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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
I Think Therefore I Brand
Monday, September 26, 2011
"The Naked Crowd: The Jewish Alternative to Cunning Humanity"
"In this book, José Faur articulates the political dimension of Judaism, the essence of the Jewish alternative to the cunning societies of world history. As Faur describes, thousands of years ago, the Jewish nation became what Nobel laureate Elias Canetti called a "naked crowd"; a society built on transparency and inclusiveness, impervious to the attempts of would-be tyrants to control the "crowd" through mind-games, linguistic manipulation, and mass hysteria. While the Jewish people have, over the course of history, occasionally lost touch with this foundation of their society, they have never lost the dream of a truly free society for all. This book serves as a comprehensive introduction to Judaism from the perspective of the Western political tradition. The last section examines Pauline Christianity and its origins in Greek and Roman pagan thought and culture." -Jose Faur Studies.org
''Prof. Jose Faur's 'The Naked Crowd' carefully and correctly defines what is unique to the nation Israel: it is ruled by a 'Book,' the Torah, written by God and accepted by Israel. The Torah teaches the dignity of humankind that inheres in the divine image that every human shares. Therefore, following the sagacious King Solomon, demeaning a human being is a moral assault on the all-powerful, all-knowing divine Creator. Viewing Israel's Torah as a document subversive to all hierarchical societies (pagan, Christian, and some Jewish societies included), Prof. Faur finds the assault upon Israel and its 'Book' to be political and not theological. This fine monograph is a worthy introduction to the Judaism of the Written and Oral Torah, that Jewish dialectic of culture that provides the benchmark for existential authenticity in Israel.'' --Alan Yuter, rabbi, Congregation B'nai Israel, the Orthodox Congregation of Downtown Baltimore
An introduction to the differences between Western and Jewish politics. http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Crowd-Alternative-Cunning-Humanity/dp/1935104020/ == |
| Company Overview | For thousands of years, humanity has suffered at the hands of cunning tyrants, individual men who use charm, rhetoric, and deception to maintain power over the masses. From the ancient times of the biblical tyrant Nimrod and the Pharaohs, through the terrible reigns of the Caesars, to the despotic regimes of the Hitlers and Stalins of more recent times, human society has been structured to benefit those in power at the expense of the common people. |
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| Mission | The sole exception to this arrangement - the only society to be formed around the needs and rights of its members and not the selfish whims of flesh-and-blood rulers - is the Jewish society. Thousands of years ago, the Jewish nation became what Nobel laureate Elias Canetti called a "naked crowd"; a society built on transparency and inclusiveness, impervious to the attempts of would-be tyrants to control the "crowd" through mind-games, linguistic manipulation, and mass hysteria. While the Jewish people have, over the course of history, occasionally lost touch with this foundation of their society, they have never lost the dream of a truly free society for all. In this book, José Faur articulates the essence of the Jewish alternative to the cunning societies of world history. Welcome to the Naked Crowd. |
| Products | Chapters include: * The Effects of the Anti-Maimonidean Ideology on the Mind-Set of Modern European Jewry * Ejecting the God of Sinai * La Suprema and Scripted Truth * Cunning Humanity * The Emergence of Greek Rationality * The Four Phases of Hebrew Wisdom * Nakedness in Paradise * En route to the Promised Land * God and Man in Jewish Thought * The Berit Contracted at Sinai-Moab * Morality, Exclusiveness, and Universality * Monolatry and Idolatry * Election, Love, and Redemption * Wedding Widow Israel * Oedipal Theology * "Sold Under Sin" * Paul and Rome: Putting their Shoulders to the Wheel |
| Website |
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Friday, September 23, 2011
"Every school was participating in the suppression of creative genius"
Arriving early in the morning, I’d set up shop in the school’s art room or gymnasium. Most commonly, the schedule had me visit with one grade at a time, spending about 50 minutes with each. As I was putting on my welding goggles and scarred leather apron, the teachers would heard the children in, barking orders at them to sit cross-legged on the floor in rows facing the semi-circle of sculptures and equipment arranged at one end of the room.
"Robert....Shhh!"“Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!”
“Quiet, children, quiet.”
“Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!..."
“Quiet. Joel. Cindy! Quiet! Now!”
“whisper whisper whisper whisper whisper whisper”
“Shhhhhhh!”
"Pam!"
With the coming of silence, the children’s faces took on a certain solemnity. Satisfied that order had been attained, the teachers would retire to the back of the room to lose themselves in grading papers, leaving me, for all practical purposes, alone with the children. I always began with the same introduction:
“Hi! My name is Gordon MacKenzie and, among other things, I am an artist. I’ll bet there are other artists here, too. There have to be with all the beautiful pictures and designs you have hanging in your classrooms and up and down the halls. I couldn’t help but notice them when I first got here this morning. They made me feel wonderful! Very energized. So many bright colors and cool shapes. I felt more at home when I saw them because they made me realize there are other artists here, besides me. I’m curious. How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands?”
The pattern of responses never varied:
First grade:
En mass the children leapt from their chairs, arms waving wildly, eager hands trying to reach the ceiling. Every child was an artist.
Second grade:
About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The raised hands were still.
Third grade:
At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand. Tentatively. Self consciously.
And so on up through the grades. The higher the grade, the fewer children raised their hands. By the time I reached sixth grade, no more than one or two did so and then ever-so-slightly -- guardedly -- their eyes glancing from side to side uneasily, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a “closet artist. "
"What's going on here? Are all the artists transferring out and going to art school?"
(Usually, in recognition of my little joke, the students would laugh.)
"Uh-uh. I don't think that's it. I'm afraid there's something much more sinister than that at work here. I think what's happening is that you are being tricked out of one of the greatest gifts every one of us receives at birth. That is the gift of being an artist, a creative genius."
They could reclaim their creative genius, I'd tell the students. It may not be easy, but it will always remain doable. We'll get further into that later on.
The point now is:
Every school I visited was participating m the suppression of creative genius.
Why would anyone want to suppress genius? Well, it is not intentional. It is not a plot. Genius is an innocent casualty in society’s efforts to train children away from natural-born foolishness.
-Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace" by Gordon MacKenzie, pp. 18-20
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
"if you want to see God, sit in the smoking section.'" (Jesus Freak by Sarah Miles)
What could I add to these reviews?
- Tony Campolo: "This is a passionate book"
- Publishers Weekly "moving, compelling, provocative."
- Rob Bell : "one of the most inspiring books I've ever read."
- Annie Lamott "Sara Miles is amazing, a wild, unique, funny Christian, who puts her lack-of-money where her mouth is."
- Brian McLaren "Sara Miles writes gorgeous prose...She's way too wound up for toned-down liberals, and way too out-of-the shrink wrap for straight-laced conservatives, and she calls both ti a brand new vantage point...beautiful, joyful, raucous, reverent."
What an amazing, provocative book (bad title, dumb cover..but don't let that get in the way):
"Jesus Freak: Feeding, Healing, Raising the Dead"
by Sara Miles.
But don't take my word/their word for it.
Here's just a quote or two from each chapter.
(I'm intentionally not even mentioning the most controversial part of the book (to most evangelicals, as I don't want anyone to be talked out of reading it unnecessarily)
INTRODUCTION:
"As one friend said, ruefully, when I complained about a filthy, hostile visitor to the [food] pantry, whom I kept wanting to bounce; 'Sara, if you want to see God, sometimes you have to sit in the smoking section.'"
(xvii)
"The thing that sucks about being a Christian is that God actually lives in other people" (xvii)
"COME AND SEE":
"This recognition, this total union among God and Jesus and The Spirit [at Jesus' baptism], tears the heavens. It rips them apart, just as they will be ripped at the crucifixion" (6)
"These victims are the key to every human story, because outcasts define the center." (10)
"Every culture has unclean people...In our time, for example, you might have a cold, but you are a schizophrenic." (15)
"Jesus is healed of his racism by the Canaanite woman" (18)
"FEEDING":
"anywhere there's food, spirit and matter intersect" (21)
'HEALING":
"An unadorned space...and the temptation always is..to adorn it with cheerfulness, or hope, or even religion." (94)
'FORGIVING":
"'Guess what?,' she said again, urgently. 'Hey, I'm telling you, that Jesus dude is sneaky. He just hides in the bushes and jumps out and says, 'Hey, it's me!' and then you gotta follow him everywhere.'" (107)
"Zoe came to me and said, ...'I want to have a new life.'
'You are already in it,' I said. (123)
"RAISING THE DEAD":
"yet so many religious dogmas were basically just accumulations of surviving heresies" (137)
"FOLLOW ME":
"But Jesus is real, and so,praise God so are we. Every single things the resurrected Jesus does on earth, he does through our bodies" (166)
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Intrigued?
Here's Sarah:
Bonus:
- "What's holy is holy because we touch it, not because we don't touch it!"
- "I came late to Christianity, and discovered the inconvenient truth that a spiritual life is a physical life..."
Friday, September 09, 2011
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