17 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2024
    1. for - history - King Philip II - El Escorial - polycrisis - religion - history - adjacency - polycrisis - war - religion - epoche - CHD

      Adjacency - between - polycrisis - war - religion - epoche - CHD - history - adjacency statement - King Philip II is an interesting historical figure who left behind this enormous physical artefact of El Escorial. - So much of history has revolved around the religious beliefs of leaders, and how those beliefs are entangled and enacted in wars, enslavement, politics and power. - Phillip's fervent Catholicism drove him to expand his empire, fight wars with the Ottoman empire and Protestants and build the sprawling El Escorial complex. - The building was designed to express his Catholic beliefs - from the monastery to the Basilica, secret relic room, to library and mausoleum. His beliefs were responsible for driving his behaviour, which influenced much of humanity during his rule. - religion's power have influenced many powerful people of history, resulting in mass influence on society, including perpetuating inequality, extractionism, colonialism and violence - all in the name of a concept of apprehending the great mystery of life. - The desire to understand the great mystery of life and death has been hijacked to perpetuate great harm instead. What is needed now is a wisdom commons for the entire species that can help elevate, deepen and interconnect all the legacy belief systems before it. For in spite of the great variety of belief systems, they are fundamentally united through a common humans denominator - they all require human beings. - It is a deficiency in any existing systems that can justify offering and violence against other belief systems and claim the throne of THE one and only, true belief system. Indeed, the claim of "the truth" is itself already a poison since it is never achievable. An epoche for the common person is necessary to penetrate the weak link of the argument itself, the linguistic social conditioning which enables storytelling itself. - the inability to collectively grasp the symbolosphere, the noosphere compells us towards beliefs, out of which self- righteousness, self- reification and othering blossom.

  2. Oct 2023
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmita

      During shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by halakha (Jewish law).

      The sabbath year (shmita; Hebrew: שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the sabbatical year or shǝvi'it (שביעית‎, literally "seventh"), or "Sabbath of The Land", is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah in the Land of Israel and is observed in Judaism.

    1. There are several occasions where the massebah is not associated with pagan worship. When the massebah is associated with the worship of Yahweh, the massebah is accepted as a valid expression of commitment to Yahweh.

      Massebah for pagan worship: - Exodus 23:24 (https://hypothes.is/a/r3m5QmyDEe6SC8eLYcJE1Q) - Hosea 10:1 (https://hypothes.is/a/4PK2GGyDEe6wZg_r2YpVCA ) - 2 Kings 18:4 - 2 Kings 23:14

      Massebah for worship of Yahweh: - Genesis 28:18 Jacob's pillow (https://hypothes.is/a/NF5p8Gx6Ee65Rg_J4tfaMQ)<br /> - Genesis 31:44-45 Jacob and Laban's covenant - Exodus 24:4 - Joshua 24:25-27

    2. in violation of the demands of the covenant, the people of Israel erected sacred stones dedicated to other gods (Hosea 10:1). In their religious reforms, both Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4) and Josiah (2 Kings 23:14) destroyed the sacred pillars which the people of Israel had dedicated to the worship of Baal.
    3. During the establishment of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel, the people were commanded to destroy the sacred stones of the Canaanites, “You must demolish them and break their sacred stones (masseboth) to pieces” (Exodus 23:24).

      In neighboring cultures in which both have oral practices relating to massebah, one is not just destroying "sacred stones" to stamp out their religion, but it's also destroying their culture and cultural memory as well as likely their laws and other valuable memories for the function of their society.

      View this in light also of the people of Israel keeping their own sacred stones (Hosea 10:1) as well as the destruction of pillars dedicated to Baal in 2 Kings 18:4 and 2 Kings 23:14.

      (Link and) Compare this to the British fencing off the land in Australia and thereby destroying Songlines and access to them and the impact this had on Indigenous Australians.

      It's also somewhat similar to the colonialization activity of stamping out of Indigenous Americans and First Nations' language in North America, though the decimation of their language wasn't viewed in as reciprocal way as it might be viewed now. (Did colonizers of the time know about the tremendous damage of language destruction, or was it just a power over function?)

  3. Oct 2022
  4. Jun 2022
  5. Mar 2022
    1. The historic books of the Bible were written by a “Yahweh only party” and are thus keenly critical of the worship of other gods in Judah. Still, it is clear from their description that polytheism was the norm in the First Temple period. It was only during King Josiah’s reform that the "Yahweh only party" really took control and began pushing other gods out of Judean minds.

      Polytheism was the cultural norm during the First Temple period. It wasn't until the reforms of King Josiah described in 2 Kings in the second half of the 7th century BCE that other Semitic gods were actively removed from the Temple and parts of culture in favor of Yahweh.

    2. The Bible also recounts that the ancient Hebrews worshipped a god named Moloch, who was associated with the Ammonites and with child sacrifice. This worship too was stamped out by Josiah in the same reform (e.g. 2 Kings 23:10).
    3. Yet the ancient Hebrews clearly adored them just like the other West Semites did. Ezekiel (8:16) recounts seeing people worshiping the sun in the Temple. We can infer this because the bible specifically condemns their worship, and we are told that Josiah took actions to stomp out the cult in the late First Temple period, the second half of the 7th century B.C.E. These actions included removing cult objects from the Temple itself (2 Kings 23:11).
  6. Sep 2020
    1. She introduces herself as Jess La Bombalera, a nickname apparently of her own making, adapted from Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican genre of music and dance. Broadcasting live from “El Barrio,” and wearing purple-tinted shades and a hoop in her nose, she lambasts gentrifiers, shouts out her “black and brown siblings,” and twice calls out “white New Yorkers” for not yielding their speaking time.

      I hear this name and immediately think

      "Bamboléo"! Gipsy Kings! and then this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn7Wg9zQVTg

  7. Apr 2018
    1. Edmund Burke

      Edmund Burke was a British statesman, political thinker, and Parliamentary orator who was active in the major political issues occurring in Britain in 1785. He was part of the controversy between King George III and Parliament, who, he believed, were attempting to exert too much control over the executive. He argued that though the king's actions did not legally defy the constitution, they went against the constitution in spirit. Similarly, during the American imperial crisis, Burke argued that the British government's treatment of the colonies followed the letter of the law, but lacked consistency and respect for the colonies' claims.

      As a Whig Parliamentarian, Burke supported Americans grievances against Great Britain, especially in the area of taxation. However, he criticized the French Revolution for being destructive to society.

  8. Apr 2017
  9. Feb 2017
    1. Why sit ye here and die?

      This immediately made me think that I've one too many years of Catholic school as I made the connection to the book of Kings as soon as I read the first sentence. I find it interesting she uses this passage as I am fairly certain that it is talking about lepers in the bible. The comparison between how African Americans and Lepers are treated is a very bold statement in and of itself. It seems she is referencing the the rejection that came from physical appearance.