(Newest Comic) Why Love Sucks: Part 3 Sacrifice
(See Comic) “If parents love their children, they will not be nationalistic, they will not identify themselves with any country; for the worship of the State brings on war, which kills or maims their sons.” Jiddu Krishnamurti An essential tenant of false love is the admiration of sacrifice. In reality, there is no love in sacrifice, for sacrifice entails an inequality and thus a debt. Common relationships are full of little rituals of sacrifice that are falsely called love. To demand sacrifice, or to comply with sacrifice, is to deny true love. On a national scale, this dynamic of sacrifice is a facilitator of war. Just because a person happened to be born in one dumb country instead of another dumb country that usually entails a certain amount of allegiance and affection (team love) for the country, which is called patriotism (which comes from the word pater, as in patriarch, meaning father). The pinnacle of patriotism is often touted as giving one’s life in military service fighting for one’s country. But such is the kind of idea that is only admirable if sacrifice is admirable. It is doubtful you’ll ever see a politician with the balls, or even brains, to say this, but realistically, participating in the military is obsequious warmongering, and supporting the military, without directly participating in it, is exploitive cowardice. In other words, most people, in the name of being good patriots, are either obsequious warmongers or exploitive cowards. The role of a military in a sane society is mere preparedness for a theoretical threat of direct aggression. In other words, it is merely defensive, not offensive. But in a society that admires sacrifice, there are people willing to sacrifice life and limb for the whims of exploitive cowards. The admiration of sacrifice and its association with love is reflected in religion. What is called Christianity today is a sacrificial religion–just like the religion it supposedly superseded: Judaism. There is a nonsensical dichotomy in conventional Christianity between what Jesus actually taught and the eventual mis-emphasis on his death. Whereas Judaism was a progression in the sense that it narrowed multiple gods down to one God. Christianity was a progression in the sense that it narrowed sacrifice down from many sacrifices (like animal sacrifices) to the ultimate sacrifice (the son of God). In a society that equates sacrifice with love, such a sacrificial religious view has plenty of appeal, but it has nothing to do with the revolutionary stuff Jesus attempted to teach–which was about forgiving the guilt that demands sacrifice to end guilt and sacrifice. Sacrifice plays hand in hand with guilt. And guilt is the most powerful tool for manipulating people’s behavior. People will do all sorts of things they wouldn’t do otherwise (like risk their lives) if they can be made to feel guilty and then offered freedom from the guilt. The payment to be free of guilt is sacrifice; it is like an attempt to pay down a debt. Prison is a kind of societal institutionalization of guilt demanding sacrifice. And capital punishment is the pinnacle of that institutionalization. A person who is sentenced to capital punishment usually murdered people. The reason that person murdered people was because, to that person, the murdered people were sacrificial victims of some kind used to help alleviate guilt–just as capital punishment is. However, it is all just an insane circle where the guilt is merely recycled. In other words, sacrifice recycles guilt but doesn’t eradicate it. Only true love (true forgiveness) can eradicate guilt. But as long as love entail sacrifice (including in bad religious ideas and patriotism), it is not true love and will devolve into hatefulness. End insanity don’t support sacrifice Coming Next: Part 4 Possessiveness
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(Newest Comic) My New Book, New Site, and the Future of this Site
New Book
Well, I finally have a book out for people to buy! It is called, Dissolving Dollars: Exposing the Debt-Based Insanity Behind Modern Money and it is currently available at Amazon.com. The book is similar to my “The Truth about Economics” series, and it even shares the same aesthetic style; it is a book that wants to be a comic book but isn’t quite one. Amazon doesn’t have the “look inside” feature running on the book yet, but you can follow this link to see a video of me paging through the book to music. I made the book as simple as I could in order to make understanding the true workings of money and the economy as easy as possible. And thanks to its delicious blend of Americana and post-literate minimalism, it has been nominated for The Prestigious Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence!
Along with the new book, I have a new website that will be strictly about economic subjects called DissolvingDollars.com. So, if you are interested in understanding economic truth, go to that site and subscribe/bookmark. And if you aren’t interested, you probably should be…at least a little. Because what you don’t know about money and economics costs you—even if ignorance is sometimes bliss in the short-term (just ask the people from Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, etc.). Plus, you don’t want to miss the comical updates from renowned, intergalactic investor and advisor Gorlock who has been hired to write exclusively for DissolvingDollars.com. http://dissolvingdollars.com/about/gorlock
Future of The Universe As Site
I’ve been messing around with this “The Universe As” comic-ish essays stuff for nearly a year now and it hasn’t so far quite developed in a way that satisfies me. Technically, the site is an experiment for a unique, complex, yet palatable kind of book that I’d eventually like to put together on mind and spirituality. But I don’t know about that yet. I’ve come to discover that I’m a reluctant spiritual teacher—especially since everything I have to say is so subversive. Plus, I have a kind of John Galt streak in me whereby I know what I know so I don’t really care if anyone else does. I think that after I get the “Why Love Sucks” series, which started last week, out of my system, I’m going to rethink The Universe As…maybe make it more of a conventional comic with developed characters, setting, and plot. However, I might be forced to divert most of my attention to Dissolving Dollars for the time being. I don’t know. We’ll see.
Dissolving Dollars
Anyway, get my Dissolving Dollars book. And consider that it could make an interesting Christmas present for someone (including yourself). The book is currently only available at Amazon USA and it will at least stay that way until I put out a second edition at an undetermined date in the future. If you buy multiple copies, or something else with the book, to bring the order over $25, you’ll get free shipping inside the United States. And (hint, hint) if you buy the book, it would be kind and cool of you if you gave it an encouraging and positive review on Amazon.
Go to http://dissolvingdollars.com/
Get the book
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