Modernity : "Might is Correct"

Modernity's claim that "Might was Right" (and correct) is a significant expansion from the Bible's mere temporary linking together of the two separate entities, the Mighty and the Wise, for the purpose of  warning of hubris.

Now, under Modernity, the Mighty were (and invariably were) the Wise, by definition, simply for being mighty.

"Hubris will write the definitions from here on in, thank you very much."  (!!!)

To be wise is not to be the truth, but to be able to seek it out and successfully separate it out from the non-truth and thus to be worthy.

The wise could triage truth from non-truth, could put truth and non-truth in a clearcut, eternal and universal vertical hierarchy of worthiness.

In addition, by definition, to be weak and small (beings) was to be foolish, unwise , unable to discern truth from non-truth, unworthy.

Under Modernity, big nations would indeed have more Nobel price winners, per capita, than small nations.

But for Modernity, small physical nonliving objects like atoms were the core of The Truth, seen as something able to be reduced to a few simple explanations about the motions of a very small number of very small, very simple, very stable, objects.

Truth was seen as eventually being contained in a short simple all-encompassing "Theory of Everything" : a few laws of physics would explain and predict everything in the past, present and future Universe, up to and including the workings of the human mind.

Modernity's Universe of Worthiness saw a tiny number of very big objects (the Great Powers nations : perhaps only Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia) and a tiny number of very small objects (perhaps only the atoms of the most usually elements : oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and iron, because the others could be atomically transmutated upon request.)

First those humans and nations unworthy of life were dispatched, then plants, animals and microbes regarded as weeds and pathogens.

Finally all plants, animals and microorganisms were dispatched, defined as useless competitors, competing over limited space and valuable atoms.

Now, working on a surface as sterile and as wide-open as the surface of Mars, Modernity could really start with a clean slate.....

The One Percent's solution : the ultimate 'gated community' is the billionaires' spaceship

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' best-selling series entitled LEFT BEHIND is a fascinating read.

It details how a secretive group of  avowedly secular-minded billionaires from the Silicon Valley 'pretend' to fund a project to mine asteroids.

Actually it is all to help terraform Mars into Earth 2.0 when our planet, the original Earth 1.0 , finally flatlines.

In fact the project is secretly designed to "Rapture" the saving remnant, (the Chosen Ones) of the Protestant Race to the new Earth, in a silver seed spaceship that becomes, defacto, the ultimate "gated community".

This is because the price for travelling to Mars (sorry Earth 2.0Earth 1.0%) and successfully pioneering there will run into tens of millions of dollars per person.

It is true that no where in the Protestants' Bible (or in the Christian/Jewish or Moslem Bible for that matter) does God instruct Man to abandon Earth and go off and evangelize slash rape the rest of the Universe.

But what Fundamentalist actually knows their Bible, anyway?

All that Word of God stuff  just gets in the way of the ministerial hubris.

Forget the Bible (the new right protestants already have). Feel the width : think of the electoral impact !

All white, all rich, all Protestant : there won't be any need for any more pesky elections on the new Earth 1.0%, not when everyone there already votes Republican.

A cold and hostile chunk of dead hard rock that was originally named the "RED" planet, after all ; you can just tell that this is the true galactic home of the Greedy_Old_Party.......

Oswald Avery's connection to Haldeman-Julius

It seems an unlikely connection, but there does exist a tenuous connection between two of our favorites here at the online edition of the Arcadian Recorder.

Oswald Avery's grandfather was publicly credited as having helped perfect the successful printing of tiny, light, complete, readable bibles on India Paper and thus helping to secure the fortunes of the hitherto hapless Oxford University Press.

Since OUP, as it is usually known in the book trade, is today one of the most valuable trademarks in the world, this is a story worth recalling.

OUP gained this rise to world prominence based on its exclusive hold on the secret knowledge required to make India paper - a incredibly thin, flexible, strong and yet opaque & non-yellowing paper made out of old hemp ropes and lots of lime.

It allowed you to pack in a million readable words (like the Bible) in a small, light but permanently readable book - perfect for shipping in mass quantities across the world on a very tight budget.

For Christian evangelicals determined to 'evangelize the world in one generation' it was - literally - a God-sent paper.

OUP quickly sold millions of its lightweight bibles, dictionaries and reference books based on the use of this paper.

Haldeman-Julius couldn't afford the price of this paper and expect to keep selling his 'little blue books' at the price of an American nickel shipped post-paid worldwide.

But his mind moved along the same lines of constantly seeking ways to 'mass-evangelize the world' at a reasonable price.

His book-making frugality matched and even exceeded those of his competitors in the world of Christian bible and tract makers.

I say 'competitors' because of course the personal dogma of Haldeman-Julius that drove him to be equally frugal in his printing methods was simply this: " There is no Christian God" !