The Soldier and the Hunchback (! & ?)
I don't really know why I felt inspired to write here, and I certainly have not had an easy time of coming up with something to say...
So here goes...
Most people assume that my Net handle (QuestionMark) is simply a (more or less) clever play on my name (Mark).
In reality it is also a reference to the Essay "The Soldier and the Hunchback" by Aleister Crowley. I'll link to it, but I don't necessarily recommend it to everyone. Crowley is notoriously difficult to read, and this particular piece is full of quite a few pretty obscure references.
What he is proposing, in essence, is that for every statement (represented by the "Soldier," "!") we are faced with another question (the "Hunchback," "?") Crowley meant to demonstrate that nothing can be really stated as factual because every such assertion is based upon an assumption, and, as we are reminded by another great figure in Twentieth Century Mysticism, Benny Hill, "when you 'assume' you make an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me.'" (A master of Slapstick Temurah, to be sure)
The Twentieth Century showed us that we have little or no real understanding of the physical universe on its most basic level. In 1900, in the waning days of the last age, we had only the very first inklings, in the work of Max Planck, of quantum physics. By 2000, animated debate about something as seemingly elementary (at least on a scientific level) as the structures of matter was raging among scientists still tied to the Picean-age ideas of Newton. New questions about the behaviour of light lead us to question the answer to "why is the sky blue," and the science of genetics has us once again pondering the enigma of the chicken and the egg. What are we made of? From where do we come? As humanity enters a New Age (or, if you prefer, a New Aeon)what do we truly know about ourselves and our universe?
Now, I am not saying that the pursuit of knowledge is doomed to fruitlessness. We have all seen the benefits of the pursuit of knowledge (although there are some neo-Luddite types who may disagree, they are unlikely to be online reading this.) I am merely saying that as any of us get locked into our ideas, be they religious, scientific or otherwise, we lose the ability to process new information, much like someone who learned english in 1800 would have quite a bit of difficulty reading the New York Times today.
Alright, that's all for today
oh, here's that link
The Soldier and the Hunchback
-?
Setting Orange, Confusion 64, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3170
So here goes...
Most people assume that my Net handle (QuestionMark) is simply a (more or less) clever play on my name (Mark).
In reality it is also a reference to the Essay "The Soldier and the Hunchback" by Aleister Crowley. I'll link to it, but I don't necessarily recommend it to everyone. Crowley is notoriously difficult to read, and this particular piece is full of quite a few pretty obscure references.
What he is proposing, in essence, is that for every statement (represented by the "Soldier," "!") we are faced with another question (the "Hunchback," "?") Crowley meant to demonstrate that nothing can be really stated as factual because every such assertion is based upon an assumption, and, as we are reminded by another great figure in Twentieth Century Mysticism, Benny Hill, "when you 'assume' you make an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me.'" (A master of Slapstick Temurah, to be sure)
The Twentieth Century showed us that we have little or no real understanding of the physical universe on its most basic level. In 1900, in the waning days of the last age, we had only the very first inklings, in the work of Max Planck, of quantum physics. By 2000, animated debate about something as seemingly elementary (at least on a scientific level) as the structures of matter was raging among scientists still tied to the Picean-age ideas of Newton. New questions about the behaviour of light lead us to question the answer to "why is the sky blue," and the science of genetics has us once again pondering the enigma of the chicken and the egg. What are we made of? From where do we come? As humanity enters a New Age (or, if you prefer, a New Aeon)what do we truly know about ourselves and our universe?
Now, I am not saying that the pursuit of knowledge is doomed to fruitlessness. We have all seen the benefits of the pursuit of knowledge (although there are some neo-Luddite types who may disagree, they are unlikely to be online reading this.) I am merely saying that as any of us get locked into our ideas, be they religious, scientific or otherwise, we lose the ability to process new information, much like someone who learned english in 1800 would have quite a bit of difficulty reading the New York Times today.
Alright, that's all for today
oh, here's that link
The Soldier and the Hunchback
-?
Setting Orange, Confusion 64, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3170