates of schizophrenia, and of genetics correlating with schizophrenia in particular ways, but nothing has yet been found that is a slam dunk THE CAUSE of the condition.
With those caveats in mind, our current understanding of schizophrenia as a medical condition - like pretty much every psychological disorder - postdates the medieval period. The idea of a medical condition that was something like schizophrenia - 'dementia praecox' - dates from the rise of German scientific psychiatry in the late 19th century, and the term 'schizophrenia' was coined in 1908. No English speaker in 1318 would have known what a schizophrenia is, and the way that they would describe people who experienced delusions and hallucinations would have been - was in, as u/sunagainstgold discusses in nice detail - a product of the way they saw the world.
It is, of course, implicit in the idea of a paranoid delusion that the delusion has to be compared with the normal way of seeing reality, and you don't have to be Michel Foucault for it to be blindingly obvious that the nature of society plays a major role in how we view reality, and thus what we class as delusions and what we class as very sensible behaviour and thinking. After all, to give an example, states in 2018 simply have the ability to access a lot of information about you that they did not have in 1998, thanks to big data, and so it starts to feel less delusive to believe that you're being watched (even if it's mostly just by algorithms trying to figure out how best to advertise to you).
And, essentially, even after psychiatrists had started using terms like 'dementia praecox' and 'schizophrenia', they often did not conceive of psychotic symptoms (i.e., things like delusions and hallucinations) in the same way as we do now, with an eye on the same constellations of symptoms as we do now. It's hard to tell whether, even in Freud's day in the early 20th century, the psychotic symptoms exhibited by a patient are due to what we now call schizophrenia (paranoid type), because Freud did not see schizophrenia through the same lens that we currently do, and he looks for different aspects of the symptoms than a modern psychologist or psychiatrist following the DSM-V diagnostic manual would. It is also the case that psychotic symptoms are caused by a whole range of things other than schizophrenia, from the ingestion of various chemicals (as you well know, you hippies), to the effect of medical disorders on the brain, to simply other psychological conditions that have psychotic symptoms as one of the symptoms.
What this means is that it is very clear that someone who insisted that they were a medieval knight in 2018 would obviously be deluded. But in 1318, they very well might have been a knight. Instead - if we assume that schizophrenia of the paranoid type is a unitary disorder (which we shouldn't, as I explain above) - the answer to your question is that the content of the delusions has not really been considered important to the definition of schizophrenia, and people have always found things to have delusions about which reflect the societies they live in. After all, the cameras of the late 19th century, when 'dementia praecox' was first discussed by the likes of Emil Kraepelin, were rather harder to hide than modern pinhole cameras, and, I mean, The X-Files hadn't yet been on TV at that point! The delusions of fin de siecle Europeans instead simply reflected fin de siecle European society.
So, in one famous case of the time, Daniel Schreber, a German judge, wrote a 1903 book titled Memoirs Of My Nervous Illness, describing his experiences of dementia praecox and in asylums, which Freud wrote a paper analysing in 1911. To quote from a 2009 paper by Thomas McGlashan re-analysing this case,
The core of Schreber’s delusion was that he had a mission to redeem the world and to restore mankind to their lost state of bliss. In order for this to happen, he had to be transformed bodily into a woman so that, as God’s concubine, he could give birth to a new race of humanity. In his application to the courts for release from asylum, Schreber never disavowed these delusions nor did he hide his intentions to publish his experiences as memoirs.
As such, the paranoid delusions of the era inevitably reflect that era's social concerns. It would not surprise me at all if the Protocols of the Elders of Zion - like Schreber's book, originally published in 1903 - played a large role in the paranoid delusions of the era - because, well, it was a major paranoid delusion of the era for a lot of people who apparently didn't suffer from 'dementia praecox'.
Moving back to medieval times, we move back to a time before people conceived of behaviours as being 'paranoid delusions' indicative of having 'schizophrenia'. To the extent that we can call medieval behaviours 'psychotic symptoms' - something that the medieval people themselves would lumped into 'foolishness', as u/sunagainstgold points out - those behaviours would have been expressed in profoundly different ways to how they're expressed now, because the world was profoundly different.
Or perhaps we can go one step further. It is possible that schizophrenia in the modern sense simply didn't exist in medieval times, because mental disorders are profoundly a product of a society. To the extent that our highly developed homo sapiens brains are evolved things, we have them because they help us interpret and navigate the world around us with precision and subtlety. A major part of the world around us that we need to interpret and navigate is social systems and beliefs and culture. It therefore, logically, is the case that if those social systems and beliefs and culture change, then the disorders that result from our interpreting and navigation systems being faulty will also change - our minds are equally a product of biology and society, being based on a biological entity - the brain - interacting with a society. So if society changes, our minds change. At a very basic level, the diagnosis of schizophrenia in the DSM-V requires that patients show 'impairment in one of the major areas of functioning for a significant period of time since the onset of the disturbance: work, interpersonal relations, or self-care.' But you can imagine ways in which psychotic symptoms might not cause impairment in functioning, and you can imagine societies which don't conflict with the neural systems that might be predisposed to schizophrenia in the modern world.
The classic example along these lines is, of course, hysteria. Freud's Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis talks about hysteria under the assumption that everyone - in an introductory lecture on psychoanalysis being published for a wider audience - already knows what hysteria is, in much the same way that everyone is assumed to know what depression is, because of all the awareness campaigns for depression and so forth. It was that common! The peculiar set of symptoms that seemed to characterise hysteria (the physicalisation of psychological distress, a certain sense of over-emotionality that is still seen in the layman's meaning of the word, etc, usually diagnosed in women) are way less common than they seem to have been in Freud's day. Nonetheless, hysteria is not a commonly discussed mental disorder in 2018 (when's the last time there were frenzied media stories about people with 'conversion disorder', which is what psychiatrists now call it?) and seems to be much less frequent than it was. If societal conditions in Freud's day played a role in the way that its disorder manifested, it seems likely that things like women's rights and a more sexually open society changed those conditions in a way that reduced its frequency. Schizophrenia and its paranoid delusions may also rely on the interaction of the brain with particular aspects of modern society - and therefore might not have occurred in medieval society, or might have manifested very differently. We don't know.
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Razakel
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7y ago
Thanks for this! I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on The Influencing Machine by Haslam - AFAIK it was the first clinical description of what we'd now call paranoid schizophrenia.
I think the most curious thing about it was that Haslam considered Matthews to be sane...
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hillsonghoods
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7y ago
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Edited 7y ago
Firstly, there's a little confusion here - John Haslam in 1810 wrote Illustrations Of Madness, which was the first detailed English language description of a 'madness' which to modern eyes looks like schizophrenia. As far as I can tell The Influencing Machine seems to have been the title of a description of the case from a disciple of Freud's. And Haslam does not seem to have considered Matthews to have been sane, as far as I can tell - but other doctors appear to have.
James Tilly Matthews was a English merchant living in France in the revolutionary period, and Matthews' unhelpful pronouncements about what was going on seems to have ended up in Matthews being confined in Bethlem (the insane asylum which famously contributed the word 'bedlam' to the English language). Haslam was a doctor at Bethlem who was clearly of the opinion that Matthews was a danger to himself and society because he had a set of very organised and complicated beliefs about Air Looms which could change how people thought, which were being run by a secretive group, and he believed he was being confined to Bethlem in order so that he could be influenced by the Air Looms. Matthews, being a person of decent social standing, was the subject of petitions by his family to be released from Bethlem, and had been interviewed by outside doctors who pronounced him sane; Illustrations Of Madness is Haslam's attempt to detail Matthews beliefs, in the clear view that the details will obviously show his madness.
Note here that while Haslam describes something that looks very much like schizophrenia, he never uses the word; in fact, he never tries to categorise Matthews into a particular kind of madness. Instead, he's happy calling Matthews 'insane' or 'mad', and does little interpretation of the Air Looms - instead, for Haslam, the description of the Air Looms is basically self-evident as madness. So while Haslam describes schizophrenia, he doesn't describe it as schizophrenia by any stretch of the imagination.
As a doctor at an insane asylum, it is fascinating that Haslam does not seem to see Matthews as indicative of a certain kind of madness, and scholars have wondered whether this is because Matthews' case is an unusual one, or a brand new one for the context of the early 19th century.
There's a 1989 paper by Peter Carpenter which analyses Haslam and Matthews in depth, fascinated by the way that schizophrenia seemingly jumps so vividly and clearly onto the record in Haslam's writing - Carpenter argues that it is difficult to tell whether it's seemingly the first clear case of schizophrenia simply because nobody else bothered to write detailed case notes, or because Matthews was unfortunately the first to be affected by societal changes. According to Carpenter:
Before Haslam, most published case histories are fairly short and do not describe the symptomatology of a case beyond physical appearance, lunatic behavior, and prominently bizarre ideation. They usually contain enough detail for a retrospective modern diagnosis of chronic psychosis, but they do not make any distinction between chronic organic syndromes, affective mania, and schizophrenia.
For Carpenter, the following is more typical of the way that patients in insane asylums of the era were described in the literature:
“MT T P, a maniac, not furious, but full of troublesome, false perceptions.”
“J J a young man. In the course of a few weeks became maniacal with a mixture of melancholy. When I saw him, his eyes were inflamed and looked wildly; he was restless, querulous, and irascible.”
This kind of description, of course, is too brief for a modern clinician to be able to diagnose anything with any conclusiveness whatsoever. But it's notable that these descriptions typically focus not on the contents of these patients' minds, but instead how much of a trouble they are to the madhouse doctors; in Carpenter's view, the doctors employed by Matthews' family to try and get him out of Bethlem seem to have believed that delusions were not worthy of sending someone to a madhouse if they were quiet about it and didn't offend anyone important.
And this is the key question in terms of whether schizophrenia existed before James Tilly Matthews: is it scarce in the medical literature because people simply didn't interpret that behaviour as being caused by medical issues, or is it scarce because doctors in madhouses never bothered to write things down...or is it simply rare before the 19th century? The literature on the issue is seemingly united on the answer being 'we don't know', but varies in terms of what lies behind that 'we don't know' (for all the reasons I discussed above). The case of Matthews is important not because Haslam had insights into schizophrenia as a mental disorder, but because he simply described the 'singular' case of someone with enough detail that it looks a lot like schizophrenia to modern eyes.
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u/sunagainstgold avatar
sunagainstgold
•
7y ago
I mentioned elsewhere in the thread a 1683 medical text by Thomas Willis that e.g. Paul Cranefield argues develops a reasonable approximation of symptoms we associate with schizophrenia as a type of "foolishness." His comparison comes from a 1951 source, and obviously science marches on. So I was wondering about your thoughts on this:
There is commonly wont to be a distinction between Stupidity and Foolishness, for those affected with this latter apprehend simple things well enough, dextrously and swiftly, and retain them firm in their memory, but by reason of a defect of judgment, they compose or divide their notions evilly, and very badly inferr one thing from another; moreover, by their folly, and acting sinistrously [awkwardly] and ridiculously, they move laughter in the by standers.
Is this something general enough to be "insanity" or "madness", or specific enough to be an uncanny early grouping of symptoms the way later doctors would? Also, the chapter in question was apparently absorbed into a very important medical encyclopedia at the end of the century; is it unusual that there would have been no legacy of this idea/definition of foolishness?
I should also note this is a 1683 translation of a Latin original from 1672.
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pwr1962
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7y ago
It seems to me (and this is just conjecture) that most of the people confined to asylums in those days were probably of the “lower classes” and were just put there in order to keep them out of trouble. People who came from affluent families were probably locked away and cared for by their families. As such, medical records of institutionalized patients would be confined to only the most superficial details. Nobody cared enough to really try and help them.
Matthews sounds like he might have come from a middle or upper class family. That might have warranted more effort from the staff. Just a theory.
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yodatsracist
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7y ago
Have you by any chance happened across Liah Greenfeld’s Mind, Modernity, and Madness, and if so, do you have an opinion on it? I know her from her work on nationalism, where she’s a bit influential, and from what I can tell, many in the field seem to think she’s gone off the deep-end in her later career for writing books like that. But it seems firmly within the bounds of the conversations that you’re discussing, about whether schizophrenia (and her argument, other mental illnesses) could have arisen with modernity.
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u/darkon avatar
darkon
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7y ago
I read this comment because of your post "On why 'Did Ancient Warriors Get PTSD?' isn't such a simple question." Something that occurred to me is that if there were schizophrenics in medieval times their delusions may have manifested as ghosts, demons, succubi, fairies, and a host of other mythical creatures. Maybe Joan of Arc was schizophrenic; IIRC she claimed she heard God speaking to her. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this possibility, but schizophrenia is not something I've often encountered or given much thought to.
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Georgy_K_Zhukov
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Please understand that people come here because they want an informed response from someone capable of engaging with the sources, and providing follow up information. While there are other sites where the answer may be available, simply dropping a link, or quoting from a source, without properly contextualizing it, is a violation of the rules we have in place here. These sources of course can make up an important part of a well-rounded answer, but do not equal an answer on their own. You can find further discussion of this policy here.
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We ask that answers in this subreddit be in-depth and comprehensive, and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with the rules and our Rules Roundtable on Speculation.
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"
https://scholarshare.temple.edu/bitstre ... 7/download
https://tacity.co.uk/2024/04/23/capital ... y-reading/
https://www.datawranglers.com/negations ... retti.html
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/epri ... Thesis.pdf
https://www.arasite.org/massumi.html
http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/12 ... 0Cohen.pdf
Meta-Analysis of the Association of Urbanicity With Schizophrenia - PMC
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3494055/
"
The association between urbanicity and risk of schizophrenia is well established. The incidence of schizophrenia has been observed to increase in line with rising levels of urbanicity, as measured in terms of population size or density. This association is expressed as Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR), and the results are usually presented by comparing the most urban with the most rural environment. In this study, we undertook to express the effect of urbanicity on the risk of schizophrenia in a linear form and to perform a meta-analysis of all available evidence. We first employed a simple regression analysis of log (IRR) as given in each study on the urbanicity category, assuming a uniform distribution and a linear association. In order to obtain more accurate estimates, we developed a more sophisticated method that generates individual data points with simulation from the summary data presented in the original studies, and then fits a logistic regression model. The estimates from each study were combined with meta-analysis. Despite the challenges that arise from differences between studies as regards to the number and relative size of urbanicity levels, a linear association was observed between the logarithm of the odds of risk for schizophrenia and urbanicity. The risk for schizophrenia at the most urban environment was estimated to be 2.37 times higher than in the most rural environment. The same effect was found when studies measuring the risk for nonaffective psychosis were included.
A strong association between exposure to an urban environment and the development of schizophrenia has been supported by many studies, which provide evidence that this is not just an epiphenomenon of the social drift of patients with schizophrenia or differential service utilization.1 Although confounders could explain part of this association (because city life may be related to higher rates of substance abuse or ethnic minority status, which are risk factors for schizophrenia themselves), studies controlling for a wide range of possible confounders have confirmed this association.2
Since the initial study that suggested a link between urbanicity and schizophrenia,3 several replications have been conducted, mainly in Europe. Despite the different methodologies used for the measurement of urban exposure (population size or density), window of exposure (birth, upbringing, or illness onset), and disease definition (narrow schizophrenia or broad psychosis), they have mostly confirmed that living in urban environment increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. Furthermore, they suggest that the incidence of schizophrenia is associated with the degree of exposure to urban environment in terms of duration and severity.4 These studies have been summarised in 2 recent reviews.5,6
An estimate of the pooled effect of urbanicity on schizophrenia risk derived from these studies would be useful for developing risk prediction models. However, the variable number, size, and definition of the various exposure categories make meta-analysis difficult. For this reason most attempts to convey or summarise the findings compare the baseline rural with the most urban group, without regard to whether these categories are defined in a similar manner across studies.
The present study performs meta-analysis of relative risks for urbanicity of these studies pooling findings from all categories of urbanicity. We express the increased risk of schizophrenia relative to a continuous variable of the level of exposure to the risk factor (urbanicity index). This novel method could be applied to other underlying quantitative risk factors for schizophrenia or other diseases where the primary studies have used ordered comparison groups, like paternal age at birth or use of cannabis.
"
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/ ... renia.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... d_the_city
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0324000537
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 6423002827
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ps ... 31089/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 4424000665
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human- ... izophrenia
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1 ... 44-gr1.jpg
https://media.springernature.com/lw1200 ... 2_HTML.jpg
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09563
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.070039597
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6513697/
https://www.deviantart.com/tangaboa/art ... -768706512
"
Drip, drip, drip.
That sound. That constant sound. You journeyed into this labyrinth of caves what feels like days ago and it sucked you into its dark clutches.
Drip, drip, drip.
Water. It's got to be water surely? You saw a series of streams a while ago. It must be just damp in the cave. Perhaps dripping off one of those, nasty looking mushrooms?
Drip, drip, drip.
It sounds closer somehow. You wave your torch around in the dark. Nothing. Just rocks.
Drip, drip, drip.
Closer again. You stumble backwards dropping your torch. You fall what must be ten feet or more. Your torch still on a ledge above.
Drip, drip, drip.
You feel it now. There on the ledge, a cloaked figure and where the face should be, all you see is a mass of squirming tentacles. In a blink, the figure is gone. You scramble backwards in the dark.
Drip, drip, drip.
Right in your ear...
"
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/175-how ... 6Ngrd7nOvR
Added in 11 minutes 56 seconds:
Re: Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
Weird comment:
"
@sirsurfalot2012
12 years ago
I get postmodernism. There are many possibilities. Everything we understand and carry out is relative and never absolute. I'm not arguing for novelty of invention/originality but that Islam 'did it first' does place it in a rightful position of influence. To come back to an earlier point it is difficult to have a lasting influence therefore it could be there is something there more than smoke and mirrors. History books acknowledge indeed there is something.
"
https://m.youtube.com/@sirsurfalot2012
Added in 18 minutes 46 seconds:
Re: Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
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atreestump
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Re: Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
Sorry, can you, if you don't mind, provide or quote the link for me, so I'll read through it again. Also, I'd like to know in detail, when and if you have the time and feel up to it, about what it said and said wrong or that you disagree with.
The things I put up are not necessarily things I put up to show support for them, a lot of the time, maybe practically always, I'm also criticizing or poking fun at things, but I try to bring up different things people may have said to get it going as the background and atmosphere and then for the reader (usually expected to just be me, but it makes me happy that you read something and thought about it) to wrestle with it rigorously. I'm very excited to see which article you mean and to approach it again myself in various ways.
I'm pretty confident that I will probably not think too well on their understanding or assessment either, since some people haven't read as much on these things but still try to approach topics they think might be relatively obscure and to pretend they know something, I see it a lot. Not what I'm trying to do though.
These threads are like locations and levels on a map, so this one is meant to be a representation of "The State" up top, and then gets into labyrinthine catacombs and further into caverns underneath, as it becomes increasingly dark and paranoid, so the threads have an "architecture" to them and are supposed to be an environment.
The Lolth thread is similar as is the Myrkul thread, but each are different also and different areas, having to do with different denizens also, as Lolth has to do with things related to the Drow and Myrkul with Lich, and this one with Min Flayers, but in a more expansive way than just those as literally part of games, but encompassing all kinds of themes to do with all the ideas brought up and connected to them.
I wonder if that can be of any use at all to make reading through these threads more like an adventure, with imagination and creativity also, if you aren't already doing that and might be willing to at any time.
Added in 11 minutes 53 seconds:
One other feature to note is that "The State" has a very boxy and hierarchal, Ziggurat-like structure, while the caverns below it are practically the opposite in their appearance, yet each is representing something similar and a kind of madness overall, and this feature also appears in this popular and much promoted art:
https://www.bryancharnley.info/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12241012/
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81w ... Mwebp_.jpg
I might have to try to get that book.
https://maplecommunity.com.au/the-amazi ... renic-art/
The gawking is rude and part of it, plus the pedestal.
Though this is even more perfectly what I am describing, wow!
I reccomend saving all that artwork, I will at least, that is so right for this topic.
Added in 13 minutes 54 seconds:
The State frequently operates through inducing "fascination", not always necessarily pomp and spectacle, which is often seen in some aspects, but more particularly highlighting and hyper-fixating on things which pull people in, lick them in, and incentivizing certain states of mind which also might not be obvious but trap people into a world that isn't very real but seems all-pervading, and it uses bodily pain also, even indirectly, to make itself seem real and present, so the organism feels that it is trapped in numerous ways and can't see a way out because of somatic association.
Added in 2 days 20 hours 44 minutes 38 seconds:
I posted my possibly similar and related writing here, which combined into some earlier posts, but the song lyrics in those are fully relevant and part of it all as well as all that ended up combining and the rest that appears in that thread which refers to my writing in general as I've been writing online and offline since the 90s:
viewtopic.php?p=3116#p3116
I even used to hand out hard disks where there were these kinds of things abd interactive missions lol. I've had a fascinating literary history and history of using writing in very unusual ways since childhood, since I was born in 1986 but started using writing very early on.
Added in 2 days 22 hours 7 minutes 11 seconds:
If you don't mind, and hopefully you won't mind, I'm applying this to what is written above.
I'm engaging with these themes throughout the various threads, such as:
viewtopic.php?p=3162#p3162
"
Consider the impasse of a one-god universe
He is all-knowing and all-powerful
He can't go anywhere since he is already everywhere
He can't do anything since the act of doing presupposes opposition
His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic
Having no friction by definition
So he has to create friction
War, fear, sickness, death
To keep his dying show on the road
Sooner or later
"Look, boss, we don't have enough energy left
To fry an elderly woman in a fleabag hotel bar"
"Well, we'll have to start faking it"
Joe looks after him sourly and mixes a bicarbonate of soda
Sure, start faking it, sure, and leave the details to Joe
Now look, from a real disaster, you get a pig event
Sacrifice, heroism, grief, separation, fear, and violent death
And remember, one violent death yields more energy than a cancer ward
So, from an energy surplus, you can underwrite the next one
So, from an energy surplus, you can underwrite the next one
But the first one is a fake, you can't underwrite a shit house
Try to explain to God Almighty where his one-god universe is going
Asshole doesn't know what buttons to
Push or what happens when you push them
Man and ship, goddammit, every man for himself
Recollect Pope John XXIII saying
"Like a little soldier, I stand at
Attention in the presence of my captain"
The old army game from here to eternity
Get there firstest with the brownest nose
"
"
(transitive) To support, lend support to, guarantee the basis of.
"
https://www.etymonline.com/word/subscribe
http://www.vlib.us/beats/mrhartmcneill.jpg
https://internationaltimes.it/incidenta ... opposition.
https://ashejournal.com/2015/03/15/burr ... own-words/
https://realitysandwich.com/magical_uni ... burroughs/
http://www.ccru.net/archive/burroughs.htm
https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2005 ... burro.html
https://realitystudio.org/images/covers ... iverse.pdf
https://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2011/03 ... ern-lands/
"
101. These were troubled times. There was war in the heavens, as the One God attempted to exterminate or neutralize the Many Gods and establish a seat of absolute power.
"
https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/03/ ... upon-life/
https://wuwr.pl/awr/article/download/23 ... ure=shared
"
Dusk was falling and blue shadows gathered in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east. Sangre de Cristo! Rivers of blood! Mountains of blood! Does Christ never get tired of bleeding?
"
Added in 41 minutes 25 seconds:
https://electronicbookreview.com/public ... ghs-lives/
"
William S. Burroughs held action in as high regard as subversion. The following review-essay requires “you” (the protagonist) to enter into the text’s hypertext metaphor, linking Burroughs’ iconic/popular image to the fixed visual image of the artist as “literary outlaw.” The tone will shift with the topic under discussion, and your position, in reference to Burroughs, may shift accordingly.
"
"
If William S. Burroughs’ multifarious fascinations could be represented pictographically in a poly-textual, poly-vocal new-media construction, in a way analogous to what his eventual transition from writing into visual art seemed to prophesy - in the way that such works as Ah Pook is Here and Other Texts (1979) or The Western Lands (1987) attempt to cleave the linguistic “is” of identity from the language virus - then the representation might be a website with enough visual hyperlinks to make you simultaneously dizzy and sick.
And if some enterprising young counter-culture collective indeed crafted a Web locus to mirror the spate of recent work by or about Burroughs since the advent of Timothy S. Murphy’s landmark critical work, Wising Up the Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs (1997), followed soon after by the James Grauerholz- and Ira Silverberg- edited Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (1998), the locus would still be adding information about the most recent titles: Naked Lunch: The Restored Text edited by Grauerholz and Barry Miles (March 2003), Oliver Harris’s William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination from Southern Illinois University Press, and the Harris-edited 50th-anniversary edition of Burroughs’ first novel, Junky, from Viking Press (both April 2003) - in order to update the all-important meta-tags covering the familiar, if ethereal, territory of what you already know about Burroughs
"
https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2020 ... harma.html
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2 ... tern-lands
Added in 3 minutes 13 seconds:
"
So he starts faking it. He is putting out human stock without the names. Literally Nameless Assholes, NAs. Their name is mud. Their name is shit. Without Angel, Heart, Double or Shadow. Nothing but remains, kept operational by borrowed power overdrawn on the Energy Bank... physical bodies animated by bum life checks.
"
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki ... f_Troubles
Added in 47 seconds:
I don't use A.I. at all, but I'm interested in playing with Microsoft Co-Pilot again possibly since I liked how it was able to list things, translate things, but everything had to be verified anyway because of how casually it brings up incorrect information. It was seemingly able to access academic resources online with a lot more speed and ease than to do so manually.
This video uses A.I. for just about every aspect of it, an almost entirely automated video.
The speech or writing patterns of A.I. show a lot of repeated things it does, the most frequent and noticeable seems to be the tendency to say things like:
It wasn't just "A", it was "B".
I specifically put the Ghostbusters video in here because of how many layers relate to the topic in this thread, including to some degree the original story of Ghostbusters before it was brought "down to Earth".
https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/s ... cs-spectre
https://purl.stanford.edu/ys194fp6634
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_word
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/31 ... host-and-i
https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ljcs/article/id/56/
Added in 1 hour 11 minutes 22 seconds:
Added in 6 days 15 hours 15 minutes 28 seconds:
https://aidungeon.com/
There was this text based but pretty advanced seeming game online in the 2000s and I can't recall the name of it. It was full of details and was very well made, one would type in things and it would respond. There was a city of demons in it called Magnacora or Magmacora or something. I can't find a darn thing about it online with the horrible search engines that seem to prioritize only new things, I used to be able to get much better results many years ago.
https://www.merentha.com/
I wonder if this is it.
https://www.merentha.com/about.html
It doesn't seem to be.
I also wonder if one could use A.I. to scan through all information from a few games and book series and use it to create an A.I. game system, even with generating art and music, where one can type anything and go on an adventure through the game world encompassing most fantasy, from all information from mythology,
tabletop and video games, fictional fantasy books, text games (MUDs), online encyclopedias of games.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfwood
"
In 2003, Elfwood had 6700 artists and 1300 writers. It logged 14500 sessions per day, each averaging 35 minutes in length. Sixty percent of the users were in the USA and most of the rest in Canada and Europe.[16]
"
"
Elfwood had been praised as an outlet for alternative beliefs.[2] The community had been described as a "very interactive place where people are very supportive," in a quote from the San Jose Mercury News.[19]
The FARP section of the site had been frequently recommended as a free resource for tutorials in a wide variety of creative topics.[20][21][22][23] For example, TeachEngineering.org cited two of FARP's tutorials as "excellent guides" for figure drawing and writing about action, Figure Drawing: Basic Pose and Construction by William Li and Writing Action by S. B. "Kinko" Hulsey.[24]
"
"
Dissolved
2016; 9 years ago
"
"
In June 2001, Elfwood was closed due to death threats after a man with the alias "Assassin" threatened to throw gasoline on the ERB crew and burn them alive. The site reopened a month later.[3] In July the FanQuarter area was opened. At the end of 2001 changes to Elfwood were put on hold so a more manageable system could be created. Elfwood was reopened in February 2002 with a new moderating system.[3]
In January 2004 the sections known as Zone 47 and Lothlorien merged to create the current SF&F Art area. Along with the change came a new layout for the whole site, as well as revisions to the rules. In November of that year, Elfwood artist Paul Cameron Bennett was charged in League City, Texas for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, Margaret “Katy” Catherine Wilkerson, whom he met through a chat-room linked through Elfwood.[6]
Elfwood had a major crash, dubbed "the infamous April Fool's Day Elfwood crash,"[7] on the first of April in 2005. All data was lost and the last backup was from February. The site came back with a timewarp to February and the rules were again revised and rewritten. Archived copies of the Elfwood statistics counter from the Wayback Machine show 8000 fewer images and 200 fewer stories between the 1st and 10 April 2005.[8][9]
"
I wonder if you can create a primitive mode, something that can be toggled on or off, and that makes the content on all the sites, or particularly this one, look like an old website lol.
"
After 11 years as an amateur website, Elfwood was transformed into a commercial community in September 2007,[10] adding new features for creating user profiles also for visiting users, tagging of favorite members and works and much more. Founder Thomas Abrahamsson said, "Cost for hosting and servers had become too high to handle as a hobby project."[10] With this came the move of the servers from Linköping University. Before the move, Abrahamsson was frequently physically unable to access the servers to maintain the site due to their former location at the university grounds, which were locked down during the holidays.[3]
In May 2009, Elfwood launched a completely revised set of simplified rules, accepting a much wider range of works and even out-of-genre items under a special 'Other Works' tab. The Extranet was taken down its functions fully transferred to the main site, replaced by a more user friendly upload interface and simpler moderation process.
Later on Elfwood's first Art Collaboration Club was born called "Bitfrost Fantasy", founded by Paula Fletcher. The name Bifrost was taken from Norse Mythology, being the sparkling rainbow bridge that connects Aesgard (land of the gods) and Midgard (land of mortals). Bifrost's goal was to "build a bridge" between fantasy artists and writers, from all over the world, in a creative and friendly atmosphere.
"
Fricken RUINED, commercialization be DAMNED.
https://www.galvnews.com/news/man-clear ... 8435b.html
They had an adventure!
Added in 30 minutes 16 seconds:
http://www.elfwood.com/
https://evilplexity.artstation.com/projects/Z5KPR
I liked their older art. A lot of times, people seem to get worse in my opinion, like they start getting influenced by certain thinking and self-critcism, matching standards, and they lose their innocence.
https://members.tripod.com/~The_Prophetess/elfwood.html
https://jrients.tripod.com/otus/otus.html
https://www.tumblr.com/otusshrine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erol_Otus
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01 ... d.html?m=1
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2024/08 ... e.html?m=1
https://reactormag.com/an-interview-wit ... erol-otus/
https://garycon.com/2025/03/03/erol-otus/
It makes me want to cry, so sends me to the Minthara thread which has to do with themes of the past, nostalgia, yearning for the past things, the naivety, the innocence.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/one-of-my ... 068463805/
https://johnsusansexcellentadventure.co ... naive-art/
It is really so pretentious to call this "naive art" lol.
https://www.askart.com/auction_records/ ... vacic.aspx
It is fricken amazing art, they can shove "naive" up their snooty butts, with their boring bullsh*t "art", soulsucked blandness that passes as art these days, compared to this stuff they call "naive" because the person was supposedly spared from their mind destroying lessons.
https://coget.toysafter.homes/index.php ... ts_id=3805
https://en.artoffer.com/Juja-x/Juja-x-F ... -Art/89349
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KzO4-RuhvQw/ ... reen+1.bmp
https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-cont ... -Art-1.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ec/eb/80/eceb ... 54cbb8.jpg
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2021/12 ... e.html?m=1
https://2warpstoneptune.com/wp-content/ ... lbum-4.jpg
I may need to get this book.
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6055/62 ... 002a_o.jpg
Added in 1 hour 29 minutes 49 seconds:
https://waynesbooks.games/2024/09/24/da ... 1991-1995/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun
https://darksun.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Sun_Wiki
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelljammer
https://spelljammer.fandom.com/wiki/Spelljammer_Wiki
https://realitystudio.org/bibliographic ... manifesto/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MUDs
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LegendMUD
"
Koster wrote "A Story About a Tree", a short essay and epitaph about the death of a LegendMUD player named Karyn. An investigative journalist later disproved evidence of Karyn's death.[6] Richard Bartle considered the incident to be a key event in the development of virtual worlds' ethics, similar to "A R*pe in Cyberspace".[verification needed] The 'death' demonstrated that people can develop feelings for each other via the virtual world medium, thus experiencing real emotions about somebody they've never met, even an entirely fictional persona. A Story About a Tree is considered as a major counterargument against the "it's just a game" point of view on virtual worlds. Furthermore, it showcased that while being a very real object of grief to one party, it can indeed remain just a game for another.[7]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace
"
"A R*pe in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" is an article written by freelance journalist Julian Dibbell and first published in The Village Voice in 1993. The article was later included in Dibbell's book My Tiny Life on his LambdaMOO experiences.
Lawrence Lessig has said that his chance reading of Dibbell's article was a key influence on his interest in the field.[1] Sociologist David Trend called it "one of the most frequently cited essays about cloaked identity in cyberspace".[2]
"
"
Dibbell's "A R*pe in Cyberspace" and other publications that he has made about the Bungle incident have been seen by many scholars and professionals as a key foundation in the topic of virtual r*pe.[12] The article has been used to take a look at the moral nature of actions within the virtual world.[11]
Since the Mr. Bungle case, LambdaMOO set up an arbitration system so that people can file suit against one another and this system has been put into use with the matter of a virtual death.[13]
Over two decades later, these events remain one of the primary advertisements for LambdaMOO. Research students still regularly visit the MOO (often sent there by their professors) and start asking users about these events.[5]
This article draws attention to a more modern version of the platonic binary, otherwise known as the mind-body split. The event described in the article illustrates the intellectual self from the physical self through the typing of words on a screen.[14]
Dibbell continued to participate in LambdaMOO, up to 30 hours a week, and eventually wrote My Tiny Life about his experiences, incorporating the article.[15] He remains somewhat astonished at the impact it has had, saying in 1998, "No piece I had done before had managed to convey as vividly to readers the fact that there was something wild and different going on online, something that might profoundly alter the way they related to words and communication and culture in general."[16]
The article raised awareness in the legal implications of online activity, including Lawrence Lessig, and Dibbell himself would go on to teach cyberlaw as a Fellow at Stanford Law School Center for the Internet and Society.[17] The article is also considered one of the earliest examples of New Games Journalism where review of computer games are meshed with social observation and consideration of surrounding issues.[citation needed]
In 2018 The Village Voice reprinted the article following a reported gang r*pe in Roblox.[18]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furcadia
"
Sherry Turkle developed a theory that the constant use (and in many cases, overuse) of MUDs allows users to develop different personalities in their environments. She uses examples, dating back to the text-based MUDs of the mid-1990s, showing college students who simultaneously live different lives through characters in separate MUDs, up to three at a time, all while doing schoolwork. The students claimed that it was a way to "shut off" their own lives for a while and become part of another reality. Turkle claims that this could present a psychological problem of identity for today's youths.[8]
"A Story About A Tree" is a short essay written by Raph Koster regarding the death of a LegendMUD player named Karyn, raising the subject of inter-human relationships in virtual worlds.
Observations of MUD-play show styles of play that can be roughly categorized. Achievers focus on concrete measurements of success such as experience points, levels, and wealth; Explorers investigate every nook and cranny of the game, and evaluate different game mechanical options; Socializers devote most of their energy to interacting with other players; and then there are Killers who focus on interacting negatively with other players, if permitted, killing the other characters or otherwise thwarting their play. Few players play only one way; most exhibit a diverse style.[89] According to Richard Bartle, "People go there as part of a hero's journey—a means of self-discovery".[90]
Research has suggested that various factors combine in MUDs to provide users with a sense of presence rather than simply communication.[91]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Turkle
"
In The Second Self (1984), Turkle defines the computer as more than just a tool, but part of our everyday personal and psychological lives. She looks at how computers affect the way we look at ourselves and our relationships with others, claiming that technology defines the way we think and act. Turkle's book allows us to view and reevaluate our own relationships with technology.
In her process of evaluating our relationships with computers, Turkle interviews children, college students, engineers, AI scientists, hackers and personal computer owners in order to further understand our relationships with computers and how we interact with them on a personal level. The interviews showed that computers are both a part of our selves as well as part of the external world. In this book, Turkle tries to figure out why we think of computers in such psychological terms, how this happens and what this means for all of us.[8]
In Life on the Screen (1995), Turkle presents a study of how people's use of the computer has evolved over time, and the profound effect that this machine has on its users. The computer, which connects millions of people across the world together, is changing the way we think and see ourselves. Although it was originally intended to serve as a tool to help us to write and communicate with others, it has more recently transformed into a means of providing us with virtual worlds which we can step into and interact with other people. The book discusses how our everyday interactions with computers affect our minds and the way we think about ourselves. In particular, interacting with these virtual worlds, especially through language, can shift a unitary sense of self into one with a multiplicity of identities.[9]
Turkle also discusses the way our human identity is changing due to the fading boundary between humans and computers, and how people now have trouble distinguishing between humans and machines. It used to be thought that humans were nothing like machines, because humans had feelings and machines did not. However, as technology has improved, computers have become more and more human-like, and these boundaries had to be redrawn. People now compare their own minds to machines, and talk to them freely without any shame or embarrassment. Turkle questions our ethics in defining and differentiating between real life and simulated life.[10]
In Alone Together (2011), Turkle explores how technology is changing the way we communicate. In particular, Turkle raises concerns about the way in which genuine, organic social interactions become degraded through constant exposure to illusory meaningful exchanges with artificial intelligence. Underlying Turkle's central argument is the fact that the technological developments which have most contributed to the rise of inter-connectivity have at the same time bolstered a sense of alienation between people. The alienation involves links between social networks favouring those of proper conversations.
Turkle's main argument in the first part of the book is that our interactions with robots that simulate emotion pose serious threats to our ability to relate to one another properly. Turkle discusses robots that have been designed to interact with humans on an emotional level; she fears that they may then replace other humans and animals in these emotional roles. Turkle is concerned that we often attribute certain qualities to robots that the robots do not in fact possess, and that our emotional interactions with other humans become eroded as a direct result. Turkle's concern is that our appreciation for human interaction may become eroded.
The second part of the book examines the nature of online social interactions, and the way in which social media has changed how people, particularly younger people, connect with one another. Turkle argues that because people in interpersonal social situations, particularly young people, are often distracted by their phones, they will pay insufficient attention to one another, creating increasingly shallow relationships. Turkle argues that teenagers' reliance on friends' advice prevents self-reflection, leading to less personal independence.
Turkle talks about the nature of privacy in the post 9/11 world, arguing that privacy was sacrificed in exchange for safety. Turkle argues that because they have grown up as part of a world in which privacy is regarded as increasingly tenuous, children do not always appreciate the full value of privacy, which in turn causes them to share even more personal details on the web. This further depreciates the value of privacy in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Using her 15 year of experience, Turkle uses Alone Together to explore the question of whether or not technology is bringing quality to our lives. Turkle argues people use technology to escape from reality and emotions, which weakens genuine relationships.[11]
In 2011, Turkle was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, where she spoke briefly about Alone Together, and the impact that technology has on communication skills.[12]
Turkle gave a TED talk on the subject of Alone Together in February 2012, under the title "Connected, but alone?"[13]
Reclaiming Conversation and The Power of Talk in A Digital Age (2015) is Turkle's examination of evolving interpersonal and intrapersonal communications,. In the preamble, Turkle cites Henry David Thoreau's Walden as providing guidance for the structure of the book: "I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."[14] This book is thus divided into three general parts: a single chair for intrapersonal communication, two chairs concerning the importance of conversations in friendships, families and romances, and three chairs for interpersonal communication such as in school, work, and politics.[15] Turkle gathered data from schools, companies, families, and articulates the statistical and psychoanalytic barriers that have forced users to "sacrifice conversation for mere connection".[16] This trade-off in interwoven intimacies and apps ultimately withholds the necessary "face-to-face experiences that are needed for generating authentic connection".[17]
The capacity to interact on a personal or private basis is the cornerstone to empathy, and Turkle argues that loneliness is also essential to this.[18] Paradoxically, Turkle presents the blossoming of technologies role in our reconciliation of lonely experiences and maintaining close social interactions.[17] While access to mobile devices can empower connections with pre-existing relationships, it can also harm the general sense of solitude and ability to meet personal and social standards on a grander scale. The ability to connect through technology then becomes the compromise that chatting online is "better than nothing".[17]
Turkle gave a talk for Google about her book Reclaiming Conversation.[19]
Aziz Ansari responded to Reclaiming Conversation by saying, "In a time in which the ways we communicate and connect are constantly changing, and not always for the better, Sherry Turkle provides a much needed voice of caution and reason to help explain what the f*** is going on."[20]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert
"
Papert worked on learning theories, and was known for focusing on the impact of new technologies on learning in general, and in schools as learning organizations in particular.
Constructionism
edit
At MIT, Papert went on to create the Epistemology and Learning Research Group at the MIT Architecture Machine Group which later became the MIT Media Lab.[14] Here, he was the developer of a theory on learning called constructionism, built upon the work of Jean Piaget in constructivist learning theories. Papert had worked with Piaget at the University of Geneva from 1958 to 1963[15] and was one of Piaget's protégés; Piaget himself once said that "no one understands my ideas as well as Papert".[16] Papert has rethought how schools should work, based on these theories of learning.
Logo
edit
Papert used Piaget's work in his development of the Logo programming language while at MIT. He created Logo as a tool to improve the way children think and solve problems. A small mobile robot called the "Logo Turtle" was developed, and children were shown how to use it to solve simple problems in an environment of play. A main purpose of the Logo Foundation research group is to strengthen the ability to learn knowledge.[17] Papert insisted a simple language or program that children can learn—like Logo—can also have advanced functionality for expert users.[2]
Other work
edit
As part of his work with technology, Papert has been a proponent of the Knowledge Machine. He was one of the principals for the One Laptop Per Child initiative to manufacture and distribute The Children's Machine in developing nations.
Papert also collaborated with the construction toy manufacturer Lego on their Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits,[18] which were named after his groundbreaking 1980 book.[4]
A curated archive of Papert's articles, speeches, and interviews may be found on a website dedicated to Papert at: The Daily Papert.
Personal life
edit
Papert became a political and anti-apartheid activist early in his life in South Africa. He subsequently chose self exile.[10] He was a leading figure in the revolutionary socialist circle around Socialist Review while living in London in the 1950s.[19] Papert was also a prominent activist against South African apartheid policies during his university education.[4]
Papert was married to Dona Strauss, and later to Androula Christofides Henriques.[4]
Papert's third wife was MIT professor Sherry Turkle, and together they wrote the influential paper "Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete".[20]
In his final 24 years, Papert was married to Suzanne Massie, who was a Russian scholar and author of Pavlovsk: The Life of a Russian Palace and Land of the Firebird.[4][21]
Accident in Hanoi
edit
Papert (then aged 78), received a serious brain injury when struck by a motor scooter[4] on 5 December 2006 while crossing the street with colleague Uri Wilensky when they were both attending the 17th International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) Study conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.[22] He underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot at the French Hospital of Hanoi before being transferred in a complex operation by Swiss Air Ambulance (REGA Archived 27 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine) Bombardier Challenger Jet[23] to Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent approximately four weeks in intensive care.[24][25] He was moved to a hospital closer to his home in January 2007, but then developed sepsis which damaged a heart valve, which was later replaced.
By 2008 he had returned home, could think and communicate clearly and walk "almost unaided", but still had "some complicated speech problems" and was in receipt of extensive rehabilitation support.[26] His rehabilitation team used some of the very principles of experiential, hands-on learning that he had pioneered.[27]
Papert died at his home in Blue Hill, Maine, on 31 July 2016.[4]
"
I believe science in the hands of the horrible villains it ends up in the hands of, wielded against the innocent, requires that many research areas be left undeveloped and otherwise wiped out so that it sets evil people back and protects the innocent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia
How am I wrong? These b*stards are making k*ller machines right now and are using them on people currently. All the technology needs to be scuttled along eith those wielding it and their knowledge to create it, or whoever possesses that knoeledge.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarisation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarized_zone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_technology
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_the_Books
One of the best possible uses of A.I. isn't advancement, but deletion of all dangerous information so that no one can continue to develop weapons anywhere.
What weapons exist should be available to everyone for protection, even protection from the government.
Everyone should be put on an equal standing as much as possible, and secret cabals and conspiracies, which are organizations and corporations, should be treated like witches, disbanded, looked out for, kept from banding for their almost always nefarious purposes, no matter they are up to apparently.
All authority and imposition of authority should be minimized as much as possible.
Even "news" should be scuttled in many ways, as it is used for harm and people don't need to think they know about things they can do nothing about anyway. I saw for example that People magazine is completely inundated now with horror story after horror story online, and it was not this way, it amplifies evil so much and is worthless really, to constantly be told about depravity.
Even censorship should potentially make a comeback, especially regarding violence being normalized, like in American media and the media from Indonesian horror films, the mentally ill, sick f*cks, maybe it is just one guy in their case but the horror films I saw from there seem really sick, like how they allowed such things in their culture for public viewing made them out to be completely nuts in my view, and they already have a lot of gross stuff in their culture, one of the groups of people I really don't like too much.
https://valleyinternational.net/index.p ... /view/1861
"
Therefore, besides not offending religious symbols, this film also does not hesitate to display (expose) violence in the form of blood splatter, burning of humans, eating fetal meat with pleasure. The description of the picture is not intended to teach humans to like violence, but to teach a moral message that violent behavior is formed due to burning vengeful fire.
Without the logic of the active construction of this audience, as written by Panuju (2017: 40), the mass media becomes like a cracked mirror, because the content of mass media tends to contain something that is anti-social, pornography, violence, fraud, hoaxes, and so on. However, if the mass media loses the element, it also causes loss of attraction as a spectacle. Because it is the only way the audience should be wise in approaching the mass media, including this film.
"
It desensitizes people, it normalizes excesses, it pushed and stretches what is considered too much, so that going much farther than one might have seems like it wasn't that much. All this sort of thing should be pushed back in my opinion, if there is ever to be a return to increased safety, decency, and civility.
America has a culture of extreme violence:
https://www.intercultural-academy.net/i ... olence.pdf
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... F1822DD4DD
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/202 ... disturbing
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2022/07/12 ... n-culture/
Films are often full of lurid themes, even if not graphic, that basically implant trauma into people. They wnt people being unjust to each other, until injustice is simply the norm, oh of course they cheated and backstabbed, next it will be what they had to do.
https://foothilldragonpress.org/13850/o ... d-culture/
https://www.colorado.edu/genders/2015/0 ... d-foucault
https://www.wilsonquarterly.com/quarter ... in-popular
https://www.idealmedicalcare.org/americ ... repressed/
You give freaks like these unlimited power and what do you get? A world that bleeds profusely, a human population at risk constantly, r*pe machines, I mean God DAMN such a wicked bunch of human beings turning their worst nightmares and sadistic fantasies into everyone's reality.
https://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2020/09/ ... ersion.htm
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-sex-so-per ... an-culture
https://www.thetrumpet.com/8539-how-the ... e-the-norm
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publicat ... union.html
https://publicseminar.org/2017/11/the-p ... -made-man/
https://www.openhorizons.org/americas-r ... dness.html
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/ ... norstheses
https://www.cato.org/commentary/creepin ... an-culture
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_t ... ve_fiction
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... lmuerzo_de
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ee8f/a ... 45941d.pdf
The violent societies are "possessed".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemures
"
The lemures /ˈlɛmjəriːz/ were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead in Roman religion,[1] sometimes used interchangeably with the term larvae (from Latin larva, 'mask').[2] The term lemures was first used by the Augustan poet Horace (in Epistles 2.2.209),[2] and was the more common literary term during the Augustan era, with larvae being used only once by Horace.[2] However, lemures is also uncommon: Ovid being the other main figure to employ it, in his Fasti, the six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religious customs.[3] Later the two terms were used nearly or completely interchangeably, e.g. by St. Augustine in De Civitate Dei.[4]
The word lemures can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European stem *lem-, which also appears in the name of the Greek monster Lamia.[5]
Lemures may represent the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living: they are thus not attested by tomb or votive inscriptions. Ovid interprets them as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful di manes or di parentes, ancestral gods or spirits of the underworld. To him, the rites of their cult suggest an incomprehensibly archaic, quasi-magical and probably very ancient rural tradition.
Lemures were formless and liminal, associated with darkness and its dread. In Republican and Imperial Rome, May 9, 11, and 13 were dedicated to their placation in the household practices of Lemuralia or Lemuria. The head of household (paterfamilias) would rise at midnight and cast black beans behind him with averted gaze; the Lemures were presumed to feast on them. Black was the appropriate colour for offerings to chthonic deities. William Warde Fowler interprets the gift of beans as an offer of life, and points out that they were a ritual pollution for priests of Jupiter.[6] The lemures themselves were both fearsome and fearful: any malevolent shades dissatisfied with the offering of the paterfamilias could be startled into flight by the loud banging of bronze pots.[7][8]
"
An avalanche of unresolved problems making for worse ones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_sin
"
The most detailed discussion of the concept is found in Proclus's De decem dubitationibus circa Providentiam, a propaedeutic handbook for students at the Neoplatonic Academy in Athens. Proclus makes clear that the concept is of hallowed antiquity, and making sense of the apparent paradox is presented as a defense of ancient Greek religion. The main point made is that a city or a family is to be seen as a single living being (animal unum, zoion hen) more sacred than any individual human life.[6]
The doctrine of ancestral fault is similarly presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by Celsus in his True Doctrine, a polemic against Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the mills of the gods grind slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after them".[7]
"
The things I put up are not necessarily things I put up to show support for them, a lot of the time, maybe practically always, I'm also criticizing or poking fun at things, but I try to bring up different things people may have said to get it going as the background and atmosphere and then for the reader (usually expected to just be me, but it makes me happy that you read something and thought about it) to wrestle with it rigorously. I'm very excited to see which article you mean and to approach it again myself in various ways.
I'm pretty confident that I will probably not think too well on their understanding or assessment either, since some people haven't read as much on these things but still try to approach topics they think might be relatively obscure and to pretend they know something, I see it a lot. Not what I'm trying to do though.
These threads are like locations and levels on a map, so this one is meant to be a representation of "The State" up top, and then gets into labyrinthine catacombs and further into caverns underneath, as it becomes increasingly dark and paranoid, so the threads have an "architecture" to them and are supposed to be an environment.
The Lolth thread is similar as is the Myrkul thread, but each are different also and different areas, having to do with different denizens also, as Lolth has to do with things related to the Drow and Myrkul with Lich, and this one with Min Flayers, but in a more expansive way than just those as literally part of games, but encompassing all kinds of themes to do with all the ideas brought up and connected to them.
I wonder if that can be of any use at all to make reading through these threads more like an adventure, with imagination and creativity also, if you aren't already doing that and might be willing to at any time.
Added in 11 minutes 53 seconds:
One other feature to note is that "The State" has a very boxy and hierarchal, Ziggurat-like structure, while the caverns below it are practically the opposite in their appearance, yet each is representing something similar and a kind of madness overall, and this feature also appears in this popular and much promoted art:
https://www.bryancharnley.info/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12241012/
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81w ... Mwebp_.jpg
I might have to try to get that book.
https://maplecommunity.com.au/the-amazi ... renic-art/
The gawking is rude and part of it, plus the pedestal.
Though this is even more perfectly what I am describing, wow!
I reccomend saving all that artwork, I will at least, that is so right for this topic.
Added in 13 minutes 54 seconds:
The State frequently operates through inducing "fascination", not always necessarily pomp and spectacle, which is often seen in some aspects, but more particularly highlighting and hyper-fixating on things which pull people in, lick them in, and incentivizing certain states of mind which also might not be obvious but trap people into a world that isn't very real but seems all-pervading, and it uses bodily pain also, even indirectly, to make itself seem real and present, so the organism feels that it is trapped in numerous ways and can't see a way out because of somatic association.
Added in 2 days 20 hours 44 minutes 38 seconds:
I posted my possibly similar and related writing here, which combined into some earlier posts, but the song lyrics in those are fully relevant and part of it all as well as all that ended up combining and the rest that appears in that thread which refers to my writing in general as I've been writing online and offline since the 90s:
viewtopic.php?p=3116#p3116
I even used to hand out hard disks where there were these kinds of things abd interactive missions lol. I've had a fascinating literary history and history of using writing in very unusual ways since childhood, since I was born in 1986 but started using writing very early on.
Added in 2 days 22 hours 7 minutes 11 seconds:
If you don't mind, and hopefully you won't mind, I'm applying this to what is written above.
I'm engaging with these themes throughout the various threads, such as:
viewtopic.php?p=3162#p3162
"
Consider the impasse of a one-god universe
He is all-knowing and all-powerful
He can't go anywhere since he is already everywhere
He can't do anything since the act of doing presupposes opposition
His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic
Having no friction by definition
So he has to create friction
War, fear, sickness, death
To keep his dying show on the road
Sooner or later
"Look, boss, we don't have enough energy left
To fry an elderly woman in a fleabag hotel bar"
"Well, we'll have to start faking it"
Joe looks after him sourly and mixes a bicarbonate of soda
Sure, start faking it, sure, and leave the details to Joe
Now look, from a real disaster, you get a pig event
Sacrifice, heroism, grief, separation, fear, and violent death
And remember, one violent death yields more energy than a cancer ward
So, from an energy surplus, you can underwrite the next one
So, from an energy surplus, you can underwrite the next one
But the first one is a fake, you can't underwrite a shit house
Try to explain to God Almighty where his one-god universe is going
Asshole doesn't know what buttons to
Push or what happens when you push them
Man and ship, goddammit, every man for himself
Recollect Pope John XXIII saying
"Like a little soldier, I stand at
Attention in the presence of my captain"
The old army game from here to eternity
Get there firstest with the brownest nose
"
"
(transitive) To support, lend support to, guarantee the basis of.
"
https://www.etymonline.com/word/subscribe
http://www.vlib.us/beats/mrhartmcneill.jpg
https://internationaltimes.it/incidenta ... opposition.
https://ashejournal.com/2015/03/15/burr ... own-words/
https://realitysandwich.com/magical_uni ... burroughs/
http://www.ccru.net/archive/burroughs.htm
https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2005 ... burro.html
https://realitystudio.org/images/covers ... iverse.pdf
https://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2011/03 ... ern-lands/
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101. These were troubled times. There was war in the heavens, as the One God attempted to exterminate or neutralize the Many Gods and establish a seat of absolute power.
"
https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/03/ ... upon-life/
https://wuwr.pl/awr/article/download/23 ... ure=shared
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Dusk was falling and blue shadows gathered in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east. Sangre de Cristo! Rivers of blood! Mountains of blood! Does Christ never get tired of bleeding?
"
Added in 41 minutes 25 seconds:
https://electronicbookreview.com/public ... ghs-lives/
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William S. Burroughs held action in as high regard as subversion. The following review-essay requires “you” (the protagonist) to enter into the text’s hypertext metaphor, linking Burroughs’ iconic/popular image to the fixed visual image of the artist as “literary outlaw.” The tone will shift with the topic under discussion, and your position, in reference to Burroughs, may shift accordingly.
"
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If William S. Burroughs’ multifarious fascinations could be represented pictographically in a poly-textual, poly-vocal new-media construction, in a way analogous to what his eventual transition from writing into visual art seemed to prophesy - in the way that such works as Ah Pook is Here and Other Texts (1979) or The Western Lands (1987) attempt to cleave the linguistic “is” of identity from the language virus - then the representation might be a website with enough visual hyperlinks to make you simultaneously dizzy and sick.
And if some enterprising young counter-culture collective indeed crafted a Web locus to mirror the spate of recent work by or about Burroughs since the advent of Timothy S. Murphy’s landmark critical work, Wising Up the Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs (1997), followed soon after by the James Grauerholz- and Ira Silverberg- edited Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (1998), the locus would still be adding information about the most recent titles: Naked Lunch: The Restored Text edited by Grauerholz and Barry Miles (March 2003), Oliver Harris’s William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination from Southern Illinois University Press, and the Harris-edited 50th-anniversary edition of Burroughs’ first novel, Junky, from Viking Press (both April 2003) - in order to update the all-important meta-tags covering the familiar, if ethereal, territory of what you already know about Burroughs
"
https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2020 ... harma.html
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2 ... tern-lands
Added in 3 minutes 13 seconds:
"
So he starts faking it. He is putting out human stock without the names. Literally Nameless Assholes, NAs. Their name is mud. Their name is shit. Without Angel, Heart, Double or Shadow. Nothing but remains, kept operational by borrowed power overdrawn on the Energy Bank... physical bodies animated by bum life checks.
"
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki ... f_Troubles
Added in 47 seconds:
I don't use A.I. at all, but I'm interested in playing with Microsoft Co-Pilot again possibly since I liked how it was able to list things, translate things, but everything had to be verified anyway because of how casually it brings up incorrect information. It was seemingly able to access academic resources online with a lot more speed and ease than to do so manually.
This video uses A.I. for just about every aspect of it, an almost entirely automated video.
The speech or writing patterns of A.I. show a lot of repeated things it does, the most frequent and noticeable seems to be the tendency to say things like:
It wasn't just "A", it was "B".
I specifically put the Ghostbusters video in here because of how many layers relate to the topic in this thread, including to some degree the original story of Ghostbusters before it was brought "down to Earth".
https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/s ... cs-spectre
https://purl.stanford.edu/ys194fp6634
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_word
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/31 ... host-and-i
https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ljcs/article/id/56/
Added in 1 hour 11 minutes 22 seconds:
Added in 6 days 15 hours 15 minutes 28 seconds:
https://aidungeon.com/
There was this text based but pretty advanced seeming game online in the 2000s and I can't recall the name of it. It was full of details and was very well made, one would type in things and it would respond. There was a city of demons in it called Magnacora or Magmacora or something. I can't find a darn thing about it online with the horrible search engines that seem to prioritize only new things, I used to be able to get much better results many years ago.
https://www.merentha.com/
I wonder if this is it.
https://www.merentha.com/about.html
It doesn't seem to be.
I also wonder if one could use A.I. to scan through all information from a few games and book series and use it to create an A.I. game system, even with generating art and music, where one can type anything and go on an adventure through the game world encompassing most fantasy, from all information from mythology,
tabletop and video games, fictional fantasy books, text games (MUDs), online encyclopedias of games.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfwood
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In 2003, Elfwood had 6700 artists and 1300 writers. It logged 14500 sessions per day, each averaging 35 minutes in length. Sixty percent of the users were in the USA and most of the rest in Canada and Europe.[16]
"
"
Elfwood had been praised as an outlet for alternative beliefs.[2] The community had been described as a "very interactive place where people are very supportive," in a quote from the San Jose Mercury News.[19]
The FARP section of the site had been frequently recommended as a free resource for tutorials in a wide variety of creative topics.[20][21][22][23] For example, TeachEngineering.org cited two of FARP's tutorials as "excellent guides" for figure drawing and writing about action, Figure Drawing: Basic Pose and Construction by William Li and Writing Action by S. B. "Kinko" Hulsey.[24]
"
"
Dissolved
2016; 9 years ago
"
"
In June 2001, Elfwood was closed due to death threats after a man with the alias "Assassin" threatened to throw gasoline on the ERB crew and burn them alive. The site reopened a month later.[3] In July the FanQuarter area was opened. At the end of 2001 changes to Elfwood were put on hold so a more manageable system could be created. Elfwood was reopened in February 2002 with a new moderating system.[3]
In January 2004 the sections known as Zone 47 and Lothlorien merged to create the current SF&F Art area. Along with the change came a new layout for the whole site, as well as revisions to the rules. In November of that year, Elfwood artist Paul Cameron Bennett was charged in League City, Texas for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, Margaret “Katy” Catherine Wilkerson, whom he met through a chat-room linked through Elfwood.[6]
Elfwood had a major crash, dubbed "the infamous April Fool's Day Elfwood crash,"[7] on the first of April in 2005. All data was lost and the last backup was from February. The site came back with a timewarp to February and the rules were again revised and rewritten. Archived copies of the Elfwood statistics counter from the Wayback Machine show 8000 fewer images and 200 fewer stories between the 1st and 10 April 2005.[8][9]
"
I wonder if you can create a primitive mode, something that can be toggled on or off, and that makes the content on all the sites, or particularly this one, look like an old website lol.
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After 11 years as an amateur website, Elfwood was transformed into a commercial community in September 2007,[10] adding new features for creating user profiles also for visiting users, tagging of favorite members and works and much more. Founder Thomas Abrahamsson said, "Cost for hosting and servers had become too high to handle as a hobby project."[10] With this came the move of the servers from Linköping University. Before the move, Abrahamsson was frequently physically unable to access the servers to maintain the site due to their former location at the university grounds, which were locked down during the holidays.[3]
In May 2009, Elfwood launched a completely revised set of simplified rules, accepting a much wider range of works and even out-of-genre items under a special 'Other Works' tab. The Extranet was taken down its functions fully transferred to the main site, replaced by a more user friendly upload interface and simpler moderation process.
Later on Elfwood's first Art Collaboration Club was born called "Bitfrost Fantasy", founded by Paula Fletcher. The name Bifrost was taken from Norse Mythology, being the sparkling rainbow bridge that connects Aesgard (land of the gods) and Midgard (land of mortals). Bifrost's goal was to "build a bridge" between fantasy artists and writers, from all over the world, in a creative and friendly atmosphere.
"
Fricken RUINED, commercialization be DAMNED.
https://www.galvnews.com/news/man-clear ... 8435b.html
They had an adventure!
Added in 30 minutes 16 seconds:
http://www.elfwood.com/
https://evilplexity.artstation.com/projects/Z5KPR
I liked their older art. A lot of times, people seem to get worse in my opinion, like they start getting influenced by certain thinking and self-critcism, matching standards, and they lose their innocence.
https://members.tripod.com/~The_Prophetess/elfwood.html
https://jrients.tripod.com/otus/otus.html
https://www.tumblr.com/otusshrine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erol_Otus
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01 ... d.html?m=1
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2024/08 ... e.html?m=1
https://reactormag.com/an-interview-wit ... erol-otus/
https://garycon.com/2025/03/03/erol-otus/
It makes me want to cry, so sends me to the Minthara thread which has to do with themes of the past, nostalgia, yearning for the past things, the naivety, the innocence.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/one-of-my ... 068463805/
https://johnsusansexcellentadventure.co ... naive-art/
It is really so pretentious to call this "naive art" lol.
https://www.askart.com/auction_records/ ... vacic.aspx
It is fricken amazing art, they can shove "naive" up their snooty butts, with their boring bullsh*t "art", soulsucked blandness that passes as art these days, compared to this stuff they call "naive" because the person was supposedly spared from their mind destroying lessons.
https://coget.toysafter.homes/index.php ... ts_id=3805
https://en.artoffer.com/Juja-x/Juja-x-F ... -Art/89349
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KzO4-RuhvQw/ ... reen+1.bmp
https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-cont ... -Art-1.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ec/eb/80/eceb ... 54cbb8.jpg
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2021/12 ... e.html?m=1
https://2warpstoneptune.com/wp-content/ ... lbum-4.jpg
I may need to get this book.
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6055/62 ... 002a_o.jpg
Added in 1 hour 29 minutes 49 seconds:
https://waynesbooks.games/2024/09/24/da ... 1991-1995/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun
https://darksun.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Sun_Wiki
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelljammer
https://spelljammer.fandom.com/wiki/Spelljammer_Wiki
https://realitystudio.org/bibliographic ... manifesto/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MUDs
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LegendMUD
"
Koster wrote "A Story About a Tree", a short essay and epitaph about the death of a LegendMUD player named Karyn. An investigative journalist later disproved evidence of Karyn's death.[6] Richard Bartle considered the incident to be a key event in the development of virtual worlds' ethics, similar to "A R*pe in Cyberspace".[verification needed] The 'death' demonstrated that people can develop feelings for each other via the virtual world medium, thus experiencing real emotions about somebody they've never met, even an entirely fictional persona. A Story About a Tree is considered as a major counterargument against the "it's just a game" point of view on virtual worlds. Furthermore, it showcased that while being a very real object of grief to one party, it can indeed remain just a game for another.[7]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace
"
"A R*pe in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" is an article written by freelance journalist Julian Dibbell and first published in The Village Voice in 1993. The article was later included in Dibbell's book My Tiny Life on his LambdaMOO experiences.
Lawrence Lessig has said that his chance reading of Dibbell's article was a key influence on his interest in the field.[1] Sociologist David Trend called it "one of the most frequently cited essays about cloaked identity in cyberspace".[2]
"
"
Dibbell's "A R*pe in Cyberspace" and other publications that he has made about the Bungle incident have been seen by many scholars and professionals as a key foundation in the topic of virtual r*pe.[12] The article has been used to take a look at the moral nature of actions within the virtual world.[11]
Since the Mr. Bungle case, LambdaMOO set up an arbitration system so that people can file suit against one another and this system has been put into use with the matter of a virtual death.[13]
Over two decades later, these events remain one of the primary advertisements for LambdaMOO. Research students still regularly visit the MOO (often sent there by their professors) and start asking users about these events.[5]
This article draws attention to a more modern version of the platonic binary, otherwise known as the mind-body split. The event described in the article illustrates the intellectual self from the physical self through the typing of words on a screen.[14]
Dibbell continued to participate in LambdaMOO, up to 30 hours a week, and eventually wrote My Tiny Life about his experiences, incorporating the article.[15] He remains somewhat astonished at the impact it has had, saying in 1998, "No piece I had done before had managed to convey as vividly to readers the fact that there was something wild and different going on online, something that might profoundly alter the way they related to words and communication and culture in general."[16]
The article raised awareness in the legal implications of online activity, including Lawrence Lessig, and Dibbell himself would go on to teach cyberlaw as a Fellow at Stanford Law School Center for the Internet and Society.[17] The article is also considered one of the earliest examples of New Games Journalism where review of computer games are meshed with social observation and consideration of surrounding issues.[citation needed]
In 2018 The Village Voice reprinted the article following a reported gang r*pe in Roblox.[18]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furcadia
"
Sherry Turkle developed a theory that the constant use (and in many cases, overuse) of MUDs allows users to develop different personalities in their environments. She uses examples, dating back to the text-based MUDs of the mid-1990s, showing college students who simultaneously live different lives through characters in separate MUDs, up to three at a time, all while doing schoolwork. The students claimed that it was a way to "shut off" their own lives for a while and become part of another reality. Turkle claims that this could present a psychological problem of identity for today's youths.[8]
"A Story About A Tree" is a short essay written by Raph Koster regarding the death of a LegendMUD player named Karyn, raising the subject of inter-human relationships in virtual worlds.
Observations of MUD-play show styles of play that can be roughly categorized. Achievers focus on concrete measurements of success such as experience points, levels, and wealth; Explorers investigate every nook and cranny of the game, and evaluate different game mechanical options; Socializers devote most of their energy to interacting with other players; and then there are Killers who focus on interacting negatively with other players, if permitted, killing the other characters or otherwise thwarting their play. Few players play only one way; most exhibit a diverse style.[89] According to Richard Bartle, "People go there as part of a hero's journey—a means of self-discovery".[90]
Research has suggested that various factors combine in MUDs to provide users with a sense of presence rather than simply communication.[91]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Turkle
"
In The Second Self (1984), Turkle defines the computer as more than just a tool, but part of our everyday personal and psychological lives. She looks at how computers affect the way we look at ourselves and our relationships with others, claiming that technology defines the way we think and act. Turkle's book allows us to view and reevaluate our own relationships with technology.
In her process of evaluating our relationships with computers, Turkle interviews children, college students, engineers, AI scientists, hackers and personal computer owners in order to further understand our relationships with computers and how we interact with them on a personal level. The interviews showed that computers are both a part of our selves as well as part of the external world. In this book, Turkle tries to figure out why we think of computers in such psychological terms, how this happens and what this means for all of us.[8]
In Life on the Screen (1995), Turkle presents a study of how people's use of the computer has evolved over time, and the profound effect that this machine has on its users. The computer, which connects millions of people across the world together, is changing the way we think and see ourselves. Although it was originally intended to serve as a tool to help us to write and communicate with others, it has more recently transformed into a means of providing us with virtual worlds which we can step into and interact with other people. The book discusses how our everyday interactions with computers affect our minds and the way we think about ourselves. In particular, interacting with these virtual worlds, especially through language, can shift a unitary sense of self into one with a multiplicity of identities.[9]
Turkle also discusses the way our human identity is changing due to the fading boundary between humans and computers, and how people now have trouble distinguishing between humans and machines. It used to be thought that humans were nothing like machines, because humans had feelings and machines did not. However, as technology has improved, computers have become more and more human-like, and these boundaries had to be redrawn. People now compare their own minds to machines, and talk to them freely without any shame or embarrassment. Turkle questions our ethics in defining and differentiating between real life and simulated life.[10]
In Alone Together (2011), Turkle explores how technology is changing the way we communicate. In particular, Turkle raises concerns about the way in which genuine, organic social interactions become degraded through constant exposure to illusory meaningful exchanges with artificial intelligence. Underlying Turkle's central argument is the fact that the technological developments which have most contributed to the rise of inter-connectivity have at the same time bolstered a sense of alienation between people. The alienation involves links between social networks favouring those of proper conversations.
Turkle's main argument in the first part of the book is that our interactions with robots that simulate emotion pose serious threats to our ability to relate to one another properly. Turkle discusses robots that have been designed to interact with humans on an emotional level; she fears that they may then replace other humans and animals in these emotional roles. Turkle is concerned that we often attribute certain qualities to robots that the robots do not in fact possess, and that our emotional interactions with other humans become eroded as a direct result. Turkle's concern is that our appreciation for human interaction may become eroded.
The second part of the book examines the nature of online social interactions, and the way in which social media has changed how people, particularly younger people, connect with one another. Turkle argues that because people in interpersonal social situations, particularly young people, are often distracted by their phones, they will pay insufficient attention to one another, creating increasingly shallow relationships. Turkle argues that teenagers' reliance on friends' advice prevents self-reflection, leading to less personal independence.
Turkle talks about the nature of privacy in the post 9/11 world, arguing that privacy was sacrificed in exchange for safety. Turkle argues that because they have grown up as part of a world in which privacy is regarded as increasingly tenuous, children do not always appreciate the full value of privacy, which in turn causes them to share even more personal details on the web. This further depreciates the value of privacy in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Using her 15 year of experience, Turkle uses Alone Together to explore the question of whether or not technology is bringing quality to our lives. Turkle argues people use technology to escape from reality and emotions, which weakens genuine relationships.[11]
In 2011, Turkle was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, where she spoke briefly about Alone Together, and the impact that technology has on communication skills.[12]
Turkle gave a TED talk on the subject of Alone Together in February 2012, under the title "Connected, but alone?"[13]
Reclaiming Conversation and The Power of Talk in A Digital Age (2015) is Turkle's examination of evolving interpersonal and intrapersonal communications,. In the preamble, Turkle cites Henry David Thoreau's Walden as providing guidance for the structure of the book: "I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."[14] This book is thus divided into three general parts: a single chair for intrapersonal communication, two chairs concerning the importance of conversations in friendships, families and romances, and three chairs for interpersonal communication such as in school, work, and politics.[15] Turkle gathered data from schools, companies, families, and articulates the statistical and psychoanalytic barriers that have forced users to "sacrifice conversation for mere connection".[16] This trade-off in interwoven intimacies and apps ultimately withholds the necessary "face-to-face experiences that are needed for generating authentic connection".[17]
The capacity to interact on a personal or private basis is the cornerstone to empathy, and Turkle argues that loneliness is also essential to this.[18] Paradoxically, Turkle presents the blossoming of technologies role in our reconciliation of lonely experiences and maintaining close social interactions.[17] While access to mobile devices can empower connections with pre-existing relationships, it can also harm the general sense of solitude and ability to meet personal and social standards on a grander scale. The ability to connect through technology then becomes the compromise that chatting online is "better than nothing".[17]
Turkle gave a talk for Google about her book Reclaiming Conversation.[19]
Aziz Ansari responded to Reclaiming Conversation by saying, "In a time in which the ways we communicate and connect are constantly changing, and not always for the better, Sherry Turkle provides a much needed voice of caution and reason to help explain what the f*** is going on."[20]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert
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Papert worked on learning theories, and was known for focusing on the impact of new technologies on learning in general, and in schools as learning organizations in particular.
Constructionism
edit
At MIT, Papert went on to create the Epistemology and Learning Research Group at the MIT Architecture Machine Group which later became the MIT Media Lab.[14] Here, he was the developer of a theory on learning called constructionism, built upon the work of Jean Piaget in constructivist learning theories. Papert had worked with Piaget at the University of Geneva from 1958 to 1963[15] and was one of Piaget's protégés; Piaget himself once said that "no one understands my ideas as well as Papert".[16] Papert has rethought how schools should work, based on these theories of learning.
Logo
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Papert used Piaget's work in his development of the Logo programming language while at MIT. He created Logo as a tool to improve the way children think and solve problems. A small mobile robot called the "Logo Turtle" was developed, and children were shown how to use it to solve simple problems in an environment of play. A main purpose of the Logo Foundation research group is to strengthen the ability to learn knowledge.[17] Papert insisted a simple language or program that children can learn—like Logo—can also have advanced functionality for expert users.[2]
Other work
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As part of his work with technology, Papert has been a proponent of the Knowledge Machine. He was one of the principals for the One Laptop Per Child initiative to manufacture and distribute The Children's Machine in developing nations.
Papert also collaborated with the construction toy manufacturer Lego on their Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits,[18] which were named after his groundbreaking 1980 book.[4]
A curated archive of Papert's articles, speeches, and interviews may be found on a website dedicated to Papert at: The Daily Papert.
Personal life
edit
Papert became a political and anti-apartheid activist early in his life in South Africa. He subsequently chose self exile.[10] He was a leading figure in the revolutionary socialist circle around Socialist Review while living in London in the 1950s.[19] Papert was also a prominent activist against South African apartheid policies during his university education.[4]
Papert was married to Dona Strauss, and later to Androula Christofides Henriques.[4]
Papert's third wife was MIT professor Sherry Turkle, and together they wrote the influential paper "Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete".[20]
In his final 24 years, Papert was married to Suzanne Massie, who was a Russian scholar and author of Pavlovsk: The Life of a Russian Palace and Land of the Firebird.[4][21]
Accident in Hanoi
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Papert (then aged 78), received a serious brain injury when struck by a motor scooter[4] on 5 December 2006 while crossing the street with colleague Uri Wilensky when they were both attending the 17th International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) Study conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.[22] He underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot at the French Hospital of Hanoi before being transferred in a complex operation by Swiss Air Ambulance (REGA Archived 27 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine) Bombardier Challenger Jet[23] to Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent approximately four weeks in intensive care.[24][25] He was moved to a hospital closer to his home in January 2007, but then developed sepsis which damaged a heart valve, which was later replaced.
By 2008 he had returned home, could think and communicate clearly and walk "almost unaided", but still had "some complicated speech problems" and was in receipt of extensive rehabilitation support.[26] His rehabilitation team used some of the very principles of experiential, hands-on learning that he had pioneered.[27]
Papert died at his home in Blue Hill, Maine, on 31 July 2016.[4]
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I believe science in the hands of the horrible villains it ends up in the hands of, wielded against the innocent, requires that many research areas be left undeveloped and otherwise wiped out so that it sets evil people back and protects the innocent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia
How am I wrong? These b*stards are making k*ller machines right now and are using them on people currently. All the technology needs to be scuttled along eith those wielding it and their knowledge to create it, or whoever possesses that knoeledge.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarisation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarized_zone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_technology
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_the_Books
One of the best possible uses of A.I. isn't advancement, but deletion of all dangerous information so that no one can continue to develop weapons anywhere.
What weapons exist should be available to everyone for protection, even protection from the government.
Everyone should be put on an equal standing as much as possible, and secret cabals and conspiracies, which are organizations and corporations, should be treated like witches, disbanded, looked out for, kept from banding for their almost always nefarious purposes, no matter they are up to apparently.
All authority and imposition of authority should be minimized as much as possible.
Even "news" should be scuttled in many ways, as it is used for harm and people don't need to think they know about things they can do nothing about anyway. I saw for example that People magazine is completely inundated now with horror story after horror story online, and it was not this way, it amplifies evil so much and is worthless really, to constantly be told about depravity.
Even censorship should potentially make a comeback, especially regarding violence being normalized, like in American media and the media from Indonesian horror films, the mentally ill, sick f*cks, maybe it is just one guy in their case but the horror films I saw from there seem really sick, like how they allowed such things in their culture for public viewing made them out to be completely nuts in my view, and they already have a lot of gross stuff in their culture, one of the groups of people I really don't like too much.
https://valleyinternational.net/index.p ... /view/1861
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Therefore, besides not offending religious symbols, this film also does not hesitate to display (expose) violence in the form of blood splatter, burning of humans, eating fetal meat with pleasure. The description of the picture is not intended to teach humans to like violence, but to teach a moral message that violent behavior is formed due to burning vengeful fire.
Without the logic of the active construction of this audience, as written by Panuju (2017: 40), the mass media becomes like a cracked mirror, because the content of mass media tends to contain something that is anti-social, pornography, violence, fraud, hoaxes, and so on. However, if the mass media loses the element, it also causes loss of attraction as a spectacle. Because it is the only way the audience should be wise in approaching the mass media, including this film.
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It desensitizes people, it normalizes excesses, it pushed and stretches what is considered too much, so that going much farther than one might have seems like it wasn't that much. All this sort of thing should be pushed back in my opinion, if there is ever to be a return to increased safety, decency, and civility.
America has a culture of extreme violence:
https://www.intercultural-academy.net/i ... olence.pdf
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... F1822DD4DD
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/202 ... disturbing
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2022/07/12 ... n-culture/
Films are often full of lurid themes, even if not graphic, that basically implant trauma into people. They wnt people being unjust to each other, until injustice is simply the norm, oh of course they cheated and backstabbed, next it will be what they had to do.
https://foothilldragonpress.org/13850/o ... d-culture/
https://www.colorado.edu/genders/2015/0 ... d-foucault
https://www.wilsonquarterly.com/quarter ... in-popular
https://www.idealmedicalcare.org/americ ... repressed/
You give freaks like these unlimited power and what do you get? A world that bleeds profusely, a human population at risk constantly, r*pe machines, I mean God DAMN such a wicked bunch of human beings turning their worst nightmares and sadistic fantasies into everyone's reality.
https://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2020/09/ ... ersion.htm
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-sex-so-per ... an-culture
https://www.thetrumpet.com/8539-how-the ... e-the-norm
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publicat ... union.html
https://publicseminar.org/2017/11/the-p ... -made-man/
https://www.openhorizons.org/americas-r ... dness.html
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/ ... norstheses
https://www.cato.org/commentary/creepin ... an-culture
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_t ... ve_fiction
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... lmuerzo_de
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ee8f/a ... 45941d.pdf
The violent societies are "possessed".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemures
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The lemures /ˈlɛmjəriːz/ were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead in Roman religion,[1] sometimes used interchangeably with the term larvae (from Latin larva, 'mask').[2] The term lemures was first used by the Augustan poet Horace (in Epistles 2.2.209),[2] and was the more common literary term during the Augustan era, with larvae being used only once by Horace.[2] However, lemures is also uncommon: Ovid being the other main figure to employ it, in his Fasti, the six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religious customs.[3] Later the two terms were used nearly or completely interchangeably, e.g. by St. Augustine in De Civitate Dei.[4]
The word lemures can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European stem *lem-, which also appears in the name of the Greek monster Lamia.[5]
Lemures may represent the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living: they are thus not attested by tomb or votive inscriptions. Ovid interprets them as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful di manes or di parentes, ancestral gods or spirits of the underworld. To him, the rites of their cult suggest an incomprehensibly archaic, quasi-magical and probably very ancient rural tradition.
Lemures were formless and liminal, associated with darkness and its dread. In Republican and Imperial Rome, May 9, 11, and 13 were dedicated to their placation in the household practices of Lemuralia or Lemuria. The head of household (paterfamilias) would rise at midnight and cast black beans behind him with averted gaze; the Lemures were presumed to feast on them. Black was the appropriate colour for offerings to chthonic deities. William Warde Fowler interprets the gift of beans as an offer of life, and points out that they were a ritual pollution for priests of Jupiter.[6] The lemures themselves were both fearsome and fearful: any malevolent shades dissatisfied with the offering of the paterfamilias could be startled into flight by the loud banging of bronze pots.[7][8]
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An avalanche of unresolved problems making for worse ones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_sin
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The most detailed discussion of the concept is found in Proclus's De decem dubitationibus circa Providentiam, a propaedeutic handbook for students at the Neoplatonic Academy in Athens. Proclus makes clear that the concept is of hallowed antiquity, and making sense of the apparent paradox is presented as a defense of ancient Greek religion. The main point made is that a city or a family is to be seen as a single living being (animal unum, zoion hen) more sacred than any individual human life.[6]
The doctrine of ancestral fault is similarly presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by Celsus in his True Doctrine, a polemic against Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the mills of the gods grind slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after them".[7]
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kFoyauextlH
- Posts: 950
- Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2025 3:53 pm
Re: Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
In the book by King James I of England, Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogie, Divided into three Bookes, it is written:
Nowe I returne to my purpose: As to the first kinde of these spirites, that were called by the auncients by diuers names, according as their actions were.
For if they were spirites that haunted some houses, by appearing in diuers and horrible formes, and making greate dinne: they were called Lemures or Spectra.
If they appeared in likenesse of anie defunct to some friends of his, they wer called vmbræ mortuorum: And so innumerable stiles they got, according to their actiones, as I haue said alreadie.
As we see by experience, how manie stiles they haue given them in our language in the like maner: Of the appearing of these spirites, wee are certified by the Scriptures, [marginal note - Esay. 13. Iere. 50] where the Prophet ESAY 13. and 34. cap. threatening the destruction of Babell and Edom: declares, that it shal not onlie be wracked, but shall become so greate a solitude, as it shall be the habitackle of
Howlettes, and of
ZIIM and
IIM,
which are the proper Hebrewe names for these Spirites.
The cause whie they haunte solitarie places, it is by reason, that they may affraie and brangle the more the faith of suche as them alone hauntes such places.
For our nature is such, as in companies wee are not so soone mooued to anie such kinde of feare, as being solitare, which the Deuill knowing well inough, hee will not therefore assaile vs but when we are weake: And besides that, GOD will not permit him so to dishonour the societies and companies of Christians, as in publicke times and places to walke visiblie amongst them.
On the other parte, when he troubles certaine houses that are dwelt in, it is a sure token either of grosse ignorance, or of some grosse and slanderous sinnes amongst the inhabitantes thereof: which God by that extraordinarie rod punishes.[13]
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https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to- ... /abandoned
https://www.loveexploring.com/galleryli ... eft-to-rot
https://www.jahernandez.com/posts/lemur ... cient-rome
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lemures
https://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/04/ ... onary-past
https://occult-world.com/lemures/
https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiositi ... ad-romans/
https://weirditaly.com/2022/10/06/lemures/
https://news.uchicago.edu/are-we-worse- ... we-used-be
If they say people in the past were more unrestrained than the culture promoted by the media, they are straight up lying.
https://www.billygraham.ca/answer/i-hea ... that-true/
Self fulfilling prophecy, they told themselves that it has to be this way, that isn't necessarily true, considering they are liars.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_of_the_Red_Night
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Cities of the Red Night is a 1981 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. His first full-length novel since The Wild Boys (1971), it is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). The plot involves a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Misson. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a s*xual ritual. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.
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Wanted to submit this chapter from the book "Cities of the Red Night" by William S. Burroughs; it is the first book in a trilogy he called "The Red Night Trilogy". Why I find it worthy of a post here is the nature of subject matter Burroughs focuses in on: ancient knowledge and a time a lost as well as ancient mysticsm and reincarnation.
While COTRN is a work of fiction, Burroughs was a student of ritual magik and the out of the way places steeped in symbolism and history, and incorporated many of these ideas into his fiction. In ways, Burroughs seemed to have to been tapped into a forbidden forgotten knowledge, and through his novels (especially The Red Night Trilogy) he tried to lend some of this to his readers and culture in general.
Take a read below. Thoughts/comments welcome!
The Cities of the Red Night were six in number: Tamaghis, Ba’dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, and Ghadis. These cities were located in an area roughly corresponding to the Gobi Desert, a hundred thousand years ago. At that time the desert was dotted with large oases and traversed by a river which emptied into the Caspian Sea.
The largest of these oases contained a lake ten miles long and five miles across, on the shores of which the university town of Waghdas was founded. Pilgrims came from all over the inhabited world to study in the academies of Waghdas, where the arts and sciences reached peaks of attainment that have never been equaled. Much of this ancient knowledge is now lost.
The towns of Ba’dan and Yass-Waddah were opposite each other on the river. Tamaghis, located in a desolate area to the north on a small oasis, could properly be called a desert town. Naufana and Ghadis were situated in mountainous areas to the west and south beyond the perimeter of usual trade routes between the other cities.
In addition to the six cities, there were a number of villages and nomadic tribes. Food was plentiful and for a time the population was completely stable: no one was born unless someone died.
The inhabitants were divided into an elite minority known as the Transmigrants and a majority known as the Receptacles. Within these categories were a number of occupational and specialized strata and the two classes were not in practice separate: Transmigrants acted as Receptacles and Receptacles became Transmigrants.
To show the system in operation: Here is an old Transmigrant on his deathbed. He has selected his future Receptacle parents, who are summoned to the death chamber. The parents then copulate, achieving orgasm just as the old Transmigrant dies so that his spirit enters the womb to be reborn. Every Transmigrant carries with him at all times a list of alternative parents, and in case of accident, violence, or sudden illness, the nearest parents are rushed to the scene. However, there was at first little chance of random or unexpected deaths since the Council of Transmigrants in Waghdas had attained such skill in the art of prophecy that they were able to chart a life from birth to death and determine in most cases the exact time and manner of death.
Many Transmigrants preferred not to wait for the infirmities of age and the ravages of illness, lest their spirit be so weakened so to be overwhelmed and absorbed by the Receptacle child. These hardy Transmigrants, in the full vigor of maturity, after rigorous training in concentration and astral projection, would select two death guides to kill them in front of the copulating parents. The methods of death most commonly employed were hanging and strangulation, the Transmigrant dying in orgasm, which was considered the most reliable method of ensuring a successful transfer. Drugs were also developed, large doses of which occasioned death in erotic convulsions, smaller doses being used to enhance sexual pleasure. And these drugs were often used in conjunction with other forms of death.
In time, death by natural causes became a rare and rather discreditable occurrence as the age for transmigration dropped. The Eternal Youths, a Transmigrant sect, were hanged at the age of eighteen to spare themselves the coarsening experience of middle age and the deterioration of senescence, living their youth again and again.
Two factors undermined the stability of this system. The first was perfection of techniques for artificial insemination. Whereas the traditional practice called for one death and one rebirth, now hundreds of women could be impregnated from a single sperm collection, and territorially oriented Transmigrants could populate whole areas with their progeny. There were sullen mutters of revolt from the Receptacles, especially the women. At this point, another factor totally unforeseen was introduced.
In the thinly populated desert area north of Tamaghis a portentous event occurred. Some say it was a meteor that fell to earth leaving a crater twenty miles across. Others say that the crater was caused by what modern physicists call a black hole.
After this occurrence the whole northern sky lit up red at night, like the reflection from a vast furnace. Those in the immediate vicinity of the crater were the first to be affected and various mutations were observed, the commonest being altered hair and skin color. Red and yellow hair, and white, yellow, and red skin appeared for the first time. Slowly the whole area was similarly affected until the mutants outnumbered the original inhabitants, who were as all human beings were at the time: black.
The women, led by an albino mutant known as the White Tigress, seized Yass-Waddah, reducing the male inhabitants to slaves, consorts, and courtiers all under sentence of death that could be carried out at any time at the caprice of the White Tigress. The Council of Waghdas countered by developing a method of growing babies in excised wombs, the wombs being supplied by vagrant Womb Snatchers. This practice aggravated the differences between male and female factions and war with Yass-Waddah seemed unavoidable.
In Naufana, a method was found to transfer the spirit directly into an adolescent Receptacle, thus averting the awkward and vulnerable period of infancy. This practice required a rigorous period of preparation and training to achieve a harmonious blending of the two spirits in one body. These Transmigrants, combining the freshness and vitality of youth with the wisdom of many lifetimes, were expected to form an army of liberation to free Yass-Waddah. And there were adepts who could die at will without any need of drugs or executioners and project their spirit into a chosen Receptacle.
I have mentioned hanging, strangulation, and orgasm drugs as the commonest means of effecting the transfer. However, many other forms of death were employed. The Fire Boys were burned to death in the presence of the Receptacles, only the genitals being insulated, so that the practitioner could achieve orgasm in the moment of death. There is an interesting account by a Fire Boy who recalled his experience after transmigrating in this manner:
“As the flames closed around my body, I inhaled deeply, drawing fire into my lungs, and screamed out flames as the most horrible pain turned to the most exquisite pleasure and I was ejaculating in an adolescent Receptacle who was being sodomized by another.”
Others were stabbed, decapitated, disemboweled, shot with arrows, or killed by a blow on the head. Some threw themselves from cliff, landing in front of the copulating Receptacles.
The scientists at Waghdas were developing a machine that could directly transfer the electromagnetic field of one body to another. In Ghadis there were adepts who were able to leave their bodies before death and occupy a series of hosts. How far this research may have gone will never be known. It was a time of great disorder and chaos.
The effects of the Red Night on Receptacles and Transmigrants proved to be incalculable and many strange mutants arose as a series of plagues devastated the cities. It is this period of war and pestilence that is covered by the books. The Council had set out to create a race of supermen for the exploration of space. They produced instead races of ravening idiot vampires.
Finally, the cities were abandoned and the survivors fled in all directions, carrying the plagues with them. Some of these migrants crossed the Bering Strait into the New World, taking the books with them. They settled in the area later occupied by the Mayans and the books eventually fell into the hands of the Mayan priests.
The alert student of this noble experiment will perceive that death was regarded as equivalent not to birth but to conception and go on to infer that conception is the basic trauma. In the moment of death, the dying man’s whole life may flash in front of his eyes back to conception. In the moment of conception, his future life flashes forward to his future death. To reexperience conception is fatal.
This was the basic error of the Transmigrants: you do not get beyond death and conception by reexperience any more than you get beyond heroin by ingesting larger and larger doses. The Transmigrants were quite literally addicted to death and they needed more and more death to kill the pain of conception. They were buying a parasitic life with a promissory death note to be paid at a prearranged time. The Transmigrants then imposed these terms on the host child to ensure his future transmigration. There was a basic conflict of interest between host child and Transmigrant. So the Transmigrants reduced the Receptacle class to a condition of virtual idiocy. Otherwise they would have reneged on a bargain from which they stood to gain nothing but death. The books are flagrant falsifications. And some of these basic lies are still current.
“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” The last words of Hassan i Sabbah, Old Man of the Mountain.
“Tamaghis . . . Ba’dan . . . Yass-Waddah . . . Waghdas . . . Naufana . . . Ghadis.”
It is said that in initiate who wishes to know the answer to any question need only to repeat these words as he falls asleep and the answer will come in a dream.
Tamaghis: This is the open city of contending partisans where advantage shifts from moment to moment in a desperate biological war. Here everything is as true as you think it is and everything you can get away with is permitted.
Ba’dan: This is given over to competitive games and commerce. Ba’dan closely resembles present-day America with a precarious moneyed elite, a large disaffected middle class and an equally large segment of criminals and outlaws. Unstable, explosive, and swept by whirlwind riots. Everything is true and everything is permitted.
Yass-Waddah: This city is the female stronghold where the Countess de Gulpa, the Coutess de Vile, and the Council of the Selected plot a final subjugation of the other cities. Every shade of sexual transition is represented: boys with girls’ heads, girls with boys’ heads. Here everything is true and nothing is permitted except to the permitters.
Waghdas: This is the university city, the center of learning where all questions are answered in terms of what can be expressed and understood. Complete permission derives from complete understanding.
Naufana and Ghadis are the cities of illusion where nothing is true and therefore everything is permitted.
The traveler must start in Tamaghis and make his way through the other cities in the order named. This pilgrimage may take many lifetimes.
"
https://www.dictionary.archivists.org/T ... -night.pdf
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In a March 15, 1966 letter to Brion Gysin, Burroughs describes a project he was working on at the time:
My latest literary project is a tour de force. About a Chinese officer in Tibet... a description of his training in Academy 23... and what he finds in the monasteries would make a buzzard crack his carrion... deliberately using places I have never been to.[1]
This project would become the basis of the chapter "We See Tibet with the Binoculars of the People". The phrase "we see Tibet with the binoculars of the people" first appeared in the essay "Ten Years and a Billion Dollars," in The Adding Machine, amongst a group of random phrases selected from Konstantīns Raudive's book Breakthrough. Several of those phrases became chapter titles in Cities of the Red Night.[2]
"
"
Burroughs's biographer Ted Morgan writes that one of the book's themes is "the cities themselves, imaginary cities located in the Gobi Desert 100,000 years ago, the names of which were magic words that Brion Gysin had once taught him, saying, 'If you want to get to the bottom of something, you should repeat those words before going to sleep.' Their ultimate source is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, better known in the west as the Picatrix, specifically the Invocation of the Perfect Nature within that text.[3] The city of Waghdas is in the grip of a cholera epidemic, which turns out to be a virus that is s*xual in origin". Morgan notes that while this disease is similar to AIDS, the novel was written when AIDS was unheard of. Morgan concludes that Cities of the Red Night is, "certainly the most compelling and inventive of Burroughs' books since Naked Lunch."[4]
"
https://www.renaissanceastrology.com/pi ... ature.html
https://liber.fvathynevgl.com/perfect-n ... n-sources/
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It was the food - specifically, the composition of "candy" - which caused me to notice that many of the elements of the Invocation of Perfect Nature (Picatrix III.6) repeat in the Operation of Jupiter (Picatrix III.9). Later, I also found out from Henry Corbin's "Inside Iranian Islam" that the invocation has been largely taken from the Prayer to Mercury (Picatrix III.7).
What can we learn from comparing these texts side-by-side?
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"
The six cities mentioned in William S. Burroughs's novel Cities of the Red Night are Tamaghis, Ba'dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, and Ghadis. These cities form a pilgrimage path that a traveler must follow in a specific order, starting in Tamaghis
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My threads work similarly but there is no particular or necessary path or order, it is like one of those games where you can choose wherever you go first, just like in some aspects of life, but more free. One may not get the same experience though without the ingredients and influence from another thread, each of which are meant to be thought of as locations.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questio ... -red-night
Tamaghis,
Ba'dan,
Yass-Waddah,
Waghdas,
Naufana,
Ghadis
"
From the the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khalud:
In the Ghayah and other books by practitioners of magic, reference is made to words that should be mentioned on falling asleep so as to cause the dream vision to be about the things one desires. These words are called by (the magicians) "dream words" (al-halumah). In the Ghayah, Maslamah mentioned a dream word that he called "the dream word of the perfect nature." It consists of saying, upon falling asleep and after obtaining freedom of the inner senses and finding one's way clear (for supernatural perception), the following non-Arabic words: tamaghis ba'dan yaswadda waghads nawfana ghadis. The person should then mention what he wants, and the thing he asks for will be shown to him in his sleep.
It's in the sixth discussion of the first chapter. The footnotes in the book tell more:
These magical words seem to be Aramaic and may have sounded something like this: Tmaggesh b'eddan swadh (?) waghdhash nawmtha ghadhesh, "You say your incantations at the time of conversation (?), and the accident of sleep happens."
Google Books has excerpts from a literary analysis, Mosaic of Juxtaposition: The Narrative Strategy of William S. Burroughs
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https://deepcuts.blog/2020/08/08/cities ... burroughs/
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All of these factors—drugs, homos*xual experiences, Mayan codicology and mythology, death and violence, studies in the occult, and travels in South America, Africa, and Europe—came together in the experimental novel Cities of the Red Night (1981). Among those ingredients were Burroughs’ tangential brushes with things Lovecraftian. As Khem Caighan and Harms & Gonce note, the opening invocation to Cities is:
This book is dedicated to the Ancient Ones, to the Lord of Abominations, Humwawa, whose face is a mass of entrails, whose breath is the stench of dung and the perfume of death, Dark Angel of all that is excreted and sours, Lord of Decay, Lord of the Future, who rides on a whispering south wind, to Pazuzu, Lord of Fevers and Plagues, Dark Angel of the Four Winds with rotting genitals from which he howls through sharpened teeth over stricken cities, to Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned […] to Ah Pook, the Destroyer, to the Great Old One and the Star Beast, to Pan, God of Panic, to the nameless gods of dispersal and emptiness, to Hassan I Sabbah, Master of the Assassins.
To all the scribes and artists and practitioners of magic through whom these spirits have been manifested….
NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
—Cities of the Red Night xvii-xviii
Harms & Gonce have called Cities of the Red Night a “surrealistic tribute to pulp fiction,” and it may even be that. We know little of what pulps that Burroughs read, but we do know that he read them. The manuscripts for The Yage Letters mention True; Cities of the Red Night includes reference to Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, and Adventure Stories (329); The Place of Dead Roads (1983) includes a short but accurate summary of Frank Belknap Long Jr.’s “The Hounds of Tindalos” from Weird Tales. In one interview, Burroughs said:
I read Black Mask; I remember Weird Tales and Amazing Stories—there were some very good ones in there, and some of them I’ve never been able to find I used some of those in my own work, but I’d like to find the originals, but never could. Who was that guy [who wrote about] “the Old Ones”?
H. P. Lovecraft?
There was somebody else.
Arthuer Machen?
He was another one, too. But anyway, Lovecraft was quite good and earnest. This place right by the—it’s always New England—where there’s vile rural slums that stunk of fish because they’re these half-fish people! It was great.
—”William S. Burroughs: The Final Interview” in Burroughs and Friends: Lost Interviews 66
The book is nonlinear, bouncing back and forth between narratives that interconnect in odd ways, sharing characters, hinting at a bigger picture that never quite resolves. Burroughs had a skill for pulp-style genre fiction, but his greater talent lay in subverting readers’ expectations. Just when you think you know what is going on, the next chapter usually proves you wrong. Plot threads are laid down and then forgotten, or picked up a hundred pages later in a completely different context. The eponymous Cities of the Red Night are simultaneously physical locations that exist before all other human civilizations, places that can be visited, and spiritual stages in a journey of soul improvement.
If you had to give the whole text a label, “experimental novel” works as well as any. The book defies rational analysis because it defies conventions, full stop. The protagonists are almost exclusively violent and homos*xual, the s*xual situations graphic, genres blend together quickly and easily. Considerable chunks of the text are pure exposition, describing imaginary weapons, occult rites, the structure of a revolution that never happened, cities that didn’t exist, fantastic and impossible combinations of drugs and s*xually transmitted diseases, conspiracy theories involving aliens and time travel, and complicated systems of reincarnation.
It is busy book, bursting with ideas and imagery, and quite lavishly indulges in breaking taboos. In many ways, Cities of the Red Night is a regurgitation of long-festering ideas and influences; chunks of the early book seem inspired by the Yage Letters, chunks of the later chapters from Ah Pook Is Here. Those who have read more of Burroughs’ earlier works may get more out of it than those who come in cold, but anyone expecting a trippy read that yet resolves itself into some kind of ongoing revelation a la Robert Anton Wilson’s The Eye in the Pyramid (1975) might want to brace themselves. The end of Cities of Red Night does not resolve; the plot threads are not tied up; characters and ideas are left where dropped, like a child’s playthings.
Maybe next book.
There were two more books, in what is generously defined as a “trilogy”: The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). There are some nominal connections between the stories, and a great many common themes, but as with Cities of the Red Night there is not really any sort of overarching plot. The scope and characters change, gunslingers in the Old West that seek escape into space, or away from death, and these things are tied together in different ways, but…they are books more suited to sortilege than casual entertainment.
They are also ugly. Burroughs’ s*xual tastes at that point in his life were homos*xual, and nearly all of the s*xual encounters in the book are homos*xual, which is fine and maybe to be expected—those squeamish about such things might consider what it is like for a homos*xual man or woman to read a book that goes on at length about heteros*xual encounters and how they might feel. Yet it is also true that many of the s*xual encounters skew young, even to the point of p*dophilia; this was noticeable in The Yage Letters and is hard to miss in Cities of the Red Night, which includes teenage prostitutes and s*
xually-active young boys. Female characters are almost absent, and those present often villainous or included solely for purposes of reproduction. At points in the trilogy this breaks out to straight misogyny where the characters hope to break free of women as essential for reproduction altogether.
Racism is prevalent, although a bit complicated. Burroughs’ protagonists are almost always white and male, like Burroughs himself. Stereotypes based on race and ethnicity are common, often exaggerated for comedic or scatological effect, and racial pejoratives aren’t uncommon. It’s unclear sometimes how much of this is Burroughs’ deliberate taboo-breaking and how much of it is just Burroughs’ own prejudice, the drug-addicted, homos*xual gringo globetrotting the world, trying to keep one step ahead of the criminal convictions, carrying the remnants of early 20th century colonial attitudes with him where he went.
Is it Lovecraftian? Is anything of Burroughs? The Simon Necronomicon certainly had its influence, however small, on Cities of the Red Night and its sequels; The Place of Dead Roads has absorbed a chunk of “The Hounds of Tindalos” into its literary DNA. Burroughs even had a story published in a Lovecraftian anthology: “Wind Die. You Die. We Die.” (1968) appeared in The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute To H. P. Lovecraft (1994); it contains not one word in reference to the Mythos or Lovecraft. Yet Ramsey Campbell in the introduction to that book observed:
Burroughs has fun with pulp in very much the same way that Lovecraft parodied such stuff in his letters. (7)
Which is certainly true. Lovecraft and Burroughs were both working with some of the same building blocks—quite literally in the case of “The Hounds of Tindalos”—albeit to different purposes and with a vastly different sense of aesthetics. John Coulthart in his essay “Architects of Fear” draws this comparison as well, and says of Cities of the Red Night:
Burroughs’ cities are brothers to Lovecraft’s Nameless City, and to Irem, City of Pillars, described in ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ as the rumoured home of the Cthulhu Cult. The Cities of the Red Night are invoked with a litany of Barbarous Names, a paean to the “nameless Gods of dispersal and emptiness” that includes the Sumerian deities that Burroughs found catalogued in the ‘Urilia Text’ from the Avon Books Necronomicon, and which includes (how could it not?) “Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned.” In Burroughs work the ‘Lovecraftian’ is transmuted, the unspeakable becomes the spoken and the nameless is named at last, beneath the pitiless gaze of Burroughs’ own “mad Arab”, Hassan I Sabbah, Hashish Eater and Master of Assassins. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”
Burroughs remains one of the most influential postmodernist writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft, through however many degrees of contact, was an influence on Burroughs. Distinguishing between the shades of their joint influence on subsequent authors is like trying to put a crowbar under a fingernail to see what lies underneath. That is the creeping nature of literary influence; like one of Burroughs’ fictional viruses, it gets into almost everything, and often comes from unlikely sources at unexpected times.
You don’t have to have even read Lovecraft to be influenced by him.
Which is both a very Lovecraftian and a very Burroughsian thought.
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The book itself seems to dissolve over time. An entropic unraveling until, in the last half of The Western Lands, Burroughs is giving us something like the theology of his crazy meta-mythology — or a bunch of scraps he had lying around. Maybe both. There are a few memorable scenes that seem unrelated entirely to the work that came before it, like set-ups for Twilight Zone episodes too disturbing to ever air, but the incidents told most straightforwardly are fictionalized representations of events earlier in the text. This pattern repeats throughout. Fragments of the story are re-told in the context of a screenplay, or a high school musical. Sometimes thunder simply “rumbles offstage.”
But I started to get it. Burroughs is not trying to tell you a story. He’s using many to create the lineaments of a universe he’s invented, or discovered, or perhaps stepped into. You have to simply allow the book to happen, give it room to redefine your language for awhile. Burroughs is trying to screw with you and you have to let him. I can’t straighten it out and I doubt Burroughs could either. But I can say that I like it, that it is worth reading for the aphorisms, for the unrelenting novelty, to see just how far a writer can take it before the words fall off the page.
I re-read these volumes shortly after finishing my own first novel. It is about a place that Burroughs might have written about sans exaggeration: Detroit with all the grime, the whiff of drugs in the air, the abundance of weaponry. It’s a pretty straightforward, realistic piece. Things happen and this causes other things to happen. Characters are fleshed out, live little lives, change a tiny bit. It is decidedly not how Burroughs would have written the thing.
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Space. The Cities of the Red Night is essentially about Space. The great actually of the infinite. The most beautiful metaphor for death. The most unknown of unknowns. That is where we’re going, says Burroughs. That is our Manifest Destiny if we ever had one. And, like Westward Expansion, it will not be easy, people will get hurt. The migration of humanity into Space should not be thought of as a physical colonization with humans living in hermetic compounds on Mars. That would be certain doom, done only out of desperation. Burroughs is talking about something like the technological Singularity or Transhumanism. In the 21st Century, many technophiles long for this moment, a common prediction being that we will merge with computer technology, that our personalities or “souls” (though that word’s thought a bit blasphemous) will become data and thus immortal, insubstantial, bound to nothing but the network of Space.
Burroughs, though, doesn’t seem to care much about technology unless it has a sharp edge or a trigger. His notion of transcendence is perhaps more akin to what Pierre Teilhard Chardin calls the Omega Point. Chardin, in that great work of Christian mysticism The Phenomenon of Man, espoused the belief that humanity is inexorably evolving toward a coalescence of consciousness, the pure form of networked intelligence that life on earth has been striving for since the first cell came to be. A collective enlightenment both body-less and infinite, personalized and yet deinvidualized. Chardin believed that Christ’s divine purpose was to instill us with love so that we can draw the network of humanity closer and prepare ourselves for the infinite beyond our bodies. Burroughs seems to think there’s an Omega Point of some kind as well … but, for Kim Carsons at least, love is not the answer.
But, perhaps I’m reading Kim’s power as a monopoly on the truth. Maybe everyone else can love each other just like Jesus wanted, and with Carsons — who sleeps with boys, who poisons irritating people, who will shoot any man in the street if it brings us closer to Space — Burroughs is telling the story of the shadowy insinuation behind all that sentiment. If we want to go to Space, we don’t all get to make it. Even if our aims are nothing but a world slightly better than this one, we aren’t all invited. Carsons is the ultimate anti-hero. He does the dirty work of humanity so we can reach our destiny. Put that in your Left/Right pipe and smoke it.
The easy bit of analysis here is to highlight affinities between Carsons — who is, remember, many other characters, and named such here to reference his most actualized instance — and Burroughs: distrusted and slightly feared as youths. A shared penchant for weapons. A kind of rank homosexuality that would be perverse no matter the orientation. A disgust for laws religious, political, or tacit. There is an interpretation that casts Kim Carsons as Burroughs idealized alter-ego. Ultimately, though, he separates himself from the character. Burroughs remains the writer, the puppetmaster of another writer (William Seward Hall, an indevious pseudonym) who is writing these books and sometimes appearing as a character in the process. But there is something about the manner in which Burroughs makes translucent that fourth narrative wall that calls to mind other work that is murkily post-colonial. He places William Hall at the very border of history, and he occasionally turns to look at the reader and make sure he’s getting all this.
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Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Perhaps this last comparison is best. The old junkie did love his Conrad. In the most simplified terms possible, Heart of Darkness is about what happened when people took “everything is permitted” quite literal and serious. Burroughs, then, is not the violent and humble messiah of Kim Carsons, but only to the degree that Joseph Conrad is not Colonel Kurtz — who that book is “about,” but whose real presence is in Marlowe’s soul and thus Conrad’s. The most significant difference between Burroughs and Conrad is that the oppressive colony of Burroughs’s work is the planet earth itself. It is enough to drive mad even the most well-intentioned of people. Put an evil genius in charge and you just might distort reality.
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A car wreck is not art, exactly, but I dare you not to look as you drive past. There is so much more in these books. I have not addressed the pungent use of smells, things I have never caught whiff of: rotten solder, the almond smell of oncoming seizure, putrid ozone. I have not mentioned the underlying system of colors, the greens and reds and blues and blacks that seem to be either Burroughs pointing out the invented nature of the work, or stitching together the chaos in the slightest of touches. The exploration of obscure subjects such as Egyptian after-life mythology with a rich and sometimes humorous symbolism. Moments of language poetic and genuinely felt. The employment of every postmodern trick, to sometimes exemplary effect — The Cities of the Red Night is actually a book within the book, within which more books are written until they become real all the way out in William Hall’s world.
When I first read these books, “nothing is true” meant to me that everything was lie or illusion. Everything is permitted meant that there were truly no laws, nothing but a vast indifference overseeing things. The phrase is a set containing all sets, a prime mathematical paradox. In my old interpretation, the phrase itself must then be a lie. I’m still pretty sure that many things are. But I centered that half of the sentence on the extremity of “nothing” and paid little attention to the chimeric nature of “true.” Our sense of this world, through the death of God, to the perforation of reality by Quantum Physics, has little left to stand on. All the cold hard facts are just as bizarre as the Old Testament, with a few rules of logic reducto ad absurdum. Nothing is “true” because nothing can be apprehended with certainty. The person apprehending made of almost entirely “nothing.” The only thing that is certainly true is “nothingness” itself.
And “Everything is permitted” is not strictly a kind of cosmic moral relativism. I don’t think, anymore, that it means anything is acceptable under particular circumstances. Of course, right or wrong may have nothing to do with it. The universe does allow us to murder each other. The bounds of reality grant vast permutations.
If nothing is true because all is interpretation, then all interpretations are permitted. Any criteria of truth is pointless. If “nothingness” is true, anything is permitted because it can’t change the facts. Or, maybe “everything is permitted” is a whisper to us that our instinctual cravings, pushed so hard below the surface, are in fact allowed by the world. Or maybe it is simply the code words for our passage to Space: Nothing is true — we are not bodies, we do not exist in time. Everything is permitted — freedom of nirvanic proportions by giving up our cowardly humanity.
I think all that book learning did help me out on this read. I was certainly less bewildered. A little less excited, too. I’m reading another book of his at the moment, something else I read way back when, called The Job. A series of interviews that Burroughs later filled-out with further writing and references. He argues for the efficacy of Vitamin A in curing the common cold, the existence of Deadly Orgone Radiation — a ubiquitous cosmic force that can be magnified using simple contraptions, and revolutionary treatments for addiction. Most interestingly, he expounds on a brief claim made in Cities: that you can poke holes in the Big Picture — the Big Lie — with the use of tape recorders and cameras. You secretly record a politician’s voice at the depths of their lust or greed or misanthropy, and you dub it over images of them giving a speech. Burroughs claims you’ll barely notice. Take footage of a place over and over again, and you’ll begin to rub the place out of existence — it’ll catch fire or go out of business or be held liable in court. Play recordings back to a person and they’ll be incapable of finding words. Broadcast the sounds of a riot over a peaceful march, and a riot you shall have.
That was the ’80s. A quaint time for technology. We have a weapon much more powerful. The Internet is camera and tape recorder and mouthpiece and a self-creating mega-text of dubious factuality. It seems that, through computers, we’ve adopted some base acceptance of the Hassan-i-Sabbah’s words. Maybe the hole has already torn. How crazy would it have to get before we actually knew?
"
Tamaghis,
Ba'dan,
Yass-Waddah,
Waghdas,
Naufana,
Ghadis
Notice the names of my threads.
Tamaghis, Tarkhisis
Ba'dan, Bane
Yass-Waddah, Zon-Kuthon
Waghdas, Warduke
Naufana, Ravanna
Ghadis, Vlaakith
(Yeenoghu and Hruggek are not city sites, but a camp and a cave, Talos is a mountain and mountain top like a tower)
Loviatar, Minthara, Talona, and Lathander are all worth consideration as to what they are, with no two locations being the same sort.
Lolth is the "Underdark" and Bhaal is the circulation of "blood" through streets and caverns.
I'll be enjoying the map of my world.
According to Burroughs, one would start at Tamaghis, which is representative of "The State" and cities in general, under which are caverns which lead to various underground locations.
Added in 27 minutes 25 seconds:
Nowe I returne to my purpose: As to the first kinde of these spirites, that were called by the auncients by diuers names, according as their actions were.
For if they were spirites that haunted some houses, by appearing in diuers and horrible formes, and making greate dinne: they were called Lemures or Spectra.
If they appeared in likenesse of anie defunct to some friends of his, they wer called vmbræ mortuorum: And so innumerable stiles they got, according to their actiones, as I haue said alreadie.
As we see by experience, how manie stiles they haue given them in our language in the like maner: Of the appearing of these spirites, wee are certified by the Scriptures, [marginal note - Esay. 13. Iere. 50] where the Prophet ESAY 13. and 34. cap. threatening the destruction of Babell and Edom: declares, that it shal not onlie be wracked, but shall become so greate a solitude, as it shall be the habitackle of
Howlettes, and of
ZIIM and
IIM,
which are the proper Hebrewe names for these Spirites.
The cause whie they haunte solitarie places, it is by reason, that they may affraie and brangle the more the faith of suche as them alone hauntes such places.
For our nature is such, as in companies wee are not so soone mooued to anie such kinde of feare, as being solitare, which the Deuill knowing well inough, hee will not therefore assaile vs but when we are weake: And besides that, GOD will not permit him so to dishonour the societies and companies of Christians, as in publicke times and places to walke visiblie amongst them.
On the other parte, when he troubles certaine houses that are dwelt in, it is a sure token either of grosse ignorance, or of some grosse and slanderous sinnes amongst the inhabitantes thereof: which God by that extraordinarie rod punishes.[13]
"
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to- ... /abandoned
https://www.loveexploring.com/galleryli ... eft-to-rot
https://www.jahernandez.com/posts/lemur ... cient-rome
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lemures
https://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/04/ ... onary-past
https://occult-world.com/lemures/
https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiositi ... ad-romans/
https://weirditaly.com/2022/10/06/lemures/
https://news.uchicago.edu/are-we-worse- ... we-used-be
If they say people in the past were more unrestrained than the culture promoted by the media, they are straight up lying.
https://www.billygraham.ca/answer/i-hea ... that-true/
Self fulfilling prophecy, they told themselves that it has to be this way, that isn't necessarily true, considering they are liars.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_of_the_Red_Night
"
Cities of the Red Night is a 1981 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. His first full-length novel since The Wild Boys (1971), it is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). The plot involves a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Misson. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a s*xual ritual. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.
"
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Wanted to submit this chapter from the book "Cities of the Red Night" by William S. Burroughs; it is the first book in a trilogy he called "The Red Night Trilogy". Why I find it worthy of a post here is the nature of subject matter Burroughs focuses in on: ancient knowledge and a time a lost as well as ancient mysticsm and reincarnation.
While COTRN is a work of fiction, Burroughs was a student of ritual magik and the out of the way places steeped in symbolism and history, and incorporated many of these ideas into his fiction. In ways, Burroughs seemed to have to been tapped into a forbidden forgotten knowledge, and through his novels (especially The Red Night Trilogy) he tried to lend some of this to his readers and culture in general.
Take a read below. Thoughts/comments welcome!
The Cities of the Red Night were six in number: Tamaghis, Ba’dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, and Ghadis. These cities were located in an area roughly corresponding to the Gobi Desert, a hundred thousand years ago. At that time the desert was dotted with large oases and traversed by a river which emptied into the Caspian Sea.
The largest of these oases contained a lake ten miles long and five miles across, on the shores of which the university town of Waghdas was founded. Pilgrims came from all over the inhabited world to study in the academies of Waghdas, where the arts and sciences reached peaks of attainment that have never been equaled. Much of this ancient knowledge is now lost.
The towns of Ba’dan and Yass-Waddah were opposite each other on the river. Tamaghis, located in a desolate area to the north on a small oasis, could properly be called a desert town. Naufana and Ghadis were situated in mountainous areas to the west and south beyond the perimeter of usual trade routes between the other cities.
In addition to the six cities, there were a number of villages and nomadic tribes. Food was plentiful and for a time the population was completely stable: no one was born unless someone died.
The inhabitants were divided into an elite minority known as the Transmigrants and a majority known as the Receptacles. Within these categories were a number of occupational and specialized strata and the two classes were not in practice separate: Transmigrants acted as Receptacles and Receptacles became Transmigrants.
To show the system in operation: Here is an old Transmigrant on his deathbed. He has selected his future Receptacle parents, who are summoned to the death chamber. The parents then copulate, achieving orgasm just as the old Transmigrant dies so that his spirit enters the womb to be reborn. Every Transmigrant carries with him at all times a list of alternative parents, and in case of accident, violence, or sudden illness, the nearest parents are rushed to the scene. However, there was at first little chance of random or unexpected deaths since the Council of Transmigrants in Waghdas had attained such skill in the art of prophecy that they were able to chart a life from birth to death and determine in most cases the exact time and manner of death.
Many Transmigrants preferred not to wait for the infirmities of age and the ravages of illness, lest their spirit be so weakened so to be overwhelmed and absorbed by the Receptacle child. These hardy Transmigrants, in the full vigor of maturity, after rigorous training in concentration and astral projection, would select two death guides to kill them in front of the copulating parents. The methods of death most commonly employed were hanging and strangulation, the Transmigrant dying in orgasm, which was considered the most reliable method of ensuring a successful transfer. Drugs were also developed, large doses of which occasioned death in erotic convulsions, smaller doses being used to enhance sexual pleasure. And these drugs were often used in conjunction with other forms of death.
In time, death by natural causes became a rare and rather discreditable occurrence as the age for transmigration dropped. The Eternal Youths, a Transmigrant sect, were hanged at the age of eighteen to spare themselves the coarsening experience of middle age and the deterioration of senescence, living their youth again and again.
Two factors undermined the stability of this system. The first was perfection of techniques for artificial insemination. Whereas the traditional practice called for one death and one rebirth, now hundreds of women could be impregnated from a single sperm collection, and territorially oriented Transmigrants could populate whole areas with their progeny. There were sullen mutters of revolt from the Receptacles, especially the women. At this point, another factor totally unforeseen was introduced.
In the thinly populated desert area north of Tamaghis a portentous event occurred. Some say it was a meteor that fell to earth leaving a crater twenty miles across. Others say that the crater was caused by what modern physicists call a black hole.
After this occurrence the whole northern sky lit up red at night, like the reflection from a vast furnace. Those in the immediate vicinity of the crater were the first to be affected and various mutations were observed, the commonest being altered hair and skin color. Red and yellow hair, and white, yellow, and red skin appeared for the first time. Slowly the whole area was similarly affected until the mutants outnumbered the original inhabitants, who were as all human beings were at the time: black.
The women, led by an albino mutant known as the White Tigress, seized Yass-Waddah, reducing the male inhabitants to slaves, consorts, and courtiers all under sentence of death that could be carried out at any time at the caprice of the White Tigress. The Council of Waghdas countered by developing a method of growing babies in excised wombs, the wombs being supplied by vagrant Womb Snatchers. This practice aggravated the differences between male and female factions and war with Yass-Waddah seemed unavoidable.
In Naufana, a method was found to transfer the spirit directly into an adolescent Receptacle, thus averting the awkward and vulnerable period of infancy. This practice required a rigorous period of preparation and training to achieve a harmonious blending of the two spirits in one body. These Transmigrants, combining the freshness and vitality of youth with the wisdom of many lifetimes, were expected to form an army of liberation to free Yass-Waddah. And there were adepts who could die at will without any need of drugs or executioners and project their spirit into a chosen Receptacle.
I have mentioned hanging, strangulation, and orgasm drugs as the commonest means of effecting the transfer. However, many other forms of death were employed. The Fire Boys were burned to death in the presence of the Receptacles, only the genitals being insulated, so that the practitioner could achieve orgasm in the moment of death. There is an interesting account by a Fire Boy who recalled his experience after transmigrating in this manner:
“As the flames closed around my body, I inhaled deeply, drawing fire into my lungs, and screamed out flames as the most horrible pain turned to the most exquisite pleasure and I was ejaculating in an adolescent Receptacle who was being sodomized by another.”
Others were stabbed, decapitated, disemboweled, shot with arrows, or killed by a blow on the head. Some threw themselves from cliff, landing in front of the copulating Receptacles.
The scientists at Waghdas were developing a machine that could directly transfer the electromagnetic field of one body to another. In Ghadis there were adepts who were able to leave their bodies before death and occupy a series of hosts. How far this research may have gone will never be known. It was a time of great disorder and chaos.
The effects of the Red Night on Receptacles and Transmigrants proved to be incalculable and many strange mutants arose as a series of plagues devastated the cities. It is this period of war and pestilence that is covered by the books. The Council had set out to create a race of supermen for the exploration of space. They produced instead races of ravening idiot vampires.
Finally, the cities were abandoned and the survivors fled in all directions, carrying the plagues with them. Some of these migrants crossed the Bering Strait into the New World, taking the books with them. They settled in the area later occupied by the Mayans and the books eventually fell into the hands of the Mayan priests.
The alert student of this noble experiment will perceive that death was regarded as equivalent not to birth but to conception and go on to infer that conception is the basic trauma. In the moment of death, the dying man’s whole life may flash in front of his eyes back to conception. In the moment of conception, his future life flashes forward to his future death. To reexperience conception is fatal.
This was the basic error of the Transmigrants: you do not get beyond death and conception by reexperience any more than you get beyond heroin by ingesting larger and larger doses. The Transmigrants were quite literally addicted to death and they needed more and more death to kill the pain of conception. They were buying a parasitic life with a promissory death note to be paid at a prearranged time. The Transmigrants then imposed these terms on the host child to ensure his future transmigration. There was a basic conflict of interest between host child and Transmigrant. So the Transmigrants reduced the Receptacle class to a condition of virtual idiocy. Otherwise they would have reneged on a bargain from which they stood to gain nothing but death. The books are flagrant falsifications. And some of these basic lies are still current.
“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” The last words of Hassan i Sabbah, Old Man of the Mountain.
“Tamaghis . . . Ba’dan . . . Yass-Waddah . . . Waghdas . . . Naufana . . . Ghadis.”
It is said that in initiate who wishes to know the answer to any question need only to repeat these words as he falls asleep and the answer will come in a dream.
Tamaghis: This is the open city of contending partisans where advantage shifts from moment to moment in a desperate biological war. Here everything is as true as you think it is and everything you can get away with is permitted.
Ba’dan: This is given over to competitive games and commerce. Ba’dan closely resembles present-day America with a precarious moneyed elite, a large disaffected middle class and an equally large segment of criminals and outlaws. Unstable, explosive, and swept by whirlwind riots. Everything is true and everything is permitted.
Yass-Waddah: This city is the female stronghold where the Countess de Gulpa, the Coutess de Vile, and the Council of the Selected plot a final subjugation of the other cities. Every shade of sexual transition is represented: boys with girls’ heads, girls with boys’ heads. Here everything is true and nothing is permitted except to the permitters.
Waghdas: This is the university city, the center of learning where all questions are answered in terms of what can be expressed and understood. Complete permission derives from complete understanding.
Naufana and Ghadis are the cities of illusion where nothing is true and therefore everything is permitted.
The traveler must start in Tamaghis and make his way through the other cities in the order named. This pilgrimage may take many lifetimes.
"
https://www.dictionary.archivists.org/T ... -night.pdf
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In a March 15, 1966 letter to Brion Gysin, Burroughs describes a project he was working on at the time:
My latest literary project is a tour de force. About a Chinese officer in Tibet... a description of his training in Academy 23... and what he finds in the monasteries would make a buzzard crack his carrion... deliberately using places I have never been to.[1]
This project would become the basis of the chapter "We See Tibet with the Binoculars of the People". The phrase "we see Tibet with the binoculars of the people" first appeared in the essay "Ten Years and a Billion Dollars," in The Adding Machine, amongst a group of random phrases selected from Konstantīns Raudive's book Breakthrough. Several of those phrases became chapter titles in Cities of the Red Night.[2]
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Burroughs's biographer Ted Morgan writes that one of the book's themes is "the cities themselves, imaginary cities located in the Gobi Desert 100,000 years ago, the names of which were magic words that Brion Gysin had once taught him, saying, 'If you want to get to the bottom of something, you should repeat those words before going to sleep.' Their ultimate source is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, better known in the west as the Picatrix, specifically the Invocation of the Perfect Nature within that text.[3] The city of Waghdas is in the grip of a cholera epidemic, which turns out to be a virus that is s*xual in origin". Morgan notes that while this disease is similar to AIDS, the novel was written when AIDS was unheard of. Morgan concludes that Cities of the Red Night is, "certainly the most compelling and inventive of Burroughs' books since Naked Lunch."[4]
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https://www.renaissanceastrology.com/pi ... ature.html
https://liber.fvathynevgl.com/perfect-n ... n-sources/
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It was the food - specifically, the composition of "candy" - which caused me to notice that many of the elements of the Invocation of Perfect Nature (Picatrix III.6) repeat in the Operation of Jupiter (Picatrix III.9). Later, I also found out from Henry Corbin's "Inside Iranian Islam" that the invocation has been largely taken from the Prayer to Mercury (Picatrix III.7).
What can we learn from comparing these texts side-by-side?
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"
The six cities mentioned in William S. Burroughs's novel Cities of the Red Night are Tamaghis, Ba'dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, and Ghadis. These cities form a pilgrimage path that a traveler must follow in a specific order, starting in Tamaghis
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My threads work similarly but there is no particular or necessary path or order, it is like one of those games where you can choose wherever you go first, just like in some aspects of life, but more free. One may not get the same experience though without the ingredients and influence from another thread, each of which are meant to be thought of as locations.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questio ... -red-night
Tamaghis,
Ba'dan,
Yass-Waddah,
Waghdas,
Naufana,
Ghadis
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From the the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khalud:
In the Ghayah and other books by practitioners of magic, reference is made to words that should be mentioned on falling asleep so as to cause the dream vision to be about the things one desires. These words are called by (the magicians) "dream words" (al-halumah). In the Ghayah, Maslamah mentioned a dream word that he called "the dream word of the perfect nature." It consists of saying, upon falling asleep and after obtaining freedom of the inner senses and finding one's way clear (for supernatural perception), the following non-Arabic words: tamaghis ba'dan yaswadda waghads nawfana ghadis. The person should then mention what he wants, and the thing he asks for will be shown to him in his sleep.
It's in the sixth discussion of the first chapter. The footnotes in the book tell more:
These magical words seem to be Aramaic and may have sounded something like this: Tmaggesh b'eddan swadh (?) waghdhash nawmtha ghadhesh, "You say your incantations at the time of conversation (?), and the accident of sleep happens."
Google Books has excerpts from a literary analysis, Mosaic of Juxtaposition: The Narrative Strategy of William S. Burroughs
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https://deepcuts.blog/2020/08/08/cities ... burroughs/
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All of these factors—drugs, homos*xual experiences, Mayan codicology and mythology, death and violence, studies in the occult, and travels in South America, Africa, and Europe—came together in the experimental novel Cities of the Red Night (1981). Among those ingredients were Burroughs’ tangential brushes with things Lovecraftian. As Khem Caighan and Harms & Gonce note, the opening invocation to Cities is:
This book is dedicated to the Ancient Ones, to the Lord of Abominations, Humwawa, whose face is a mass of entrails, whose breath is the stench of dung and the perfume of death, Dark Angel of all that is excreted and sours, Lord of Decay, Lord of the Future, who rides on a whispering south wind, to Pazuzu, Lord of Fevers and Plagues, Dark Angel of the Four Winds with rotting genitals from which he howls through sharpened teeth over stricken cities, to Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned […] to Ah Pook, the Destroyer, to the Great Old One and the Star Beast, to Pan, God of Panic, to the nameless gods of dispersal and emptiness, to Hassan I Sabbah, Master of the Assassins.
To all the scribes and artists and practitioners of magic through whom these spirits have been manifested….
NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
—Cities of the Red Night xvii-xviii
Harms & Gonce have called Cities of the Red Night a “surrealistic tribute to pulp fiction,” and it may even be that. We know little of what pulps that Burroughs read, but we do know that he read them. The manuscripts for The Yage Letters mention True; Cities of the Red Night includes reference to Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, and Adventure Stories (329); The Place of Dead Roads (1983) includes a short but accurate summary of Frank Belknap Long Jr.’s “The Hounds of Tindalos” from Weird Tales. In one interview, Burroughs said:
I read Black Mask; I remember Weird Tales and Amazing Stories—there were some very good ones in there, and some of them I’ve never been able to find I used some of those in my own work, but I’d like to find the originals, but never could. Who was that guy [who wrote about] “the Old Ones”?
H. P. Lovecraft?
There was somebody else.
Arthuer Machen?
He was another one, too. But anyway, Lovecraft was quite good and earnest. This place right by the—it’s always New England—where there’s vile rural slums that stunk of fish because they’re these half-fish people! It was great.
—”William S. Burroughs: The Final Interview” in Burroughs and Friends: Lost Interviews 66
The book is nonlinear, bouncing back and forth between narratives that interconnect in odd ways, sharing characters, hinting at a bigger picture that never quite resolves. Burroughs had a skill for pulp-style genre fiction, but his greater talent lay in subverting readers’ expectations. Just when you think you know what is going on, the next chapter usually proves you wrong. Plot threads are laid down and then forgotten, or picked up a hundred pages later in a completely different context. The eponymous Cities of the Red Night are simultaneously physical locations that exist before all other human civilizations, places that can be visited, and spiritual stages in a journey of soul improvement.
If you had to give the whole text a label, “experimental novel” works as well as any. The book defies rational analysis because it defies conventions, full stop. The protagonists are almost exclusively violent and homos*xual, the s*xual situations graphic, genres blend together quickly and easily. Considerable chunks of the text are pure exposition, describing imaginary weapons, occult rites, the structure of a revolution that never happened, cities that didn’t exist, fantastic and impossible combinations of drugs and s*xually transmitted diseases, conspiracy theories involving aliens and time travel, and complicated systems of reincarnation.
It is busy book, bursting with ideas and imagery, and quite lavishly indulges in breaking taboos. In many ways, Cities of the Red Night is a regurgitation of long-festering ideas and influences; chunks of the early book seem inspired by the Yage Letters, chunks of the later chapters from Ah Pook Is Here. Those who have read more of Burroughs’ earlier works may get more out of it than those who come in cold, but anyone expecting a trippy read that yet resolves itself into some kind of ongoing revelation a la Robert Anton Wilson’s The Eye in the Pyramid (1975) might want to brace themselves. The end of Cities of Red Night does not resolve; the plot threads are not tied up; characters and ideas are left where dropped, like a child’s playthings.
Maybe next book.
There were two more books, in what is generously defined as a “trilogy”: The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). There are some nominal connections between the stories, and a great many common themes, but as with Cities of the Red Night there is not really any sort of overarching plot. The scope and characters change, gunslingers in the Old West that seek escape into space, or away from death, and these things are tied together in different ways, but…they are books more suited to sortilege than casual entertainment.
They are also ugly. Burroughs’ s*xual tastes at that point in his life were homos*xual, and nearly all of the s*xual encounters in the book are homos*xual, which is fine and maybe to be expected—those squeamish about such things might consider what it is like for a homos*xual man or woman to read a book that goes on at length about heteros*xual encounters and how they might feel. Yet it is also true that many of the s*xual encounters skew young, even to the point of p*dophilia; this was noticeable in The Yage Letters and is hard to miss in Cities of the Red Night, which includes teenage prostitutes and s*
xually-active young boys. Female characters are almost absent, and those present often villainous or included solely for purposes of reproduction. At points in the trilogy this breaks out to straight misogyny where the characters hope to break free of women as essential for reproduction altogether.Racism is prevalent, although a bit complicated. Burroughs’ protagonists are almost always white and male, like Burroughs himself. Stereotypes based on race and ethnicity are common, often exaggerated for comedic or scatological effect, and racial pejoratives aren’t uncommon. It’s unclear sometimes how much of this is Burroughs’ deliberate taboo-breaking and how much of it is just Burroughs’ own prejudice, the drug-addicted, homos*xual gringo globetrotting the world, trying to keep one step ahead of the criminal convictions, carrying the remnants of early 20th century colonial attitudes with him where he went.
Is it Lovecraftian? Is anything of Burroughs? The Simon Necronomicon certainly had its influence, however small, on Cities of the Red Night and its sequels; The Place of Dead Roads has absorbed a chunk of “The Hounds of Tindalos” into its literary DNA. Burroughs even had a story published in a Lovecraftian anthology: “Wind Die. You Die. We Die.” (1968) appeared in The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute To H. P. Lovecraft (1994); it contains not one word in reference to the Mythos or Lovecraft. Yet Ramsey Campbell in the introduction to that book observed:
Burroughs has fun with pulp in very much the same way that Lovecraft parodied such stuff in his letters. (7)
Which is certainly true. Lovecraft and Burroughs were both working with some of the same building blocks—quite literally in the case of “The Hounds of Tindalos”—albeit to different purposes and with a vastly different sense of aesthetics. John Coulthart in his essay “Architects of Fear” draws this comparison as well, and says of Cities of the Red Night:
Burroughs’ cities are brothers to Lovecraft’s Nameless City, and to Irem, City of Pillars, described in ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ as the rumoured home of the Cthulhu Cult. The Cities of the Red Night are invoked with a litany of Barbarous Names, a paean to the “nameless Gods of dispersal and emptiness” that includes the Sumerian deities that Burroughs found catalogued in the ‘Urilia Text’ from the Avon Books Necronomicon, and which includes (how could it not?) “Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned.” In Burroughs work the ‘Lovecraftian’ is transmuted, the unspeakable becomes the spoken and the nameless is named at last, beneath the pitiless gaze of Burroughs’ own “mad Arab”, Hassan I Sabbah, Hashish Eater and Master of Assassins. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”
Burroughs remains one of the most influential postmodernist writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft, through however many degrees of contact, was an influence on Burroughs. Distinguishing between the shades of their joint influence on subsequent authors is like trying to put a crowbar under a fingernail to see what lies underneath. That is the creeping nature of literary influence; like one of Burroughs’ fictional viruses, it gets into almost everything, and often comes from unlikely sources at unexpected times.
You don’t have to have even read Lovecraft to be influenced by him.
Which is both a very Lovecraftian and a very Burroughsian thought.
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The book itself seems to dissolve over time. An entropic unraveling until, in the last half of The Western Lands, Burroughs is giving us something like the theology of his crazy meta-mythology — or a bunch of scraps he had lying around. Maybe both. There are a few memorable scenes that seem unrelated entirely to the work that came before it, like set-ups for Twilight Zone episodes too disturbing to ever air, but the incidents told most straightforwardly are fictionalized representations of events earlier in the text. This pattern repeats throughout. Fragments of the story are re-told in the context of a screenplay, or a high school musical. Sometimes thunder simply “rumbles offstage.”
But I started to get it. Burroughs is not trying to tell you a story. He’s using many to create the lineaments of a universe he’s invented, or discovered, or perhaps stepped into. You have to simply allow the book to happen, give it room to redefine your language for awhile. Burroughs is trying to screw with you and you have to let him. I can’t straighten it out and I doubt Burroughs could either. But I can say that I like it, that it is worth reading for the aphorisms, for the unrelenting novelty, to see just how far a writer can take it before the words fall off the page.
I re-read these volumes shortly after finishing my own first novel. It is about a place that Burroughs might have written about sans exaggeration: Detroit with all the grime, the whiff of drugs in the air, the abundance of weaponry. It’s a pretty straightforward, realistic piece. Things happen and this causes other things to happen. Characters are fleshed out, live little lives, change a tiny bit. It is decidedly not how Burroughs would have written the thing.
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Space. The Cities of the Red Night is essentially about Space. The great actually of the infinite. The most beautiful metaphor for death. The most unknown of unknowns. That is where we’re going, says Burroughs. That is our Manifest Destiny if we ever had one. And, like Westward Expansion, it will not be easy, people will get hurt. The migration of humanity into Space should not be thought of as a physical colonization with humans living in hermetic compounds on Mars. That would be certain doom, done only out of desperation. Burroughs is talking about something like the technological Singularity or Transhumanism. In the 21st Century, many technophiles long for this moment, a common prediction being that we will merge with computer technology, that our personalities or “souls” (though that word’s thought a bit blasphemous) will become data and thus immortal, insubstantial, bound to nothing but the network of Space.
Burroughs, though, doesn’t seem to care much about technology unless it has a sharp edge or a trigger. His notion of transcendence is perhaps more akin to what Pierre Teilhard Chardin calls the Omega Point. Chardin, in that great work of Christian mysticism The Phenomenon of Man, espoused the belief that humanity is inexorably evolving toward a coalescence of consciousness, the pure form of networked intelligence that life on earth has been striving for since the first cell came to be. A collective enlightenment both body-less and infinite, personalized and yet deinvidualized. Chardin believed that Christ’s divine purpose was to instill us with love so that we can draw the network of humanity closer and prepare ourselves for the infinite beyond our bodies. Burroughs seems to think there’s an Omega Point of some kind as well … but, for Kim Carsons at least, love is not the answer.
But, perhaps I’m reading Kim’s power as a monopoly on the truth. Maybe everyone else can love each other just like Jesus wanted, and with Carsons — who sleeps with boys, who poisons irritating people, who will shoot any man in the street if it brings us closer to Space — Burroughs is telling the story of the shadowy insinuation behind all that sentiment. If we want to go to Space, we don’t all get to make it. Even if our aims are nothing but a world slightly better than this one, we aren’t all invited. Carsons is the ultimate anti-hero. He does the dirty work of humanity so we can reach our destiny. Put that in your Left/Right pipe and smoke it.
The easy bit of analysis here is to highlight affinities between Carsons — who is, remember, many other characters, and named such here to reference his most actualized instance — and Burroughs: distrusted and slightly feared as youths. A shared penchant for weapons. A kind of rank homosexuality that would be perverse no matter the orientation. A disgust for laws religious, political, or tacit. There is an interpretation that casts Kim Carsons as Burroughs idealized alter-ego. Ultimately, though, he separates himself from the character. Burroughs remains the writer, the puppetmaster of another writer (William Seward Hall, an indevious pseudonym) who is writing these books and sometimes appearing as a character in the process. But there is something about the manner in which Burroughs makes translucent that fourth narrative wall that calls to mind other work that is murkily post-colonial. He places William Hall at the very border of history, and he occasionally turns to look at the reader and make sure he’s getting all this.
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Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Perhaps this last comparison is best. The old junkie did love his Conrad. In the most simplified terms possible, Heart of Darkness is about what happened when people took “everything is permitted” quite literal and serious. Burroughs, then, is not the violent and humble messiah of Kim Carsons, but only to the degree that Joseph Conrad is not Colonel Kurtz — who that book is “about,” but whose real presence is in Marlowe’s soul and thus Conrad’s. The most significant difference between Burroughs and Conrad is that the oppressive colony of Burroughs’s work is the planet earth itself. It is enough to drive mad even the most well-intentioned of people. Put an evil genius in charge and you just might distort reality.
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A car wreck is not art, exactly, but I dare you not to look as you drive past. There is so much more in these books. I have not addressed the pungent use of smells, things I have never caught whiff of: rotten solder, the almond smell of oncoming seizure, putrid ozone. I have not mentioned the underlying system of colors, the greens and reds and blues and blacks that seem to be either Burroughs pointing out the invented nature of the work, or stitching together the chaos in the slightest of touches. The exploration of obscure subjects such as Egyptian after-life mythology with a rich and sometimes humorous symbolism. Moments of language poetic and genuinely felt. The employment of every postmodern trick, to sometimes exemplary effect — The Cities of the Red Night is actually a book within the book, within which more books are written until they become real all the way out in William Hall’s world.
When I first read these books, “nothing is true” meant to me that everything was lie or illusion. Everything is permitted meant that there were truly no laws, nothing but a vast indifference overseeing things. The phrase is a set containing all sets, a prime mathematical paradox. In my old interpretation, the phrase itself must then be a lie. I’m still pretty sure that many things are. But I centered that half of the sentence on the extremity of “nothing” and paid little attention to the chimeric nature of “true.” Our sense of this world, through the death of God, to the perforation of reality by Quantum Physics, has little left to stand on. All the cold hard facts are just as bizarre as the Old Testament, with a few rules of logic reducto ad absurdum. Nothing is “true” because nothing can be apprehended with certainty. The person apprehending made of almost entirely “nothing.” The only thing that is certainly true is “nothingness” itself.
And “Everything is permitted” is not strictly a kind of cosmic moral relativism. I don’t think, anymore, that it means anything is acceptable under particular circumstances. Of course, right or wrong may have nothing to do with it. The universe does allow us to murder each other. The bounds of reality grant vast permutations.
If nothing is true because all is interpretation, then all interpretations are permitted. Any criteria of truth is pointless. If “nothingness” is true, anything is permitted because it can’t change the facts. Or, maybe “everything is permitted” is a whisper to us that our instinctual cravings, pushed so hard below the surface, are in fact allowed by the world. Or maybe it is simply the code words for our passage to Space: Nothing is true — we are not bodies, we do not exist in time. Everything is permitted — freedom of nirvanic proportions by giving up our cowardly humanity.
I think all that book learning did help me out on this read. I was certainly less bewildered. A little less excited, too. I’m reading another book of his at the moment, something else I read way back when, called The Job. A series of interviews that Burroughs later filled-out with further writing and references. He argues for the efficacy of Vitamin A in curing the common cold, the existence of Deadly Orgone Radiation — a ubiquitous cosmic force that can be magnified using simple contraptions, and revolutionary treatments for addiction. Most interestingly, he expounds on a brief claim made in Cities: that you can poke holes in the Big Picture — the Big Lie — with the use of tape recorders and cameras. You secretly record a politician’s voice at the depths of their lust or greed or misanthropy, and you dub it over images of them giving a speech. Burroughs claims you’ll barely notice. Take footage of a place over and over again, and you’ll begin to rub the place out of existence — it’ll catch fire or go out of business or be held liable in court. Play recordings back to a person and they’ll be incapable of finding words. Broadcast the sounds of a riot over a peaceful march, and a riot you shall have.
That was the ’80s. A quaint time for technology. We have a weapon much more powerful. The Internet is camera and tape recorder and mouthpiece and a self-creating mega-text of dubious factuality. It seems that, through computers, we’ve adopted some base acceptance of the Hassan-i-Sabbah’s words. Maybe the hole has already torn. How crazy would it have to get before we actually knew?
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Tamaghis,
Ba'dan,
Yass-Waddah,
Waghdas,
Naufana,
Ghadis
Notice the names of my threads.
Tamaghis, Tarkhisis
Ba'dan, Bane
Yass-Waddah, Zon-Kuthon
Waghdas, Warduke
Naufana, Ravanna
Ghadis, Vlaakith
(Yeenoghu and Hruggek are not city sites, but a camp and a cave, Talos is a mountain and mountain top like a tower)
Loviatar, Minthara, Talona, and Lathander are all worth consideration as to what they are, with no two locations being the same sort.
Lolth is the "Underdark" and Bhaal is the circulation of "blood" through streets and caverns.
I'll be enjoying the map of my world.
According to Burroughs, one would start at Tamaghis, which is representative of "The State" and cities in general, under which are caverns which lead to various underground locations.
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kFoyauextlH
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Re: Takhisis Mind Flayer: Limiter: The Last 3 /_\ & Structure
In my Burroughs based dream just now, the people were called RMEs, called "Rymes" or "Rimes":
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme
They were infected with a virus, and were the "bad guys" acting as the protagonist as far as they were concerned. The RMEs were in the majority.
"
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (perfect rhyming) is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs.[1] More broadly, a rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words. Furthermore, the word rhyme has come to be sometimes used as a shorthand term for any brief poem, such as a nursery rhyme or Balliol rhyme.
The word derives from Old French: rime or ryme, which might be derived from Old Frankish: rīm, a Germanic term meaning "series", or "sequence" attested in Old English (Old English: rīm meaning "enumeration", series", or "numeral") and Old High German: rīm, ultimately cognate to Old Irish: rím, Ancient Greek: ἀριθμός (arithmos "number"). Alternatively, the Old French words may derive from Latin: rhythmus, from Ancient Greek: ῥυθμός (rhythmos, rhythm).[2][3]
The spelling rhyme (from the original rime) was introduced at the beginning of the Modern English period from a scholarly but likely etymologically incorrect association with Latin rhythmus.[2] The older spelling rime survives in Modern English as a rare alternative spelling; cf. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. A distinction between the spellings is also sometimes made in the study of linguistics and phonology for which rime or rhyme is used to refer to the nucleus and coda of a syllable. Some prefer to spell it rime to distinguish it from the poetic rhyme covered by this article (see syllable rime).
Rhyme partly seems to be enjoyed simply as a repeating pattern that is pleasant to hear. Rhyme is a form of art that one can use to communicate to the reader or audience.[4] It also serves as a powerful mnemonic device, facilitating short-term memory.[5] The regular use of tail rhyme helps to mark off the ends of lines, thus clarifying the metrical structure for the listener. As with other poetic techniques, poets use it to suit their own purposes; for example, William Shakespeare often used a rhyming couplet to mark off the end of a scene in a play.
The word rhyme can be used in a specific and a general sense. In the specific sense, two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical; two lines of poetry rhyme if their final strong positions are filled with rhyming words. Examples are sight and flight, deign and gain, madness and sadness, love and dove.
Perfect rhymes can be classified by the location of the final stressed syllable.
single, also known as masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime)
double, also known as feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words (picky, tricky)
dactylic: a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (amorous, glamorous)
Feminine and dactylic rhymes may also be realized as compound (or mosaic) rhymes (poet, know it).
In the general sense, general rhyme can refer to various kinds of phonetic similarity between words, and the use of such similar-sounding words in organizing verse. Rhymes in this general sense are classified according to the degree and manner of the phonetic similarity:
syllabic: a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not necessarily contain stressed vowels. (cleaver, silver, or pitter, patter; the final syllable of the words bottle and fiddle is /l/, a liquid consonant.)
imperfect (or near): a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (wing, caring)
weak (or unaccented): a rhyme between two sets of one or more unstressed syllables. (hammer, carpenter)
semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending)
forced (or oblique): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound. (green, fiend; one, thumb)
assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) Assonance is sometimes referred to as slant rhymes, along with consonance.
consonance: matching consonants. (rabies, robbers)
half rhyme (or slant rhyme): matching final consonants. (hand , lend)
pararhyme: all consonants match. (tick, tock)
alliteration (or head rhyme): matching initial consonants. (ship, short)
Identical rhymes are considered less than perfect in English poetry; but are valued more highly in other literatures such as, for example, rime riche in French poetry.
Though homophones and homonyms satisfy the first condition for rhyming—that is, that the stressed vowel sound is the same—they do not satisfy the second: that the preceding consonant be different. In a perfect rhyme, the last stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical in both words.
If the sound preceding the stressed vowel is also identical, the rhyme is sometimes considered to be inferior and not a perfect rhyme after all.[6][7] An example of such a super-rhyme or "more than perfect rhyme" is the identical rhyme, in which not only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as in gun and begun. Punning rhymes, such as bare and bear are also identical rhymes. The rhyme may extend even farther back than the last stressed vowel. If it extends all the way to the beginning of the line, so that there are two lines that sound very similar or identical, it is called a holorhyme ("For I scream/For ice cream").
In poetics these would be considered identity, rather than rhyme.
Eye rhymes or sight rhymes or spelling rhymes refer to similarity in spelling but not in sound where the final sounds are spelled identically but pronounced differently.[8] Examples in English are cough, bough, and love, move.
Some early written poetry appears to contain these, but in many cases the words used rhymed at the time of writing, and subsequent changes in pronunciation have meant that the rhyme is now lost.
Mind rhyme is a kind of substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang, but it is less generally codified and is "heard" only when generated by a specific verse context. For instance, "this sugar is neat / and tastes so sour." If a reader or listener anticipates the word "sweet" instead of "sour", a mind rhyme has occurred.
Rhymes may be classified according to their position in the verse:
Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme or rime couée) is a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind).
Internal rhyme occurs when a word or phrase in the interior of a line rhymes with a word or phrase at the end of a line, or within a different line.
Off-centered rhyme is a type of internal rhyme occurring in unexpected places in a given line. This is sometimes called a misplaced-rhyme scheme or a spoken word rhyme style.
Holorime, mentioned above, occurs when two entire lines have the same sound.
Echo rhyme occurs when the same syllable endings are utilized (example: disease/ease).
Broken rhyme is a type of enjambement producing a rhyme by dividing a word at the line break of a poem to make a rhyme with the end word of another line.
Cross rhyme matches a sound or sounds at the end of a line with the same sound or sounds in the middle of the following (or preceding) line.[8]
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as ballads, sonnets and rhyming couplets. Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes.
The earliest surviving evidence of rhyming is the Chinese Shi Jing (ca. 10th century BCE). Rhyme is also occasionally used in the Bible.[9] In classical Greek and Latin poetry, rhyme was only an occasional feature.[10] For instance, Catullus includes partial rhymes in the poem Cui dono lepidum novum libellum.[11] The ancient Greeks knew rhyme, and rhymes in The Wasps by Aristophanes are noted by a translator.[12]
Rhyme is central to classical Arabic poetry tracing back to its pre-Islamic roots. According to some archaic sources, Irish literature introduced the rhyme to Early Medieval Europe, but that is a disputed claim.[14] In the 7th century, the Irish had brought the art of rhyming verses to a high pitch of perfection. The leonine verse is notable for introducing rhyme into High Medieval literature in the 12th century.
Rhyme entered European poetry in the High Middle Ages under the influence of the Arabic language in Al Andalus (modern Spain).[15] Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in the sixth century, as in their long, rhyming qasidas.[16]
Since dialects vary and languages change over time, lines that rhyme in a given register or era may not rhyme in another, and it may not be clear how one should pronounce the words so that they rhyme.
Arabic
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Rhymes were widely spread in the Arabic language in pre-Islamic times, in letters, poems and songs, as well as long, rhyming qasidas.[16] In addition, the Quran uses a form of rhymed prose named saj'.
Celtic languages
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For Welsh, see Cynghanedd.
Rhyming in the Celtic languages takes a drastically different course from most other Western rhyming schemes despite strong contact with the Romance and English patterns. Even today, despite extensive interaction with English and French culture, Celtic rhyme continues to demonstrate native characteristics. Brian Ó Cuív sets out the rules of rhyme in Irish poetry of the classical period: the last stressed vowel and any subsequent long vowels must be identical in order for two words to rhyme. Consonants are grouped into six classes for the purpose of rhyme: they need not be identical, but must belong to the same class. Thus 'b' and 'd' can rhyme (both being 'voiced plosives'), as can 'bh' and 'l' (which are both 'voiced continuants') but 'l', a 'voiced continuant', cannot rhyme with 'ph', a 'voiceless continuant'. Furthermore, "for perfect rhyme a palatalized consonant may be balanced only by a palatalized consonant and a velarized consonant by a velarized one."[18] In the post-Classical period, these rules fell out of use, and in popular verse simple assonance often suffices, as can be seen in an example of Irish Gaelic rhyme from the traditional song Bríd Óg Ní Mháille:
Is a Bhríd Óg Ní Mháille
[ɪsˠ ə ˈvɾʲiːdʲ oːɡ n̠ʲiː ˈwaːl̠ʲə]
'S tú d'fhág mo chroí cráite
[sˠ t̪ˠuː ˈd̪ˠaːɡ mə xɾʲiː ˈkɾˠaːtʲə]
Translation:
Oh young Bridget O'Malley
You have left my heart breaking
Here the vowels are the same, but the consonants, although both palatalized, do not fall into the same class in the bardic rhyming scheme.
Chinese
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Further information: Rime dictionary
Besides the vowel/consonant aspect of rhyming, Chinese rhymes often include tone quality (that is, tonal contour) as an integral linguistic factor in determining rhyme.
Use of rhyme in Classical Chinese poetry typically but not always appears in the form of paired couplets, with end-rhyming in the final syllable of each couplet.
Another important aspect of rhyme in regard to Chinese language studies is the study or reconstruction of past varieties of Chinese, such as Middle Chinese.
English
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See also: English poetry
Old English poetry is mostly alliterative verse. One of the earliest rhyming poems in English is The Rhyming Poem.
As stress is important in English, lexical stress is one of the factors that affects the similarity of sounds for the perception of rhyme. Perfect rhyme can be defined as the case when two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical.[8]
Some words in English, such as "orange" and "silver", are commonly regarded as having no rhyme. Although a clever writer can get around this (for example, by obliquely rhyming "orange" with combinations of words like "door hinge" or "more range", or with lesser-known words like "Blorenge" [a hill in Wales], or the surname Gorringe). Because it is generally easier to move the word out of rhyming position or replace it with a synonym ("orange" could become "amber", while "silver" could become a combination of "bright and argent"). A skilled orator might be able to tweak the pronunciation of certain words to facilitate a stronger rhyme (for example, pronouncing "orange" as "oringe" to rhyme with "door hinge").
One view of rhyme in English is from John Milton's preface to Paradise Lost:
The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom ...
A more tempered view is taken by W. H. Auden in The Dyer's Hand:
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest.
Forced or clumsy rhyme is often a key ingredient of doggerel.
French
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In French poetry, unlike in English, it is common to have identical rhymes, in which not only the vowels of the final syllables of the lines rhyme, but their onset consonants ("consonnes d'appui") as well. To the ear of someone accustomed to English verse, this often sounds like a very weak rhyme. For example, an English perfect rhyme of homophones, flour and flower, would seem weak, whereas a French rhyme of homophones doigt ("finger") and doit ("must") or point ("point") and point ("not") is not only acceptable but quite common.
Rhymes are sometimes classified into the categories of "rime pauvre" ("poor rhyme"), "rime suffisante" ("sufficient rhyme"), "rime riche" ("rich rhyme") and "rime richissime" ("very rich rhyme"), according to the number of rhyming sounds in the two words or in the parts of the two verses. For example, to rhyme "tu" with "vu" would be a poor rhyme (the words have only the vowel in common), to rhyme "pas" with "bras" a sufficient rhyme (with the vowel and the silent consonant in common), and "tante" with "attente" a rich rhyme (with the vowel, the onset consonant, and the coda consonant with its mute "e" in common). Authorities disagree, however, on exactly where to place the boundaries between the categories.
Classical French rhyme not only differs from English rhyme in its different treatment of onset consonants. It also treats coda consonants in a distinctive way.
French spelling includes several final letters that are no longer pronounced and that in many cases have never been pronounced. Such final unpronounced letters continue to affect rhyme according to the rules of Classical French versification.
The most important "silent" letter is the "mute e". In spoken French today, final "e" is, in some regional accents (in Paris for example), omitted after consonants; but in Classical French prosody, it was considered an integral part of the rhyme even when following the vowel. "Joue" could rhyme with "boue", but not with "trou". Rhyming words ending with this silent "e" were said to make up a "double rhyme", while words not ending with this silent "e" made up a "single rhyme". It was a principle of stanza-formation that single and double rhymes had to alternate in the stanza. Virtually all 17th-century French plays in verse alternate masculine and feminine Alexandrin couplets.
The now-silent final consonants present a more complex case. They, too, were traditionally an integral part of the rhyme, such that "pont" rhymed with "vont" but not with "long". (The voicing of consonants was lost in liaison and thus ignored, so "pont" also rhymed with "rond".) There are a few rules that govern most word-final consonants in archaic French pronunciation:
The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants is lost in the final position. Therefore, "d" and "t" (both pronounced /t/) rhyme. So too with "c", "g" and "q" (all /k/), and "s", "x" and "z" (all /z/). Rhymes ending in /z/ are called "plural rhymes" because most plural nouns and adjectives end in "s" or "x".
Nasal vowels rhyme whether spelled with "m" or "n" (e.g., "essaim" rhymes with "sain").
If a word ends in a stop consonant followed by "s", the stop is silent and ignored for purposes of rhyming (e.g., "temps" rhymes with "dents"). In the archaic orthography some of these silent stops are omitted from the spelling as well (e.g., "dens" for "dents").
Holorime
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Holorime is an extreme example of rime richissime spanning an entire verse. Alphonse Allais was a notable exponent of holorime. Here is an example of a holorime couplet from Marc Monnier:
Gall, amant de la Reine, alla (tour magnanime)
Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes.
Translation:
Gallus, the Queen's lover, went (a magnanimous gesture)
Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes.
German
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Because German phonology features a wide array of vowel sounds, certain imperfect rhymes are widely admitted in German poetry. These include rhyming "e" with "ä" and "ö", rhyming "i" with "ü", rhyming "ei" with "eu" (spelled "äu" in some words) and rhyming a long vowel with its short counterpart.
Some examples of imperfect rhymes (all from Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude"):
Deine Zauber binden wieder / Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Freude trinken alle Wesen / Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Greek
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See Homoioteleuton
Ancient Greek poetry was strictly metrical, based on matching the rhythms of syllables with long and short vowels between lines. Rhyme is used, if at all, only as an occasional rhetorical flourish.
The first Greek to write rhyming poetry was the fourteenth-century Cretan Stephanos Sachlikis. However in modern Greek poetry, rhyme is a common fixture.
Latin
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In Latin rhetoric and poetry homeoteleuton and alliteration were frequently used devices.
Tail rhyme was occasionally used, as in this piece of poetry by Cicero:
O Fortunatam natam me consule Romam.
Translation:
O fortunate Rome, to be born with me consul
But tail rhyme was not used as a prominent structural feature of Latin poetry until it was introduced under the influence of local vernacular traditions in the early Middle Ages. This is the Latin hymn Dies Irae:
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sybilla
Translation:
The day of wrath, that day
which will reduce the world to ashes,
as foretold by David and the Sybil.
Medieval poetry may mix Latin and vernacular languages. Mixing languages in verse or rhyming words in different languages is termed macaronic.
Polish
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In Polish literature rhyme was used from the beginning. Unrhymed verse was never popular, although it was sometimes imitated from Latin. Homer's, Virgil's and even Milton's epic poems were furnished with rhymes by Polish translators.[19] Because of paroxytonic accentuation in Polish, feminine rhymes always prevailed. Rules of Polish rhyme were established in 16th century. Then only feminine rhymes were allowed in syllabic verse system. Together with introducing syllabo-accentual metres, masculine rhymes began to occur in Polish poetry. They were most popular at the end of 19th century. The most frequent rhyme scheme in Old Polish (16th - 18th centuries) was couplet AABBCCDD..., but Polish poets, having perfect knowledge of Italian language and literature, experimented with other schemes, among others ottava rima (ABABABCC) and sonnet (ABBA ABBA CDC DCD or ABBA ABBA CDCD EE).
Wpłynąłem na suchego przestwór oceanu,
Wóz nurza się w zieloność i jak łódka brodzi,
Śród fali łąk szumiących, śród kwiatów powodzi,
Omijam koralowe ostrowy burzanu.
—Adam Mickiewicz,
"Stepy akermańskie", Sonety krymskie, lines 1–4
Translation:
Across sea-meadows measureless I go,
My wagon sinking under grass so tall
The flowery petals in foam on me fall,
And blossom-isles float by I do not know.[20]
—"The Ackerman Steppe", Sonnets from the Crimea,
translated by Edna Worthley Underwood
The metre of Mickiewicz's sonnet is the Polish alexandrine (tridecasyllable, in Polish "trzynastozgłoskowiec"): 13(7+6) and its rhymes are feminine: [anu] and [odzi].
Portuguese
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Portuguese classifies rhymes in the following manner:
rima pobre (poor rhyme): rhyme between words of the same grammatical category (e.g., noun with noun) or between very common endings (-ão, -ar);
rima rica (rich rhyme): rhyme between words of different grammatical classes or with uncommon endings;
rima preciosa (precious rhyme): rhyme between words with a different morphology, for example estrela (star) with vê-la (to see her);
rima esdrúxula (odd rhyme): rhyme between proparoxytonic words (example: ânimo, "animus", and unânimo, "unanimous").
Russian
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Rhyme was introduced into Russian poetry in the 18th century. Folk poetry had generally been unrhymed, relying more on dactylic line endings for effect. Two words ending in an accented vowel are only considered to rhyme if they share a preceding consonant. Vowel pairs rhyme—even though non-Russian speakers may not perceive them as the same sound. Consonant pairs rhyme if both are devoiced. As in French, formal poetry traditionally alternates between masculine and feminine rhymes.
Early 18th-century poetry demanded perfect rhymes that were also grammatical rhymes—namely that noun endings rhymed with noun endings, verb endings with verb endings, and so on. Such rhymes relying on morphological endings become much rarer in modern Russian poetry, and greater use is made of approximate rhymes.[21]
The rules for rhyming used by Alexander Pushkin and subsequent Russian poets owe much to French verse. The basic rules, as laid out by Vladimir Nabokov in his Notes on Prosody, are as follows:
As in French, rhymes are divided into masculine and feminine according to whether the word is stressed on the last or second-to-last syllable. Two different masculine rhymes or two feminine rhymes cannot normally occur in succeeding lines. Rhyme schemes involving words stressed on the third-to-last syllable or earlier in the word are found in some poems but are relatively rare, especially in longer poetry.
As in French, two words with the same pronunciation but different meanings can be rhymed, e.g., супру́га ("wife") and супру́га ("husband's").
Words ending in a stressed vowel (e.g., вода́) can only rhyme with other words which share the consonant preceding the vowel (e.g., когда́).
Words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by another vowel, as well as words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by /j/, can all be rhymed with each other: моя́, тая́ and чья all rhyme.
According to Nabokov, a special dispensation is made for любви́, an inflected form of любо́вь ("love"), allowing it to be rhymed with all words ending in a vowel followed by /ˈi/ (e.g., твои́). Some poets, including Pushkin, go further and rhyme любви́ with any word ending in /ˈi/.
Unstressed а and о (e.g., жа́ло and Ура́ла) can be rhymed with each other. For most contemporary Russian speakers these letters when unstressed are pronounced identically as /ə/. See also vowel reduction in Russian and akanye.
In unstressed syllables, /ɨ/, /ɨj/ and /əj/ are considered more or less equivalent: thus за́лы, ма́лый and а́лой can all be rhymed. Nabokov describes rhyming /ɨ/ with /ɨj/ as "not inelegant" and rhyming /ɨj/ with /əj/ as "absolutely correct".
Sanskrit
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Patterns of rich rhyme (prāsa) play a role in modern Sanskrit poetry, but only to a minor extent in historical Sanskrit texts. They are classified according to their position within the pada (metrical foot): ādiprāsa (first syllable), dvitīyākṣara prāsa (second syllable), antyaprāsa (final syllable) etc.
Spanish
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Spanish mainly differentiates two types of rhymes:
rima consonante (consonant rhyme): Those words of the same stress with identical endings, matching consonants and vowels, for example robo (robbery) and lobo (wolf), legua (league) and yegua (mare) or canción (song) and montón (pile).
rima asonante (assonant rhyme): those words of the same stress that only the vowels identical at the end, for example zapato (shoe) and brazo (arm), ave (bird) and ame (would love), reloj (watch) and feroz (fierce), puerta (door) and ruleta (roulette).
Spanish rhyme is also classified by stress type since different types cannot rhyme with each other:
rima llana (plane rhyme): the rhyming words are unaccented, for example cama (bed) and rama (branch), pereza (laziness) and moneda (coin) or espejo (mirror) and pienso (I think).
rima grave (oxytonic rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on the last syllable, for example: cartón (cardboard) and limón (lemon), jerez (sherry) and revés (backwards). Grave words that end in a single same vowel can be asonante rhymes for example compró (he/she bought) and llevó (he/she carried), tendré (I will have) and pediré (I will ask), perdí (I lost) and medí (I measured).
rima esdrújula (odd rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on the antepenult. For example, mácula (stain) and báscula (scale), estrépito (noise) and intrépido (fearless), rápido (fast) and pálido (pallid).
Tamil
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There are some unique rhyming schemes in Dravidian languages like Tamil. Specifically, the rhyme called etukai (anaphora) occurs on the second consonant of each line.
The other rhyme and related patterns are called mōnai (alliteration), toṭai (epiphora) and iraṭṭai kiḷavi (parallelism).
Some classical Tamil poetry forms, such as veṇpā, have rigid grammars for rhyme to the point that they could be expressed as a context-free grammar.
Urdu
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Rhymes are called Qafiya in Urdu. Qafiya has a very important place in Urdu Poetry. No couplet of Urdu Ghazal is complete without a Qafiya.[22] Following is an example of an Urdu couplet from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's ghazal
dono jahaan teri mohabbat mein haar ke,
wo jaa rahaa hai koi shab e ghum guzaar ke[23]
haar and guzaar are qafiyas in this couplet because of rhyming.
Vietnamese
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Rhymes are used in Vietnamese to produce similes. The following is an example of a Rhyming Simile:
Nghèo như con mèo
/ŋɛu ɲɯ kɔn mɛu/
"Poor as a cat"
Compare the above Vietnamese example, which is a rhyming simile, to the English phrase "(as) poor as a church mouse", which is only a semantic simile.[24]
"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_rhyme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_table
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_spiritual
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_recipe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping#Rhyme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisyllabic_rhymes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantun
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_consonance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossar ... etry_terms
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assonance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simile
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelism_(rhetoric)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistrophe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antepenult
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akanye
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_r ... in_Russian
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculi ... ne_endings
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_Prosody
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proparoxytone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphol ... nguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_category
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alexandrine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottava_rima
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme#C ... y_position
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoteleuton
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_phonology
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Allais
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter#Vowels
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blorenge
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliterative_verse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contour_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_dictionary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynghanedd
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic ... ese_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rhyming_Poem
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_riche
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couplet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme_scheme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... out_rhymes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonine_verse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasida
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saj%27
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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8646723/
https://thedermdigest.com/understanding ... tion-rime/
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RIME is a parainfectious inflammatory syndrome that primarily affects multiple mucous membranes, with minimal (<10% body surface area [BSA]) or no cutaneous involvement. Initially identified as mycoplasma-induced rash with mucositis (MIRM), the condition was renamed RIME to encompass a broader range of etiological agents [1]. RIME is most frequently observed in pediatric patients and young adults, with a notable male predominance. However, RIME has also been reported in older patients [2,3]. This syndrome tends to occur more frequently during the months from October to February [4]. The diagnosis of RIME is clinical, focusing on the characteristic mucosal involvement and the exclusion of other potential causes. Despite its distinct clinical presentation, RIME is likely underreported, with many cases potentially misclassified as incomplete Stevens-Johnson syndrome [5,6].
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it likely refers to the function of the mucous membrane, particularly the tongue's oral mucous membrane (mucosa), in producing language (speech). The tongue, covered in mucous membrane, is a flexible muscle that manipulates air and food to enable chewing, swallowing, and clear articulation of speech.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucocutaneous_junction
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucous_membrane
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572115/
An RME is formed by the transmission of (timed pulses) sequences over the cilia:
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Mature humans' vocal folds are composed of layered structures which are quite different at the histological level. The topmost layer comprises stratified squamous epithelium which is bordered by ciliated pseudostratified epithelium. The inner-lining surface of this squamous epithelium is covered by a layer of mucus (acting as a mucociliary clearance), which is composed of two layers: a mucinous layer and serous layer. Both mucus layers provide viscous and watery environment for cilia beating posteriorally and superiorly. The mucociliary clearance keeps the vocal folds essentially moist and lubricated.[4] The epidermis layer is secured to the deeper connective tissue by basement membrane. Due to the primarily amorphous fibrous and nonfibrous proteins in the lamina propria, the basement membrane applies strong anchoring-filaments like collagen IV and VII to secure the hemidesmosome of basal cell to the lamina propria. These attachments are strong enough to sustain beating and stretch, to which the vocal cords are subjected.[4] The population density of some of the anchoring fibers in the basement membrane, such as collagen VII, is genetically determined, and these genetics may influence the health and pathogenesis of the vocal folds.[5]
The next three layers comprise lamina of lipopolysaccharides (LPs), which are stratified by their histological composition of elastin and collagen fibers, with fibroblast, myofibroblast and macrophages interspersed sparsely.[4] The superficial layer lipopolysaccharides (SLLPs), also known as Reinke's space, is composed of amorphous substance and microfibrils[6] which allows this cover layer to "slide" over the deep layer easily.[7] The vibratory and viscoelastic characteristics of the human vocal cords are mainly attributed to the molecular composition of SLLPs. In normal vocal folds, the jelly-like "Reinke's space" is very loose and abundant with interstitial proteins such as hyaluronic acid, fibronectin, proteoglycan like fibromodulin, decorin and versican. All these extracellular matrix components together regulate the water content of vocal fold and render the viscous shear property for it.[8][9] The squamous epithelium and superficial lamina propria form the vocal mucosa which serves as vibratory component in phonation. The mucosa layer vibrates at a frequency range of 100–1000 Hz and displacement at 1mm approximately.[10] The intermediate layer of L.P.s consists primarily of elastic fibre, while the deep layer L.P. consists of fewer elastin and more collagen fibres. These two layers have poor differentiated boundaries but are increasingly stiffer than SLLPs. The intermediate and deep layers of lipopolysaccharides compose the vocal ligaments which are enclosed within the vocal folds and are responsible for strain in phonation. Within the extracellular matrix community of vocal ligament, fibrous proteins such as elastin and collagen are pivotal in maintaining the proper elastic biomechanical property of vocal fold.[7] Elastin fibers impart the flexibility and elasticity of the vocal folds and, collagen is responsible for the resistance and resiliece to tensile strength.[11] The normal strain level of vocal ligament ranges from 0–15% during phonation[7] These fibrous proteins exhibit distribution variations spatially and temporally due to fibroblast turnover during tissue maturation and aging.[6][12] Each vocal ligament is a band of yellow elastic tissue attached in front to the angle of the thyroid cartilage, and behind to the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilage.
The free edge of the vibratory portion of the vocal fold, the anterior glottis, is covered with stratified squamous epithelium. This epithelium is five to twenty-five cells thick with the most superficial layer consisting of one to three cells that are lost to abrasion of the vocal folds during the closed phase of vibration. The posterior glottis is covered with pseudostratified ciliated epithelium. On the surfaces of the epithelial cells are microridges and microvilli. Lubrication of the vocal folds through adequate hydration is essential for normal phonation to avoid excessive abrasion, and the microridges and microvilli help to spread and retain a mucous coat on the epithelium. Surgery of the vocal folds can disturb this layer with scar tissue, which can result in the inability of the epithelium to retain an adequate mucous coat, which will in turn impact lubrication of the vocal folds. The epithelium has been described as a thin shell, the purpose of which is to maintain the shape of the vocal fold.[2]
Basal lamina or basement membrane zone (BMZ)
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This is transitional tissue composed of two zones, the lamina lucida and lamina densa. The lamina lucida appears as a low density clear zone medial to the epithelial basal cells. The lamina densa has a greater density of filaments and is adjacent to the lamina propria. The basal lamina or BMZ mainly provides physical support to the epithelium through anchoring fibers and is essential for repair of the epithelium.
Superficial layer of the lamina propria
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This layer consists of loose fibrous components and extracellular matrices that can be compared to soft gelatin. This layer is also known as Reinke’s space but it is not a space at all. Like the pleural cavity, it is a potential space. If there really is a space, there is a problem.[13] The superficial layer of the lamina propria is a structure that vibrates a great deal during phonation, and the viscoelasticity needed to support this vibratory function depends mostly on extracellular matrices. The primary extracellular matrices of the vocal fold cover are reticular, collagenous and elastic fibers, as well as glycoprotein and glycosaminoglycan. These fibers serve as scaffolds for structural maintenance, providing tensile strength and resilience so that the vocal folds may vibrate freely but still retain their shape.
Intermediate and deep layers of the lamina propria
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The intermediate layer of the lamina propria is primarily made up of elastic fibers while the deep layer of the lamina propria is primarily made up of collagenous fibers. These fibers run roughly parallel to the vocal fold edge and these two layers of the lamina propria comprise the vocal ligament. The transition layer is primarily structural, giving the vocal fold support as well as providing adhesion between the mucosa, or cover, and the body, the thyroarytenoid muscle.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudos ... epithelium
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilium
https://divinity.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Monk
https://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextr ... ilent+Monk
https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022 ... our-brain/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4295724/
https://www.discovermagazine.com/how-le ... rain-42474
https://www.woodpecker.com/blogs/roots_of_rhyming.html
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-al ... yme/106735
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_( ... rocessing)
https://www.sensoft.ca/gpr-resource-lib ... d-spectra/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/ph ... munication
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-r ... _frequency
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 6525002449
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ar ... 68384/full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4060858/
https://www.livescience.com/space/extra ... telligence
The use of timed pulses and the "expression" of "intelligence" or "sentience" is numeric in nature, having to do with numbers and time, and those are what become harmful in all the malignant RME cases, people held hostage to the timed pulses repeating, which they also call "life", but it isn't, it covers life.
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog ... h-patterns
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“The best thing we have going for us is our intelligence, especially pattern recognition, sharpened over eons of evolution," (Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2015). Pattern recognition according to IQ test designers is a key determinant of a person’s potential to think logically, verbally, numerically, and spatially. Compared to all mental abilities, pattern recognition is said to have the highest correlation with the so-called general intelligence factor (Kurzweil, 2012). The ability to spot existing or emerging patterns is one of the most if not the most critical skill in decision-making, though we’re mostly unaware that we do it all the time (Miemis, 2010).
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https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/qu ... not-racism
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... ecognition
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Added in 12 minutes 10 seconds:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language
"Argue with me all you want" - Nerd Voice
"Are You With Me All You Want" - Anthem
Added in 6 minutes 35 seconds:
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@DerpDerpington-u7g
12 days ago
I am 56 years old. I have spent 25 years studying the Technoviking, trying to emulate the vibe, perform the moves, be that amazing. The more I chase, the further behind I fall. I could spend another 25 years, trying to unlock the secrets, I will be the Technoviking of the Old folks home, stomping, twitching and pointing through the hallways of the assisted living facility.
197
5
@DerpDerpington-u7g
12 days ago
The secret revealed itself to me, after 47,393 viewings, to me, i will share with you....One red sock....I have been a blind beetle this whole time...the one red sock. 1 red sock, and does not give a fck...
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme
They were infected with a virus, and were the "bad guys" acting as the protagonist as far as they were concerned. The RMEs were in the majority.
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A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (perfect rhyming) is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs.[1] More broadly, a rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words. Furthermore, the word rhyme has come to be sometimes used as a shorthand term for any brief poem, such as a nursery rhyme or Balliol rhyme.
The word derives from Old French: rime or ryme, which might be derived from Old Frankish: rīm, a Germanic term meaning "series", or "sequence" attested in Old English (Old English: rīm meaning "enumeration", series", or "numeral") and Old High German: rīm, ultimately cognate to Old Irish: rím, Ancient Greek: ἀριθμός (arithmos "number"). Alternatively, the Old French words may derive from Latin: rhythmus, from Ancient Greek: ῥυθμός (rhythmos, rhythm).[2][3]
The spelling rhyme (from the original rime) was introduced at the beginning of the Modern English period from a scholarly but likely etymologically incorrect association with Latin rhythmus.[2] The older spelling rime survives in Modern English as a rare alternative spelling; cf. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. A distinction between the spellings is also sometimes made in the study of linguistics and phonology for which rime or rhyme is used to refer to the nucleus and coda of a syllable. Some prefer to spell it rime to distinguish it from the poetic rhyme covered by this article (see syllable rime).
Rhyme partly seems to be enjoyed simply as a repeating pattern that is pleasant to hear. Rhyme is a form of art that one can use to communicate to the reader or audience.[4] It also serves as a powerful mnemonic device, facilitating short-term memory.[5] The regular use of tail rhyme helps to mark off the ends of lines, thus clarifying the metrical structure for the listener. As with other poetic techniques, poets use it to suit their own purposes; for example, William Shakespeare often used a rhyming couplet to mark off the end of a scene in a play.
The word rhyme can be used in a specific and a general sense. In the specific sense, two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical; two lines of poetry rhyme if their final strong positions are filled with rhyming words. Examples are sight and flight, deign and gain, madness and sadness, love and dove.
Perfect rhymes can be classified by the location of the final stressed syllable.
single, also known as masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime)
double, also known as feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words (picky, tricky)
dactylic: a rhyme in which the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (amorous, glamorous)
Feminine and dactylic rhymes may also be realized as compound (or mosaic) rhymes (poet, know it).
In the general sense, general rhyme can refer to various kinds of phonetic similarity between words, and the use of such similar-sounding words in organizing verse. Rhymes in this general sense are classified according to the degree and manner of the phonetic similarity:
syllabic: a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not necessarily contain stressed vowels. (cleaver, silver, or pitter, patter; the final syllable of the words bottle and fiddle is /l/, a liquid consonant.)
imperfect (or near): a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (wing, caring)
weak (or unaccented): a rhyme between two sets of one or more unstressed syllables. (hammer, carpenter)
semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending)
forced (or oblique): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound. (green, fiend; one, thumb)
assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) Assonance is sometimes referred to as slant rhymes, along with consonance.
consonance: matching consonants. (rabies, robbers)
half rhyme (or slant rhyme): matching final consonants. (hand , lend)
pararhyme: all consonants match. (tick, tock)
alliteration (or head rhyme): matching initial consonants. (ship, short)
Identical rhymes are considered less than perfect in English poetry; but are valued more highly in other literatures such as, for example, rime riche in French poetry.
Though homophones and homonyms satisfy the first condition for rhyming—that is, that the stressed vowel sound is the same—they do not satisfy the second: that the preceding consonant be different. In a perfect rhyme, the last stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical in both words.
If the sound preceding the stressed vowel is also identical, the rhyme is sometimes considered to be inferior and not a perfect rhyme after all.[6][7] An example of such a super-rhyme or "more than perfect rhyme" is the identical rhyme, in which not only the vowels but also the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical, as in gun and begun. Punning rhymes, such as bare and bear are also identical rhymes. The rhyme may extend even farther back than the last stressed vowel. If it extends all the way to the beginning of the line, so that there are two lines that sound very similar or identical, it is called a holorhyme ("For I scream/For ice cream").
In poetics these would be considered identity, rather than rhyme.
Eye rhymes or sight rhymes or spelling rhymes refer to similarity in spelling but not in sound where the final sounds are spelled identically but pronounced differently.[8] Examples in English are cough, bough, and love, move.
Some early written poetry appears to contain these, but in many cases the words used rhymed at the time of writing, and subsequent changes in pronunciation have meant that the rhyme is now lost.
Mind rhyme is a kind of substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang, but it is less generally codified and is "heard" only when generated by a specific verse context. For instance, "this sugar is neat / and tastes so sour." If a reader or listener anticipates the word "sweet" instead of "sour", a mind rhyme has occurred.
Rhymes may be classified according to their position in the verse:
Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme or rime couée) is a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common kind).
Internal rhyme occurs when a word or phrase in the interior of a line rhymes with a word or phrase at the end of a line, or within a different line.
Off-centered rhyme is a type of internal rhyme occurring in unexpected places in a given line. This is sometimes called a misplaced-rhyme scheme or a spoken word rhyme style.
Holorime, mentioned above, occurs when two entire lines have the same sound.
Echo rhyme occurs when the same syllable endings are utilized (example: disease/ease).
Broken rhyme is a type of enjambement producing a rhyme by dividing a word at the line break of a poem to make a rhyme with the end word of another line.
Cross rhyme matches a sound or sounds at the end of a line with the same sound or sounds in the middle of the following (or preceding) line.[8]
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as ballads, sonnets and rhyming couplets. Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes.
The earliest surviving evidence of rhyming is the Chinese Shi Jing (ca. 10th century BCE). Rhyme is also occasionally used in the Bible.[9] In classical Greek and Latin poetry, rhyme was only an occasional feature.[10] For instance, Catullus includes partial rhymes in the poem Cui dono lepidum novum libellum.[11] The ancient Greeks knew rhyme, and rhymes in The Wasps by Aristophanes are noted by a translator.[12]
Rhyme is central to classical Arabic poetry tracing back to its pre-Islamic roots. According to some archaic sources, Irish literature introduced the rhyme to Early Medieval Europe, but that is a disputed claim.[14] In the 7th century, the Irish had brought the art of rhyming verses to a high pitch of perfection. The leonine verse is notable for introducing rhyme into High Medieval literature in the 12th century.
Rhyme entered European poetry in the High Middle Ages under the influence of the Arabic language in Al Andalus (modern Spain).[15] Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in the sixth century, as in their long, rhyming qasidas.[16]
Since dialects vary and languages change over time, lines that rhyme in a given register or era may not rhyme in another, and it may not be clear how one should pronounce the words so that they rhyme.
Arabic
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Rhymes were widely spread in the Arabic language in pre-Islamic times, in letters, poems and songs, as well as long, rhyming qasidas.[16] In addition, the Quran uses a form of rhymed prose named saj'.
Celtic languages
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For Welsh, see Cynghanedd.
Rhyming in the Celtic languages takes a drastically different course from most other Western rhyming schemes despite strong contact with the Romance and English patterns. Even today, despite extensive interaction with English and French culture, Celtic rhyme continues to demonstrate native characteristics. Brian Ó Cuív sets out the rules of rhyme in Irish poetry of the classical period: the last stressed vowel and any subsequent long vowels must be identical in order for two words to rhyme. Consonants are grouped into six classes for the purpose of rhyme: they need not be identical, but must belong to the same class. Thus 'b' and 'd' can rhyme (both being 'voiced plosives'), as can 'bh' and 'l' (which are both 'voiced continuants') but 'l', a 'voiced continuant', cannot rhyme with 'ph', a 'voiceless continuant'. Furthermore, "for perfect rhyme a palatalized consonant may be balanced only by a palatalized consonant and a velarized consonant by a velarized one."[18] In the post-Classical period, these rules fell out of use, and in popular verse simple assonance often suffices, as can be seen in an example of Irish Gaelic rhyme from the traditional song Bríd Óg Ní Mháille:
Is a Bhríd Óg Ní Mháille
[ɪsˠ ə ˈvɾʲiːdʲ oːɡ n̠ʲiː ˈwaːl̠ʲə]
'S tú d'fhág mo chroí cráite
[sˠ t̪ˠuː ˈd̪ˠaːɡ mə xɾʲiː ˈkɾˠaːtʲə]
Translation:
Oh young Bridget O'Malley
You have left my heart breaking
Here the vowels are the same, but the consonants, although both palatalized, do not fall into the same class in the bardic rhyming scheme.
Chinese
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Further information: Rime dictionary
Besides the vowel/consonant aspect of rhyming, Chinese rhymes often include tone quality (that is, tonal contour) as an integral linguistic factor in determining rhyme.
Use of rhyme in Classical Chinese poetry typically but not always appears in the form of paired couplets, with end-rhyming in the final syllable of each couplet.
Another important aspect of rhyme in regard to Chinese language studies is the study or reconstruction of past varieties of Chinese, such as Middle Chinese.
English
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See also: English poetry
Old English poetry is mostly alliterative verse. One of the earliest rhyming poems in English is The Rhyming Poem.
As stress is important in English, lexical stress is one of the factors that affects the similarity of sounds for the perception of rhyme. Perfect rhyme can be defined as the case when two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical.[8]
Some words in English, such as "orange" and "silver", are commonly regarded as having no rhyme. Although a clever writer can get around this (for example, by obliquely rhyming "orange" with combinations of words like "door hinge" or "more range", or with lesser-known words like "Blorenge" [a hill in Wales], or the surname Gorringe). Because it is generally easier to move the word out of rhyming position or replace it with a synonym ("orange" could become "amber", while "silver" could become a combination of "bright and argent"). A skilled orator might be able to tweak the pronunciation of certain words to facilitate a stronger rhyme (for example, pronouncing "orange" as "oringe" to rhyme with "door hinge").
One view of rhyme in English is from John Milton's preface to Paradise Lost:
The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom ...
A more tempered view is taken by W. H. Auden in The Dyer's Hand:
Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest.
Forced or clumsy rhyme is often a key ingredient of doggerel.
French
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In French poetry, unlike in English, it is common to have identical rhymes, in which not only the vowels of the final syllables of the lines rhyme, but their onset consonants ("consonnes d'appui") as well. To the ear of someone accustomed to English verse, this often sounds like a very weak rhyme. For example, an English perfect rhyme of homophones, flour and flower, would seem weak, whereas a French rhyme of homophones doigt ("finger") and doit ("must") or point ("point") and point ("not") is not only acceptable but quite common.
Rhymes are sometimes classified into the categories of "rime pauvre" ("poor rhyme"), "rime suffisante" ("sufficient rhyme"), "rime riche" ("rich rhyme") and "rime richissime" ("very rich rhyme"), according to the number of rhyming sounds in the two words or in the parts of the two verses. For example, to rhyme "tu" with "vu" would be a poor rhyme (the words have only the vowel in common), to rhyme "pas" with "bras" a sufficient rhyme (with the vowel and the silent consonant in common), and "tante" with "attente" a rich rhyme (with the vowel, the onset consonant, and the coda consonant with its mute "e" in common). Authorities disagree, however, on exactly where to place the boundaries between the categories.
Classical French rhyme not only differs from English rhyme in its different treatment of onset consonants. It also treats coda consonants in a distinctive way.
French spelling includes several final letters that are no longer pronounced and that in many cases have never been pronounced. Such final unpronounced letters continue to affect rhyme according to the rules of Classical French versification.
The most important "silent" letter is the "mute e". In spoken French today, final "e" is, in some regional accents (in Paris for example), omitted after consonants; but in Classical French prosody, it was considered an integral part of the rhyme even when following the vowel. "Joue" could rhyme with "boue", but not with "trou". Rhyming words ending with this silent "e" were said to make up a "double rhyme", while words not ending with this silent "e" made up a "single rhyme". It was a principle of stanza-formation that single and double rhymes had to alternate in the stanza. Virtually all 17th-century French plays in verse alternate masculine and feminine Alexandrin couplets.
The now-silent final consonants present a more complex case. They, too, were traditionally an integral part of the rhyme, such that "pont" rhymed with "vont" but not with "long". (The voicing of consonants was lost in liaison and thus ignored, so "pont" also rhymed with "rond".) There are a few rules that govern most word-final consonants in archaic French pronunciation:
The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants is lost in the final position. Therefore, "d" and "t" (both pronounced /t/) rhyme. So too with "c", "g" and "q" (all /k/), and "s", "x" and "z" (all /z/). Rhymes ending in /z/ are called "plural rhymes" because most plural nouns and adjectives end in "s" or "x".
Nasal vowels rhyme whether spelled with "m" or "n" (e.g., "essaim" rhymes with "sain").
If a word ends in a stop consonant followed by "s", the stop is silent and ignored for purposes of rhyming (e.g., "temps" rhymes with "dents"). In the archaic orthography some of these silent stops are omitted from the spelling as well (e.g., "dens" for "dents").
Holorime
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Holorime is an extreme example of rime richissime spanning an entire verse. Alphonse Allais was a notable exponent of holorime. Here is an example of a holorime couplet from Marc Monnier:
Gall, amant de la Reine, alla (tour magnanime)
Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes.
Translation:
Gallus, the Queen's lover, went (a magnanimous gesture)
Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes.
German
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Because German phonology features a wide array of vowel sounds, certain imperfect rhymes are widely admitted in German poetry. These include rhyming "e" with "ä" and "ö", rhyming "i" with "ü", rhyming "ei" with "eu" (spelled "äu" in some words) and rhyming a long vowel with its short counterpart.
Some examples of imperfect rhymes (all from Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude"):
Deine Zauber binden wieder / Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Freude trinken alle Wesen / Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Greek
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See Homoioteleuton
Ancient Greek poetry was strictly metrical, based on matching the rhythms of syllables with long and short vowels between lines. Rhyme is used, if at all, only as an occasional rhetorical flourish.
The first Greek to write rhyming poetry was the fourteenth-century Cretan Stephanos Sachlikis. However in modern Greek poetry, rhyme is a common fixture.
Latin
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In Latin rhetoric and poetry homeoteleuton and alliteration were frequently used devices.
Tail rhyme was occasionally used, as in this piece of poetry by Cicero:
O Fortunatam natam me consule Romam.
Translation:
O fortunate Rome, to be born with me consul
But tail rhyme was not used as a prominent structural feature of Latin poetry until it was introduced under the influence of local vernacular traditions in the early Middle Ages. This is the Latin hymn Dies Irae:
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sybilla
Translation:
The day of wrath, that day
which will reduce the world to ashes,
as foretold by David and the Sybil.
Medieval poetry may mix Latin and vernacular languages. Mixing languages in verse or rhyming words in different languages is termed macaronic.
Polish
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In Polish literature rhyme was used from the beginning. Unrhymed verse was never popular, although it was sometimes imitated from Latin. Homer's, Virgil's and even Milton's epic poems were furnished with rhymes by Polish translators.[19] Because of paroxytonic accentuation in Polish, feminine rhymes always prevailed. Rules of Polish rhyme were established in 16th century. Then only feminine rhymes were allowed in syllabic verse system. Together with introducing syllabo-accentual metres, masculine rhymes began to occur in Polish poetry. They were most popular at the end of 19th century. The most frequent rhyme scheme in Old Polish (16th - 18th centuries) was couplet AABBCCDD..., but Polish poets, having perfect knowledge of Italian language and literature, experimented with other schemes, among others ottava rima (ABABABCC) and sonnet (ABBA ABBA CDC DCD or ABBA ABBA CDCD EE).
Wpłynąłem na suchego przestwór oceanu,
Wóz nurza się w zieloność i jak łódka brodzi,
Śród fali łąk szumiących, śród kwiatów powodzi,
Omijam koralowe ostrowy burzanu.
—Adam Mickiewicz,
"Stepy akermańskie", Sonety krymskie, lines 1–4
Translation:
Across sea-meadows measureless I go,
My wagon sinking under grass so tall
The flowery petals in foam on me fall,
And blossom-isles float by I do not know.[20]
—"The Ackerman Steppe", Sonnets from the Crimea,
translated by Edna Worthley Underwood
The metre of Mickiewicz's sonnet is the Polish alexandrine (tridecasyllable, in Polish "trzynastozgłoskowiec"): 13(7+6) and its rhymes are feminine: [anu] and [odzi].
Portuguese
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Portuguese classifies rhymes in the following manner:
rima pobre (poor rhyme): rhyme between words of the same grammatical category (e.g., noun with noun) or between very common endings (-ão, -ar);
rima rica (rich rhyme): rhyme between words of different grammatical classes or with uncommon endings;
rima preciosa (precious rhyme): rhyme between words with a different morphology, for example estrela (star) with vê-la (to see her);
rima esdrúxula (odd rhyme): rhyme between proparoxytonic words (example: ânimo, "animus", and unânimo, "unanimous").
Russian
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Rhyme was introduced into Russian poetry in the 18th century. Folk poetry had generally been unrhymed, relying more on dactylic line endings for effect. Two words ending in an accented vowel are only considered to rhyme if they share a preceding consonant. Vowel pairs rhyme—even though non-Russian speakers may not perceive them as the same sound. Consonant pairs rhyme if both are devoiced. As in French, formal poetry traditionally alternates between masculine and feminine rhymes.
Early 18th-century poetry demanded perfect rhymes that were also grammatical rhymes—namely that noun endings rhymed with noun endings, verb endings with verb endings, and so on. Such rhymes relying on morphological endings become much rarer in modern Russian poetry, and greater use is made of approximate rhymes.[21]
The rules for rhyming used by Alexander Pushkin and subsequent Russian poets owe much to French verse. The basic rules, as laid out by Vladimir Nabokov in his Notes on Prosody, are as follows:
As in French, rhymes are divided into masculine and feminine according to whether the word is stressed on the last or second-to-last syllable. Two different masculine rhymes or two feminine rhymes cannot normally occur in succeeding lines. Rhyme schemes involving words stressed on the third-to-last syllable or earlier in the word are found in some poems but are relatively rare, especially in longer poetry.
As in French, two words with the same pronunciation but different meanings can be rhymed, e.g., супру́га ("wife") and супру́га ("husband's").
Words ending in a stressed vowel (e.g., вода́) can only rhyme with other words which share the consonant preceding the vowel (e.g., когда́).
Words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by another vowel, as well as words ending in a stressed vowel preceded by /j/, can all be rhymed with each other: моя́, тая́ and чья all rhyme.
According to Nabokov, a special dispensation is made for любви́, an inflected form of любо́вь ("love"), allowing it to be rhymed with all words ending in a vowel followed by /ˈi/ (e.g., твои́). Some poets, including Pushkin, go further and rhyme любви́ with any word ending in /ˈi/.
Unstressed а and о (e.g., жа́ло and Ура́ла) can be rhymed with each other. For most contemporary Russian speakers these letters when unstressed are pronounced identically as /ə/. See also vowel reduction in Russian and akanye.
In unstressed syllables, /ɨ/, /ɨj/ and /əj/ are considered more or less equivalent: thus за́лы, ма́лый and а́лой can all be rhymed. Nabokov describes rhyming /ɨ/ with /ɨj/ as "not inelegant" and rhyming /ɨj/ with /əj/ as "absolutely correct".
Sanskrit
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Patterns of rich rhyme (prāsa) play a role in modern Sanskrit poetry, but only to a minor extent in historical Sanskrit texts. They are classified according to their position within the pada (metrical foot): ādiprāsa (first syllable), dvitīyākṣara prāsa (second syllable), antyaprāsa (final syllable) etc.
Spanish
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Spanish mainly differentiates two types of rhymes:
rima consonante (consonant rhyme): Those words of the same stress with identical endings, matching consonants and vowels, for example robo (robbery) and lobo (wolf), legua (league) and yegua (mare) or canción (song) and montón (pile).
rima asonante (assonant rhyme): those words of the same stress that only the vowels identical at the end, for example zapato (shoe) and brazo (arm), ave (bird) and ame (would love), reloj (watch) and feroz (fierce), puerta (door) and ruleta (roulette).
Spanish rhyme is also classified by stress type since different types cannot rhyme with each other:
rima llana (plane rhyme): the rhyming words are unaccented, for example cama (bed) and rama (branch), pereza (laziness) and moneda (coin) or espejo (mirror) and pienso (I think).
rima grave (oxytonic rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on the last syllable, for example: cartón (cardboard) and limón (lemon), jerez (sherry) and revés (backwards). Grave words that end in a single same vowel can be asonante rhymes for example compró (he/she bought) and llevó (he/she carried), tendré (I will have) and pediré (I will ask), perdí (I lost) and medí (I measured).
rima esdrújula (odd rhyme): The rhyming words are accented on the antepenult. For example, mácula (stain) and báscula (scale), estrépito (noise) and intrépido (fearless), rápido (fast) and pálido (pallid).
Tamil
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There are some unique rhyming schemes in Dravidian languages like Tamil. Specifically, the rhyme called etukai (anaphora) occurs on the second consonant of each line.
The other rhyme and related patterns are called mōnai (alliteration), toṭai (epiphora) and iraṭṭai kiḷavi (parallelism).
Some classical Tamil poetry forms, such as veṇpā, have rigid grammars for rhyme to the point that they could be expressed as a context-free grammar.
Urdu
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Rhymes are called Qafiya in Urdu. Qafiya has a very important place in Urdu Poetry. No couplet of Urdu Ghazal is complete without a Qafiya.[22] Following is an example of an Urdu couplet from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's ghazal
dono jahaan teri mohabbat mein haar ke,
wo jaa rahaa hai koi shab e ghum guzaar ke[23]
haar and guzaar are qafiyas in this couplet because of rhyming.
Vietnamese
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Rhymes are used in Vietnamese to produce similes. The following is an example of a Rhyming Simile:
Nghèo như con mèo
/ŋɛu ɲɯ kɔn mɛu/
"Poor as a cat"
Compare the above Vietnamese example, which is a rhyming simile, to the English phrase "(as) poor as a church mouse", which is only a semantic simile.[24]
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_rhyme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_table
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_spiritual
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_recipe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping#Rhyme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisyllabic_rhymes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantun
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_consonance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossar ... etry_terms
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assonance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simile
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelism_(rhetoric)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistrophe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antepenult
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akanye
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_r ... in_Russian
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculi ... ne_endings
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_Prosody
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proparoxytone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphol ... nguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_category
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alexandrine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottava_rima
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme#C ... y_position
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoteleuton
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_phonology
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Allais
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter#Vowels
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blorenge
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliterative_verse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contour_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(linguistics)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_dictionary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynghanedd
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic ... ese_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rhyming_Poem
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_riche
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_poetry
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couplet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme_scheme
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... out_rhymes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonine_verse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasida
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saj%27
Added in 27 minutes 48 seconds:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8646723/
https://thedermdigest.com/understanding ... tion-rime/
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RIME is a parainfectious inflammatory syndrome that primarily affects multiple mucous membranes, with minimal (<10% body surface area [BSA]) or no cutaneous involvement. Initially identified as mycoplasma-induced rash with mucositis (MIRM), the condition was renamed RIME to encompass a broader range of etiological agents [1]. RIME is most frequently observed in pediatric patients and young adults, with a notable male predominance. However, RIME has also been reported in older patients [2,3]. This syndrome tends to occur more frequently during the months from October to February [4]. The diagnosis of RIME is clinical, focusing on the characteristic mucosal involvement and the exclusion of other potential causes. Despite its distinct clinical presentation, RIME is likely underreported, with many cases potentially misclassified as incomplete Stevens-Johnson syndrome [5,6].
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it likely refers to the function of the mucous membrane, particularly the tongue's oral mucous membrane (mucosa), in producing language (speech). The tongue, covered in mucous membrane, is a flexible muscle that manipulates air and food to enable chewing, swallowing, and clear articulation of speech.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucocutaneous_junction
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucous_membrane
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572115/
An RME is formed by the transmission of (timed pulses) sequences over the cilia:
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Mature humans' vocal folds are composed of layered structures which are quite different at the histological level. The topmost layer comprises stratified squamous epithelium which is bordered by ciliated pseudostratified epithelium. The inner-lining surface of this squamous epithelium is covered by a layer of mucus (acting as a mucociliary clearance), which is composed of two layers: a mucinous layer and serous layer. Both mucus layers provide viscous and watery environment for cilia beating posteriorally and superiorly. The mucociliary clearance keeps the vocal folds essentially moist and lubricated.[4] The epidermis layer is secured to the deeper connective tissue by basement membrane. Due to the primarily amorphous fibrous and nonfibrous proteins in the lamina propria, the basement membrane applies strong anchoring-filaments like collagen IV and VII to secure the hemidesmosome of basal cell to the lamina propria. These attachments are strong enough to sustain beating and stretch, to which the vocal cords are subjected.[4] The population density of some of the anchoring fibers in the basement membrane, such as collagen VII, is genetically determined, and these genetics may influence the health and pathogenesis of the vocal folds.[5]
The next three layers comprise lamina of lipopolysaccharides (LPs), which are stratified by their histological composition of elastin and collagen fibers, with fibroblast, myofibroblast and macrophages interspersed sparsely.[4] The superficial layer lipopolysaccharides (SLLPs), also known as Reinke's space, is composed of amorphous substance and microfibrils[6] which allows this cover layer to "slide" over the deep layer easily.[7] The vibratory and viscoelastic characteristics of the human vocal cords are mainly attributed to the molecular composition of SLLPs. In normal vocal folds, the jelly-like "Reinke's space" is very loose and abundant with interstitial proteins such as hyaluronic acid, fibronectin, proteoglycan like fibromodulin, decorin and versican. All these extracellular matrix components together regulate the water content of vocal fold and render the viscous shear property for it.[8][9] The squamous epithelium and superficial lamina propria form the vocal mucosa which serves as vibratory component in phonation. The mucosa layer vibrates at a frequency range of 100–1000 Hz and displacement at 1mm approximately.[10] The intermediate layer of L.P.s consists primarily of elastic fibre, while the deep layer L.P. consists of fewer elastin and more collagen fibres. These two layers have poor differentiated boundaries but are increasingly stiffer than SLLPs. The intermediate and deep layers of lipopolysaccharides compose the vocal ligaments which are enclosed within the vocal folds and are responsible for strain in phonation. Within the extracellular matrix community of vocal ligament, fibrous proteins such as elastin and collagen are pivotal in maintaining the proper elastic biomechanical property of vocal fold.[7] Elastin fibers impart the flexibility and elasticity of the vocal folds and, collagen is responsible for the resistance and resiliece to tensile strength.[11] The normal strain level of vocal ligament ranges from 0–15% during phonation[7] These fibrous proteins exhibit distribution variations spatially and temporally due to fibroblast turnover during tissue maturation and aging.[6][12] Each vocal ligament is a band of yellow elastic tissue attached in front to the angle of the thyroid cartilage, and behind to the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilage.
The free edge of the vibratory portion of the vocal fold, the anterior glottis, is covered with stratified squamous epithelium. This epithelium is five to twenty-five cells thick with the most superficial layer consisting of one to three cells that are lost to abrasion of the vocal folds during the closed phase of vibration. The posterior glottis is covered with pseudostratified ciliated epithelium. On the surfaces of the epithelial cells are microridges and microvilli. Lubrication of the vocal folds through adequate hydration is essential for normal phonation to avoid excessive abrasion, and the microridges and microvilli help to spread and retain a mucous coat on the epithelium. Surgery of the vocal folds can disturb this layer with scar tissue, which can result in the inability of the epithelium to retain an adequate mucous coat, which will in turn impact lubrication of the vocal folds. The epithelium has been described as a thin shell, the purpose of which is to maintain the shape of the vocal fold.[2]
Basal lamina or basement membrane zone (BMZ)
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This is transitional tissue composed of two zones, the lamina lucida and lamina densa. The lamina lucida appears as a low density clear zone medial to the epithelial basal cells. The lamina densa has a greater density of filaments and is adjacent to the lamina propria. The basal lamina or BMZ mainly provides physical support to the epithelium through anchoring fibers and is essential for repair of the epithelium.
Superficial layer of the lamina propria
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This layer consists of loose fibrous components and extracellular matrices that can be compared to soft gelatin. This layer is also known as Reinke’s space but it is not a space at all. Like the pleural cavity, it is a potential space. If there really is a space, there is a problem.[13] The superficial layer of the lamina propria is a structure that vibrates a great deal during phonation, and the viscoelasticity needed to support this vibratory function depends mostly on extracellular matrices. The primary extracellular matrices of the vocal fold cover are reticular, collagenous and elastic fibers, as well as glycoprotein and glycosaminoglycan. These fibers serve as scaffolds for structural maintenance, providing tensile strength and resilience so that the vocal folds may vibrate freely but still retain their shape.
Intermediate and deep layers of the lamina propria
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The intermediate layer of the lamina propria is primarily made up of elastic fibers while the deep layer of the lamina propria is primarily made up of collagenous fibers. These fibers run roughly parallel to the vocal fold edge and these two layers of the lamina propria comprise the vocal ligament. The transition layer is primarily structural, giving the vocal fold support as well as providing adhesion between the mucosa, or cover, and the body, the thyroarytenoid muscle.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudos ... epithelium
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilium
https://divinity.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Monk
https://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextr ... ilent+Monk
https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022 ... our-brain/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4295724/
https://www.discovermagazine.com/how-le ... rain-42474
https://www.woodpecker.com/blogs/roots_of_rhyming.html
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-al ... yme/106735
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_( ... rocessing)
https://www.sensoft.ca/gpr-resource-lib ... d-spectra/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/ph ... munication
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-r ... _frequency
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 6525002449
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ar ... 68384/full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4060858/
https://www.livescience.com/space/extra ... telligence
The use of timed pulses and the "expression" of "intelligence" or "sentience" is numeric in nature, having to do with numbers and time, and those are what become harmful in all the malignant RME cases, people held hostage to the timed pulses repeating, which they also call "life", but it isn't, it covers life.
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog ... h-patterns
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“The best thing we have going for us is our intelligence, especially pattern recognition, sharpened over eons of evolution," (Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2015). Pattern recognition according to IQ test designers is a key determinant of a person’s potential to think logically, verbally, numerically, and spatially. Compared to all mental abilities, pattern recognition is said to have the highest correlation with the so-called general intelligence factor (Kurzweil, 2012). The ability to spot existing or emerging patterns is one of the most if not the most critical skill in decision-making, though we’re mostly unaware that we do it all the time (Miemis, 2010).
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https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/qu ... not-racism
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... ecognition
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language
"Argue with me all you want" - Nerd Voice
"Are You With Me All You Want" - Anthem
Added in 6 minutes 35 seconds:
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@DerpDerpington-u7g
12 days ago
I am 56 years old. I have spent 25 years studying the Technoviking, trying to emulate the vibe, perform the moves, be that amazing. The more I chase, the further behind I fall. I could spend another 25 years, trying to unlock the secrets, I will be the Technoviking of the Old folks home, stomping, twitching and pointing through the hallways of the assisted living facility.
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@DerpDerpington-u7g
12 days ago
The secret revealed itself to me, after 47,393 viewings, to me, i will share with you....One red sock....I have been a blind beetle this whole time...the one red sock. 1 red sock, and does not give a fck...
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