Powered By Blogger

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

WAY OF THE SEVEN STARS


Response To That Final Question:

Ignorance is the Bane of Man.
At a distance removed,
Dimly remembered, and
Still not seen distinct,
But yet somehow felt;
What we do sense
Is not reality; is not the Real Thing.
This World is hologram.
Then; for lucid sleep;
For it's just a dream
Within another dream
And we are not awake.

Seven Stars' Song of Revelation

Ignorance is a jail where no escape
Is possible but through knowledge.
Don't fear nor spurn. Dare to learn:

Assent to and accept this world as it is
Before attempting ascent to any world
Aspired to or wished for. Life's glorious!

That That Is can be known but by few.
Not space, not time, not gravity exists;
But as Extension from Field of Thought.

Be subject to neither church nor crown.

Dread naught. Disdain none: Not One!
Absent That That Is, there's Nothing.

That That Is, IS. That That's Not, IS, too.
That That's Not makes That That Is: IS.
That That Is makes That That's Not BE.

By rowing to That That Is, I become "I."
Wind + Water = Wave. As THOUGHT is
The Heart and The Nave of The Wheel.

Worlds are created from Thought alone.
That which we will do is because of that
What we are. We'll become who we are.

Charity, courtesy, civility, compassion,
Are cardinal spokes making civilization;
Chivalry forms center, hub's circle core.

IS is! Be not the slave of some other's I.
This, Creed of our Seven Stars Society;
This, The Teaching of the Seven Stars:

No man can be happy if he should choose
To be exile from his own nature and soul.
ALL IS THOUGHT ILLUMINATING BEING

Precognitive Prescient Prophetic Poetry by WILLIAM O'CONNOR

Thursday, June 11, 2009

No Escape for USA

Some people have asked for comments on the financial crisis. Well, I've audited and worked for most of the banks involved; so here goes: Simply put, the government doesn't know what it's doing. Neither do the banks, of course. Not that I know what I'm doing either: but no one is dependent upon me---luckily for them. Let's take a small example: the US Treasury set up the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) because banks were undercapitalized and illiquid. The idea behind TARP was for Treasury to acquire bank's bad assets: loans; hence the name TARP. Of course, it didn't do that; instead the Treasury purchased bank preferred stock, convertible to common with warrants to purchase more bank common stock. As soon as Treasury placed some restrictions on executive compensation, the more solvent banks (J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and others) decided to repay immediately monies received from Treasury, plus interest. The government, being the government, announced success---TARP succeeded! The other less solvent banks will convert the government's preferred stock to bank common stock, making the government the largest shareholder. Of course, if they couldn't repay the TARP funds taken, it would mean that any non-repayer was practically insolvent so their common stock is worthless. But let's look at the institutions who do repay because their executives want their bonuses. The reason that government got involved is clear; if government didn't get involved, and as USA is a credit economy lead by financial institutions, government must fall along with all its banks. The reason government got involved was and is: its own self-survival. Reasonable enough. But the early repayment of funds actually worsens the situation. Everyone now knows which banks are truly insolvent: those that could not repay the TARP funds. Those that did, did so; so that they wouldn't be subject to compensation restriction: multi-million dollar bonus will live on. Nothing has changed. Systemic failures shall still occur because all those bad assets have not gone away.

Democracy and Theocracy

All democracies are theocracies, although they'll fail to admit it. Let's take, as an example, one state from each supposedly adverse national system and then compare them: Iran and USA.
Iran has many political parties and all those political parties are Islamic and it has elections. The USA has only two political parties that have any clout at a national level and it has elections too, and any candidates for national election are expected to be excellent fund raisers, or else they will not be nominated by their respective parties; presidential elections in US cost over a billion.
Power in both countries resides in the hands of plutocratic oligopolies as it does in all countries. The big difference between Iran and USA is that one country, Iran, requires a specific religious affiliation (to Islam in its case and specifically Islam's Shia version) and the other country, USA, in its Constitution, specifically prohibits a religious affiliation or lack of affiliation as requirement for public office. Big difference one would say. But, not so. What is required for holding public office in the USA is a swearing by an allegiance to and defence of, its USA's Constitution. In Iran, a same swearing of an allegiance to and a defence of, is required; but in it's case it's to Ar Qur'an.
Differences in interpretations of both documents, Constitution and Koran, are decided by black- robed panels, judges and clerics, and judgments can be appealed to higher levels of black-robed. So where is the difference? After all, in Iran, you don't have to spend your billion to be elected! The difference is this: The Constitution can be amended and The Koran can't. USA can change.

The Quest for the True Self

The difficulty in determining one's real identity (in the sense of giving birth to one's True Self) is that identity is tied to one's relative position in time and, as we know, time is an illusion. At first, then, it seems impossible to ascertain what one truly is; since our image of ourselves has to be an illusion if it can only be ascertained through yet another illusion (in this case, our relative position in time). So, let's ponder our problem: we're trying to determine our real identity, what we truly are. We cannot determine real identity, because it can only be ascertained relative to a position in time; in present time, NOW; but time is an illusion, so we're unable to position our self. Step back and away from the problem. What are we trying to do? Find our True Self. And why are we trying to do that? Because the self we think we know seems somehow false to us. We don't think who we're now is who we really are. Why? Because we think our self to be somehow better than this self that we now know. We believe our True Self lost, as it has become hidden from us. But what if identity itself is an illusion? Identity deals with distinction from other identities. We are different, yes. But what is it we think we differ from? From others. People. Things. Ideas. Ideas? Yes, ideas: Beliefs. Concepts. But what if Self itself is an Idea? That's our true identity.

WILLIAM O'CONNOR

Blog Archive