Hey Rob, sorry to hear about your recent troubles. This time of the year is tough on everybody, but your recent circumstances (your Mom, your daughter) must make it especially hard. Every Christmas, if I'm down, I force myself to watch "A Christmas Carol" (only the 1951 version, with Alastair Sim.) It's sounds corny, but it forces me to re-assess my life and what's important. Likewise, New Year's is just a date on a calendar, but it gives us a chance to start over, at least mentally. Although you may not think anyone is listening, many of us are, even if we go for stretches without responding. I hope your Christmas was as good as the circumstances allow and continue to wish you the best.
eastbay sea. Blood I didn't sign up for this. A man with no country, no family, no friends, no hood, no specific stimulate love for nothing! This all stems from not becoming a worthless snitch. Can't respect it, but I understand it, how the once rightous jumpship, but not I! Thank you for leaning me your ear si i can vent.
How do we console our parents, when it's apparent that our every declarant will remain unacknowledged, while our children acknowledge their own mortality, what reality can we boast of, what pride shall raise our chin, when the very color of our skin is an accusation that not even our wildest imagination would accept as an association with sin, my mirror dont lie, so the pain dont subside, when the reflection of the image that I see, staring back at me, mean mugs me with the recognition that I will more than likely die, at the hands of curruption and deceit, from the inner city police, leaving more mothers to reach, for the bucket and bleach, that they keep benieth the kitchen sink that they mix with tears as they clean the concrete of another brotha's blood, scrubbing and scourring with strength that remains from the love that we feel for our fallen son's, trying to wash the pain away, because no matter what, the inner city children still need somewhere to play, in the inner city
-Negasi Kamara (Squabbles) 8.20.16
(Ezell Ford) 2 of 2
No-Man's-Land (LaQuan McDonald)
Coming from outta the 30s with an mentality of a beast. To be loyal to the streets, loyal to my family, tru to myself and to never become a snitch! I've banged, slanged, hustled, traveled the world over on a regular. I have been known to go beast on a nigga. but i've never harm a soul who didn't try to harm me! But how do i get back at the state for kidnapping me and destroying my family... The once athlete/gangsta turn hustler who transition into a family man and a great father. Who is now, a deep dark lost soul with a heart of rage & diabolical thoughts without an outlet outside of this tuna can of cell. Well the state was supposed to protect me, protect my family but instead. Because I refuse to become the DA's snitch bitch, I get railroaded to be executed for being what I was groomed to be, a real nigga! Dont punish me because I did what you couldnt do as a kid and not snitch on other kids. Do you hear tha hurt in my tone, the pain in my words? My mom & G-mom pasted recently without seeing their innocent son freed, my babies has graduated college and gone on to have babies without me. Thirsty for retaliation against the state fills every micro- fibers that dwells through my cells throughout my body. Can anybody hear the beast battle cry for help. I've been abandonned disscarded and even used as a political tool. For a nigga that bang 30s all over the world this is the thanks I get locked in a box with the key thrown in the
First you relieved me of my native land then raped, pillaged, and plundered every grain of sand so please forgive me, if I don't understand.
You have enslaved me in every way broken my back and crushed my will every single day but this is not enough, so much more there is to say.
You have torn my kingdom from my bloody hands robbed my palace, and savored the fruit of my lands so forgive me again, if I fail to understand.
You have placed a veil over my eyes denied my right to claim all that lay beneath the stars but to even the blind, the truth is still clear to see.
You have sought to seize all that I had look with disgrace, as if to say, I, drove you mad, victim of such fates, I should be anything but glad.
How could you hide what stood before, yet you still retain the arrogant audacity, to cup your hands, and demand that I give you more?
Tell me, what fresh hell is this wretchedness, that continuosly persisted throughout the years, yet has failed to extinguish it's burning desire, to terminate every single trace of my existence?
The dreams of the democracy that we inherited echos the sounds of freedom that have been parroted by our surrogate fathers, filling the voids that fear has left in our subconscious, by an authority that has no concious, and is unable to express remorse
So what course of action must we partake in, as we we take in, the continuosly ridiculous number of dead black men, leaving our mothers to bleach the concrete clean of blood, scrubbing and scouring with the strength that remains of this love, that we feel for our fallen son's.
What new level of degradation and demoralization must we accept in the process of dehumanization, what new low must we allow to embrace us, before we wake up, looking city to city, and state to state, as hate falsifies its credentials, and murder's deemed coincidential, live out conclussions that justify the means of their illusions, making irrelevance of the victims that testify from the graves, the young, the black, the strong and brave.
I look to my community for answers to the questions consuming me about the disillusion of unity in a world attempting to segregate us from the respect of our innerspirit, the spirit of persistence, embracing resistance, with audacity, and such tenacity, that the Angels descend and stand at attention, suppressing the contention that moves them to tears of disbelief, where is our belief.
Phew! That was quite a lot. Of course, there are lots of details and considerations I left out. I love talking about philosophy with my friends, who often have quite insightful comments to add. I would like to know what you think about all this: whether it is plausible, incorrect, fascinating, outrageous, &c. This is a perennially enriching subject. Alright, that’s all for now. I hope it’s not too cold where you’re at. Parts of the Midwest are starting to get their first serious freezing. Take care now, and have a pleasant evening.
If we decide that an actual infinity does not exist, then the causal chain, which ends in the universe’s creation, cannot extend back forever. It must end somewhere. What should the stopping point be? Recall my earlier argument: the cause of the universe must be personal; many people call it “G-d”. Now, should we stop there, and say G-d never came into being? For if He did come into being, then He must have a cause; and if G-d’s cause came into being, then it too must have a cause. Since there are no actual infinities, it must be that our chain stops somewhere. Well then, why not just stop it at G-d? We can’t stop it at the universe, since we know the universe came into being. We could postulate entities in the causal chain beyond G-d, but why should we do so? As a general “epistemological” point, it is often a good idea to eliminate unnecessary explanatory entities. For instance, when you explain why the paper is in the trash, you usually explain it by referencing a single person or thing that threw it away. Of course, it is possible that there were twenty people who took turns throwing the paper away, taking it out, and throwing it in the trash again. It seems, though, that this extra explanatory machinery does not add much; it seems the more justified, warranted, reasonable belief is the simpler one, at least in this case. You may have heard of this principle referred to as “Occam’s Razor”, which states that among theories of equal explanatory power, the simpler one should be chosen. (The theist will hold that atheism, though potentially simpler, does not have the same explanatory power as theism; and so atheism cannot be justified by appealing to Occam’s Razor alone.) Finally, it seems we could apply Occam’s Razor to argue that the causal chain stops at G-d. It is simpler to believe in just one supernatural being in the causal chain. There may be multiple beings “behind” G-d in the chain, but postulating them does not seem to add any extra explanatory power – hence, postulating them seems unwarranted, unjustified, unreasonable as a theory of reality.
Here is another example. Suppose you have two planets revolving around a sun. Planet A revolves twice as fast as Planet B. When Plant B revolves once, Planet A has revolved twice. When Planet B revolves twice, Planet A has revolved four times. When Planet B revolves four times, Planet A has revolved eight times. So on and so forth. It seems that Planet A will always do more revolutions than Planet B.
Now, if we assume an actually infinite number of things is possible, then it is possible to have time extend infinitely backwards. Let us suppose Planets A and B have been revolving around their sun from infinity backwards to the present. If we measure, in the present, each planet’s number of revolutions, then each has revolved an infinite number of times. In other words, each planet has revolved the same number of times. This is true, even though Planet A revolves twice as fast as Planet B, and on that account should have done more revolutions than Planet B! Again, though this might not be a strict logical inconsistency, it nevertheless amounts to some sort of metaphysical absurdity, something a normal person may doubt, or even reject on the basis of real-life experience.
In sum, if there is an actually infinite number of things, then it seems such an existence would lead to metaphysical absurdities of the kinds described. And it seems such metaphysical absurdities cannot occur. Of course, there are plenty of considerate and thoughtful people who believe that there is an actually infinite number of things. I leave it to you to judge the persuasive force of these points.
Now, what to say here? I think there are cogent reasons to reject the reality of an actually infinite number of things. These reasons paint the reality of infinity, so as to entail metaphysical absurdities. Let me explain. Suppose you have an infinite number of coins, labeled “one”, “two”, “three”, and so on ad infinitum. If you take away all the coins labeled “four” and higher, you have taken away an infinite amount of coins. And you have three coins remaining – namely, those labeled “one”, “two”, and “three”. So, you have an infinite number of coins, take away an infinite number of coins, and are left with three coins.
Let’s restart: suppose you have an infinite number of our labeled coins. If you take away all the odd-numbered coins, you have taken away an infinite amount of coins. And you have an infinite number of coins remaining – namely, all the even-numbered coins. (There are an infinite number of odd and even numbers.) So, you have an infinite number of coins, take away an infinite number of coins, and are left with an infinite number of coins.
It seems, though, that we have a metaphysical absurdity here. In each of the two cases, you started with the same number of coins (an infinite number), and took away the same number of coins (an infinite number); yet you were left with a different amount of coins in each case (three in the first case, an infinite number in the second). Though there may not be any logical contradictions here, there surely seems something metaphysically absurd – absurd enough to discredit, or at least make you agnostic about, the existence of an actually infinite number of things.
OK, the argument for G-d’s having always existed runs something like this: we’re agreeing that the universe came into being a finite time ago. If everything that comes into being has a cause of its existence, it follows that the universe has a cause of its existence. Now, on the standard Big Bang account, the beginning of the universe was the beginning of space, time, and all material being. This means, then, that the cause of the universe is spaceless, timeless, and without physical matter. The only two categories that fit this description are immaterial personal beings (“Mind”, “Soul”) and abstract objects, such as numbers or properties. It is also evident that the cause of the universe is extremely powerful; however, abstract objects, such as numbers or properties, seem powerless. How can the number 2, for instance, cause anything? How can the property of “being cold” make physical matter and time? In other words, abstract objects like these appear to be simply inert, without causal efficacy. Therefore, the cause of the universe must be a personal being, who is immensely powerful, if not omnipotent, timeless, spaceless, and immaterial. Most people call this being, “G-d”. I think you would agree with this, more or less; forgive me if I assume wrong.
The next question is whether G-d Himself is uncaused. Has G-d existed for eternity past, never having come into being, always having been? Or did He come into existence, and so has a cause of His being? If G-d does have a cause, then we can reapply our Causal Question to G-d’s cause: did that cause exist forever, or did it too come into existence, and so have a cause? And if we suppose G-d’s cause itself has a cause, we can still reapply the Causal Question. In fact, it seems we can reapply the Causal Question ad infinitum. You rightly note this: “I don’t believe, for a moment, that this particular Higher Power always was. Something had to create Him (or Her, whatever your preference might be), so who was it? And what created that Power? And so on and so forth…” So, if we can always reapply the Causal Question, then there exists an actual infinity – namely, an actually infinite causal chain that ends with the creation of the universe.
As always, it was a pleasure to read your response. I think your comments on the intellectual powers of inmates are spot-on. I talked to a professor who was running the Civic Knowledge Project (CKP) at the University of Chicago. Recently, CKP teamed up with another organization for the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (PNAP). The aim of PNAP is to team up visiting artists and scholars with inmates at Stateville Prison in Illinois. The end of PNAP is to have both visitors and inmates learn from each other, as they collaborate to publish inmates’ poetry, essays, and other arts. It’s pretty high-gear stuff – stimulating and insightful. I hope the program has enough success to spark similar endeavors in prisons nation-wide.
Speaking of intellectual power, I think your philosophical interpretation of the Big Bang is nuanced. I was mulling over your thoughts on G-d’s being. You were saying that G-d Himself came into existence. There are considerate thinkers who hold this position; I personally think a compelling case can be made that G-d never came into being, since He always existed. I would like to talk about it for the rest of this letter, since it is some pretty interesting and heavy stuff. I learned it from other philosophers, so no kudos to me.
RSS
Bill
No Man's Land (cont.)
eastbay sea. Blood I didn't sign up for this. A man with
no country, no family, no friends, no hood, no specific
stimulate love for nothing! This all stems from not becoming
a worthless snitch. Can't respect it, but I understand it,
how the once rightous jumpship, but not I! Thank you for
leaning me your ear si i can vent.
The face of a nomadic in a no-man's-land
ONE
Big Rock
(Gavin Long)
2 of 2
How do we console our parents, when it's
apparent that our every declarant will remain
unacknowledged, while our children acknowledge
their own mortality, what reality can we boast of,
what pride shall raise our chin, when the
very color of our skin is an accusation that
not even our wildest imagination would accept
as an association with sin, my mirror dont lie,
so the pain dont subside, when the reflection of
the image that I see, staring back at me,
mean mugs me with the recognition that I will more than
likely die, at the hands of curruption and deceit,
from the inner city police, leaving more mothers
to reach, for the bucket and bleach, that they keep
benieth the kitchen sink that they mix with tears
as they clean the concrete of another brotha's blood,
scrubbing and scourring with strength that
remains from the love that we feel for our fallen son's,
trying to wash the pain away, because no matter what,
the inner city children still need somewhere to play,
in the inner city
-Negasi Kamara
(Squabbles)
8.20.16
(Ezell Ford)
2 of 2
No-Man's-Land (LaQuan McDonald)
Coming from outta the 30s with an mentality of a beast. To be
loyal to the streets, loyal to my family, tru to myself and
to never become a snitch! I've banged, slanged, hustled,
traveled the world over on a regular. I have been known to
go beast on a nigga. but i've never harm a soul who didn't try
to harm me! But how do i get back at the state for kidnapping
me and destroying my family... The once athlete/gangsta turn
hustler who transition into a family man and a great father.
Who is now, a deep dark lost soul with a heart of rage &
diabolical thoughts without an outlet outside of this tuna can
of cell. Well the state was supposed to protect me, protect
my family but instead. Because I refuse to become the DA's
snitch bitch, I get railroaded to be executed for being what
I was groomed to be, a real nigga! Dont punish me because I
did what you couldnt do as a kid and not snitch on other kids.
Do you hear tha hurt in my tone, the pain in my words? My mom &
G-mom pasted recently without seeing their innocent son freed,
my babies has graduated college and gone on to have babies
without me.
Thirsty for retaliation against the state fills every micro-
fibers that dwells through my cells throughout my body.
Can anybody hear the beast battle cry for help. I've been
abandonned disscarded and even used as a political tool.
For a nigga that bang 30s all over the world this is the
thanks I get locked in a box with the key thrown in the
1 of 1
Audacious Demand
Tell me, is there nothing left?
First you relieved me of my native land
then raped, pillaged, and plundered every grain of sand
so please forgive me, if I don't understand.
You have enslaved me in every way
broken my back and crushed my will every single day
but this is not enough, so much more there is to say.
You have torn my kingdom from my bloody hands
robbed my palace, and savored the fruit of my lands
so forgive me again, if I fail to understand.
You have placed a veil over my eyes
denied my right to claim all that lay beneath the stars
but to even the blind, the truth is still clear to see.
You have sought to seize all that I had
look with disgrace, as if to say, I, drove you mad,
victim of such fates, I should be anything but glad.
How could you hide what stood before,
yet you still retain the arrogant audacity,
to cup your hands, and demand that I give you more?
Tell me, what fresh hell is this wretchedness,
that continuosly persisted throughout the years,
yet has failed to extinguish it's burning desire,
to terminate every single trace of my existence?
by: Kesaun "Sycko" Sykes
© 2016
(Raheim Brown)
1 of 1
Where the Children Play 1 of 2
The dreams of the democracy that we inherited
echos the sounds of freedom that have been parroted
by our surrogate fathers, filling the voids that
fear has left in our subconscious, by an authority
that has no concious, and is unable to express remorse
So what course of action must we partake in, as we
we take in, the continuosly ridiculous number of
dead black men, leaving our mothers to bleach
the concrete clean of blood, scrubbing and scouring
with the strength that remains of this love, that we
feel for our fallen son's.
What new level of degradation and demoralization
must we accept in the process of dehumanization, what
new low must we allow to embrace us, before we
wake up, looking city to city, and state to state,
as hate falsifies its credentials, and murder's
deemed coincidential, live out conclussions that justify
the means of their illusions, making irrelevance
of the victims that testify from the graves, the young,
the black, the strong and brave.
I look to my community for answers to the questions
consuming me about the disillusion of unity in a world
attempting to segregate us from the respect of our innerspirit,
the spirit of persistence, embracing resistance,
with audacity, and such tenacity, that the Angels
descend and stand at attention, suppressing the contention
that moves them to tears of disbelief, where is our belief.
(Lavell Mixson)
1 of 2
Alright, that’s all for now. I hope it’s not too cold where you’re at. Parts of the Midwest are starting to get their first serious freezing. Take care now, and have a pleasant evening.
Peace,
Calhoun25
Now, if we assume an actually infinite number of things is possible, then it is possible to have time extend infinitely backwards. Let us suppose Planets A and B have been revolving around their sun from infinity backwards to the present. If we measure, in the present, each planet’s number of revolutions, then each has revolved an infinite number of times. In other words, each planet has revolved the same number of times. This is true, even though Planet A revolves twice as fast as Planet B, and on that account should have done more revolutions than Planet B! Again, though this might not be a strict logical inconsistency, it nevertheless amounts to some sort of metaphysical absurdity, something a normal person may doubt, or even reject on the basis of real-life experience.
In sum, if there is an actually infinite number of things, then it seems such an existence would lead to metaphysical absurdities of the kinds described. And it seems such metaphysical absurdities cannot occur. Of course, there are plenty of considerate and thoughtful people who believe that there is an actually infinite number of things. I leave it to you to judge the persuasive force of these points.
Let’s restart: suppose you have an infinite number of our labeled coins. If you take away all the odd-numbered coins, you have taken away an infinite amount of coins. And you have an infinite number of coins remaining – namely, all the even-numbered coins. (There are an infinite number of odd and even numbers.) So, you have an infinite number of coins, take away an infinite number of coins, and are left with an infinite number of coins.
It seems, though, that we have a metaphysical absurdity here. In each of the two cases, you started with the same number of coins (an infinite number), and took away the same number of coins (an infinite number); yet you were left with a different amount of coins in each case (three in the first case, an infinite number in the second). Though there may not be any logical contradictions here, there surely seems something metaphysically absurd – absurd enough to discredit, or at least make you agnostic about, the existence of an actually infinite number of things.
The next question is whether G-d Himself is uncaused. Has G-d existed for eternity past, never having come into being, always having been? Or did He come into existence, and so has a cause of His being? If G-d does have a cause, then we can reapply our Causal Question to G-d’s cause: did that cause exist forever, or did it too come into existence, and so have a cause? And if we suppose G-d’s cause itself has a cause, we can still reapply the Causal Question. In fact, it seems we can reapply the Causal Question ad infinitum. You rightly note this: “I don’t believe, for a moment, that this particular Higher Power always was. Something had to create Him (or Her, whatever your preference might be), so who was it? And what created that Power? And so on and so forth…” So, if we can always reapply the Causal Question, then there exists an actual infinity – namely, an actually infinite causal chain that ends with the creation of the universe.
As always, it was a pleasure to read your response. I think your comments on the intellectual powers of inmates are spot-on. I talked to a professor who was running the Civic Knowledge Project (CKP) at the University of Chicago. Recently, CKP teamed up with another organization for the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (PNAP). The aim of PNAP is to team up visiting artists and scholars with inmates at Stateville Prison in Illinois. The end of PNAP is to have both visitors and inmates learn from each other, as they collaborate to publish inmates’ poetry, essays, and other arts. It’s pretty high-gear stuff – stimulating and insightful. I hope the program has enough success to spark similar endeavors in prisons nation-wide.
Speaking of intellectual power, I think your philosophical interpretation of the Big Bang is nuanced. I was mulling over your thoughts on G-d’s being. You were saying that G-d Himself came into existence. There are considerate thinkers who hold this position; I personally think a compelling case can be made that G-d never came into being, since He always existed. I would like to talk about it for the rest of this letter, since it is some pretty interesting and heavy stuff. I learned it from other philosophers, so no kudos to me.