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Agent Orange: Hidden Heroes—What about the Real Heroes?
I was watching a commercial on the TV about a class action lawsuit for people exposed to Round UP, which is a weed killer, if they developed cancer. This commercial got me to thinking about my dad and how he, nor myself was every compensated from exposure to Agent Orange. Agent Orange is one of a series of defoliants used to clear dense jungles, riverbank vegetation and trees, and will rice paddies. Unfortunately, these agents were made from the deadliest dioxin known. Many soldiers serving in Vietnam were sprayed from the air with this poison, while they were defending our country, and they were told that the Agent Orange was harmless to humans. The chemical companies and our own government knew Agent Orange was deadly to humans, but used it anyway. Over twenty million gallons of agent orange was sprayed, over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 through 1972. Once it was sprayed in the dense jungles by airplane and helicopter, it killed grass, palm trees, and all other vegetation in just two days. Everything would be brown and dead in a very short time and witnesses said it looked like a scene from a horror film. The defoliant eventually would wash down into the rivers and canals where the fishermen were fishing and little did they know the fish were also contaminated. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
Then, Agent Orange would eventually carry out to sea, where naval vessels would pull in the contaminated sea water for the crew to use. The sea water would be distilled for cooking, bathing, and drinking. However, the distillation process did not remove the dioxins of agent orange from the sea and river water, so people were drinking and bathing in poison. Once in your system, through skin contact or ingestion, Agent Orange manifests rashes and skin irritations, miscarriages, psychological symptoms, various cancers, diseases such as Parkinson’s, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, leukemia and diabetes, and genetic alterations, resulting in birth defects for six generations. It is truly the gift the keeps on giving. Agent Orange diseases did not always manifest within just a few days of being exposed, some symptoms would take four or five decades to show up. My dad served in the Vietnam war and got cancer from agent orange and I was born with spinal bifida, which is caused by Agent Orange. An estimated 4 million people in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange and about 3 million suffered serious health problems, and this includes their children who were exposed. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The chemical is capable of damaging genes, resulting in deformities among offspring of exposed victims. There are documented cases of still-births, cleft palate, and neural tube defects, with spina bifida being the mist statistically significant defect. Some children of veterans are given compensation and medical care because they were exposed to Agent Orange, and my father was in the process of filing a claim with the department of Veteran’s Affairs right before he passed away. It is really a sad story because it was around finals time, and I was in college preparing for my exams and I found out my dad was sick, but I did not think much of it because he had survived the cancer he got from Agent Orange and seemed to be doing really well much of his life, so I thought. He had initially been given three to five years to live after Vietnam and was told that he would never have kids, and he beat those odds. So anyway, my father’s caregivers did not want to tell me he was dying, and three days before he passed away, my mother told me he was in the hospital and to go visit him. They have not planned to tell me he was dying until after he passed away. And unfortunately, as he was dying, I turned my back for a moment, just to sit down, and then I heard him gasp for his last breath, and he died. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
His eyes were opened and I closed them for him, and his caregivers did not even want me to do that. Later on, I discovered that his air tube had been unplugged. They claimed the dog did it. Years later, they went on to say doctors in the hospital do that type of stuff all the time, but he died in his caregiver’s house, and they made sure to let me know I was not getting anything. Now that I reflect on what happened, I see why growing up my dad would flake out of coming to visit sometimes, he was not feeling well, but kept on living and working to support his kids. And right before finals, I thought he was being cheap, he would give me $5 a day for gas and I would have to come see him every day to get gas money, I had no idea that he was dying and he was doing that so he could see me every day before he died. And when I finally found out he was in the hospital, he could not even speak, he had no voice and was on a breathing machine. Unfortunately, my father nor myself were compensated for exposure to Agent Orange, nor were a lot of others. And some people are not satisfied with government research and want to conduct their own unethical and illegal experiments. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
It was really sad. I truly did not know how ill my father was, because to me, he was superman and could pull through anything, but apparently, years later that Agent Orange was still in his system and took him under. While he was in the hospital, he wrote me a note telling me he had put away some money in a CD, but who knows what happened to it because I was not allowed to find out much information. It is hard when you lose someone who is supporting you, but even more hard when you lose the only person in the World who truly loved you. My dad used to tell me stories about seeing his friends blown up right in front his eyes, while at war, dodging bullets and bombs, waking up to the stench of burning flesh, and how he was cut open from his neck to his stomach to remove the cancer he had and I did see the scar. My dad also told me to never buy Dole products because they manufactured Agent Orange. He was an amazing man and a truly kind guy. Those who you who still have your father’s in your life, be sure to treat them to a wonderful Father’s Day. In a way, I am happy my father never went through the hearings for this compensation for Agent Orange because the memories of war and knowing you passed on a birth defect to your son would probably drive a person insane. And could you imagine not having your father and being tormented by the media and local government…I am sure some have heard. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Those who do Not Remember the Past are Condemned to Repeat it
Rituals are part of everyday life. They both constitute and celebrate defining group characteristics. Human beings require a rational soul that is immaterial, hence indivisible, hence immortal. The fundamental right to punish belongs to society. Society, alone, and not the individual, can mete out that amount of evil that is necessary to preserve the well-being of humanity, and can oppose the criminal impulse with a moral counterimpulse. Society develops through the synthesis of national character (tradition) with stimulation—spontaneous, free, and renewing—according to a law of convenience, with all parts of the nation tending toward an equilibrium of force and utility through the balance of interests and powers. This dialectic of civilization is a work of art, even the highest work of art of a humanity striving for perfection. Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you will put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you will hold on really hard and realize there is no choice, but to let go. Acceptance is a small quiet room. The decline of spiritual values is due to internal degeneration or disintegration within the person and the society, and only seldom to external pressure. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
Advertisers, politicians, educators, religious organizations, and others actively seek to alter attitudes and opinions. To an extent, their persuasive efforts resemble brainwashing, but there is an important difference: Brainwashing, or forced attitude change, requires a captive audience. If you are offended by a TV commercial, you can just tune it out. Prisoners in the POW (prisoner of war) camps in Korea (and later Vietnam) were completely at the mercy of their captors. Complete control over the environment allows a degree of psychological manipulation that would be impossible in a normal setting. How does captivity facilitate persuasion? The target person is isolated from other people who would support his or her attitude; the target is made completely dependent on his or her captors for satisfaction of basic needs; and the indoctrinating agent is in a position to reward the target for changes in attitudes or behavior. Brainwashing beings with attempts to make the target person feel completely helpless. Physical and psychological abuse, lack of sleep, humiliation, and isolation serve to unfreeze, or loosen, former values and beliefs. The benefits of rituals have been well documented. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
When exhaustion, pressure, and fear become unbearable, change occurs as the person abandons former beliefs. Typically, prisoners who reach the breaking point sign a false confession or cooperate to gain relief. When they do, they are suddenly rewarded with praise, privileges, food, or rest. Continued pairing of hope and fear with additional pressures to conform then serves to refreeze (solidify) new attitudes. There have been cases where people are virtually held hostage in society, and if they attempt to go anywhere other than where they are allowed, someone will run into their car, try to run them over or assault the target person. Fearing injury, the person stays within the boundaries, where they are tracked and subjected to other forms of abuse. However, dramatic shifts in attitudes induced by brainwashing are usually temporary. In the United States of America, an estimated 2 to 5 million people have succumbed to the lure of cults. A cult is a group in which the leader’s personality is more important than the beliefs she or he preaches. Cult members give their allegiance to this person, who is regarded as infallible, and they follow his or her dictates without question. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Almost always, cult members are victimized by their leaders in one way or another. Recruiting new members, cults use a powerful blend of guilt, manipulation, isolation, deception, fear, and escalating commitment. In this respect, cults employ high-pressure indoctrination techniques similar to brainwashing. The cult can control the flow and interpretation of information individuals receive and there is a numbing effect of acceleration as autoamputation of the sense. The body as a sensing, experiencing, feeling, living totality has been autoamputated, an effect of fear spread throughout the World of an individual as a result of the power of destructiveness over all of life. The numbing of the body and emotions needs to be recognized and re-enlivening must occur. Some individuals lose themselves and overtime become automatons that look like human beings from the outside, but are hollow inside. Some people are recruited by cults, even in modern times, for human sacrifice, which is the act of killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a ritual. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
In times of emotional and financial chaos, rituals offer the comfort and hope of stability. Rituals facilitate continuity, provide a link between past and future. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history. Victims were typically ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods, spirits, or the deceased. In a society which condemns human sacrifice, the term ritual murder is used. Isolation from non-cult members is used. Drills, discipline, and rituals (all-night meditation or continuous chanting, for instance) keep recruits continuously occupied. These rituals also wear down physical and emotional resistance and generate feelings of commitment. Many cults make cleaver use of their foot-in-the-door technique. At first, recruits make small commitments (to stay after a meeting, for example). Then, larger commitments are encouraged (to stay an extra day, to call in sick at work, and so forth). Why do people stay in cults? Most former members mention guilt and fear as the main reason for not leaving when they wished they could. Most have been reduced to child-like dependency on the group for meeting all their daily needs. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
After they leave, many cult members suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, and emotional disturbances much like post-traumatic stress syndrome. Ritual killings are not that common in America, as they are in India. Because of blind superstitions and rampant illiteracy, a woman in India sacrificed a boy. Sumitra Bushan, in 2006, lived in Barha for most of her life, and at age 43, she thought she was cursed. Her husband left her, and she was deep in debt and was basically a slave. Her sons, Satbir, age 27, and Sanjay, age 23, were living a lifestyle of leisure. She and her family started having visions. And she was told by a travelling man that she must sacrifice a boy from her village. So they crept into their neighbour’s house and abducted three-year-old Aakash Singh, as he slept. They dragged him into their house and performed a puja ceremony, reciting a mantra and waving incense, and then they used a knife and mutilated him, and life him bleeding in from of an image of their goddess. This has been going on for centuries, as some people are still living in the dark ages. That same year, there were 28 human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh within four months. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
Many people blame the turn to the occult on the increasing economic hardships, as people have debts spiraling out of control. Human sacrifices have also been happening along the U.S. Mexico border. An alleged member of a cult sacrificed, two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, a figure adored mostly by outlaws but whose popularity is growing across Mexico and among Hispanics in the United States of America. The throats and the wrists of the victims were cut with knives and axes and their blood was spread on a Santa Muerte altar. Their bodies where then buried near the shacks where the alleged cult members live. Cult members usually ask around to find the right person, and it usually only takes a week or so. There is an emphasis on virginity, and they do not believe in choosing victims based on outdated patriarchal belief, but rather on the basis of equality for all. These types of rituals are international, and not specific to either rural places or cities. They can happen anywhere, and there is usually some kind of symbolic evidence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
In many ritual killings, there is usually symbols carved into the body, symbols painted on the floor, the body might be positioned a certain way. And there is usually a significance of dates, like significant holidays specific to different ideologies. These people have usually crossed over to the dark side, which would be Satanism. When a person is held captive, forced attitude change (brainwashing) is possible. However, in most cases the effects or brainwashing are only temporary. When people join cult-like groups, more profound and lasting alterations of their belief systems are possible. A lot of people do not believe that ritual killings happen in America. People do this because they are true believers, ritual killings are required as part of their belief system, like a sacrifice that is required on a Blue Moon. Or they may feel they have to target a certain person. If it is a true criminal, they might be doing it because it satisfies other needs and they are using it as sort of an excuse. However, most of the time, they motivation is they think magically and they think it is going to give them power or protect them. They believe that ritual killings will give them more control over their life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
When poverty joins high levels of economic and social aspirations, the stage is set for criminal activities—particularly official corruption, ritual killings, robbery and dealing in illegal goods and services. People who are thwarted in attaining desired social and economic goals legally may seek to obtain them illegally. Psychologically, aggression is always a consequence of frustration while frustration leads to some form of aggression. Every day, police stations are inundated with reports of all manner of crimes involving fraudsters, missing persons many of whom end up in the hands of ritualists. Less than 10 percent of such missing persons return home. A scary percentage of them are not found and the bodies of negligible number that are eventually seen, are dumped either on the roadsides, bush paths or inside gutters, mutilated and their vital organs removed. Usually, victims are taken to the forests and butchered for money rituals. In countries like Nigeria, there are over 4,000 ritual killings a year, and not only civilians, but sometimes police personnel are victims. Sometimes even the rich engage in these practices to keep their wealth. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
This is a kind of Spiritual Adultery that is Spearing Across the Earth
By withdrawing oneself from society and into contemplation, the social nature of human beings and one’s ability to perform good works becomes insignificant, unimportant, and irrelevant. How can we then uphold the requirement of performing good works found in the scriptures? The mysterious process by which our Earthly life instructs us for another state of being tells of that our action obey an unknow law, implicit in ourselves, but which does not conform to our logic. We know that every creature has a private good and interest of one’s own, which nature has compelled one to seek. We know that there is in reality a right and a wrong state of every creature; and that one’s right state is forward by nature and affectionately sought by oneself. And because every creature has a certain interest or good, there must be also a certain end or purpose to which everything in one’s constitution must naturally be related. If anything in one’s appetites, passions, or affections runs contrary to this end, we must count it as being bad for one. In this way, one can be bad with respects to oneself; just as one is certainly bad with respects to other of one’s kind when any of one’s appetites or passions make one any way injurious to them. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into still subtler form. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
When first formed visionary schemes, we know them to be absurd, but familiarize them by degrees, and in time lose sight of their folly. This is unacceptable because any interpretation that disallows humans their ability to understand the scriptures produces moral ramifications. Religion undoubtedly contains some perfect daemonists, people who believe that the governing mind or minds are not absolutely and necessarily good—are not confined to what is best, but are capable of acting according to mere will or fancy, because we know whole nations who worship the devil or fiend to who they sacrifice and offer prayers and supplications, really just because they fear him. And we know very well that in some religious there people who do not proclaim any idea of God except that of a being who is arbitrary, violent, a cause of bad, and condemning people to misery—which amounts to substituting a daemon or devil in place of God. One who has nothing external that can divert one must find pleasure in one’s own thoughts, and must conceive oneself what one is not, for who is pleased with what one is? A person can be more an atheist than a theist, or more a daemonist than a theist, depending on which of the relevant opinions predominates thought. Moral standards are to be severe and rigorous in order to prevent condemning the masses to Hell. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
This globe, the Earth, appears to have a real dependence on something beyond it (e.g. the Sun, the Galaxy, or its fellow planets), then it—the Earth—really is only a part of some other system. And if there is similarly a system of all things, and a Universal nature, every particular being or system must be either good or bad in that general system of the Universe. What about something insignificant and useless? That would be an imperfection, and so would be bad in the general system. Therefore, a being cannot be wholly and really bad except by being bad with respect to the Universal system; and in that case the system of the Universe is bad or imperfect. However, if the evil of one private system is the good of others, if it contributes still to the good of the general system (as when one creatures lives by the destruction of another, one thing is generated from the corruption [= ‘rotting’] of another, or one planetary system or vortex swallows up another) then the evil of that private system is not really bad in itself; any more than the pain of cutting new teeth is bad in a system or body which is so constituted that without this episode of pain it would suffer worse by being defective. The Bible is for everyone to understand and practice, including the poor and uneducated. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
So we cannot say of any being that it is wholly and absolutely bad unless we can show for certain that what we are calling bad is not also good in some other system or in relation to some other order or economy. However, if the World contained one species of animals that were destructive to every other species, that could rightly be called a bad species, because it is bad in the animal system. And if in any species of animals (for example the human species) one person has a nature that makes one pernicious to the rest, then one can in this respect rightly be called a bad person. Prediction is vague. The notion of prediction is unquestionably an essential part of the subject matter of logic, but the predicates might be extralinguistic and even extramental entities. Thus crucial vagueness, which was to some extend also the source of the medievals’ concer with universals, left open to the possibility that logic might be essentially a science of reality, resembling or subsumed under metaphysics. Prediction occurs only in a proposition, and the only constituents of propositions are utterances; thus, only utterances may be predicated. Some utterances are significant; some are not. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and will all thy mind. You do not need me to go through envy, malice, ill-temperament, or other such hateful passions to show how each is bad and makes the creatures that has them bad. However, perhaps I should point out that even kindness and love of the most natural sort (e.g. a creature’s love for its offspring) is vicious if it is immoderate and beyond a certain degree of intensity. Why? Because excessive tenderness destroys the effect of love, and excessive pity makes us incapable of giving help. Thus, excessive motherly love is a vicious fondness; excessive pity is effeminacy and weakness; undue concern for self-preservation is meanness and cowardice; having too little concern for self-preservation, or none at all, is rashness; and the opposite concern (namely a passion leading to self-destruction) is a mad and desperate depravity. God was manifest in flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the World, and received up into glory. With God all things are possible, but oftentimes he does his work with awful instruments, there is a peacemaker called Death. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
To be sure, proof in existence of the ineligible World, also known as the mind of God, the environmental movement protested the consequences of abundant consumption. Yet, it did not therefore, rethink the practices and aims of living itself, but only those of living too extravagantly. Air, water, space, nature: these are the subject of scarcity. Economics focuses on the scarcity of time in which to enjoy abundance. Thus, for the first time ever, humans are faced with this real, permanent problem—the World being overpopulated and there not being enough money nor resources to take care of the rapidly expanding population. While people demand letting illegal immigrants inhabit America, they are not paying attention to the fact that we are losing jobs, for instance, Sears is closing 149 stores this year. Also, new houses, which are 300 square feet, and would not uphold in a storm and have no foundation, are being built in parking lots because people with jobs can no longer afford food and a traditional house or an apartment, but yet Americans want to keep adding more of a strain on their resources. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
The permanent problem on Earth—how to use this freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy leisure which science and compound interest will have won for them, to live wisely and agreeably and well. A builder of larger social whole, the instinct for peace and quiet, for respite for respite from stimulation and disturbances, in short, for death (not in death as destruction, but death as peace) is an expression that has emerged out of the experiences of immature minds as mediator between this pleasure-seeking mass of instinct and of the reality principle. You cannot always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might just find what you need. We must turn work into something enjoyable. We must treat the World as a garden to cultivate, not as a storehouse to pillage. For as by the existence of the creatures, we come to know there is a creator, so by their loveliness is that we come to know that their Author, and come to love him. We must first experience and come to know the things on Earth before we can come to know and love God. Experience is not only critical to general knowledge, but it is absolutely necessary to our ability to know God and to know the duties of a good life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
Love is to be inherently centered upon God. Love is the movement of the soul towards good, or God. Love is a disposition or act of the mind as a reaction to anything which we find pleasure. When we love the creature, we are then wishing something good for it, that is be improved or endure; this love is referred to as benevolence and charity. This love cannot apply to God because we cannot wish upon God anything more since he is absolute. Thus, our love for creatures is the love of benevolence (since we wish them well), but this is not equivalent to what we might call real live, these are only acts of charity. Therefore, we must love God with the love of desire. For our love of God brings no additional goodness to God, but benefits only us; to love creatures would be sinful. Love of desire is a complete love, while benevolence is only partial love. We cannot love something fully if it is not completely loveable. Our heart is so much God’s property and peculiar, and out so entirely to be devoted to him, that this is a kind of Spiritual Adultery to admit any creature in a partnership with one in our love. It is in loving something partially that is completely loveable that we are depriving it of our love and committing ourselves to sin. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
This World and this life matters. God created our sense organs and real flowers. This World is not just an illusion. The material World is important. If none of this matter, if Earth was not our home, then there would be no reason at all for God to have created our sense organs or any real flowers to begin with. God could easily produce in us the ideas and sensations of flowers with or without there being actual flowers. Likewise, God would have worked in vain in creating our sense organs since these would have nothing to contribute in our experience of the World. For if we must love nothing but what is lovely, and nothing is lovely but what is our good, and nothing is our good but what does us good, and nothing does us good but what causes pleasure in us. I fear so many people live and die as idolaters, and the greatest part of the future will do so; since I guess not one in a million will be found capable of apprehending, and being convinced of this new hypothesis of seeing all things in God. The purpose of Christian doctrine is to enable its subscribers the opportunity for a good life entailing the need for good actions. Turn your heart over to God and know that he is the creator of all that is good and pleasurable and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
The Morning Star is the Evening Star
Life and the World around us is a painted veil, an illusion though which we penetrate to the reality behind. Religion and virtue seem in many respect to be so nearly related that they are generally presumed to be inseparable companions. We are so willing to think well of their union that we hardly allow it to be permissible to speak or even think of them separately. However, it may by questioned whether this attitude can be theoretically justified. We certainly do sometimes encounter cases that seem to go against this general supposition. We have known people who have the appearance of great zeal in religion, but have lacked even the common affections of humanity, and shown themselves extremely degenerate and corrupt. Others who have paid little regard to religion and been considered as mere atheists have been seen to practice the rules of morality and in many cases to act with such good meaning and affection towards humankind that one seems forced to admit that they are virtuous. In our everyday lives, our wiliness to have dealings with someone may depend on one’s answer to “What are his or her morals?” A person who is aware of the superior pleasures to be found in virtuous action will naturally prefer virtue to mere self-interest. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our notions of God are projections of our own humor, as we are, so shall we think God to be. God must necessarily be good humored. However, we can never understand this quality unless we possess it ourselves. Hence, the necessity for permitting good humor in the discussion of religion. I give a lot of credence to the grace of God because much of what we do, in fact, more of what we do than we do not do has to do with our fortune and misfortune. And I think there are people who the miseducation has taken a greater toll on than me. And you know, but for the grace of God, I would have been confused about my identity. We cannot understand qualities of mind and character which we do not possess ourselves. The best foundation for rendering a just account of human nature is thorough knowledge of oneself. No one who knows oneself can possibly believe that all human action stem from selfish motives. God is a good-tempered, benevolent being who orders the World. Sincere the affection for virtue is natural, religion is unnecessary to its presence in us. However, theistic opinions about a benevolent God may reinforce the affection. Yet, so many the good example of others and rewards and punishment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When religion and morality are separated, a selfish interest in one’s own welfare is not all that is left to provide a foundation for morality. There is more than accounting for the possibility of morality than a simple choice of religion. It is the function of both poetry and religion to provide people with a coherent view of the World that will help them understand both themselves and their fellow human beings, and to provide it in a form that will kindle the imagination as well as the intellect. The ultimate solution is a community small enough for each member to know the other members as individuals. Such intimate person knowledge will bring understanding and sympathy, so that people will be prepared to cooperate for the common good, without the coercion of law. People will indeed value their neighbors’ opinions, but they will not take their neighbors’ opinion on trust. To do so would be useless, because even a true opinion is of little value unless one understands the grounds for holding it. It is only when people see things as they are, in all their intricate interconnections, that they will feel the right emotions and thus lead happy and virtuous lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
People see life as if through a veil—the veil of their own prejudices, which are imposed by social institutions. We must transcend their prejudices in order to understand and love our fellow humans. If we are to fear the wrath of God, then there must be some principle by which we regulate our fears. If we are to fear God’s blame, we must already know what is blame worthy. Nothing is blameworthy simply because it displeases God. God and human beings must share a sense of deformity which enables them to identify the morally odious. There is no divine monopoly here. Morality may arise independently of religion. Virtue is natural because human nature provides a foundation for virtue. Why should selfishness or self-interest be the only natural passion? Social feeling or sense of partnership with humankind may be natural. The social feeling must be natural, for how could there be society if this feeling did not exist first? If society is a set of conventional arrangements, then the existence of society implies the pre-existence of a disposition among people to make conventions. Thus, the selfish picture of human nature cannot be the whole story, for if selfishness were the only natural feeling, there would be no society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
What is more, since the existence of a social feeling is sufficient to account for the origin of society, appeals to the religious sanctions for society are necessarily subsequent to the actual foundation of society and therefore of secondary importance. Virtue is the pursuit of the public interest. There is no real love of virtue without the knowledge of public good. We are disposed to act virtuously by our affection for virtue. This affection for virtue is called the moral sense. This sense is like a harmony in music and a sense of proportion in architecture and art. In a creature capable of forming general notions of things, not only the outward beings which offer themselves to the sense are objects of the affection, but the very actions themselves and the affections of pity, kindness, gratitude, and their contraries, being brought into the minds by reflection become objects. So that by means of this reflected sense, there arise another kind of affection towards those very affections themselves, which have been already felt, and are now become the subject of a new liking or dislike. One way we evaluate ourselves is to compare ourselves to others and to our own ideal self-image. If an ideal image cannot be met, it may have to be discarded or revised, but this is not easy to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Once we remove the veil of unreality, the World will be seen as a unity—both in the sense in which science may be said to be a unity (the truth about one field of study cohering with and illuminating the truth about another), and in the sense that a true understanding of our fellow humans will give rise to virtuous behavior. This is the indestructible order that it is the business of poetry to reveal. We live surrounded by an infinite multitude of mysteries. For God, all things are possible, even what one may considered a logical absurdity, that is, causing what has in fact happened not to have happened. The fundamental property of life is daring; all life is creative daring and this an eternal mystery, irreducible to anything finished or intelligible. In human’s very existence, thought has discovered something improper, a defect, a sickness, or sin, and has demanded that this be overcome at its foundation by a renunciation of existence. Disclosure by talking seriously and honestly together on an equal level is the necessary condition for reducing the mystery that one person is for another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We need to take better care of ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. Because the times that are coming up are going to be challenging times. Progress come both in the realization of the need for re-education and further in the re-education process itself. A good beginning to understanding and appreciating life fully is knowing that at some point it will end. Games prevent honest, intimate, and open relationships between the players. Yet people play them because they fill up time, provoke attention, reinforce early opinions about self and others, and fulfill a sense of destiny. We have to learn to make the time period between life’s only two certainties, birth and death meaningful and significant. Human beings place far too much stress upon defining the purpose in and of our lives. Our only purpose in life if purpose is needed, is to be what we are fully, vitally and in context of other people having the same right. We each need to find a purpose or goal in our existence but we should not dwell on it. People are known and respected for their commitment and dedication to the uplift of people. Each of us must know that others may try to push us down or disqualify us, but we will be able to fulfill our destinies. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
A Vital Doctrine—God Manifest in the Flesh
Never in a human head was contemplation more separated from desire. The Architects and advocates of the modern English translations of the Holy Scriptures unequivocally declare that Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He appeared in body. Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and human beings. The Westminster Divines evidently regarded this verse as one of the essential proofs of the Trinitarian doctrine of the Bible, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The first Reason, why the then Greatness of the Roman Empire was a fit Circumstance of Time for the Mission, of Christ, is that he might better manifest his Divine Authority and Commission to the civil Powers of the World. Hell, Satan, and the devils are in reality sates of the mind. However, some events can never be explained. When we limit the mental to the realm of conscious events (the actual), it is called psychology without a soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
Faithfulness to fact is raised to the level of genius. Behavior at the house is one of the best touchstones of good manners; for many persons will appear well abroad, and yet cannot exhibit any degree of ease at their own fireside table. However, to entertain company without embarrassment or excitement, is an art which it requires some usage to perfect. Company, various company, is the only school of this knowledge. Nothing forms a young person so much as being used to keep respectable and superior company, where a constant regard and attention is necessary. It is true, this is at first a disagreeable state of restraint; but it soon grows habitual, and consequently easy; and you are amply paid for it by the improvement you make, and the credit it gives you. Hospitality is also a Christian duty, and all homemakers should exercise it to some extent. We were not designed to live alone, to shut ourselves up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings which have been given us in a spirit of exclusiveness. The idea is therefore essentially the divine nature and formally the ratio according to which God intelligizes creatures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
These ideas make up the creative mind of God. In a parallel fashion the universal (on human level) is its singular. The singular participates in its universal, which is by nature a projection of an idea in the mind of God. As a creation of God’s mind, the singular is incapable of annihilation. For God to allow a singular to be annihilated would be to permit the annihilation of a part of himself—an obvious impossibility. Nature teaches us a lesson in this direction. She keeps open house for innumerable winged and creeping insects, and their banquets are always spread among the beautiful, fragrant flowers, whose hospitable abodes are every filled with guests, from the bees and the butterflies to the tiniest winged fairy. Elegant hospitality can be exercised at a moderate expense; and those of us who cannot afford to give costly dinner or evening parties, can surely entertain a few friends at tea or coffee, or of an evening, and this promote a social feeling among neighbors and acquaintances. It is not well for young persons to entertain too much company when they first commence housekeeping, but neither is it well to pay no heed to hospitality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
God’s intellection, his knowledge, his will, the Trinity, his ideas and his power to create outside himself is the grand design. Young people should live frugally and you will live happily; shut not your doors or hearts against those who have a claim upon your hospitality;–but remember, that if they really esteem and love you, they will come not to look at your table or your furniture, but to enjoy your society. Psychology is the common basis for all scientific and cultural knowledge and the bond uniting all the individual sciences, and therefore as the science directly preparatory to philosophy. Certain knowledge is possible for humans of one realm but not of the other, where only opinion is possible, although God may be able to have the knowledge of both. The chief art of pleasing is to make everyone feel at home; that is, at one’s ease. And if anything has occurred in your ménage to ruffle your temper, do not annoy your guest by telling your grievances. Of course, they cannot be interested in such petty details; and the relation may tend to mar their pleasure. We can improve our understanding, but this will always fall short of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The most perfect being must owe one’s exemption from vice to the absence of temptation. We never quite understand why another dislikes what we like. There are those who are born with the faculty of rendering everyone happy who comes in contact with them, and they seem endowed with great discernment of character, and can encourage the timid, repress the encroaching, and call forth the peculiar talents and perfections of all. Such persons can always make themselves agreeable; while there are others who, strive as they can, can never attain to the same position. Yet, a desire to please—a desire to entertain one’s guest, will usually prove successful; and if you are cheerful, animated and pleasant yourself, you cannot fail to shed a halo of pleasure upon those around you. People of an enormously strong moral character have an unselfishness and self-control. It is important to be ambitious generals and politicians to acquire knowledge, and draw analogies to show that all skills must be learned. The significance of your knowledge can be usefully increased by deeper understanding of the purposes of your various crafts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
If your friends become your guests for awhile, it is well to give them some insight into your mode of life. Then they will readily comprehend your duties, and will often think it advisable not to encroach too much upon your morning hours, which may be required for some domestic occupations. After luncheon, or early dinner, your time, however, should be given up to them; either to drive out, walk, shop, or in some entertainment in the house. Of course, you will always attend to the arrangement of their sleeping-rooms, and provide everything that is essential for their comfort before they arrive, unless you are blessed with a most superior housekeeper. It is merciless to invite friends to visit you in cold weather, without providing a fire in their bedroom or dressing-room (heat). Neither is it courteous to wait until they arrive, and then inquire—“Would you like a fire?” Therefore, if you cannot afford to make your friends comfortable, do not invite them; at least in the wintry season. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
There are temptations which it is not in the power of human nature to resist. Let your guest see, by your manner, that their presence is a decided pleasure to you; and make it also an incentive to recreations and amusements which do not belong to the common routine of your life. One should try to make their visits as agreeable as possible, but without any apparent effort; so that they many not think that you are putting yourself out of the way to afford them pleasures in which you do not often indulge. It is your duty to endeavor to make the time pass pleasantly, but if your visitors perceive that you are altering the daily tenor of your life on their account, it will detract greatly from their happiness. Mental training is paramount; serenity, sincerity, magnanimity, introspection, and self-restraint are the virtues to be cultivated. An ethical formula of devotion within, righteousness without is a virtue to be cultivated. Learning is knowing and practice. Therefore, we must rely on intelligence rather than strength. Intelligence is a great asset in the struggle for existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
We do not injure others, nor harm ourselves in the pursuit of fame, wealth, and rank. These are to be avoided as temptations external to one’s nature. On the other hand, there is inherent in human beings a craving for the pleasures of this World. To seek the gratification of one’s desires for such things as fine food and beautiful objects is to yield to one’s original nature and in this way to work for its completion. We must seek happiness to our heart’s content, as well as longevity and immortality. One should not unnecessarily shorten one’s life. It is a good plan, when inviting guests to visit you, to state a given period for their visit. Mention the day when you would be happy to receive them, and the length of time of their visit. Perhaps a young lady is invited to make a visit in the country, or in the city, and no mention is made of days, weeks, or months, for its limit, and, therefore, she is utterly at a loss to know what amount of clothing to bring. It is impossible to study the human frame without a little studying the human mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The imprudence of our thoughts recoils upon our heads. When your guests intimate their intention of leaving you, if you really desire them to remain longer, say so frankly, and urge them to prolong the visit; but if you do not care for their society any longer, do not be so insincere as to urge it; or, on the other hand, if they cannot prolong their visit, do not worry them by your pertinacity in urging them to do so—but, while you invite them to renew their visit at their earliest convenience, facilitate their departure by every means in your power, and give them all needful information as to routes, times tables, etc. Of course, no guest will leave a friend’s house without some expression of regret and good-will. A good warm heart will, however, dictate the forms of speech requisite upon such occasions. And when you are at the house, be sure and inform your friends of your safe arrival, and express the gratification you have received from your visit, and gracefully allude to different members of the family, while you thank them for their kindly hospitality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The transcendental knowledge attained involves a vivid awareness of the nature of the soul and its essential distinctness from the psychophysical organism. This bring liberation. No well-bred person will ever fail to acknowledge your hospitality and charming family; and a failure to do so, is a decided mark of ignorance of both etiquette and politeness. Guests will never take the part of either host or hostess in any trifling disagreement or opinion. As visitors, they can express their ideas upon various matters, of course; but shun any partisanship. And they will also scrupulously respect the rights of their entertainers, and never criticize their surroundings and manners to other persons. A house guest never speaks ill of those whose food one has tasted; and well-bred persons will never repeat what Mrs. Hearst said, nor tell what Mr. Hearst. did, when they were visiting. There has been some investigation of the physiology, and there seems little doubt that a kind of hibernation can be achieved and that the control over lungs, heartbeat, and the viscera organs is, by ordinary standards remarkable. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
Some of the ore spectacular physical claims, however (such as levitation), are unconfirmed, and some of them are mythological in style. The ascription of magical powers to the host or hostess is part of the traditional tendency in India to think that with austerity and mental discipline can create a force which can even threaten the gods. This in turn both reflects and generates the view that mystical experience is the supreme religious goal, transcending the cult of supernatural beings. Such discrepancies of good manners are perfectly unendurable, and no respectable person will excuse them. Visitors should always give the housekeepers who waited upon them some little presents, either in money or its equivalent. They have had extra work in waiting upon them, and, therefore, deserve extra compensation. The chain which binds society together is composed of innumerable links, and it should be the part of hosts and guest to keep them uniformly bright; and to let neither moth nor rust corrupt them. There is nothing so difficult as to manage the public mind. The rest of your life will be the best of your life, which is socially engaged, but still retains its intellectual independence and freedom of social criticism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Seeing may be contrasted both with hearing and with feeling by touching. One way in which seeing differs from hearing follows from the truth of our language that we hear an object if and only if we hear a sound which is made by the object. There is no comparable linguistic practice in the case of seeing. This may lead us to think of sight as presenting objects to us directly, hearing only indirectly. One way in which seeing differs from feeling by touching is that if we feel something by touching it, our experience is of feeling it with a particular part of the body. Our visual experience, however, is not of seeing with our eyes. We can imagine a disembodied mind having visual experiences but not having tactile ones. Sight does not require our being part of the material World in the way in which feeling by touching does. One way in which seeing differs from both hearing and feeling by touching is in respect to time. It takes time to hear a tune or to feel the shape of a statue, but one seems to be able to see a landscape instantaneously. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Sweet pliability of a human’s spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectations and sorrow of their weary moments! Thus, the directness of seeing when contrasted with hearing, its noninvolvement with its object when contrasted with feeling by touching, and its apparent temporal immediacy when contrasted with both hearing and feeling by touching are features that may partly explain the belief that sight is the most excellent of the senses; this envied in the use by ancient and modern philosophers of predominantly visual metaphors to describe intellectual apprehension. Pray that we may finally receive the consolations and the succor of Heaven in all our necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly in Sacramento, and that we may bless God with the Elect through eternity. As mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so sublime intelligence may read in the feeble shining of this Earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
There is No Secret of Success—Success is for Everyone
No advice on success works unless you do. Your life becomes better only when you become better. Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life. The secret of the heart is its pressing love of self. The purpose of history—what happens at any time is not simply or wholly the effect of what has already happened; and event is dependent upon its past as the material upon which activity may be expended, but it is also a new and fresh expenditure of activity upon that material. What occurs is reconstruction, transformation, remaking. What was is thus pushed back into the past, and what becomes takes the place of what was. Time does not move from past through present to future; rather, it moves from the possible to the actual, that is, from one of the potentialities of what formerly was to a single actuality which is brought into existence by an action (whether that action be unconscious chance or conscious choice) upon what was. What comes to us from the past offers us opportunities and often imposes cruel limitations, but it does not make our choices for us. Rather, it allows us to realize our ends insofar as we have understanding of the potentialities it contains. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
History has no one end; it includes many processes with their many, often incompatible, ends. And human choices, insofar as they are intelligent, may well be effective to some degree. A naturalistic theory of nature thus issues in a humanistic theory of man. Habitual inattention is sometimes attributed to great genius, but we cannot endorse that idea. Such a peculiarity of manner is subversive of all politeness, and tends to shut a person within oneself, and make one of little importance in life. There are some young persons, however, who delight to pass for geniuses or originals, and they think it very interesting to appear as if in a “brown study” while in the company of others. They like to seem entirely absorbed, and are delighted if anyone observes their eccentricities. Such manners are entirely at variance with good-breeding. If a person speak to you ever so foolishly or frivolously, it is the height of ill manners not to heed what he or she says; and if he or she every forces conversation upon you, it is unkind, to say the least, to assume a perfectly indifferent demeanor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Besides, you cannot offer anyone more flattering attention than by that pleasing deference which, though it may involve somewhat of a sacrifice yet, is worth making. It is a good rule to endeavor to please everyone as far as is possible for us to do without too great a breach of sincerity. In this country, free and easy manners are too prevalent; but space would fail us to particularize all the little trifles in which even well-bred persons sometimes fall short. We will, however, briefly remark, that nothing can be more adverse to good manners than the habit of sitting with the hat on in the house—be it in the parlor, dining-room, kitchen, store, or office; or then yawning and whispering in company, lounging upon the chairs, by tipping them back upon two legs; taking the best seat in the room, and keeping them when your elders enter; or standing with the back to an open fire, when other persons are near it; and last, but not least, spitting into the fire, etc. These practices are deemed almost peculiar to our country, and have been severely animadverted upon by European travelers in our midst. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Not only that, but during police investigations, when people are suspected of crimes and refuse to give a DNA sample (in order to match the blood or body fluid to a crime scene) investigators will be undercover, watching you and waiting for you to spit on the ground or drop a cigarette so that they can collect your DNA and tie you to the crime. They will photograph or video tape you so they can prove that they legally obtained the same from you, even without you knowing. The evidence can be disputed. However, if you do not know the victim, then your DNA has no business being at the crime scene. And if you know the victim, you better hope you have a good reason for living your DNA behind. So be care when you spit or liter, and realize there is usually a witness to everything that happens. A man or woman may have virtue, capacity, and good habits, and yet his or her lack of good-breeding may made him or her unendurable to those who are well-bred. There are three classes of people; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. If a person neglects education, one walks lame to the end of one’s life. The style and manner which we neglect as too trifling for us to heed, are often the things by which the World judges us. There are many little matters of personal bearing and conduct which must be attended to, if we desire to be agreeable to society. It is useless to say that such a man or woman, whose attire is neglected, whose whole appearance bespeaks the sloven, is a good and able man or woman and therefore must be agreeable and pleasing. His or her ability and goodness are, doubtless, desirable qualities, but the personal juxtaposition of the individual is insupportable to those who are accustomed to cleanliness and refinement. Not that it is essential that every person should be externally elegant, or an adept in the rules which constitute good-breeding; but no one can hope to be admired and sought after, who is addicted to conspicuous uncleanliness, the special tendency of which is to inspire painful feelings in those around him or her. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Never by monkeyish or clownish—attempting to introduce the manners of the circus into the house. Some rude boys and girls seem to ride themselves upon their exhibitions of low, vulgar tricks, antic gestures, foolish jests, and odd, slangy expression. This is an example of the contrast between the brilliant skill, ingenuity, and care bestowed upon observation and experiment in biology, and the almost complete neglect of caution in regard to the definition and use of etiquette and good breeding. The effect of this has been to arrest the development of the life sciences. They cause chronic controversies and antitheses of biology, such as those between mechanism and vitalism, preformation and epigenesist, teleology and causation, structure and function, organism and environment, and body and mind. Such low, shameful vulgarity may excite the laughter of foolish persons, for the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness; but no one possessing common sense can see such behavior without disgust and abhorrence. And every person that acts like the buffoon puts oneself on the level with a clown, and lowers oneself in the estimation of the good and the wise. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue. Be polite, respectful and modest to all, and especially to your elders and superiors. There is nothing more disgusting than a youth who assumes an air of disrespect and self-importance towards one’s superiors, equals, or inferiors. Never stare people in the face. It is exceedingly impolite, and a certain mark of ill-breeding to stare idly at strangers or anyone, as though you were entirely unused to seeing visitors. In conversing with anyone, however, it is right to look him or her in the face, with cheerful, dignified and respectful assurance. Never jerk, twitch or slam doors or window blinds; but endeavor to be cautious and gentle in all your motions. No well-bred child will ever slam a door in anger, or even give it a strong twitch. Never enter a house or parlor with your boots all mud and slush, or sit down with your hat or cap on. Never go up and down stairs, or about the house, with the speed or a trotting horse and the tread of an elephant; step lightly, quickly, and orderly. Never be rude and boisterous with your young friends. You can share in all kinds of sports, and yet never lose the command of yourself so as to become hoydenish and bold. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. Avoid loud screaming and rude merriment. Remember what Lear says of Aaliyah: “Her voice was ever sweet, gentle and low; and excellent thing in a woman. If we will study to introduce home etiquette into our families; to learn to be always courteous—always conciliatory—always well-bred—we should find that we had gained an immeasurable amount of happiness and the rest of our lives will be the best of our lives. Negligence and carelessness with regard to the little amenities of life, are the fruitful source of much domestic unhappiness. Good manners are to the family, what good morals are to society, their cement and their security. We think not that we daily see about our hearts—angels that are to be, or may be if they will, and we prepare their souls and ours to meet in happy air—a child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings in unison with ours, breeding its future wings. We should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Almighty God, who, when the hearts of your people have grown cold, send your Holy Spirit to relight the flame of your love in their hearts, and raise up faithful ministers to recall your people to their former devotion and service. Mercifuly grant that we, following the teachings and example of Teresa of Avila, may be filled with your Holy Spirit, may be aflame with zeal for your glory and love for your goodness and hunger for your love, and that our feet may be set upon the path that leads to true holiness. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless it be. You may be discouraged because your plans did have not worked out, but those closed doors were not an accident. That was God directing your steps. The reason God closed them because he has something better in store. Will you trust God? Gods ways are not our ways, they are better than our ways. There will be times when you do not get what you want, and you cannot understand why not. You may be experiencing that right now. Will you stay in faith while you wait to see what God is up to? #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Our first scrape generally leads to our first travel. Disappointment requires change of air; desperation change of scene. God is wonderful in his design and excellent in his process and projects and houses. Believer, God overrules all things for your good. Your course is mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take God by surprise. There will be no novelties to God. Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but in understanding his character, in trusting in his promises, and in leaning on him and resting in God as the Sovereign who knows what he is doing and does all things well. Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the Heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in oneself. Time—I see it not, I feel it not: it is but a shadowy name—a succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell, by day by a shadow crossings along a dialstone. Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. Protect your dreams. Feed them. Nurture them. Encourage them to grow, Care for them. For someday, they may take care of you. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
I Have a Sweet Little Angel
The contemplation of beauty causes the soul to grow wings. Beauty is indefinable—it is one of the greatest mysteries of nature, and beyond the limits of human understanding. (There is nevertheless an absolute standard of taste. However, this cannot be deduced; it must be grasped through a deeper insight into actual works of art.) Beauty maintains a glorious elasticity in its own ecstasies of hope, provided you do not crush it with a doubt of its own purity. Expression is a lower stage of beauty. It is a lively imitation of both the soul and the body as passive and active. Pure beauty is reached through the stillness of this feeling of life. To one that lives well every form of life is good, nor can there be given any other rule for choice than to remove from all apparent evil. The highest stage of beauty arises from the unification of expression and pure beauty in grace. By this unity beauty becomes an appearance of divinity in the representation of a sensible object. The unity of art arises mainly from simplicity and measure, or the harmony of opposing traits—for instance, understanding passions. When a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has the eye to contemplate the vision. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
This process of unification corresponds to the rise from sensible to ideal beauty, or from the imitation of nature to the creation of higher nature. The observation of nature gives us the means of overcoming spurious standards of beauty and a set of samples to be used by the intellect in creating the higher nature. Beauty is felt by the senses, but it is understood and created by the intellect—which is the faculty of ideas as well as of distinct concepts. The ideal (Das Ideale) or spirit (Geist), is the most important and controversial notion of aesthetic. One kind of ideal is created when an artist combines in one unique whole elements of beauty among different natural objects—for example, by constructing a perfect female figure from separate parts imitating parts of different women, each of which is the most perfect of its kind. A superior kind of ideal arises when the choice of parts is directed not only by a feeling for proportion, but by a supernatural idea translated into matter—for example, the superhuman perfection of a particular human type or quality such as the combination of attractive manhood and pleasing youthfulness in the Apollo del Belvedere, or of enormous pain in a great soul in the Laocoon. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
The power of the good has taken refuge in the nature of the beautiful and the ideal is not abstracted from experience, but is derived from an intuition of the beauty of God himself. It is realized through a creative process like that of God creating his own image in man. Ideal beauty of the second kind must show noble simplicity and quiet greatness (edle Einfalt und stille Grosse). Because beauty in its highest form is spiritual, it must suggest a deeper ethical meaning. These ethical thoughts are the content of real art. Art makes them intuitively known through allegory. Nature also presents allegories to humans; and humans themselves spoke through images before they spoke in rational language. Painting, sculpture, and poetry all express through allegory invisible things; and thus allegory is the foundation of the unity of the different fine arts. Simplicity, or unity, gives distinctness (Deutlichkeit) to a work of art. Therefore, there is an intuitive, or sensible, distinctness, whereas the then current psychology admitted only intellectual distinctness and allowed only clarity to sensibility. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
Greek art is the standard of ideal beauty. The Greek man was the most spiritually and ethically balanced, and therefore the most physically perfect, because of various climatic, geographical, historical, social, and political conditions. Greek artist could therefore use the beautiful human specimens as models; and they should be imitated by modern artists. Imitation of nature and imitation of the Greek is the same thing. However, in a recent address made by the Bishop of Manchester, England, he said “Some people think a gentleman means a man of independent fortune—a man, who fares sumptuously every day; a man who need not labor for his daily bread.” Yet, none of these make a gentleman—not one of them—nor all of them together. I have known men when I was brought closer in contact with working men than I am brought now; I have known men of the roughest exterior, who had been used all their lives to follow the plough and to look after horses, as thorough gentlemen in heart as any nobleman who ever wore a ducal coronet. I mean, I have known them as unselfish, I have known them as truthful, I have known them as sympathizing; and all these qualities go to make what I understand by the term a gentleman. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
It is a noble privilege which has been sadly prostituted; and what I want to tell you is, that the humblest man in Leeds, who has the coarsest work to do, yet, if his heart be tender, and pure, and true, can be, in the most emphatic sense of the word, a gentleman. We all know that there are those in our midst who object to politeness, or polite phrases, because, as they say, the language is false and unmeaning. And company manner is scornful terms frequently applied to the courteous demeanor, and may polite sentences which are often uttered, and are so very desirable, in well-bred society. When people are kind and say nice things from the heart, it makes them more attractive. When people are rude, mean, gossip and harass others, it has the opposite effect. Children and animals recognize this truth quite as readily as adults. A baby will cry at the sound of harsh language; and your horse, cow, dogs, bird, cat, fish, deer, or moose, are all most amenable to kind words and caressing motions. And although:–it is only humans words create, and cut the air to sounds articulate by Nature’s special character, yet kindness is a language which the unwise can speak and the hearing impaired can understand. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
We can convey the plainest of truths in a civil speech; and the most malignant of lies can be also wrapped in specious words. However, we cannot consider a love of truth any apology for rude and uncouth manners; truth need not be made harsh, unlovely and morose; but should appear kind and gentle, attractive and pleasing. Roughness and honesty are, however, often met with in the same person; but we are not competent judges of human nature; if we take ill-manners to be a guarantee of probity of heart, or think a stranger must be a knave because he possesses the outward seeming of a gentleman. Doubtless there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing and snakes in suits in our land, but that does not decrease the value of gentleness and courtesy in the least. Good manners and a good conscience are very often twin-sisters, and are always more attractive for the companionship. Bad manners are frequently a species of bad morals; and there is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
Good manners are a very essential characteristic of religion also, as well as a fundamental part of civilization; and we are all in duty bound to treat those with whom we come in contact, with consideration, respect and deference. Good manners were given to humans from high authority. The Greeks and Romans, to be sure, were strictly devoted to etiquette—but it was not the kind that springs from a conscience void of offence against God and man. The customs of salutations, of visiting, of eating, of making presents, of introductions, writing letters, and the like, are all strictly defined, and they are enforced like our laws—no one being permitted to transgress them. We may define politeness, though we cannot tell where to fix it in practice. It observes received usages and customs, is bound to times and places, and is not the same thing in the two genders or in different conditions. Wit along cannot obtain it; it is acquired and brought to perfection by emulation. Some dispositions alone are susceptible of politeness, and others are only capable of great talents or solid virtues. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
It is true, politeness puts merit forward, and renders it agreeable, and a human must have eminent qualifications to support oneself without it. Politeness may also be said to be in the embodiment of the golden rule; and without its assistance, without the amenities of society, life is an arid waste, a barren plain. Gold will not supply the deficiencies of a pleasing deportment; and we can assure our readers that they will find courtesy in all times and at all places the cheapest and most available of commodities. In Europe, good manners are most highly esteemed, and most assiduously inculcated both in the highest and the lowest classes; and the children are taught that it is very essential for them to show respect to their superiors and elders, and to be always kind and courteous to their inferiors. In America, politeness and etiquette are well taught in those families who possess culture and refinement; but among the masses rarely taught at all. Our district schools were nurseries of good manners thirty or forty years ago, compared to what they are at the present day. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
Then the country children were taught to bow to strangers passing by; now they would be more likely to salute them with profanity or vulgarity. Good manners are surely a discount in the United States of America. We cannot disguise this fact—it Is seen by all who travel through the country, who frequent the city, who sail upon our rivers, and our lakes, drive on the roads, fly on the planes, or whirl rapidly along our railways. This savage behavior is also daily displayed on the news for the World to see. The lower officials are often cross and surly—the higher sometimes extremely discourteous; and the want of good-breeding is everywhere noted. Surely, we should ask ourselves the question—“Whence has this condition of affairs arisen?” Many would say it is since we removed prayer from the schools and removed public acknowledgment of God. This country was founded on Christianity and we are allowing people to remove the structural beams of Christ, which has kept this architecture so secure and sound. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
Our democratic principles should not be allowed to lead us to indulge in discourtesy, and thus throw a shadow of disgrace upon our institutions. And those who consider the rules which regulate society needless and absurd, would, if they were laid aside, soon desire their restoration, as they are a needful barrier against rudeness and vulgarity. There are, doubtless, many eccentricities of fashion, yet they soon pass away; but some prescribed regulations for conduct are essential for the preservation order and dignity. We cannot let society get all loosey goosey, foolish and goulish, nor roguish and thuggish. Etiquette is intended to guard us from some of the inconveniences of large acquaintance, and by settling certain points, it permits us to maintain a ceremonious acquaintance with a circle much too large for social visiting. Therefore, let us:–study with care, politeness that much teach the modest forms of gestures and of speech; in vain formality, with matron mien, and pertness apes with her familiar grin; they against nature for applauses strain, distort themselves, and give all other pain. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
Etiquette is a comprehensive term, for it embraces not only all observances connected with social intercourse, but such as belong particularly to the home circle. To obtain fireside comforts, and home-born enjoyments and happiness, something more is requires than a handsome horse, a beautiful emerald green lawn, shade-tress, and a garden filled with flowers arranged in the most artistic order. Family bickerings and strife; a lack of politeness, good-breeding and etiquette, would turn the loveliest Eden into a barren waste. It will avail us little to furnish our houses with all the elegancies which the upholsterer’s art can afford, and to cultivate the grounds with the utmost skill, if our hearts and minds are uncultivated, rough, uncouth and uncivilized. The members of one family must unceasingly interchange kind offices; must rejoice and mourn, hope and fear, smile and weep in unison; and must exchange sympathetic emotions, with due regard to each other’s feelings, or the charming delights of the domestic circle will lose much of their relish, or will be broken up and become totally devoid of interest. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
And it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind, that mutual respect is the basis of true affection; and, although it may seem a trifling matter in the family whether this or this mode of speech is adopted, in reality it is a very important thing. Enlightenment happens in the present moment and is outside of time, history, or geography which are therefore irrelevant. Music, sweet fragrances, and architectural beauty is inspirational and uplifting to activate aspects of the consciousness which progressively becomes empowered by compassion, devotion and the power to overcome oppression. God has great things in store for his people; they ought to have large expectations. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. Leaders of the Heavenly armies, we beseech you that with your prayers you may encircle us with the protection of the wings of your angelic glory. Watch over us as we bow low and earnestly cry out to you: Deliver us from trouble, princes of the Heavenly armies. I have been in love with you baby, honey before I learned to call your name. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
God is Not in His Heaven: All is Wrong with the World!
We are overhasty to speak as if God did not manifest himself by our silent feeling, and make his love felt through ours. I think that our Universe must be like a sea walnut. Sea walnuts are a jelly fish type creature and they live in the ocean, they are actually shaped like a walnut, and they produce their own light. Some scientist think they produce their own light to scare off predators, but others disagree. It is possible that sea walnuts are a microcosm, like a living organism, with other organism that live inside of it, and it produces light for them to see and grow food. Of course, these organisms inside of the sea walnut would probably microscopic. So, I wonder if the Universe is like a sea walnut and we are encased inside of another Universe? Because something about the creation myths is baffling to me. Human behavior is response to desire or aversion. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. Will is the very nature or essence of human beings and indeed of everything, identifying it with the thing-in-itself that underlies all phenomena. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
Human life partakes of the unravelable inscrutableness of God. All people ideally perceive certain ends or goals by their reason and then direct their wills to the attainment of these ends or goals. This is why no human can knowingly will evil. So, then why is their evil on Earth? Either God can remove evil from the World and will not; or being willing to do so, cannot; or he neither can nor will; or he is both able and willing. If he can but will not, he is not benevolent. If he is neither willing nor able, he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent. If he both wants to and can, whence comes the evil over the face of the Earth? God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to hum for not recognizing that he had ordained the situation. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, he will change them for the better very quickly if he so chooses. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
What are the comprehensible terrors of humanity compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God! The ascent of the soul is traced towards higher and higher ends, the supposition being that these ends are apprehended first by the senses and then ultimately by the pure or unfettered intelligence, which enlists the will or desire for their pursuit. The corruption of a human was precisely the dominance of the will, that is, of human’s appetites or desires, this being a deviation from what human nature ideally should be. The understanding first grasps certain ideas or presents certain ends to the mind and the will then either assents or withholds its assent, thus following rather than directing the understanding. Ends and goal become such only because they are willed; they are not first perceived as ends and then willed. Reason is concerned entirely with demonstrations (dedication) or with the relations of cause and effect (induction). In neither case can it give us ends or goals. Mathematics is used in mechanical arts and the like, but always as a means of attaining something that has nothing to do with reason. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
As we know not what purpose any event is ultimately directed, so neither can we affirm from what causes it originally sprung. The computations of a merchant, for example, can be fallacious, but the ends for which they are undertaken can in no sense be fallacious or irrational. They can only be wise or foolish, that is, such as to promote or to frustrate other ends that are again products of the will. Similarly, no discovery of casual connections in nature can by itself have the least influence on the will. Such discoveries can only be useful or useless in enabling people to choose appropriate means to certain ends, which are in no way derived from reason. It can never in the least concern us to know that such objects are causes, and such other effects, if both causes and effects be indifferent to us. Reason therefore can never produce actions or impulses, nor can it oppose them. An impulse to act can be opposed only by a contrary impulse, not by reason. There can, accordingly, be no such thing as a conflict between reason and passion, and the only way in which willed behavior can be irrational is for it to be based upon some misconception—for instance, on some erroneous conception of what is a fit means to the attainment of an end which I entirely the product of will. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside. All agree that people are moved by their impulses, appetites, passions, or wills and that these are incapable of fallacy or error. There is thus no such thing as a rational or irrational will, although one may will imprudently in relation to other things that one wills. A free being wills because it wills, and the willing of an object is itself the last ground of such willing. Human nature contains implications of the highest importance for ethics. If ends or goals are entirely products of the will and the will is neither rational nor irrational, then ends themselves cannot be termed either rational or irrational and it becomes meaningless to ask whether this or that end is really good or bad independently of its being willed. To say something is good, is to say nothing more than it is an object of one’s appetite, and to say that something is bad is only to say that one has an aversion to it. Good and bad are thus purely relative to desires and aversions, which are, of course, sometimes quite different in different people. Wise behavior, on this conception, can be nothing other than prudence, that is, the selection of appropriate means to the attainment of whatever goals one happens to have. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
The inconsistency so common in dreams. There is one goal, however, that is fairly common to all people: the goal of self-preservation. People can preserve themselves in safety and security within a commonwealth. People are the measure of all things. Things are good solely by virtue of the fact that they are demanded, this is, that someone wants them or lays claim to them, and such a demand might be for anything under the Sun. Considered apart from the demands of sentient beings, nothing in the Universe has any worth what so ever. The only proper ethical maxim is to satisfy as many demands as possible, no matter what these happen to be, but at the least cost, this is, with the minimum of frustration to other demands. It is clear that within the framework of theories like this, no meaning can be attached to asking what is truly worthy of one’s desires, unless this question is interpreted to mean, “What is in fact satisfying of one’s desires?”; nor does it make sense to see, any metaphysical principles of morals. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
People will dream; the most that can be asked of them is but that the dream be not in too glaring discord with the thing they know. Truth and falsity in ethics are exhausted in questions as to the truth and falsity of various opinions concerning the utility of proposed means to the achievement of ends, that is, to the satisfaction of appetite, desire, and demand. They have no relevance to any questions concerning ends themselves. Human reason or dialectic is worthless in theological maters, for the simple reason that the very laws of logic are valid only by the concurrence of God’s will. God is omnipotent and can therefore render true even those things which reason declares to be absurd or contradictory. It is thus idle for philosophers to speculate upon what must be true with respect to divine matters, since these depend only on God’s will. Faith is found in the very act of faith itself, which is an act of the will, rather than in rational proof. God has some type of powers that, as humans, we cannot even conceive. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
I believe in order that I may understand. The divine will is the only and the ultimate moral justification for any act. Strictly understood, this means that an action that might otherwise be deemed heinous is not so, provided it is commanded by God. The divine will, and not human or divine reason, is the ultimate standard of morality, that certain acts are sins other acts are meritorious only because they have been commanded by God. God does not forbid certain things because they are sins or commands certain things because they are virtues, for it seems that this would be a limitation upon God’s will. There can be no higher justification for any act than that God wills it, nor any more final condemnation of an act than that God forbids it. The moral law is simply a matter of God’s free choice, for God’s choice cannot be constrained by any moral law, being itself the sole source of that law. The concept of the will is crucial to the understanding of the law, ethics, and human behaviour generally; this is crucial to the understanding of reality itself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
Dreamers see the Heavens open every day. The will is the underlying and ultimate reality and the whole phenomenal World is only the expression of will. Living things are the objectifications of their wills and explains not only the behaviour but also the very anatomical structures of planets, animals, and people. The will is a blind and all-powerful force that is literally the inexhaustible creator of every visible thing. The sexual appetite, which I considered to be fundamentally the same in all living things, is a blind urge to love and to perpetuate existence without any goal beyond that, and it has nothing whatever to do with reason or intelligence, being in fact more often than not opposed to them. The religious impulse found in all cultures at all times is similarly explained as the response to a blind and irrational will to possess endless existence. In the growth and development of all living things is the unfolding of the will in nature, wherein certain things appear and transform themselves in accordance with a fairly unvarying pattern and in the face of obstacles and impediments, solely in accordance with at is willed in a metaphysical sense but entirely without any rational purpose or goal. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
Strong drink makes every hidden seed sprout up in the soul and show itself. The feelings of self-love, malice, and compassion, all of which are expressions of the will, may have nothing to do with reason or intelligence. People have free will only in the sense that every person is the free or unfettered expression of a will and people are therefore not the authors of their own destinies, characters, or behavior. The irrational factors in human behaviour is now taken for granted in those sophisticated circles that have come under the influence of modern psychological theories. Moral laws cannot guide human conduct successfully, because they are rational rules directed to the conscious will and are defeated by the irrational antagonism that stems from the human’s subconscious. For moral ideals to be significant and effective they must take possession of the subconscious, which they can do only if they are reached through the sublimation of subconscious impulses. Sublimation, operating through the imagination, transforms human’s lower impulses into higher ones and turns one’s inherent, arbitrary freedom into moral freedom that seeks the good. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
Such sublimation is assisted by divine grace and is possible only where the soul turns freely toward the Absolute. Christian ethics is not ethics of law, but the ethics of sublimation. Sublimate means to express potentially violent or socially unacceptable impulses in a modified, socially acceptable manner. Thus, my dear friend, I have briefly proposes the method which I judge proper for molding the soul into a holy frame; and the same means which serve to beget this divine temper, must still be practiced for strengthening and advancing it; and therefore I shall recommend but one more for that purpose, and it is the frequent and conscientious use of that holy sacrament, which is peculiarly appointed to nourish and increase spiritual life, when once it is begun in the soul. All the instruments of religion do meet together in this ordinance; and while we address ourselves unto it, we are put to practice all the rules which were mentioned before. Then it is that we make the severest survey of our actions, and they lay the strictest obligations on ourselves; then are our minds raised up to the highest contempt of the World, and every grace does exercise itself with the greatest activity and vigor. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
All the subjects of contemplation do there present themselves unto us with the greatest advantage; and then, if every does the soul make its most powerful sallies toward Heaven, and assaults it with a holy acceptable force. And certainly the neglect or careless performance of this duty, is one of the chief causes that bedwarfs our religion, and makes us continue of so low a size. And now, most gracious God, Father and fountain of mercy and goodness, who has blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness, and the way that leads unto it! Excite in our souls such ardent desires after the one. Let us nether presume on our own strength, nor distrust thy divine assistance: but while we are doing our utmost endeavours, teach us still to depend on thee for success. Open our eyes, God, and teach us out of thy law. Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty, and a knowledge to discern perverse things. That our ways were directed to keep thy statues, then shall we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy commandments. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
Possess our hearts with a generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this World holds out to allure us, that they may never be able to inveigle our affections, or betray us to any sin: turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken us in thy law. Fill our souls with such a deep sense, and full persuasion of those great truths which you have revealed in gospel, as may influence and regulate our whole conversation; and that the life which we henceforth live in the flesh, we may life through faith in the Son of God. That the infinite perfections of thy blessed nature, and the astonishing expressions of thy goodness and love, may conquer and overpower our hearts, that they may be constantly rising toward thee in flames of devoutest affections, and enlarging themselves in sincere and cordial love towards all the World for thy sake; and that we may cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in thy fear, without which we can never hope to behold and enjoy thee. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
God, grant that the consideration of what you are, and what we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low before thee, and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspiration towards thee. We desire to resign and give up ourselves to the conduct of the Holy Spirit; lead us in thy truth, and teach us, for you are the God of salvation; guide us with thy counsel, and afterwards receive us unto glory, for the merits and intercessions of thy blessed Son and Saviour. If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as his servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message to the house so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the World, a way of seeing oneself and others. The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality! Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond one’s own grasp. However, it is God who draws me, and my relationship to God in the first place is an inner personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life. Wisdom brings with it peace, balance, and wholeness, but to benefit from this wisdom, we must first learn to feel the Source of truth. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Love for God or nature and animals opens the doors to spiritual inspiration. There comes a time when one falls in love with everything and everyone they meet. This tendency to be intensely loving has to be curtailed because love, curiously enough, frightens many people. Many people cannot look fully into another person’s eyes for more than a brief second, if at all. This is especially so if the one looking at them radiates lovingness. Some people even panic when exposed to love. I believe one reason I have seen God’s favor in my life is that I have learned to ask big. When my father died and I was left with nothing, I prayed an extraordinary prayer asking God to help me not only to maintain what my parents have built, but also for God to let me excel in life. It was a bold prayer when I walked in that jewelry store, met Michelle for the first time, and prayed: “God, please let her see how good-looking I am!” Ask God for your dreams. Your Father owns it all. He created the Universe. If you want to see the fullness of what he has in store, you should learn to ask big. Love leads to God, through art or in acts. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Randolph Harris II International Institute 