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Friday, April 29, 2016

How Many "Likes" Does It Take To Get To The Cure For All Diseases...? The World May Never Know.

Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to cure all diseases this century. I recommend he begin with a narcissism cure.

5 comments:

jimf said...

> I recommend he begin with a narcissism cure.

Can Narcissism be Cured?
Sam Vaknin
Uploaded on Jan 25, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npLHrRivMJU

-------------------
For it came to pass that Melkor, as the Valar had decreed, completed
the term of his bondage, dwelling for three ages in the duress of Mandos,
alone. At length, as Manwë had promised, he was brought again before
the thrones of the Valar. Then he looked upon their glory and their bliss,
and envy was in his heart; he looked upon the Children of Ilúvatar that
sat at the feet of the Mighty, and hatred filled him. . .
[B]ut he hid his thoughts, and postponed his vengeance.

Before the gates of Valmar Melkor abased himself at the feet of Manwë
and sued for pardon, vowing that if he might be made only the least of
the free people of Valinor he would aid the Valar in all their works,
and most of all in the healing of the many hurts that he had done to
the world. . . Then Manwë granted him pardon. . .
[F]air-seeming were all the words and deeds of Melkor in that time,
and both the Valar and the Eldar had profit from his aid and counsel,
if they sought it; and therefore in a while he was given leave
to go freely about the land, and it seemed to Manwë that the evil
of Melkor was cured.

For Manwë was free from evil and could not comprehend it, and he knew that
in the beginning, in the thought of Ilúvatar, Melkor had been even as he;
and he saw not to the depths of Melkor's heart, and did not perceive that
all love had departed from him for ever. . .
====

_The Silmarillion_, Chapter 6
"Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor"

Dale Carrico said...

Just re-read that passage last week. Was struck by the idea that Melkor is troubled by alterity, the resistance of living/thinking/acting others, and is driven to command it, where Illuvatar and the Valar are instead delighted by the play of this dynamism. Of course Melkor himself keeps trying to bring discord into the Singing, but the rest delight -- in their separate measure -- in finding his efforts always recuperated back into the original theme, revealing its richness rather than spoiling it or seducing them into a different Song attesting Melkor's singularity instead. I think an interesting distinction between instrumental and political works is discerned at the root of the Tolkien legendarium. Of course I am pulling this thread through an Arendtian needle, probably inaptly, but I have no doubt Catholic theology is being negotiated here -- and Confirmed though I was in the Church way back I have little facility in those traditions.

jimf said...

> Was struck by the idea that Melkor is troubled by alterity,
> the resistance of living/thinking/acting others,
> and is driven to command it, where Ilúvatar and the Valar
> are instead delighted by the play of this dynamism. . .
> Melkor himself keeps trying to bring discord into the
> Singing, but the rest delight -- in their separate measure --
> in finding his efforts always recuperated back into
> the original theme, revealing its richness rather than
> spoiling it or seducing them into a different Song attesting
> Melkor's singularity instead. . .
> Of course I am pulling this thread through an Arendtian needle. . .
> but I have no doubt Catholic theology is being negotiated here. . .

Yes, this interpretation is, I think, pretty much the
same as the author's:

------------------
_Morgoth's Ring_ ("The History of Middle-earth", Vol. X)
J.R.R. Tolkien (Christopher Tolkien, ed.)
Part Five, "Myths Transformed"
pp. 395-396

[A]s 'Morgoth', when Melkor was confronted by the existence of
other inhabitants of Arda, with other wills and intelligences,
he was enraged by the mere fact of their existence. . .
He was aware, at any rate originally when still capable of rational
thought, that he could not 'annihilate' them: that is,
destroy their being. . . Hence his endeavour always to break wills
and subordinate them or to absorb them into his own will
and being, before destroying their bodies. This was
sheer nihilism, and negation its one ultimate object:
Morgoth would no doubt, if he had been victorious, have
ultimately destroyed even his own 'creatures', such as the
Orcs, when they had served his sole purpose in using them:
the destruction of Elves and Men. Melkor's final impotence
and despair lay in this: that whereas the Valar (and
in their degree Elves and Men) could still love 'Arda Marred',
that is Arda with a Melkor-ingredient, and could still heal
this or that hurt, or produce from its very marring, from
its state as it was, things beautiful and lovely, Melkor
could do nothing with Arda, which was not from his own
mind and was interwoven with the work and thoughts of
others: even left alone he could only have gone raging on
till all was levelled again into formless chaos. And yet
even so he would have been defeated, because it would
still have 'existed', independent of his own mind, and
a world in potential.
====

Dale Carrico said...

Haven't read CT's multi-volume History, I always resisted for whatever reason that last most ferocious fandom -- but I can already tell that this latest deep dive will be the one in which I succumb and plumb the uttermost depths. The insights from the History that make their way even into The Annotated Hobbit were already feeling rather irresistible.

jimf said...

> Haven't read CT's multi-volume History, I always resisted for
> whatever reason that last most ferocious fandom -- but I can
> already tell that this latest deep dive will be the one in
> which I succumb and plumb the uttermost depths.

By all means begin with the posthumous volume that succeeded
_The Silmarillion_ (1977) and preceded the first volume of
_The History of Middle-earth_ proper (_The Book of Lost
Tales, Part I from 1983). That's _Unfinished Tales (of Middle-earth
and Númenor) from 1980. There's some poignant and memorable
stuff in that book. The story that sticks most in my mind is
the tale of Aldarion and Erendis (subtitled Indis i-Kiryamo,
The Mariner's Wife). Marital difficulties of a king and queen
of Númenor in the Second Age during the time when the Elves first
became aware of rumors of Sauron's re-arising in Middle-earth. Interesting
insights into Tolkien's views of the relations between the sexes
(I can't help but think that the story is at least partly
autobiographical).

And watch that documentary from 1996 (_A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien_,
narrated by Judi Dench ;-> ) that has extensive commentary by Christopher Tolkien
(and appearances by Tom Shippey and Verlyn Flieger).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkmNHP58OhU