I sometimes find such music complimentary for inward evaluation, personal reflection as I study and write for my book projects...

I sometimes find such music complimentary for inward evaluation, personal reflection as I study and write for my book projects, allowing my mind to focus on the most intricate propositions, problems, poetics thus evidences, contemplations, deductions, inductions, determinations, logic/syllogisms, rhymes, rhythms, absolutes, abstractions, etc... I shall offer no other explanation for this post....

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Saint Paul (5-67 AD), 2 Tm 2:15

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Russian Orthodox Chant: Молитва Иисусова / The Jesus Prayer

That time of year, where one can celebrate if you will an early Saturday or Sunday morning with bit of coffee, gin and chocolate...

That time of year, where one can celebrate if you will an early Saturday or Sunday morning with bit of Utah coffee (Vintage, Black Rifle Coffee Company), Vermont barrel aged gin (Tomcat, Caledonia Distillery) and Pennsylvania chocolate (Hershey)...

My apologies, but I will no longer refer to such fine products as American, rather by region, state, county, city, better still by land or family.

Any form of nationalism or patriotism have proven time and time again to presume my coerced participation therefore presume to confiscate my property, limit my liberty even terminate my life if so covetously mandated. If you are delicately offended by this then "grow up!"

Individualism’s Pledge of Allegiance (per my next book)

 

Private property my country, family and friends my countrymen, consequently the sweaty, dirty, bloody, long worn shirt-off-back my flag for upon the rustic post at edge of field hangs that banner `neath my old hat, however tattered, patched, frayed, stained, worked thus ragged while individually, agreeably therefore mutually, consensually bought and bartered... I pledge allegiance to nothing else and to no other!

 

Pledges and allegiances to banners and flags, oaths and vows to empires and nations, to monarchies and governments, to parliaments and congresses, to kings, prime ministers and presidents serve only the interests of the aforementioned, and to be sure the subject and citizen, that is, the individual to fully bear the sacrifice of his/her life, health, liberty, privacy, property, possession, profession, pursuit, purpose, preference, prerogative even propensity as well family, friends, and anything or anyone else held personally dear. Any promises by kings, princes, politicians or bureaucrats to serve the subject or citizen’s wellbeing are Orwellian doublespeak for their intent to presumptuously, impatiently rule therefore expecting the people’s unquestionable obedience.

 

"Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces."

 

Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563)

 

These despots along with crony advisors, experts, professors, doctors, journalists, commentators then priests, pastors, various community leaders even artists, musicians, actors like past sages, magicians, jesters, town criers and more, have so cleverly spun the concept of honor to equate to sacrifice as previously defined, yet in like manner sacrificially honor not the people. Is it not high time to reciprocally however rightfully honor not those holding public offices, thereby logically thus ethically undermining their presumption and arrogance, unofficially yet effectively rescinding their endowment and power, and in so doing to live free, to think, speak and act liberated fully bearing one’s own responsibility and risk.

At last I brought myself to moral philosophy...

"For it's the philosopher's job to investigate the truth by means of reasons, and in all things to follow not people's opinions but reason's lead. So having devoted myself to schools for a long time, and having been educated in both their reasons and their authorities, at last I brought myself to moral philosophy, which is the aim of all the disciplines and for the sake of which I judged all the rest should be mere preliminaries."

The aforesaid, as the character Philosopher introduced himself in the book Dialogue Between a Philosopher, a Jew and Christian, written by theologian Peter Abelard (1079-1142).

 

And as this poet discovered upon years even decades of studying, pondering, laboring whether political sciences (and isms), various histories as well economics, psychology, sociology, praxeology, theology too until observed the element or dynamic, determined the logic, demonstrated the consistency then concluded the ethic(s); the Singular Human Right to Consent or Dissent on ALL Matters as inherently preferred then passionately expressed per each and every individual's Peculiar Human Ability to Reason.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Any right, ethic(s) or morality founded on anything other than mutual consent else respected dissent is merely arbitrariness...

Any right, ethic(s) or morality founded on anything other than mutual consent else respected dissent is merely arbitrariness, presumption, arrogance and if action proceeds then violence.

Preferably although thoughtlessly embraced are lists, bills, codes, principles, commandments, and with rabid fervor enforced upon rightful dissenters, while selfishly justified by consenters presumptuous thus covetous whether the latter a few, some, many or most of society.

To provide further context...

Often accused as anti-Christian or unbiblical when including the word (above) "commandment" in my critique, however the assumption would be quite inaccurate. With that said, to encourage the inaccurate assumption :-), I shall also state that only Two of the Ten Commandments qualify as legal code or law, for if enforced all Ten, horrific despotism unavoidably ensured. Instead, the Ten Commandments are higher standards of course, to be "voluntarily" preached, listened, learned, acknowledged, followed upon however the constant respect and consistent regard for the universal logic, ethic thus Singular Human Right to Consent or Dissent on ALL matters as concluded per each and every individual's Peculiar Human Ability to Reason.

Note:

Both posted quotes taken from my 10th book 100 Proems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters (Aug 2018).

Come let us Reason (Is 1:18). Peace is always a Choice (Mt 5:9).

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath (2 Tm 2:15, Cl 3:23).

Our inconsistencies suggest two noteworthy facts...

Quote taken from my 10th book 100 Proems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters (Aug 2018)...

Our inconsistencies suggest two noteworthy facts. Firstly, we are inherently aware of the human preference to consent or not consent (dissent) on all matters, for it is affirmed by our contentment even happiness when situations are so, sadness even anger when it is not. To go empirically further, we determine right versus wrong, moral versus immoral, by our consent versus dissent. Secondly, we are strangely, quite darkly perverted, for when content or happy per our satiated preferences, others' denied preferences thus their sadness and anger, are of little or no concern.

www.DCQuillanStone.com (books) / www.CafePerQ.com (blogs)

SONNET 6 by George Boole (1815-1864)...

SONNET 6 by George Boole (1815-1864)

Note:

Mathematician, philosopher, logician, poet, first professor of mathematics at then newly formed Queen's College Cork (now University College Cork), and astonishingly self-taught for having to brilliantly develop then establish what later became known as Boolean algebra/logic. 

Thou that in secret chambers dost portray

The pictures of the past, whence some return,

And some, like ashes in the buried urn,

Lie hid, not lost, till one Diviner Ray

Shall through thy inmost caverns pour the day;

Oh, Memory! If to me thy lessons stern

Sometimes appear, let me not less discern

The deep and wholesome wisdom they convey;

But when the years to vanity betrayed

Rise threat'ning from gulfs to which they fled

Give me to see in each reproachful shade

A messenger, on solemn errand sped;

`Tis not with purpose vain they they invade

The nightly pillow and the wakeful bed.

June 1849

According to Desmond MacHale, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, in his book The Poetry of George Boole (Oct 2020)...

"On the surface, this sonnet would appear to be a straightforward tribute to the physical and spiritual aspects of memory, but in the light of subsequent events, perhaps it has a deeper significance than even Boole himself may have been aware of. It (Sonnet 6) was written in 1949, between the publications of his two major books, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic in 1847, and The Laws of Thought in 1854. In the hands and fertile mind of Claude Shannon (1916-2001) these books led to an algebraic formulation of the operation of electronic switching circuits and eventually to the invention of the modern digital computer. Boole relates that he was blessed with an almost photographic memory which he later described in the following words:

This does not result so much from strength of memory as from the power of arrangement which provides its proper place in the mind for every fact and idea and thus enables me to find at once what I want just as you would know in a well-ordered set of drawers where to lay your hand in a moment upon any article you required.

In Sonnet 6, was Boole now thinking about the physical process of memory in the human brain, and how information is stored there, and why certain memories 'lie hid but not lost'?"

Hence the necessary prerequisites or building blocks (among others) towards the Digital/Information Age; the refinement of the binary numbering system by Leibniz, the development of Boolean algebra/logic by Boole, then the formation of the Digital Circuit Design Theory by Shannon.

I recommend McHale's book The Poetry of George Boole, as well George Boole's book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.

Come let Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Rescission is the reduction and/or negation of government's longstanding Secrecy, as well the diminution and/or elimination of government's likely Conspiracy...

To consistently understand liberty thus morality, one should comparably, rightly understand perversion...

Represented well by parties therefore an array of political platforms coveting, presuming, demanding even violently ranting to impose various forms of government...

Both creationist and evolutionist share a particularly significant point along the planet's timeline and therafter...

The pursuit of knowledge, logic, consistency, ethic, truth, discernment, wisdom...

Cato the Younger (95-46 BC)... I know not what treason is, if sapping and betraying the liberties of a people be not treason...

"I know not what treason is, if sapping and betraying the liberties of a people be not treason... I would not be beholden to a tyrant, for his acts of tyranny. For it is but usurpation in him to save, as their rightful lord, the lives of men over whom he has no title to reign."

Cato the Younger (95-46 BC)

Epicurus (341-270 BC)... Began to assent the Liberty of Man...

Why should I fear death?

If I am, then death is not.

If Death is, then I am not.

Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?

Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear.

Religious tyranny did domineer.

At length the mighty one of Greece

Began to assent the Liberty of Man.

Epicurus (341-270 BC)

Ludwig von Mises (economist, 1881-1973)... The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster...

"The WORSHIP of the STATE is the WORSHIP of FORCE. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster."

Ludwig von Mises (economist, 1881-1973)

Personal Note:

He was and still is without question among the greatest economists, philosophers, thinkers of all time. Quote taken from his 1944 book Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. See link for free ebook/download, courtesy of Mises Institute.

https://mises.org/library/omnipotent-government-rise-total-state-and-total-war

Difficult decision on this Mississippi autumn evening...

Difficult decision on this Mississippi autumn evening... :-)

Meanwhile, an appropriate quote...

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

P.J. O'Rourke

Satirist, journalist as well H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at Cato Institute.

Settled on Whistlepig's Farmstock Whiskey, Mississippi Magnolia Batch... Quite smooth! And I think I shall have with it some pecans, almonds, cashews, raisins and call it supper... :-)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)... This American government--what is it but a tradition... but each instant losing some of its integrity?

"This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?"

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Hence my contention if to understand US history as it actually occurred. The "losing some of its integrity" commenced in 1787 (if not earlier), then reassured in 1792, and so incrementally declined upon every presidential administration thereafter. To suggest a return to some American orthodoxy of the recent or distant past, is to merely restart upon the same erroneous path, only to arrive again to the present dire juncture.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Ray Bradbury (author, 1920-2012)... I don't believe in government. I hate politics...

"I don't believe in government. I hate politics. I'm against it. And I hope that sometime this fall (election), we can destroy part of our government, and next year destroy even more of it. The less government, the happier I will be."

Ray Bradbury (author, 1920-2012)

Good quote by Ayn Rand (1905-1982)... observably, logically, consistently sound...

The Trilogy...

The Trilogy...

ONE:

100 Proems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters (Aug 2018)

https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-ABILITY-Singular-CONSENT-Neglected/dp/1532053665/ (Amazon link)

"It follows, when reason’s expression per individual consent as well dissent are honored in rhetoric and practice concerning all matters, only then can be found genuine fairness, equality, justice, freedom, that is to say, the sole ethic among non-omnipresent, non-omniscient and non-omnipotent thus quite finite mortals."

TWO:

More Proems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters (Feb 2021)

https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Ability-Singular-Consent-Neglected/dp/1663217599/ (Amazon link)

"Rather it is Ethics not Politics that desires freedom for oneself and all others thus a return to individual responsibility and risk. It is Ethics not Politics that seeks liberation from government's shackles and chains hung heavy upon everyone's person, preference, possession and property. And it is Ethics not Politics that insists the regard for one's own Singular Human Right to Consent or Not Consent on all matters, inseparably demands the respect for one's own Peculiar Human Ability to Reason on all matters. Politics is contrary even hostile to all such things."

THREE:

Propositions, Problems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters (Sometime 2022)

http://cafeperq.blogspot.com/2021/07/propositions-problems-poems-on-peculiar.html (draft/unedited version in progress)

"Law of Consensual Unity and Law of Ethical Continuity... The (1st) law, to logically propose, should articulate the simplest of conditions; if consensual among all then unity, else dissension among one or more then disunity. The syllogism could be constructed in sort of pseudo code (if you will) so to further emphasize…

 

.... if consensual then

........ unity

.... else not consensual then

........ not unity

.... done/exit

 

The law simply, concisely indicates two states or conditions; Consensual or Not Consensual therefore True or False, On or Off, One (1) or Zero (0), This or That, Be or Not Be. Hence respectfully invokes the third law of thought as explained by William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) in his book Elementary Lessons in Logic Deductive and Inductive published in 1870…"

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

12th Book on Ability to Reason, Right to Consent; Proposition, Problem & Poem No. 213

Most likely to be published later this summer of 2022, my 12th book entitled appropriately; Propositions, Problems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters. The following will probably be included upon further editing, and front cover a slightly modified yet appropriate version of the 10th and 11th books...

PROPOSITION, PROBLEM & POEM No. 213

~ Peculiarity, Uniqueness, Distinction / 2nd Reprise ~

To deny an individual’s humanity is universally understood as inhumane, for certainly dehumanizing if to so deny. Who would disagree of course with this sort of obvious characterization? Yet a discussion or debate on the definition of such denial would result to something less than universal understanding, for also less than universal the definition(s) of the words humane and/or humanitarian.

The common scenarios representing inhumanity immediately come to the forefront; slavery, genocide, mass shooting, murder, rape and other physically violent activities. Even so among these examples, reactions differ per the events’ details and contexts, especially upon politicization and oddly upon heightened awareness of particular issue(s) per currently popular film, documentary, exposé, investigation, etc. Consequently, without the observable, logical, consistent thus ethical definitions for words humane versus inhumane, transgressions and tragedies are incorrectly assessed, determinations and decisions incorrectly concluded then legislations, laws, policies, programs incorrectly proposed, popularly confirmed, disastrously implemented inducing further inhumanities.

And so for centuries even millenniums as ordinarily contrived then randomly compiled the lists, codes, bills, canons of moralities, ethicalities, rights, statutes, commandments, principles, ideals, standards, behaviors, causes, often governmentally imposed yet none universally contended nor usually conducted.

Specifically, the U.S. Bill of Rights originated as 17 amendments approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, 12 of the 17 approved by the U.S. Senate, and in 1791, 10 of 12 ratified by then 13 American states. The rejection of rights from the start was as arbitrary as the approving 17 then 12 as well the eventual ratifying the final 10 (see Proem & Poem Nos. 27, 28). Prior of course, Thomas Jefferson named 3 unalienable rights in 1776, John Locke in 1689 proposed 4 rights that “no one ought to harm”, then fast-forward to 1948, the newly formed United Nations declared human rights in a lengthy document of 30 articles, as defined by Eleanor Roosevelt and the commission she chaired. The lack of consensus worsens outside political, governmental sciences thus within social, academic, religious contexts exemplified by far more diversity of thoughts and conclusions on the matter.

Oddly, the diverse opinions and various divisions over rights as well moralities, decencies, probities, equalities, do not dissuade nor discourage the passionately sentimental persistence even fanatically emotional insistence towards governmental presumption therefore institutional compulsion (force) per the vote of the vaingloriously monarchic one, the arrogantly oligarchic some, the riotously kratocratic many else the covetously democratic most, however never respectfully, ethically patient until the unanimously harmonic all upon each and every person’s consent. To be plain, covetousness, presumption, arrogance cannot bear the thought of constraint when confronted with one more dissenting soul.

---

The core, the root, fraught per rot, “All for not!” as most lament
As though foot in cement, society hell-bent, no ladies, nor gents
For dignity well spent, moral garments rent near consuming fires
Liken funeral pyres, while gypsies dance to “fool’s gold” lyres 

And covetous desires fan to flames, panning polity’s fiat games
Tho’ few to logically triage the false claims, placing proper blame
While facing the slanderous aims, “Racists and Fascists are All!”
Appalled by disagreements the pious cabal while self-enthralled

---

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Copyright © 2022 by D.C. Quillan Stone

Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563)... RESOLVE TO SERVE NO MORE, and YOU ARE at once FREED...

"RESOLVE TO SERVE NO MORE, and YOU ARE at once FREED. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces."

 

Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563)

Wonderful quote by an insightful young man while attending university. Taken from his essay Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, posthumously and clandestinely published in 1577, perhaps the original Pelican Brief if you will.

Free copy of La Boétie's essay, courtesy of Mises Institute...

https://mises.org/library/politics-obedience-discourse-voluntary-servitude

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath. 

Quotes by Leibniz, Boole and Shannon, then a comment on ethics...

It is true that as the empty voids and the dismal wilderness belong to zero, so the spirit of God and His light belong to the all-powerful One.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)

Whence it is that the ultimate laws of Logic are mathematical in their form... It is not because we choose to assign to it such a mode of manifestation, but because the ultimate laws of thought render that mode possible.

George Boole (1815-1864)

Information: the negative reciprocal value of probability... Information is the resolution of uncertainty.

Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001)

In preparation for my current book project, I have read and studied works on logic by these gentlemen among others. Regardless their unique dissertation and particular application, I have discovered the wonderfully deeper insight on the matter of ethics (or ethic singular) by determining, expressing the same logically, syllogistically, algebraically so to additionally determine, express then demonstrate CONSISTENCY in such ways.

For if ethic, morality are to be ethical, moral (to redundantly state), as much fact, science, truth are to be factual, scientific, truthful, then CONSISTENCY is the dynamic paramount to be discovered, understood, tested, demonstrated, determined then practiced while conducting further discovering, understanding, testing, demonstrating, determining, practicing and so on. Else, the proposition shown as inconsistent, arbitrary is NOT ethical, moral rather preferential, presumptuous, arrogant and if forced upon others then certainly unethical, immoral even violent, inhumane.

---

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

There is NO GRAY on this absolute issue...

The world as GRAY some often argue, is merely a world they COVET to manipulate and control politically therefore governmentally, bureaucratically even militarily (or by police) as well immorally, criminally, violently, ignoring even rejecting the logic and consistency, the self-evident ethic... 

The constant respect thus consistent regard for the Singular Human Right to CONSENT or DISSENT on ALL matters, as purposefully exercised thus perpetually evinced by the Peculiar Human Ability to Reason. 

Simply, inescapably, either one respect then accept the aforesaid else transgress while trample it. There is NO GRAY on this absolute issue.

Note:

For additional perspectives on the topic of "gray", see the below draft/unedited installments from my 11th book; More Proems & Poems on the Peculiar Human ABILITY to REASON, Singular Human RIGHT to CONSENT & Other Neglected Matters, published February 2021.

No. 130 - Incapable of Gray / Part 1
No. 131 - Incapable of Gray / Part 2
No. 132 - Incapable of Gray / Part 3
No. 132 - Incapable of Gray / Part 4

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.