OF THE
TIMES
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Luke 17.2 KJVHard times. A hard rain's a gonna fall.'
[Verse 1]; Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?; And where have you been, my darling young one?; I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains; I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways; I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests; I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans; I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard[Chorus]; And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard; It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fallMy father loved that song. [Link]
[Verse 2]; Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?; And what did you see, my darling young one?; I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it; I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it; I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping; I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding; I saw a white ladder all covered with water; I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken; I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
[Chorus]; And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard; It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fall;
[Verse 3]; And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?; And what did you hear, my darling young one?; I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warning; I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world; I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing; I heard ten-thousand whispering and nobody listening; I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing; I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter; I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
[Chorus]; And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard; It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fall
[Verse 4]; Oh, what did you meet, my blue-eyed son?; And who did you meet, my darling young one?; I met a young child beside a dead pony; I met a white man who walked a black dog; I met a young woman, her body was burning; I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow; I met one man who was wounded in love; I met another man who was wounded in hatred
[Chorus]; And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard; It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fall;
[Verse 5]; And what will you do now, my blue-eyed son?; And what will you do now, my darling young one?; I’m a-going back out ’fore the rain starts a-falling; I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest; Where the people are many and their hands are all empty; Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters; Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison; And the executioner’s face is always well hidden; Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten; Where black is the color, where none is the number; And I’ll tell it, and speak it, and think it, and breathe it; And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it; Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking; But I’ll know my song well before I start singing
[Chorus]; And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard; It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fall
“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the Claim.” –By: Mark Twain.RC
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. Thus I verified and established each step of my course in its turn before advancing to the next. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work. Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to state one or two things, which seem to more properly belong in this place than further along. This, in the interest of clearness. The massed experiments established to my satisfaction certain generalizations, to wit:
That the human race is of one distinct species. It exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by itself, and not to be confounded with any other. That the quadrupeds are a distinct family, also. This family exhibits variations (in color, size, food preferences, and so on; but it is a family by itself). That the other families (the birds, the fishes, the insects, the reptiles, etc.) are more or less distinct, also. They are in the procession. They are links in the chain, which stretches down from the higher animals to man at the bottom. Some of my experiments were quite curious. In the course of my reading I had come across a case where, many years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl. They had charming sport. They killed seventy two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy one to rot. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caused seven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no disposition to harm them. I tried this experiment with other anacondas; always with the same result. The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t; and that the earl wantonly destroys what he has no use for, but the anaconda doesn’t. This seemed to suggest that the anaconda was not descended from the earl. It also seemed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition.
I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor servings in order to partially appease that appetite. I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped when they had gathered a winter s supply, and could not be persuaded to add to it either honestly or by chicane. In order to bolster up a tottering reputation the ant pretended to store up supplies, but I was not deceived. I know the ant. These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly; they are not.
In the course of my experiments I convinced myself that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.
Roosters keep harems, but it is by consent of their concubines; therefore no wrong is done. Men keep harems but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious laws, which the other sex was allowed no hand in making. In this matter man occupies a far lower place than the rooster.
Cats are loose in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cats looseness with him but has left the unconsciousness behind (the saving grace which excuses the cat). The cat is innocent, man is not. Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed. Man, with his soiled mind, covers himself. He will not even enter a drawing room with his breast and back naked, so alive are he and his mates to indecent suggestion. Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass. No! Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is the only one that does it or has occasion to.
At the head of this article we see how three monks were burnt to death a few days ago, and a prior put to death with atrocious cruelty. Do we inquire into the details? No; or we should find out that the prior was subjected to unprintable mutilations. Man (when he is a North American Indian) gouges out his prisoners eyes; when he is King John, with a nephew to render untroublesome, he uses a red hot iron; when he is a religious zealot dealing with heretics in the Middle Ages, he skins his captive alive and scatters salt on his back; in the first Richard’s time he shuts up a multitude of Jew families in a tower and sets fire to it; in Columbus’s time he captures a family of Spanish Jews and (but that is not printable; in our day in England a man is fined ten shillings for beating his mother nearly to death with a chair, and another man is fined forty shillings for having four pheasant eggs in his possession without being able to satisfactorily explain how he got them). Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is a trait that is not known to the higher animals. The cat plays with the frightened mouse; but she has this excuse, that she does not know that the mouse is suffering. The cat is moderate (inhumanly moderate: she only scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesn’t dig out its eyes, or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble. Man is the Cruel Animal. He is alone in that distinction.
The higher animals engage in individual fights, but never in organized masses. Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out, as the Hessians did in our Revolution, and as the boyish Prince Napoleon did in the Zulu war, and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.
Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.
Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day he is always some mans slave for wages, and does that mans work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other peoples countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns, he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with his mouth.
Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, he was at it in Mahomet’s time, he was at it in the time of the Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary’s day, he has been at it ever since he first saw the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per the telegrams quoted above) he will be at it somewhere else tomorrow. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.
Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems plain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. His record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with that record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of the lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one.
In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which the other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
One is obliged to concede that in true loftiness of character, Man cannot claim to approach even the meanest of the Higher Animals. It is plain that he is constitutionally incapable of approaching that altitude; that he is constitutionally afflicted with a Defect, which must make such approach forever impossible, for it is manifest that this defect is permanent in him, indestructible, ineradicable. I find this Defect to be the Moral Sense. He is the only animal that has it. It is the secret of his degradation. It is the quality, which enables him to do wrong. It has no other office. It is in capable of performing any other function. It could never hate been intended to perform any other. Without it, man could do no wrong. He would rise at once to the level of the Higher Animals.
Since the Moral Sense has but the one office, the one capacity (to enable man to do wrong) it is plainly without value to him. It is as valueless to him as is disease. In fact, it manifestly is a disease. Rabies is bad, but it is not so bad as this disease. Rabies enables a man to do a thing, which he could not do when in a healthy state: kill his neighbor with a poisonous bite. NC) one is the better man for having rabies: The Moral Sense enables a man to do wrong. It enables him to do wrong in a thousand ways. Rabies is an innocent disease, compared to the Moral Sense. No one, then, can be the better man for having the Moral Sense. What now, do we find the Primal Curse to have been? Plainly what it was in the beginning: the infliction upon man of the Moral Sense; the ability to distinguish good from evil; and with it, necessarily, the ability to do evil; for there can be no evil act without the presence of consciousness of it in the doer of it.
And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some far ancestor (some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perchance) insect by insect, animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of smirch less innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development (namable as the Human Being). Below us, nothing.
It's not an entity that saved the person, it is the soul looking after the body. Just look at the soul like your best buddy that you cannot see, but are aware it's there. When you are connected to your soul that means that you are here to learn something that is important to also to the soul. . . .EW Have you ever read M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled? In it, he speaks of grace, and it sounds a lot like what you're touching on.
I absolutely believe in reincarnation. (I'm skipping the tales I have that support that thesis.)On a sadder note, I hated reading what now has me type RIP Mom. Hang tough EW.
In the second week of May 2014, British soldier Vivian Cunningham was drugged and institutionalized against his will. Apparently, his “crime” on May 6 was daring to ask superiors about Queen Elizabeth’s outstanding arrest warrant.Remember all the mass burial sites in Canada?
The order to arrest Queen Elizabeth was issued in 2013 by six judges of the International Common Law Court of Justice in Brussels.
After nearly a year of litigation, Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, were found guilty in the disappearance of ten native children from the Catholic-run Kamloops residential school in British Columbia. Grieving parents haven’t seen their children since they left for a picnic with the Royal couple on Oct. 10 1964.
“Queen Elizabeth had direct involvement in the kidnapping and death of aboriginal children” it was reported on the ITCCS website. “Royal Family members also appeared to regularly participate in Ninth Circle Satanic Cult rituals at the Mohawk Indian School in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.”
The court’s Feb 2013 guilty verdict by six international judges on 40 global elites appeared to influence the resignation that same week, of Pope Joseph Ratizinger.
By Judy Byington, Child Abuse Recovery;
Judy Byington is the author of “Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities.” The book documents how the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony six year-old Jenny Hill, overcomes multiplicity resulting from brainwashing, her perpetrators having subjected the child to insidious mind-control techniques culled from Nazi Germany.
The Guardian. What a joke. Noticed how they completely left out the infamous line “I can’t even sweat?”