You have heard of Kafka’s work being known only because of its popularization by his middlebrow friend, Max Brod. Karl Kraus, the Viennese satirist, said, “Geist auf Brod ist Schmaltz,” which is to say, Brod couldn’t even appreciate what it is he was purveying. The high things of the spirit, mediated by Max Brod, are … Continue reading Schmaltzig
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear” – New Testament quotes sound different when directed against the Jews than when spoken favorably by them.
Through the Looking-Glass
The phenomenologists who exalt place over space, the Heimat over the Rechtsstaat, have a place in the New World of Judaizing technology, despite their worst fears: Epcot Center. These lunatics conceive of the world as corresponding to this grotesquerie. See them in the snow globe wearing lederhosen and dirndls.
Among Friends
If you would ascend the social hierarchy, be mindful that you should clothe yourself, and furnish your home, in white, to show that you have the requisite funds to replace said stuff in a seamless circuit should it become soiled. Also, learn to aspirate the “h” in white, to show that you are one.
One should hear private conversations in a way that prevents eavesdropping, that is, as background noise against one’s own thoughts.
Aristotle and Kant
For Kant, the reason why the Critique of Pure Reason has to do with understanding, and the Critique of Practical Reason with morality, is that for Aristotle, theoretical knowledge is different than practical knowledge. It is one thing to know the virtues as a theoretical matter; another to practice them. Aristotle points to the shared … Continue reading Aristotle and Kant
Consistency Over Time
Someone worried that with change of financial fortune would come complacency. But this is a profoundly Marxist insight, that the truth is a function of historical circumstances. We are susceptible to those lines of thought that appeal to us in whatever place it is in which we find ourselves. So, too, with the old chestnut … Continue reading Consistency Over Time
Saying that the solely miraculous is that there should be something rather than nothing is wrong, for it holds the world miraculous, when the very notion of the miraculous comes from Scripture and pertains to that which contravenes the world, that which suspends the laws of nature. That there should be a Sabbath is completely … Continue reading
παθ-
People suggest that mathematics is the language of God, which aside from being blasphemous, if true, is true only in the sense that it gives us the power to grasp things intellectually and make use of them. It does not speak to the truth of humanity, of our emotions, of our suffering. Plato looked to … Continue reading παθ-
What Have I to Do With Refutations!
People who talk about capitalism, or structural racism, or colonialism, are automatically disqualified from consideration as wise on account of their holding to an ideological line that is the bequest of someone who has thought through these matters for him or herself and left it to them, who now think in complete conformity with doctrine, … Continue reading What Have I to Do With Refutations!
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