Abrupt Forums Comments http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog Apocalyptic Optimism for the End of History Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:08:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on first kiss by: abrupt http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2005/06/16/first-kiss/#comment-17825 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:04:47 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2005/06/16/first-kiss/#comment-17825 If there's pain here, it's at the loss of the glow of innocence, not at the events described here. If there’s pain here, it’s at the loss of the glow of innocence, not at the events described here.

]]> Comment on Bush proposes using military in bird flu pandemic by: Dr-J http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/politics-news/2005/10/04/bush-proposes-using-military-in-bird-flu-pandemic/#comment-17824 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:14:07 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/politics-news/2005/10/04/bush-proposes-using-military-in-bird-flu-pandemic/#comment-17824 Military fighting bird-flu...by passing out Korean pickled cabbage? ...Better than fighting other wars. Military fighting bird-flu…by passing out Korean pickled cabbage? …Better than fighting other wars.

]]> Comment on first kiss by: Dr-J http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2005/06/16/first-kiss/#comment-17823 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:01:39 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2005/06/16/first-kiss/#comment-17823 You might expect warmth, other images oblivious: A smile in my heart as lips caress forehead, innocence of youth, a memory forever treasured... This poem sounds of pain, thus, the title confuses me. J You might expect warmth, other images oblivious: A smile in my heart as lips caress forehead, innocence of youth, a memory forever treasured…

This poem sounds of pain, thus, the title confuses me.

J

]]> Comment on Tree by: abrupt http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/18/tree/#comment-17822 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:55:53 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/18/tree/#comment-17822 Thanks, Dr-J. Glad you liked this one. Sometimes poems are good for encasing small crystals of thought, like geodes. Thanks, Dr-J. Glad you liked this one. Sometimes poems are good for encasing small crystals of thought, like geodes.

]]> Comment on Tree by: Dr-J http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/18/tree/#comment-17821 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:51:29 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/18/tree/#comment-17821 Abrupt-I like this poem, especially today, when it is snowing. I value each of your writings, prose and poetry. I am intrigued by them. But, today, this is the poem that spoke to me. J Abrupt-I like this poem, especially today, when it is snowing. I value each of your writings, prose and poetry. I am intrigued by them. But, today, this is the poem that spoke to me. J

]]> Comment on Voted. by: Dr-J http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-17820 Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:47:03 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-17820 Thank you for voting. Next year: The Primaries (too!). J Thank you for voting. Next year: The Primaries (too!). J

]]> Comment on Shearing time by: darren http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2007/02/22/shearing-time/#comment-5481 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:57:32 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2007/02/22/shearing-time/#comment-5481 Yes, I think my brain isn't quite so well built somehow for poetry, unless its of a sea-shouldering alliterively sumptuous classical bent, but even then I prefer a crystal clear meaning (which doesn't necessarily meaning intellectually neat). I'm not quite sure I was referring to "the growth of the mind" though - noble though this might be. Rather a kind of inner fearlessness and a taste for wildness. So I get the very vague impression that you have lost touch with the void a little, but it could be just that this something big you hope to describe I hope to understand. Yes, I think my brain isn’t quite so well built somehow for poetry, unless its of a sea-shouldering alliterively sumptuous classical bent, but even then I prefer a crystal clear meaning (which doesn’t necessarily meaning intellectually neat).

I’m not quite sure I was referring to “the growth of the mind” though - noble though this might be. Rather a kind of inner fearlessness and a taste for wildness.

So I get the very vague impression that you have lost touch with the void a little, but it could be just that this something big you hope to describe I hope to understand.

]]> Comment on Voted. by: darren http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-5437 Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:52:00 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-5437 As far as I have seen no change can be made of the established systems we have now from within, except for superficial ones. It's not a "doomed enterprise" attempting to affect the world, far from it (although, if its coming from anywhere authentic the world won't change, of course, rather individuals), but it cannot be done from within, using the tools that the world gives us - which are corrupted (built in outcome predetermined). If you have any examples of really beautiful change overcoming, say, an enormous multinational or a nation state, then please let me know; i.e. "any" complex system might be changable but surely this one has to be (and surely will be) torn down and rebuilt - its just too rotton, isn't it? I too am wary of sweepting statements, and I am quite happy to joyously fling my naked body against the immense cube, should the need arise. And that seems to me to be required from apperception of this lovely life. But I have no hope that I'll make a dent. Theoretically it might be possible, but that doesn't seem to me to be the point - which is, as you say, more in the spirit of the fling. As far as I have seen no change can be made of the established systems we have now from within, except for superficial ones. It’s not a “doomed enterprise” attempting to affect the world, far from it (although, if its coming from anywhere authentic the world won’t change, of course, rather individuals), but it cannot be done from within, using the tools that the world gives us - which are corrupted (built in outcome predetermined). If you have any examples of really beautiful change overcoming, say, an enormous multinational or a nation state, then please let me know; i.e. “any” complex system might be changable but surely this one has to be (and surely will be) torn down and rebuilt - its just too rotton, isn’t it?

I too am wary of sweepting statements, and I am quite happy to joyously fling my naked body against the immense cube, should the need arise. And that seems to me to be required from apperception of this lovely life. But I have no hope that I’ll make a dent. Theoretically it might be possible, but that doesn’t seem to me to be the point - which is, as you say, more in the spirit of the fling.

]]> Comment on Shearing time by: abrupt http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2007/02/22/shearing-time/#comment-5294 Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:05:25 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2007/02/22/shearing-time/#comment-5294 Your sharp insight offers an honorable challenge, and on certain points you are correct. I should not be completely unrecognizable to you. Those dips into the void may have faded, but they nonetheless left me changed. Much of what has come out as poetry is the vision of history as a great coalescing process. The full implications are unknowable, but the recurrent theme is that "business as usual" is a highly unstable proposition. This intuition is directly informed by the sense of profound impermanence I experienced in those forays into the dark. I'm trying to trace the outlines of something big which I sense is coming to our world. The poetry is an attempt to capture these visionary fragments before they dissolve into static. I cannot apologize if they do not suit your needs -- for me they feel like groping towards something greater, which I have yet to discover, and I track them as best as I can. The world changes. Nature ebbs and flows. What I once was, I will not be again. But I have not given up on the growth of the mind, and I hope you don't either. Be well, abrupt Your sharp insight offers an honorable challenge, and on certain points you are correct.

I should not be completely unrecognizable to you. Those dips into the void may have faded, but they nonetheless left me changed. Much of what has come out as poetry is the vision of history as a great coalescing process. The full implications are unknowable, but the recurrent theme is that “business as usual” is a highly unstable proposition. This intuition is directly informed by the sense of profound impermanence I experienced in those forays into the dark. I’m trying to trace the outlines of something big which I sense is coming to our world.

The poetry is an attempt to capture these visionary fragments before they dissolve into static. I cannot apologize if they do not suit your needs — for me they feel like groping towards something greater, which I have yet to discover, and I track them as best as I can.

The world changes. Nature ebbs and flows. What I once was, I will not be again. But I have not given up on the growth of the mind, and I hope you don’t either.

Be well,
abrupt

]]> Comment on Voted. by: Abrupt http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-5287 Tue, 06 Mar 2007 01:06:34 +0000 http://www.abrupt.org/abruptlog/the-mind-of-abrupt/2006/11/07/voted/#comment-5287 Are you saying, then, that people can make change, but only if it's done completely outside the context of culture (or at least politics)? Or is the whole point of attempting to affect the world in a deliberate fashion a doomed enterprise? Choosing not to participate in something may well be an act of positive conviction. What seems cynical to me is the assumption that any complex system is "pre-defined" and unchangeable. The converse need not be that the world operates in a cheerful, egalitarian way, exactly as advertised. I am just wary of sweeping absolute statements. The point I have always made is that, to the extent that you are not yourself subject to control and manipulation, then any worldview which presumes an omnipotent system of control is incomplete. Are you saying, then, that people can make change, but only if it’s done completely outside the context of culture (or at least politics)? Or is the whole point of attempting to affect the world in a deliberate fashion a doomed enterprise?

Choosing not to participate in something may well be an act of positive conviction. What seems cynical to me is the assumption that any complex system is “pre-defined” and unchangeable. The converse need not be that the world operates in a cheerful, egalitarian way, exactly as advertised. I am just wary of sweeping absolute statements.

The point I have always made is that, to the extent that you are not yourself subject to control and manipulation, then any worldview which presumes an omnipotent system of control is incomplete.

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