We Don't Merely Quote History's Icons. We Perpetually Create And Recreate Them In Our Own Image

 

Andrew Quinn

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  James Apperson

  

  In other words,

  

  

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  • Daniel Robert Carroll

    James Apperson from my limited understanding of seneca I think its the opposite of this , Orwell showed the inherent dichotomy of control, both given and taken, through someone's else commands, whereas Seneca is talking about mastering your own control as his 'gods ' were virtuous within a natural balance, universal laws as it were that only you can hold yourself accountable for.

    

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      James Apperson

      

      Daniel Robert Carroll If that's what he meant,

      then it's a shame he wasn't better at utilizing language to convey ideas.

      

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    • •  
    • Rob Furey

        And yet his words are still remembered after two millenia.

      
      
      
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      James Apperson

      

      Yes.

      However,

      that's because humans are habitually cannibalizing the 'noted'.

      --

      The noted

      whose *names

      (* both literal and as a premise of authority)

      the harvesters can use as shells;

      hollowed out puppets to speak through.

      It's the only way the masses can amplify their own voices enough to feel heard, so they can feel wise and important.

      So we elevate the useful

      and remember the words.

      Next,

      we lose the meanings;

      as we supplant those with our own ideations;

      always assuming or pretending those were the original meanings.

      --

      Any string of words

      can be ascribed any meaning.

      That's the power of apologetics.

      But most don't even realize when they're doing it.

      Some do;

      but not most.

      They don't realize that "No Two People Have Ever Read The Same Book";

      nor even the same quote.

      In much the same way,

      no two people have ever even met the same person; nor have any two persons ever encountered the same "God".

      Thus,

      billions of believers have read the same "holy books"

      and yet relentlessly compete over who gets to say what any of it "really means".
      
      

      •  
        Religions are just better at 'staying
        
        
        ahead of the game';
    • having been founded and evolved

      by people who knew ~exactly~ what game was being played.

      Thus, they stayed busy inventing an evolving and Ultimate Persona for the purpose.
      
      
      

      ---
      ---
      - Whereas, the non-religious (people with no sense of need to be plugged into an authoritarian hierarchy; no sense of need to control others; no sense of need to be controlled) are generally content to speak by lesser personas; fashioned in the likeness of more specific (and less terrible) people.
      
      Meanwhile, very few abstain for hijacking corpses.