Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Rapid-Fire Thoughts
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
How to feed Kansas
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Kingdom of God is within You
I have read quite a few books over the course of this year, but the most view-changing among them was The Kingdom of God is within You, by Leo Tolstoy. Apart from influencing Nelson Mandela, it is an important text to Christian anarchists.
The central premise of his work is that when God commands us, “Thou Shall not Murder”, how can we kill anybody for any reason? He asks, why is it wrong when one man kills another, but acceptable when nations destroy each other? In addition, he believes that we cannot judge our fellow man, and so should not send people to jail or administer the death penalty for crimes. We must ‘turn the other cheek’ as Jesus told us to. Because of those ideas, he believes that no government is justified, because their purposes are contrary to the Bible.
His book questions the answers that people have given in response to arguments like his, people who claim war is unavoidable, or that some people are simply savage and would destroy cultured civilization. Meticulously, he points out the flaws in their arguments.
Tolstoy explains the development of mans’ love. He shows how man first loved only himself, and then his family, then his heathen ‘religion’, and now his country. Jesus signaled the coming of last phase, the phase when man loved all, like his father in heaven.
Later in his book, he shows how this change is not already come about. The blame is shuttled all about for these transgressions of God’s law, so no man can stop himself from doing what he knows is wrong.
Tolstoy created a unique idea of Christianity later in life, but he was not proud of himself as a young man.
"I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I killed people in war, challenged men to duels with the purpose of killing them, and lost at cards; I squandered the fruits of the peasants' toil and then had them executed; I was a fornicator and a cheat. Lying, stealing, promiscuity of every kind, drunkenness, violence, murder - there was not a crime I did not commit...Thus I lived for ten years."
Tolstoy was also know for writing War and Peace, as well as Anna Karenina. After Mahatma Gandhi read The Kingdom of God is within You, they started a correspondence and became friends.
I believe this book should be at the top of everybody’s reading list. Even if you disagree with the author's opinion, it is tremendously helpful to understand this alternate viewpoint towards the world.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
The complexities of a human soul
Friday, December 24, 2010
Your wonderful
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The man waits for his pudding
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The ills of utilitarianism and a defense of deontology
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Ethics
Over the past year, I have learned a lot about ethics. It seems a subject that is not very widely taught, at least to teenagers. There are two approaches to it that I would like to outline.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
The sky Is blue
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
new radio
Friday, December 10, 2010
songs with his nail-less finger,
swishing them quickly, muttering,
hands in his bohemian coat.
Droplets tame the roofs' crows
and a surrealist dies in the hills,
in the trench,
careening ambulances, muttering
hands on this wooden wheel.
The rain claims the stone tower,
muttering on your scooter, a
keen delivery,
collapse,death.
At the Renaissance Fair
her are chimpanzees
and so is
the tar-
footed creature
sitting on my head,
me smiling, tossing
my hair like airplane
propellers
while this sick gypsy
snaps an always fading,
then to nothing Polaroid
and I'm charged way
to much for this
stupid little
picture
How to become a dictator in four simple steps
2. Spread propaganda about how you can solve all the worlds suffering as a leader
3. ????
4. PROFIT!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Rant contest entry
Knowledge is Power
Songs- All Fall Down
By Mr. Awesome
Monday, December 6, 2010
mindflex- imagination
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
mindflex-3rd person
Monday, November 29, 2010
New pages and ideas
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The White Hairs
The name "the white hairs" is very symbolic. With old age often comes wisdom. The young people that will write for this blog are some of the wisest i know. Their knowledge far exceeds their age. By imparting wisdom, we will discover it our selves. And in a sense we will grow our own white hairs. The Irony in the title is key to understanding our purpose. We are the youth, confused, questioning, and searching. We are also the youth that will take a lead in the development of the world. We wish to strive and become great. The content we write are not the wise impacting wisdom, on one another, they are the young trying to discover wisdom.
This blog will showcase creative works written among our friends. Some of writing will be bad, some will be good, and mostly it will allow us to develop our creative skills. There is no particular theme to our writings. Some will be journalist, some will examine the theories of the world, some times we rant about politics, sometimes we craft a dramatic story, some times we just want to put our worlds out there. It will be interesting to see what evolves here. Maybe you may even enjoy some of it.