The good, the bad and the ugly

Intuitiv nämlich, oder in concreto, ist sich eigentlich jeder Mensch aller philosophischen Wahrheiten bewußt: sie aber in sein abstraktes Wissen, in die Reflexion zu bringen, ist das Geschäft des Philosophen, der weiter nichts soll, noch kann.

Philosophie ist kein Algebra-Exempel. Vielmehr hat Vauvenargues Recht, indem er sagt: les grandes pensées viennent du cœur.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer doesn't translate when he's quoting, so why should I translate him?

The object of this post is to explain how kindness and disregard have come into our time on behalf of the needy. Since I've been recently touched by the little play by Sergio Leone, I've borrowed its name.

Following my understanding of Revelation 7, I've concerned myself a little with the history of the Jews. When studying Jews, one is immediately stricken by the common background of

• Joseph Karo (1488-1575),
• Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522-1570),
• Isaac Luria (1534-1572),
• Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677),

that is they all hail from the remnants of Visigothistan.

When comparing the former three with the latter one, one sees one striking difference:

• Karo, Cordovero and Luria sought to impose a system of righteousness onto the world,
• Spinoza sought to find a system of righteousness in accordance with the world.

This is the difference between the age of watch and the age of works, as first stated by me in the article Gedanken zum Gegensatz zwischen Menschensohn und Götterhimmel, the only deviation being that Jews, unlike the ancient Greeks, don't call different human qualities gods.

Before continuing with the historical aspects of this, let us consider something very basic:

• some people wish for righteous laws,
• lawfulness always depends on people's composure (ger. Haltung),
• philosophy (ethics) is the foundation of any composure that is more than a fad.

So philosophical study opens the door for applied righteousness. Of course, when it comes to the application of righteousness, the results regularly make people with no pretensions whatsoever exclaim: Outrageous! But in the case at hand the Jews that had been stripped of their ideas of righteousness found people, who, thanks to their cut ties with Rome, were able to incorporate whatever ideas of righteousness were found at the time into their composure, and were able to do so in a way that made them prosper.

The reason for the success was the connectedness of the philosophers of the time with the people. It serves to look at the cycle of the times: Heaven denotes the respected element, which is the same as the powerful through united effort. Earth denotes the sought element. Perfection (ger. Rechtschaffenheit) is a slight generalisation of righteousness (ger. Gerechtigkeit). Hence, in the age of works, by respecting connectedness righteousness is found. Likewise, in the age of watch, by respecting righteousness peace is found. And in the age of wonders, by respecting peace connectedness is found.

John clearly states that first the 144000 Jews are sealed (1539-1581 A.D.), then the trumpets sound, then the 144000 Jews help Christ establish the 1000 year reign of the saints and only then the New Jerusalem descents from heaven. In other words:

• righteousness must be found via connectedness with the different peoples,
• a new connectedness must be found via respect for peace and then
• a new peace can be found via respect for righteousness.

Of course, that view completely omits the necessities that give rise to these achievements, rather unpleasant necessities, today for instance the necessity to avoid extinction in the wake of artificial intelligence.

But let us return to our age. The window of opportunity for establishing new standards of composure opened, by trumpets, in 1581 (the end of the sealing), and it started to close, by trumpets, in 1744 with the circumcision of Meyer Amschel Rothschild (the descent of the star Wormwood, i.e. the Great Comet of 1744, unto the earth, i.e. perihelion on the day of the circumcision), for since then bitterness has ever increased in social relations.

While the window is definitely shut only since as recent as of December 23, 1913, the main shutting event has been the French Revolution, which firmly established the secular view that

• physics (action) is real,
• logic (conscious participation in the world) is a delusion,
• ethics (holiness) is a lie.

It is because of this prevalence of physics over logic and ethics that artificial intelligence has become such a deadly threat. Whatever the reason, we have been pushed into the cruelest confrontation with the consequences of our past ambitions imaginable: a place where a human being is no more than the work of his hands.

That is where we're at right now. There are really only two things that I wish to make the world understand in this plight:

1. in which approach, in which philosophy to trust,
2. that there can be no rescue without actually going through the door, believing in a future governed not only by action, but by conscious participation and holiness as well.