21 Comments
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desmond.andy@gmail.com's avatar

A passing grade on a test based on your post should be required to vote. Cogent, terrifying insights into how we got where we are.

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Jordan's avatar

The Fire Power Can’t Steal! Eliot has something to say about this…

“The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

The one discharge from sin and error.

The only hope, or else despair

Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-

To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.

Love is the unfamiliar Name

Behind the hands that wove

The intolerable shirt of flame

Which human power cannot remove.

We only live, only suspire

Consumed by either fire or fire.”

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Stay Slick's avatar

You know, I really don't mind, but when you share poetry in the comments I might be speechless for a minute. So I will just say, thank you...

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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

Especially that. He nailed it.

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JJ's avatar

Brilliant

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Grail Arts's avatar

Shiver me timbers

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Stay Slick's avatar

Aye 🏴‍☠️

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Éric Duranleau's avatar

At this point, it all feels like pro wrestling to me, which somehow makes me feels strangely well equipped for this period in time.

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Cort Gross's avatar

A symphony, with motifs and movements, harmony and melody, Mr. Slick. Well done.

On mythology, I went to Leif Erickson day camp. My football team was the Vikings. There is hope I believe for corn fed white boys. We can like Thor and read LOTR correctly, know the diff between simulacra and simulacrum

Emerson, James, Pierce and other pragmatists are I think an excellent response to the politics and ideology you describe, incl the Wm James of The Varieties of Religious Exp, speaking of recognizing the spiritual and transcendent.

Marx said Feuerbach’s materialism — in a world of simulacra, you might say his emphasis on life’s stickiness, its thingyness — was the brook of fire through which he had to pass finally to incorporate Hegelian dialectic

In the American grain, Black liberation theology, eg, James Cone, addresses directly much of what you identify in a language of empowerment — mythology, spirituality, narrative — and the music is better.

A bridge between the hx of lib theology and pragmatism in America is WEB Dubois, eg, his hx of reconstruction.

I sang in an a capella men’s group in seminary called the Eschatones. We did a command performance once for Martin Marty. I know from my end times. I think you get it pretty good.

Thx again. Good work. Tomorrow’s another day. Fail again. Fail better.

Peace, CG

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Stay Slick's avatar

The Eschatones... That's excellent!

Yes, there absolutely is hope--for corn-fed white boys, and for everyone else...

And no, Norse mythology and Tolkien aren't cursed. They're much deeper than the ways they've been recuperated.

"The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things." (Rilke)

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Kevin O'Brien's avatar

This is amazing! And as you build to a climax, it reads like poetry.

It reminds me of two things: "I am a servant of the secret fire."

And ...

Joseph McCarroll: Do you mean that in a corrupt situation people should turn to cultivating the interior life?

Eric Voegelin: If they can.

Joseph McCarroll: Do you suggest that that is bad?

Eric Voegelin: No. It’s not bad at all. It’s the only thing you can do in such a situation.

Joseph McCarroll: Does that make it good?

Eric Voegelin: What else do you –?

Joseph McCarroll: But can’t you stay and change it?

Eric Voegelin: No, you can’t change anything, say, under a Nazi regime. You can’t persuade the Politburo to behave differently.

... but (I would say), we can serve the secret fire and keep it burning.

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Stay Slick's avatar

10/10, no notes.

I wasn't familiar with that exchange, it's brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

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Mya's avatar

Where do you get this stuff?? 🤯😲 magnificently written as always

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Stay Slick's avatar

Thank you!

I spend a lot of time reading, trying to understand. Old books and new perspectives alike; I try to add links and references for those wishing to go further.

What confuses me is why these things aren’t talked about, written about more. I am doing my best to remedy that, and your support (I see and appreciate the likes and shares and yes, they help, as do your words of encouragement) helps a lot.

So thank you, because it takes time to research and articulate this stuff, and having a community of readers who find it valuable and take the time to tell me means a lot!

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Mya's avatar

I really appreciate both your depth and articulation 🙏❤️ It is unparalleled by what I've seen, I believe you work can't help but spread like wildfire 🔥

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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

Hey Stay Slick,

I was so moved and wrote an essay yesterday. It's about 1/500th of this magnificent piece, but your conclusion is there. You might enjoy it.

https://thinkaboutsuchthings.substack.com/p/yacht-rockin-on-friess-lake

Your work is as amazing as ever.

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Stay Slick's avatar

Eh, I don’t think we can quantify writing, and I don’t know how you can place a piece that moved you in the low decimals.

I did enjoy it, just like I enjoy the music you were blessed with while coming of age. It wasn’t just out when I made my own memories to it, but I’m grateful for it all the same.

As I am for the compliments!

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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

The comparison of our pieces related to the effort that you put into your piece, and the the really high quality that it ended up with.

Glad you enjoyed my essay. My mom did, too.

Cheers, Jeff

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MXTM (a.k.a.: vjtsu)'s avatar

I applaud your depth of analysis without sharing your prognostic. The algo can be defeated easily, a good joke can be read by only one person, spread like wildfire in reality and never make it back to where it came from. How to do that? We'll telling yall would prevent it from occuring wouldn't it? So all I can add for now is, wait for it. #mxtm

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Ferran Abelló Borràs's avatar

Aquest tal Vladislav Surkov no el tenia fitxat, també és cert que fins fa pocs anys no seguia gaire la política russa (o més aviat gens).

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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

I reread this. I missed so much the first time!

Here's a great "for example" In the news this morning. "BREAKING: Elizabeth Warren controlled the autopen during the Biden administration, claims White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks."

https://x.com/LeadingReport/status/1927556296963694756

https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1927554424974553258

He said it yesterday on Fox News. Fox News doesn't even make a reference to it in the video on their web page. That would be a pretty big deal if even possibly true.

One of those tweets is a retweet from a notable twitterati, The Vigilant Fox.

I went to The Vigilant Fox's twitter feed. I could not find the tweet in question (I am not a twitterati). But his latest is another example.

"Which conspiracy theories are the most terrifying of all?

"AJ Gentile told Joe Rogan it’s not aliens or AI—it’s the ones involving your own government.

"That’s when the floodgates opened.

"Coverups. Black ops. False flags.

"Then Rogan dropped a chilling biblical warning about the Military Industrial Complex."

I don't know how many people saw/listened to the podcast, but it has 12oo comments. 3 hours.

etc, etc.

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