[lbo-talk] Re: God's Humor

BklynMagus magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Thu Feb 3 08:04:30 PST 2005


Dear List:

Carl writes:


> I am also amazed by the guffaws that RWE's
"transparent eyeball" elicits.

Many people have a blind spot when it comes to Emerson. I once made a presentation at the Queer Center in New York about how the right of same-sex marriage flows directly from Emerson through James to contemporary thinking.


> I can't imagine a more compelling image for a
healthy negation of the ego.

But for most leftists it is the *feeding* and *strengthening* of the ego that is paramount. Pleasure today. Pleasure tomorrow. Pleasure forever.


> Since RWE's message of "self-reliance" is often
misinterpreted as being the forerunner of today's "greed is good," it is important to focus on the *loss* of self that RWE speaks of along with his feeling of being part of something greater:

Emerson has always seemed to me one of the most misunderstood of American writers.


> "... all mean egotism vanishes. I become a
transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."

Very New England Buddhist.


> but I think RWE's transparent eyeball could see the
way to a socialistic future for the U.S.

It definitely is. Homegrown socialism. The problem is that such a vision requires more sacrifice than leftists are willing/able to make. So we are stuck with capitalism.

Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister



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