Bulletin N° 616
Subject: ON BURNING KARMA.
19 June 2014
Grenoble, France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Life
at times seems “too unjust”.
Take the fact, for instance, that the American automobile industrialist and
Nazi collaborator, Henry Ford, lived to the ripe old age of 83, and that the
cruel Caudillo of Spanish fame, Francisco Franco, lived to be over 82. Or
that the murderous American 'statesman' Henry Kissinger has out lived one of his
most ardent critics, the American historian Gabliel Kolko. The perversities in life are abundant and since the
beginning of man they have produced metaphysical speculations.
George
Orwell (who died at the age of 47) dealt with this subject in his first book, Burmese Days (1934). One of the characters in
this story was U Po Kyin, Deputy Assistant
Commissioner of a district, who by all accounts was a venal, domineering,
destructive official. His opportunistic behavior alternated between aggressive
attacks on subordinates when it served his purpose, and abject servility
towards people whom he thought could serve to promote his career. He advanced ruthlessly,
using henchmen employed within in the system, to secure his way while his equally
ruthless spouse smiled approvingly, but deep down worried about the condition
of his soul and the prospects of his future incarnation. Kyin
amassed great wealth and political power over large numbers of subordinates,
but he had a plan: when he retired he would occupy himself with his salvation.
Finally, he retired a supremely egotistical old man, unable to communicate outside the
rigid institutional strictures which he had learned so well to manipulate.
“U
Po Kyin had done all that mortal men could do.” wrote
Orwell. “It was time now to be making ready for the next world –in short, to
begin building pagodas.” Unfortunately, at this point things went wrong; he was
stricken with apoplexy and died before building a single pagoda. His wife
suffered greatly thinking where he must be now –perhaps in some subterranean
hell of fire, darkness, and serpents; or, even worse, had he returned to earth
in the shape of a rat, and at this very moment perhaps a snake was devouring
him?
The
medieval scholar and statesman Ibn Kaldhûn (1332-1406), wrote in his classic book, The Muqaddinah
(published in 1377) about the innate quality of the human mind, which is
absent in other species.
On
the ability to think, Kaldhûn wrote:
The ability to think has several degrees.
The first degree is man’s intellectual understanding of the things that exist
in the outside world in a natural or arbitrary order, so that he may try to
arrange them with the help of his own power. This kind of thinking mostly
consists of perceptions. It is the discerning intellect, with the help
of which man obtains the things that are useful for him and his livelihood, and
repels the things that are harmful to him.
The
second degree is the ability to think which provides man with the ideas and
behavior needed in dealing with his fellow men and in leading them. . . . This
is called the experimental intellect.
The
third degree is the ability to think which provides the knowledge, or
hypothetical knowledge, of an object beyond sense perception without any
particular activity (going with it). This is the speculative intellect. . . . (pp.333-334)
Concerning
“the world of things that come into being as the result of [human] action,”
which materializes through thinking, he observed that,
[H]uman action in the outside world materializes only through
thinking about the order of things, since things are based upon each other. . .
.
[Man’s]
thinking starts with the thing that comes last in the causal chain and is done
last. His action starts with the first thing in the causal chain, which
thinking reaches last. Once this order is taken into consideration, human
actions proceed in a well-arranged manner.
On the other hand, the actions of living
beings other than man are not well arranged. They lack the thinking that acquaints
the agent with the order of things governing his action. Animals perceive only
with the senses. Their perceptions are disconnected and lack a connecting link,
since only thinking can constitute such (a link). . . .
The ability to think is the quality of man
by which human beings are distinguished from other living beings. The degree to
which a human being is able to establish an orderly causal chain determines his
degree of humanity. Some people are able to establish a causal nexus of two or
three levels. Some are not able to go beyond that. Others may reach five or six. Their humanity,
consequently, is higher. For instance, some chess players are able to perceive
(in advance) three or five moves, the order of which is arbitrary. Others are
unable to do that, because their mind is not good enough for it. This example
is not quite to the point, because (the knowledge of) chess is a habit, whereas
the knowledge of causal chains is something natural. However, it is an example
the student may use to gain an intellectual understanding of the basic facts
mentioned here. . . . (pp.334-336)
And
on the subject of how humans acquire knowledge, he concluded that,
We observe in ourselves through
sound intuition the existence of three worlds.
The first of them is the world of sensual
perception. We become aware of it by means of the perception of the senses,
which the animals share with us.
Then, we become aware of the ability to
think which is a special quality of human beings. We
learn from it that the human soul exists. This knowledge is necessitated by the
fact that we have in us scientific perceptions which are above the perceptions
of the senses. They must thus be considered as another world, above the world
of the senses.
Then, we deduce (the existence of) a third
world, above us, from the influences that we find it leaves in our hearts, such
as volition and an inclination toward active motions. Thus, we know that there
exists an agent there who directs us toward those things from a world above our
world. . . . It contains essences that
can be perceived because of the existence of influences that exercise upon us,
despite the gap between us and them.
Often, we may deduce (the existence of) that
high spiritual world and the essences it contains, from visions and things we
had not been aware of while awake but which we find in our sleep and which are
brought to our attention in it and which, if they are true dreams, conform with
actuality. We thus know that they are true and come from the world of truth.
‘Confused dreams’, on the other hand, are pictures of the imagination that are
stored inside by perceptions and to which the ability to think is applied,
after man has retired from sense perception.(pp.336-338)
The
9 items below offer CEIMSA readers the opportunity to practice these
three levels of thinking which distinguish our species and which the medieval
scholar described as the sources of all human knowledge: our discerning intellect, which gives us the
ability to arrange our actions in an orderly manner; our experimental intellect, which allows us to acquire from our fellow
humans a knowledge of the ideas and things that are useful or detrimental to
us; and our speculative intellect,
which helps us to obtain a perception of existent things as they are, whether
they are absent or present. In this way, we can acknowledge our ‘animality’: whatever we attain is the result of sensual
perception, plus the ability to think.
[M]an is simply
matter, inasmuch as he is devoid of all knowledge.
Man’s nature and essence reveal to us the essential ignorance and acquired (character
of the) knowledge that [he] possesses . . . . (p.340)
Item
A.,
from Information
Clearing House, is an article by Robert Fisk on the new Middle East.
Item
B.,
from The Guardian, is an article
by Paul Lewis on recent military
escalation in Eastern Ukraine and the victims of this encroaching war.
Item
C.,
from Information
Clearing House, is an article by Robert Fisk on the role of Saudi Arabia in contemporary world
history.
Item
D.,
from Truth Out, is an article by Peter McLarne and Mike Cole, on the
politics of international capitalist austerity and the example of Venezuelan
socialism.
Item
E.,
from Information
Clearing House, is an article by Uri Avnery on the political power of the Israeli
military.
Item F.,
from Knowledge Ecology International, is a July 2013
letter from L. Dan Mullaney,
Assistant United States Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East
advocating top secrecy in negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (the TTIP).
Item
G.,
from c.sham,
is an article (in French) on why French railway workers have gone out on an
extended nation-wide strike.
Item
H., from Jim O’Brien of Historians
Against War, is a series of recommended recent
articles.
Item
I., from The
Real New Network, is a three-part interview with Noam Chomsky by Chris Hedges, two public intellectuals who are discussing important problematics
taken from US labor history.
And
finally, we invite CEIMSA readers to take a look at the exceptionally
informative 8-part series of interviews on the Confessions of A Predatory Banker,
with Rob Johnson and Paul Jay, on The
Real News Network:
|
Growing
Up in the Cauldron of 1960's Detroit - Robert Johnson on Reality Asserts
Itself (1/8) |
|
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11964 |
Sincerely,
Francis
Feeley
Professor
of American Studies
University
of Grenoble-3
Director
of Research
University
of Paris-Nanterre
Center
for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The
University of California-San Diego
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
_______________
A.
From Information
Clearing House :
Dates: 15 June 2014
Subject : Iraq and the New
Regional Power Play.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The new Middle Eastern map
substantially increases Saudi power over the region’s oil, lowering Iraq’s
exports, raising the cost of oil (including, of course, Saudi oil) and at the
expense of a frightened and still sanctioned Iran.
The Old Partition of the Middle East is Dead.
I Dread to Think What Will Follow
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38805.htm
By Robert Fisk
_______________
B.
From The Guardian :
Dates: 14 June 2014
Subject : Military escalation
in Eastern Ukraine.
On
Friday, 13 June, a military transport jet was brought down by heavy machine gun
fire as it approached Luhansk airport with soldiers
and military supplies from Kiev.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/14/russian-tanks-enter-ukraine
by Paul Lewis
+
(Video coverage by RT)
http://rt.com/news/165880-ukraine-lugansk-jet-paratroopers/
_______________
C.
From Information
Clearing House :
Dates: 13 June 2014
Subject : Saudi Arabia in World
History.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The jihadists of Isis and sundry other groupuscules
paid by the Saudi Wahhabis – and by Kuwaiti oligarchs
– now rule thousands of square miles.
Sunni Caliphate
Has Been Bankrolled By Saudi Arabia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38798.htm
by Robert Fisk
_______________
D.
From Truth Out :
Dates: 11 June 2014
Subject : What can we learn
from Venezuelan socialism.
Austerity/Immiseration Capitalism: What Can We Learn From Venezuelan
Socialism?
by
Peter McLarne and Mide Cole
_______________
E.
From Information
Clearing House :
Dates: 13 June 2014
Subject : Saudi Arabia in World
History.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
IN ISRAEL,
a military coup is unthinkable.
Here
is the place to repeat the old Israeli joke: the Chief of Staff assembles his
senior commanders and addresses them: “Comrades, tomorrow morning at 0600 hours
we take over the government.”
For
a moment there is silence. Then the entire audience dissolves into hysterical
laughter.
A
CYNIC might interrupt here: “Why should the army bother with a coup? It governs
Israel anyhow!”
In
civics classes, we learn that Israel is a democracy. Officially: “a Jewish and
democratic state”. The government decides, the army follows
orders.
But,
as the man said: “It ain’t necessarily so.”
Israel
is not a state
that has an army, but an army that has a state.
A Coup? Nonsense!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38797.htm
by Uri Avnery
_______________
F.
From Knowledge
Ecology International :
Dates: 12 June 2014
Subject : On Conspiracies
Imagined and Real.
KEI
has obtained the terms of reference (TOR) for the confidentiality of the
negotiating texts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
Agreement. The TOR are laid out in a two-page letter
from US Chief Negotiator Dan Mullaney to EU Chief Negotiator
Ignacio Garcia-Bercero which is available here. The letter was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed
by KEI with the United States Trade
Representative for Europe and the Middle East on May 19, 2014.
http://keionline.org/node/2021
by Claire Cassedy
_______________
G.
From c.sham :
Dates: 17 June 2014
Subject
: Pourquoi les cheminots sont en grève.
Face à l'intox des médias sur la grève à la
SNCF, le point de vue d'un cheminot :
http://blog.sylvainbouard.fr/pourquoi-je-suis-en-greve/
_______________
H.
From Historians
Against the War :
Dates: 18 June 2014
Subject : HAW Notes 6/18/14:
Links to some articles related to the Iraq crisis.
http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/
This "recent articles" list aims to
shed light on the current crisis in Iraq and US policy. It was compiled
by Steve Gosch and Jim O'Brien and benefited from suggestions
by Rosalyn Baxandall, Mim
Jackson, James Swarts, and Jesse Lemisch.
(Suggestions for these occasional lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.)
Links to Some Articles Related to the Iraq
Crisis
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch, posted
June 17
The author teaches
history at Trinity College.
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, Asia-Pacific Journal, posted June 16
The author teaches
history at the University of Tulsa.
"No End of a
Lesson -- Unlearned"
By William R. Polk, History
News Network, posted June 15
The author is a former
member of the US Policy Planning Council and former professor of history at the
University of Chicago.
"'Iraq' Is Still Arabic for Vietnam"
By Ira Chernus, History News Network, posted June 15
The author teaches at
the University of Colorado and writes regularly for the History News Network.
"Can Obama Pull a Nixon with the Iraq Crisis?"
By Andrew J. Bacevich, Los Angeles Times, posted June 15
The author teaches
history and international relations at Boston University.
"The Second Iran-Iraq War and the American Switch"
By Juan Cole, Informed
Comment blog, posted June 13
The author teaches
history at the University of Michigan.
"Iraq Is Vietnam 2.0 And U.S. Drones
Won't Solve the Problem"
By Leslie H. Gelb, The
Daily Beast, posted June 12
The author is a former New York Times writer and Vietnam-era Defense
Department official who directed the study that produced the Pentagon Papers.
_______________
I.
From The Real News Network :
Dates: 17 June 2014
Subject : Public Intellectuals formulate important problematics
from US Labor History.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Chris Hedges speaks with Professor Noam Chomsky about working-class resistance during
the Industrial Revolution, propaganda, and the historical role played by
intellectuals in times of war.
Chris
Hedges Interviews Noam Chomsky (1/3)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12006