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10:53 PM
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What is it all about?
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[quote:What is it all about - this 10327053:MV8yMTc5MDI0XzM3MzM5MTg5XzcwMEY1RDg2] “Certainly. Just to be alive is not enough, is it?" "You seem to have no idea at all of the demands that are made on me. I don’t mean social engagements and such, I have a lady who looks after the house and sees to all that as well; no, I mean the demands of spiritual labour that come from my intention to - to - found - a - new - state and a new religion. There, it’s out.” “Good God, you’ll be locked up next!” “Don’t worry, I’m no revolutionary.” “And are there many in your sect, yet?” asked Hauberrisser with a smile, suspecting it was all a joke. Neill gave him a sharp look, paused for a moment and then said, “I’m afraid you seem to misunderstand me, as usual. Can’t you sense that there’s something in the air, something more palpable than ever before, perhaps since the world began? Prophesying the end of the world is a thankless task, it’s been predicted too often down the centuries for it to be credible any more. In spite of that, I think that those who feel such an event is approaching will be proved right this time. It doesn’t have to mean the destruction of the earth, the destruction of a way oflife is also the end of a world.” “And you think such a drastic change in attitude could take place overnight?” Hauberrisser shook his head doubtfully. “I am more inclined to believe that some devastating natural catastrophe is imminent. People don’t change from one day to another.” “Did I say that natural catastrophes would not occur?” cried Pfeill. “On the contrary, I can sense their approach with every nerve within me. But as far as an abrupt change in human attitudes is concerned, I hope you only appear to be right. What do you base your assumption on? How far back in history can you look? Only a miserable couple of thousand years! And even over that short period haven’t there been enough sudden outbreaks of spiritual contagion to make one wonder? There have been children’s crusades - though I grant you that it is unlikely whether mankind will ever rise to a bureaucrats’ crusade. But all things are possible, and the longer they are in coming, the more probable they are. Until now men have torn each other apart for the sake of certain dubious invisible beings that are careful not to call themselves spirits but ’ideals’. I think the hour has finally come for the war against these invisible enemies, and I would like to play a part in it. For years I have been aware that I was being trained in spiritual warfare, but until now I have never had this clear feeling that a great battle against these damn’d ghosts is at hand. I tell you, once you start clearing out all those false ideals, there’s no end to it. You’ve no idea what piles of humbug brazenly posing as truth you have inherited. That’s what I call founding a new state, you see, this clearing the mind of intellectual lumber. However, out of consideration for the existing order and out of courtesy towards my fellow human beings-God forbid I should try to impose my views about inner truthfulness and unconscious hypocrisy on them - I decided from the outset that my state - I call it the Germ Free State because it has been thoroughly disinfected of the spiritual vines of false idealism - should only have one subject, namely myself. I am also the only millionaire of my belief. I have no need of converts.” “I see you’re not much of an organiser, then”, said Hauberrisser in relief. “Nowadays everyone thinks they can organise; that shows how wrong it must be. What is right is always the opposite of what the herd does.” Pfeill stood up and started walking up and down. “Even Jesus did not attempt to organise people, he just set an example. Madame Rukstinat and company naturally assume the right to organise all and sundry. Only nature and the world spirit have that right. My state will last forever, it doesn’t need an organisation. If it did, it would have failed.” “But, my dear Baron, if your state is to have any point at all, it must eventually consist of more than one person. Where are you going to find your citizens?” “Listen. If one man has an idea, that just means that many others will have the same idea at the same time. Anyone who doesn’t see that doesn’t know what an idea is. Thoughts are contagious, even if they are not expressed; perhaps most contagious when they are not expressed. I am firmly convinced that at this very moment a large numberhave already joined my state and eventually it will flood the world. We have made great progress in physical hygiene, people even disinfect door-knobs so as not to catch some disease, but I tell you, there are certain slogans that transmit much worse diseases, racial and ethnic hatred, for example, demagoguery and such. They need a much stronger disinfectant than we use on door-knobs.” “You want to eradicate nationalism, then?” “I am not going to weedkill things in other people’s gardens that won’t die of their own accord, but in my own I can do as I like. Nationalism seems necessary for most people, I admit, but it is high time there was a `state’ whose citizens were held together not by borders and a common language, but by their outlook; that will still allow them to live as they like. In a certain sense people are right to laugh at someone who says he intends to transform mankind. But they overlook the fact that all that is needed is for one person to transform himself root and branch. His achievement will never fade, whether the world recognises it or not. Anyone who does that tears a hole in the established order that will never heal, whether the rest notice it immediately or in a million years. All things that come into being remain, they only seem to disappear. That is what I want to do, to tear a hole in the net in which mankind has caught itself; and not by preaching, but by escaping from the meshes myself.” “Do you think there is any causal connection between the catastrophes you believe are imminent and the change of attitude you assume is about to come over mankind?” asked Hauberrisser. “Of course, it will always seem as if it is some physical calamity, a huge earthquake, for example, that makes men search their conscience, but that is an illusion. The question of cause and effect, or so it seems to me, is quite different. We can never perceive causes; all that we can see is the effect. What appears as the cause is only the first symptom. If I let this pencil go it will fall to the floor. Every schoolboy would assume that letting go of the pencil was the cause, but I don’t. Letting go is simply the first, unmistakable sign that it is going to fall. Every event that precedes another is its symptom. The cause is something completely different. It is true that we imagine we are capable of bringing forth an effect, but that is just a terrible delusion, that is just the world making us see things in the wrong light. In reality there is one mysterious cause, and one cause alone, which makes the pencil fall to the ground and which, beforethat, made me let go of it. A sudden change in men’s attitudes and an earthquake may well have the same cause; but that the one should be the cause of the other is completely out of the question, however plausible it might appear to common sense. Each is an effect as much as the other. One effect cannot produce another, at most, as I said, it can be a first sign in a chain of events, but nothing more. The world we live in is a world of effects; the realm of true causes is hidden. If we should ever discover it we would be able to perform magic.” “But to be master of one’s own thoughts, that is, to discover their hidden roots, would that not be the same as performing magic?” Neill came to a sudden halt. “Of course! What else? It would take us to a distant peak from which we would not only be able to view everything, but also to make everything we want come about. At the moment the only magic we men perform is with machines, but I believe the hour is at hand when a few at least will be able to perform it through will-power alone. All those marvellous inventions, all those admired machines are nothing more than blackberries that we gathered along the path that leads to the summit. What is of value is not the invention itself, but man’s inventiveness, not the picture - it’s value is measured in monetary terms at the most - but the ability to paint. Any one picture can fall to pieces, but the ability to paint will not be lost, even if the painter should die. What remains is the power that has come from heaven; even if it should sleep for centuries, it always awakens when the genius who can reveal its majesty is born. It is a great comfort to me that what our worthy merchants manage to cheat our artists out of is merely the mess of pottage and not the true blessing.” http://www.amazon.com/The-Green-Face-Decadence-Dedalus/dp/0946626928/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366122384&sr=8-1&keywords=gustav+meyrink+the+green+face [/quote]
Original Message
The evil ones try to implement their satanic empire build on a heap of lies and hardcore doom; the divine race tries to expose it (in the inside and therefore on the outside) and stop the doom, but will be likely failing at some point of time at the latter and the lukewarms do not bother about anything at all, but their own welfare.
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