{"id":982,"date":"2011-05-25T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/?p=982"},"modified":"2011-05-25T14:16:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T18:16:21","slug":"new-about-this-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/05\/new-about-this-blog.html","title":{"rendered":"New about this blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This blog has been quieter of late, though perhaps the posts have been a bit more in depth.\u00a0 I have been taking a vacation from the constant current events reporting on the nihilists to the right because it\u2019s become clear to me that today there are no good guys to cheer on in politics beyond the occasional individual, like Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi or Bernie Sanders.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Obama has proven to me beyond reasonable doubt that he is a corporatist tool every bit as violent in his foreign policies, craven in his domestic ones, and heartless in his views towards Americans as the Clintons against whom he promised \u201cchange we can believe in.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s better than a complete sociopath like most Republican candidates for any national office, but he and those like him not part of any solution we can look forward to.\u00a0 Our ruling elite is as corrupt, out of touch and incompetent as anything in Louis XVII\u2019s France.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ve been focusing on more fulfilling tasks.\u00a0 Part this has involved working on some more ambitious writing projects than would be appropriate for my blog.\u00a0 And for somewhat different audiences.\u00a0 But not entirely.<\/p>\n<p>We Pagans, to my mind, represent something far more challenging to the mess that calls itself establishment culture than many of us at first thought.\u00a0 We are pointing towards a revisioning of how the world and human beings exist, away from the autistic culture of modern America and more towards what the Renaissance promised before it was destroyed in Christian fanaticism and war. (Read Stephen Toulmin\u2019s<em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cosmopolis-Modernity-Stephen-Edelston-Toulmin\/dp\/0226808386\">Cosmopolis<\/a><\/em> for a good, very good, discussion of these issues.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a demanding read.)<\/p>\n<p>My post on thought forms is part of this effort \u2013 to push hard for the implications of a Pagan world view as I have experienced it.\u00a0 I am intrigued that most of the skeptical comments avoided the examples I gave that do NOT fit the \u201cit\u2019s all in your mind\u201d dismissals.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not all in your mind, though some of it is, and not all information gained that way is worth anything.<\/p>\n<p>There will still be occasional political pieces, but I will try and make far more explicit what I believe is the fundamental nihilism of right and mainstream alike, and the deep amorality of America\u2019s basic institution, the corporation.\u00a0 It stands as the old aristocracy did in pre-democratic Europe, and is as deserving of being toppled from power and influence.<\/p>\n<p>Plus I am burned out on the pace of posting Beliefnet wants: 4\/week.\u00a0 Might work for Christians and such, or people who like to write about their personal lives, but we have no sacred text about which we can write contradictory volumes, we have no big corrupt organizations of professionals, we meet in small groups with oaths of secrecy, and our most important experiences are purely personal.\u00a0 And my personal life is mostly just that. Personal. (And often boring to others.)<\/p>\n<p>So I imagine my posts will be a bit less often, and hopefully more searching.\u00a0 Longer essays will likely end up at Patheos, once I get this new approach fleshed put better in my own mind. I think their half-life will be longer there.\u00a0 \u00a0I do not know whether Beliefnet will like my lower level of posting as they get their advertising revenue on the number of hits, and fewer posts = fewer hits.\u00a0 If I disappear from here look for me soon afterwards at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/Religion-Portals\/Pagan.html\">Patheos.<\/a> And there is now some really good coverage of news as it relates most explicitly to Pagans over at <a href=\"http:\/\/wildhunt.org\/blog\/\">Wild Hunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This blog has been quieter of late, though perhaps the posts have been a bit more in depth.\u00a0 I have been taking a vacation from the constant current events reporting on the nihilists to the right because it\u2019s become clear to me that today there are no good guys to cheer on in politics beyond&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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