Jung’s Answer to Job

In recent years I have come across many references to the book Answer to Job, by C.G. Jung. Job is a gentile man in the Book of Job of the Hebrew Bible.

I am not a student of the Bible, Christian or Hebrew, although Moses was my Old Testament hero in Sunday School at the Fourth Avenue Methodist Church in Brooklyn, around 1950.

4th Avenue Methodist Church, Brooklyn, 1983

I sometimes hear the phrase “the patience of Job” but, until reading this book, I was unaware of the story that gives rise to this phrase. But what could be so important about the story that C.G. Jung would write a book about it—published when he was age 77—calling it the only book of his he would not change? Further, a learned Jungian Scholar, Edward F. Edinger, wrote a companion book explaining the implications of Jung’s assertions in Answer to Job about Yahweh, God, Jesus, Mary, Sophia, Satan, the female and the male principles, the conscious and unconscious in man, St. John and other Biblical persons, and other items of historical, religious, mythical, philosophical, and psychological interest. His book is Transformation of the God Image: An Elucidation of Jung’s “Answer to Job.”

As Alan Watts points out in his lecture  “Who is it Who Knows There is no Ego,” all the words and  concepts used in this essay are created and used by Man to distinguish among imagined parts of the undifferentiated Whole so he (Man) can do things with them and to be less frightened of the unknown. With this in mind, I will boldly summarize Jung’s book:

Job’s job was to “humanize” Yahweh/God who was formerly amoral and unselfconscious.

A further implication is that the story appeared in the Old Testament to show Man he could hope to emulate God (in fact, contained God within him), but Man must restrain himself in the use of the powers revealed to him—those that formerly were attributable only to an external and amoral Yahweh/God.

I place these quite imperfectly formed words and thoughts in front of you in the hope of stimulating you to read at least the Jung book; but the Edinger book will clarify and modernize some important portions of Jung’s language and its translation from the German. Also, you will get insights into the precepts and work of Jungian psychologists.

Last, as I read through both books I was reminded of soulfully poetic passages along similar lines (as distinct from Jung’s academic approach) in Nikos Kazantzakis’s autobiography, Report to Greco:

Now for the first time since the world was made, man has been enabled to enter God’s workshop and labor with him. The more flesh (man) transubstantiates into love, valor and freedom, the more truly he becomes Son of God….

What a fearful ascent from monkey to man, from man to God!

In Praise of Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

I have always liked the music of this composer, born in Russia and ultimately a citizen of the USA, achieved shortly before his death.

I once presented to an informal discussion group his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, in my opinion. The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin, which has inspired works by several composers. The 18th variation in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody was made popularly famous in the romantic 1980 film Somewhere in Time.

Here is the pianist Mikhail Pletnev, playing the 18th variation and succeeding variations to the end of the piece; and, here is a biography of Rachmaninoff.

Why am I writing about this here?

At the 30th birthday party of my wife’s son, Max, I met his aunt whom I hadn’t previously met, and learned she was a singer with Sofia Kyrkokör (Sofia Church Choir). She invited us to attend, the next day, Sunday, at Sofia Church in Stockholm, an a capella concert of Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil. I had not known of this piece and was intrigued. So Eva and I attended. The group of singers also included the Sofia Vocalensemble.

The All-Night Vigil, Opus 37, is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written and premiered in 1915. It consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. It has been praised as Rachmaninoff’s finest achievement and “the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church”. It was one of Rachmaninoff’s two favorite compositions along with The Bells, and the composer requested that one of its movements (the fifth) be sung at his funeral. The title of the work is often translated as simply Vespers, which is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work: only the first six of its fifteen movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical hour of Vespers.

1 Come, Let Us Worship (Psalm 95)
2 Praise the Lord, O My Soul (Greek Chant)
3 Blessed is the Man (Psalm 1:1)
4 O Gentle Light (Kiev Chant)
5 Lord, Now Lettest Thou (Kiev Chant)
6 Rejoice, O Virgin (Hail Mary)
7 The Six Psalms
8 Praise the Name of the Lord (Znamenny Chant)
9 Blessed Art Thou, O Lord (Znamenny Chant)
10 Having Beheld the Resurrection
11 My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord
12 The Great Doxology (Znamenny Chant)
13 Troparion: Today Salvation is Come (Znamenny Chant)
14 Troparion: Thou Didst Rise from the Tomb (Znamenny Chant)
15 O Queen Victorious (Greek Chant)
[Source: Wikipedia]

The singing was exemplary to my ear. I was expecting sounds similar to what I have heard in Greek Orthodox churches, but there were only hints of these familiar musical flavors, along with whispers of some pre-Soviet Russian themes found in the work of many Russian composers.

I am no expert, to be sure, but I felt this was a very modern piece, more western Europe than eastern Europe sounding. The solo chanting was very wonderful and appropriate to the venue, a large open space in the main room of the church (I don’t know the proper name) with a high, vaulted ceiling that contained and presented the singing perfectly, without echoes that competed for my ear’s attention.

The church was well-lit and decorated simply in what appeared to be art deco which was popular at the time of this church’s construction.

Rachmaninoff was a great pianist as well as composer, and his music was a staple in the household of my youngest days before World War two, in San Francisco.

It was fulfilling to hear more of the great man’s work, and executed so lovingly and well.

It took a massacre…

…to fully reveal that which the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan repeatedly told his government, to no avail, and at the cost of his job.

Craig John Murray was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002-2004. While serving in that nations’ capital, Tashkent, he accused the administration of Uzbekistan President Islom Abdug‘aniyevich Karimov of human rights abuses. Murray repeatedly complained to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office that intelligence linking the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda, suspected of being gained through torture, was unreliable, immoral, and illegal. He described this as “selling our souls for dross”. Murray was subsequently removed from his ambassadorial post on October 14, 2004. [Source]

Craig Murray has chronicled his saga in the book Murder in Samarkand, which I have recently read and which has prompted this article.

Murray’s main point is that the USA, from 11 September 2001, was so intent on fighting “the war on terror” that its government tolerated the kind of official behavior in Uzbekistan which it declaimed against under Saddam Hussein’s Iraq—that is, repression, torture and atrocities on its own people. Further, the then government of the United Kingdom fully supported the USA position and was complicit in consciously ignoring violations of human rights, under the United Nations Charter including, especially, the use of torture to gain “intelligence.”

The British government has denied this, to date.

REPORT OF THE UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, February 2003—Mission to Uzbekistan: Civil and Political Rights, Including the Questions of Torture and Detention and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. [Please click on the report's title, above, to access it in MS Word and PDF format)].

Karshi-Khanabad is an airbase in south-eastern Uzbekistan. Between 2001 and 2005 the United States Air Force used the base, also known as K2 and “Stronghold Freedom”, for support missions against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. [Source]

The USA ended its official relationship with Uzbekistan in late 2005 when it “closed its air base in Uzbekistan that was used for Afghanistan operations, a shutdown ordered by Uzbek President Islam Karimov after the United States joined calls for an international inquiry into the authoritarian leader’s handling of the Andijan uprising.” [Source]

The Andijan massacre occurred when Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from between 187, the official count of the government, and 5,000 people, with most outside reports estimating several hundred dead. A defector from Uzbekistan’s secret service alleged that 1,500 were killed.

Calls from Western governments for an international investigation prompted a major shift in Uzbek foreign policy favoring closer relations with Asian nations. The Uzbek government ordered the closing of the United States air base in Karshi-Khanabad and improved ties with the People’s Republic of China, India, and Russia, all of which supported the regime’s response in Andijan. [Source]

The unrest in the Ferghana Region has a lot to do with its minority Tajik population which were then (possibly still are) repressed and labeled, at various times, as Islamic extremists. Some observers claim that the repression drove some Tajiks toward extreme Islamism. But there is no doubt that at least a small fraction of Tajik-Uzbeks belong to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The region’s ethnic politics are complicated by the fact that the Soviet Union purposefully changed the borders of the “Soviet Republics” of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as you can see from this tortuous border around the Ferghana Valley.

[Source of Map. Please click on the image for clearer detail.]

For a variety of reasons the designers of the Soviet “national delimitation” in Central Asia discriminated against the Tajiks, having deprived the newly formed republic of Tajikistan of the two most important centers of Tajik urban culture, Bukhara and Samarkand, as well as regions of Fergana, Surhandarya and Khwrazm which were awarded to Uzbekistan. The majority of population in Uzbekistan are Tajiks. In the words of William Beeman, professor of anthropology at Brown University: “The Tajik situation in some ways resembles that of post-colonial Africa. Tajiks have been given an impossible piece of territory with disparate population and have been forced to make a nation out of it.”

The majority of Tajiks live outside border of what is known as Tajikistan today.The largest number of Tajiks are living in Uzbekistan, where the majority of Tajiks are forced to be registered as Uzbeks (the Tajiks on the official Uzbeki data, make about 4% of the population of this republic), but the real number of Tajiks living in Uzbekistan believed to be over 50 percent (11-14 millions) of the population.“ [Source]

I offer, in closing, these observations and sources regarding the Republic of Uzbekistan:

[Image Source]

…(N)on-governmental human rights watchdogs, such as IHF, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, as well as United States Department of State and Council of the European Union define Uzbekistan as “an authoritarian state with limited civil rights” and express profound concern about “wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights.” According to the reports, the most widespread violations are torture, arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly. The reports maintain that the violations are most often committed against members of religious organizations, independent journalists, human rights activists and political activists, including members of the banned opposition parties. In 2005, Uzbekistan was included into Freedom House’s “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies. [Source].

Press Service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Governmental Portal of the Republic of Uzbekistan

President Visits Ferghana Region

Dictator of the Month, December 2006

US slams Uzbek election as unfree, unfair and laughable [January 12, 2000]

Your Body’s Wonderful Sewer System

No, I’m not talking about your alimentary canal.

When your doctor (or Doctor Mom) checks to see if your “glands” are swollen, it is your lymph nodes that are being checked—and they are not glands.

The lymph nodes, located throughout your body, are part of a lymphatics circulatory system which runs in parallel and in collaboration with your venous blood system, as distinct from your arterial blood system.
∙

Venous Circulatory System∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙Lymphatics Circulatory System

[Please click on the images to see the detail more clearly]

So what do these lymph nodes have to do with the maladies I cite at the top of this page? They are protecting and defending your body by sensing, attacking, immobilizing, killing, and flushing the remains of the bad critters that have invaded your otherwise pristine flesh. When thus engaged in dealing with the alien invaders, the lymph nodes ramp up their activities and become swollen with lymphatic fluid which contains the disease-eating organisms of your body—the macrophages (literally, big eaters) and other defensive cells.

But, when the lymphatics system doesn’t work properly, bad things can happen—the sewer backs up. The result is a swelling of various tissues, a condition most commonly called lymphodema. There are other names for more serious problems associated with the dysfunction of the lymphatics system..

A macrophage attacking infectious organisms

I was reminded of all this, having remembered about “lymph” only vaguely from my biology classes in high school, by my friend Helena Janlöv-Remnerud. Helena is a trained nurse, entrepreneur, teacher and authority in lymphodema therapy. Because we have a mutual friend in the USA, we met several years ago and found we had interests in common.

What is lymphodema? And why does a person with this condition need therapy? So glad you asked.

The simplest way to describe lymphodema (or, more scientifically, lymphodoema) is an abnormal swelling of the limbs and other parts of the body. The most extreme example of this condition outside of a hospital will be the person whose legs seem like those of an elephant, hence the term elephantiasis, used in unusually serious cases where parasitic worms have invaded the lymphatics system, a disease usually found in the tropics.

Most commonly in the temperate zones, lymphodema is the result of acute trauma to the body, including deep surgical operations such as for cancer, and due to the effects other diseases such as diabetes.

Helena has had, for a number of years, her own lymphodema clinic in central Stockholm and is currently preparing for a move to a larger, multi-specialty clinic near a major medical center just north of the city center: Olivia Rehabilitering (click on “Lymfödemrehab” to see Helena’s clinic).

Your body’s immune system organs

I attended an open house for the clinic which will open for business in early 2010, and received a guided tour and lecture on the subject of Helena’s expertise. She likes to use the metaphor of a sewer system to describe the lymphatics system. This analogy appeals to me, my having been trained in public health and perceiving the hidden sewer systems of our cities and towns as the platform upon which we are able to successfully build our civilization. Think of the great water and sewer works built by the Ancient Romans.

In helping this layman understand her metaphor, Helena told me:

The lymphatic fluid takes all the waste products away from your tissues. As it moves toward its final destination in the blood stream, it passes through the analysis stations of the lymph nodes where bacteria and other harmful micro-organisms are detected. An alarm goes off in the lymph nodes that signals the production of warriors to attack them. The residue will be taken care of by the cleansing processes of the bloodstream: the liver, the kidneys and the spleen. All the output of the lymphatic system is poured into the venous blood system at two large veins under your collar bones, the subclavian veins. As the blood passes through the kidneys some waste products are done away with through bladder and the urine. When the blood passes through the liver other waste (like toxins) are discarded of through the bowel. The spleen mainly takes care of old erythrocytes (red blood cells); it also part of the immune system.

Helena recently delivered a paper to Svenska Ödemförbundet (Swedish Edema Association) on lymphoedema assessment and management in an Australian clinic she visited, which you can read in English, here.

Another question you might ask is: how can the lymph fluids circulate if there is no “heart” attached to the system? There is peristaltic action in the lymph vessels, but another vital method is through the movement of your body, especially the legs. This is one reason why walking is so important for your health—to keep the lymphatics flowing and flushing out the poisons and infectious residue from your body.

What I hope to leave you with is an appreciation for a seldom mentioned system of your body that deserves equal billing with your blood system.

Ask your doctor about it.

The Greatest Music Teacher of the 20th Century

The words “great” and “greatest” appeared several times during my research into Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), both on the Internet and from books that I own.

Why was I looking for references about her? Because I had come across her name yet one more time, recently, causing me to go over the tipping point, not able to resist getting to know her better.

Last week a friend had given me a book, What to Listen for in Music by the composer of quintessentially American music, Aaron Copland, and in the foreword by Alan Rich was a reminder that Copland had been a pupil of Boulanger.

Leonard Bernstein congratulating Nadia Boulanger, after she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a full concert, February, 1962. [Secondary Source]

Most simply put, she can be considered “the greatest” because she was teacher to so many renown composers and performing artists, some of whom were great teachers in their own right—Aaron Copland, for one.

These are some of the American students of Nadia Boulanger:

Robert Russell Bennett (1894 – 1981) Marc Blitzstein (1905 – 1964) Elliott Carter (b. 1908) Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) David Diamond (1915 – 2005) Philip Glass (b. 1937)

Roy Harris (1898 – 1979) Quincy Jones (b. 1933) Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Walter Piston (1894 – 1976) Roger Sessions (1896 – 1985) Virgil Thomson (1896 – 1989)

Although Leonard Bernstein’s name is linked for many reasons with that of Nadia Boulanger, he apparently was not a pupil of hers. But, he was a pupil of a pupil of hers: Walter Piston.

Boulanger, in 1928, rejected as a student one of America’s most important composers, George Gershwin. “What could I give you that you haven’t already got?” she asked him. [Source]

I most recently saw Boulanger’s name while reading Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation, by Noël Riley Fitch. Beach was the owner of the famed “Shakespeare & Company” bookshop in Paris to which Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound and many other writers of the 1920s and 1930s gravitated, along with musicians and other artists. Several of these musicians and future composers were in Paris because of Nadia Boulanger, thus offering the creative and disciplined influence of these two remarkable women who apparently never met each other. In chapter seven of her book, Fitch offers these anecdotes:

Aaron Copland (1900-1900)

Most of the regular customers of the bookshop were writers, but among them were four composers: Satie, Antheil, Virgil Thomson, and Aaron Copland…Copland, who had joined the lending library [of the bookshop] had time to read [Sylvia’s] books in spite of being worked “terribly hard” by Nadia Boulanger, the great French teacher of musical composition to more than a generation of American composers…Because of Stravinsky, Ravel, Schönberg, Strauss, Satie and the music school of Nadia Boulanger, young American composers went to Europe, particularly Paris, to complete their professional education. In America, musical training was predominantly Germanic and old-fashioned, but in Paris, according to Copland, Boulanger knew “pre-Bach to Post-Stravinsky…cold.”

Although only the names of male composers have entered this narrative so far, Nadia Boulanger was teacher and mentor to a number of women in the field of music. In A History of Classical Music, on which I commented previously, the author, Barrymore Laurence Scherer writes:

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

During [Ruth Crawford's] European travels she was embraced by such pre-eminent musical figures such as Bartók, Honneger, and Nadia Boulanger…Among Nadia Boulanger’s American students were other women who achieved positions of distinction as composers, among them Marion Bauer (1882-1955) and Louise Talma 1906-1996). Bauer…had learned French from her parents; when introduced to Boulanger…in 1906, she offered to give Boulanger English lessons in return for lessons in composition, and thus became Boulanger’s first American student.

But, what was it like to study with Nadia Boulanger; what was so special that the most talented people sought her out? We can get a glimpse from Philip Glass.

Around a year ago I bought the book Writings on Glass: Essays, Interviews, Criticism, edited by Richard Kostelanetz. I have been fascinated with Glass’s music for almost two decades, especially since having viewed and bought the film Koyaanisqatsi, for which he wrote the musical score. The film has no spoken dialog. “In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means ‘crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’” [Source]

In an early chapter of the book we learn that Glass went to study with Boulanger in 1963, at age 26, because a musical colleague whom he admired had studied with her. Glass had already completed his studies at the Juilliard School of Music.

(Transcribed from an interview by Ev Grimes)

Boulanger wasn’t interested in the music I had written…I started studying first species counterpoint with her again…I studied counterpoint and harmony with her for over two years…

She had a variety of techniques that she was teaching. They included score reading, counterpoint, harmony, figured bass, and analysis…With Boulanger, nothing was theoretical; it was all practical. The rules of harmony she could describe in a few sentences, but you could spend years writing it, because to her the difference between technique and theory was that technique was practice. Harmony is practice, counterpoint is practice—neither is theory…

You took three classes with her a week…[The] Black Thursday class…was a special class…[Y]ou were asked to that class; you couldn’t request it. She put together six or eight students…It would start at nine o’clock and would go till noon. The subject of the class was announced at the beginning, and we rarely accomplished it…When we left the class, we would sit in the café across the street. No one would say anything; we would have our coffee or a beer, then we would part until we got together the next week. No one would say anything [repeated]. It was totally demoralizing in one way. We all knew we were either her best students or her worst students, but none of us knew which ones we were…

One can read more of Nadia Boulanger and her teaching goals and methods from these sources:

Fondation Internationale Nadia et Lili Boulanger

Kendall, Alan. The Tender Tyrant: Nadia Boulanger, a Life Devoted to Music. With an introduction by Yehudi Menuhin. London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1976.

Monsaingeon, Bruno.Mademoiselle: Conversations with Nadia Boulanger. Translated by Robyn Marsack. Manchester: Carcanet, 1985.

Perlis, Vivian. “Boulanger—20th Century Music Was Born in Her Classroom.” The New York Times (11 September 1977), 25–26.

“Copland Salutes Boulanger” The New York Times (11 September 1977), 89.

Potter, Caroline. “Nadia and Lili Boulanger: Sister Composers.” Musical Quarterly 83: 4 (1999), 536–556.

Rosenstiel, Leonie. Nadia Boulanger: A Life in Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982.

Thomson, Virgil. “‘Greatest Music Teacher’—at 75.” The New York Times Magazine (4 February 1962), 24, 33, 35.

List of students and others associated with Nadia Boulanger

[Click!]

The Dismal Record of African Leadership…

…and the Past Role of European Countries

Who am I to say this, and how dare I say it?

I am merely responding to the announcement made by the prize committee of The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership that no prize will be awarded this year. Here is the press release. The main web page of the parent organization describes the nature and origin of the prize:

The Ibrahim Prize recognises and celebrates excellence in African leadership. The prize is awarded to a democratically elected former African Executive Head of State or Government who has served their term in office within the limits set by the country’s constitution and has left office in the last three years.

The Ibrahim Prize consists of US$5million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. It is the largest annually awarded prize in the world. The Foundation will consider granting a further $200,000 per year, for 10 years, towards public interest activities and good causes espoused by the winner.

In October 2006, Dr. Ibrahim launched the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to support good governance and great leadership in Africa. In 2007, Dr. Ibrahim stepped down as Chairman of Celtel International to concentrate on this initiative.

Founded in 1998, Celtel International has brought the benefits of mobile communications to millions of people across the African continent. The company operates in 15 African countries, covering more than a third of the continent’s population, and has invested more than US$750 million in Africa. In 2005, Celtel International was sold to MTC Kuwait for $3.4 billion.

Before I tell you of the past winners of this prize, I want to draw a picture for you of the grievous state of governance and leadership throughout the continent of Africa by calling attention to a few historical and present facts and factors.

Facts on Africa

There are 53 internationally recognized countries in the continent of Africa, including the six island states of: Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Seychelles.

Of these 53 states, 52 are former colonies of, or protectorates of, or were occupied by, one or more of several states in Europe: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The only country not so colonized or dominated, Liberia, was settled by freed slaves from the USA, its territory having been expropriated in 1822 from the many local tribes who had not formed a nation state.

[Image Source. Please click on the image for greater clarity]

The total population of the 53 countries in 2008 was over 929 million.

Seven of the 53 countries contain over 51% of the continent’s population: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania.

Only six of the countries have annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person greater than the world average of US $10,400. (GDP is a proxy for standard of living, rather than a direct measure of it): Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles, Libya, Gabon, Botswana, Mauritius.

To get a notion of the relative poverty of living even at the world average GDP per person per year of US $10,400, here are the figures (in US Dollars) of the top 20 countries and the European Union, which has 27 countries in its membership:

[Please click on the image for greater clarity]

Fifty-two of the world’s 192 countries have a GDP/person below $2,300 per year. Thirty-six of these countries are in Africa. Think of it: on average, the 689 million people in these 36 African countries subsist at a level approximately 7%, and less, of that enjoyed by the average person in a European Union country. The savagely-led country of Zimbabwe is at $200 per person per year. Zimbabwe’s dictator, President Robert Gabriel Karigamombe Mugabe, has been in power for almost 30 years, ever since the predecessor country, Rhodesia, was overthrown.

As mentioned above, every one of Africa’s countries, except Liberia, has been, at one time or another and in varying degrees, a vassal state of one or more European countries. It is well known that, with some exceptions, these states, while under foreign domination, were stripped of natural resources and essentially plundered. The stripping of natural resources continues in most of these countries today, with relatively few examples where a diversified economy under true democratic rule obtains.

Of the six countries currently at a GDP level above the world average, most are still extracting minerals from the soil as the major part of their economy: oil, diamonds, manganese, timber.

It is well known that the world’s major economies have poured money and aid into Africa, to no lasting effect, again with a few exceptions. This, in my view, shows the futility of sending money and goods into countries to help people who are ruled by despots and thieves.

Dr. Mo Ibrahim has the better idea, in my view. As can be seen above and under the links provided, his foundation will reward with significant money and recognition those African leaders who turn away from pillage and one-man rule, toward democracy that is not merely in name only; and, toward raising the standard of living for the people through good husbandry of resources and in diversifying the economy.

The prize has been awarded since 2007. Here are the awardees (text and photos taken directly from the foundation’s website):

Joaquim Alberto Chissano, 2007—Mozambique

In 1992, President Chissano helped to end Mozambique’s 16-year civil war and reconcile a divided nation, working tirelessly to negotiate piece with the RENAMO (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana) rebel group. To cement the reconciliation President Chissano offered 15,000 places in Mozambique’s 30,000-strong army to former opposition RENAMO soldiers.

President Chissano implemented a deliberate shift from Marxist-Leninist ideology to multiparty democracy and a mixed economy. He successfully negotiated a reduction in Mozambique’s debt repayments and oversaw reforms that have led to sustained economic growth. During his time in office, Mozambique began the journey of reconstruction and development, with improvements in healthcare, increased access to education and greater empowerment of women.

Between 2003 and 2004, President Chissano served as Chair of the African Union. During his presidency he was a powerful advocate for Africa on the international stage, particularly in promoting the debt relief agenda.

Festus Gontebanye Mogae, 2008—Botswana

At his inauguration ceremony in 1998, President Mogae vowed to address poverty and unemployment. His time in office was characterised by programmes to develop education and health infrastructure, and to privatise parts of the economy, notably the airlines and telecommunications industry.

Under President Mogae’s stewardship of the economy and careful management of the country’s mineral resources, Botswana experienced the steady economic growth that has characterised its post-independence history. Having been one of the poorest African countries at the time of independence, President Mogae consolidated Botswana’s place as one of the most prosperous countries on the continent.

After decades of enforcing strict anti-corruption measures, Botswana is regularly ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. Describing the principles that guided his time in office in his final State of the Nation address, President Mogae said that “prudent, transparent and honest use of national resources for your benefit has been my guiding principle and code of conduct”.

Following the Botswana Democratic Party’s victory in the October 2004 General Election, President Mogae was sworn in for a second term in November 2004. He again promised to fight poverty and unemployment, and pledged to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana by 2016.

In April 2008, in accordance with Botswana’s constitution, President Mogae stepped down as President, having served two terms in government. He was succeeded by Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

—

Addendum

In the face of massive aid in money and goods perennially provided African people by other countries and NGOs through the governments of their respective countries, small and direct-to-the-people efforts pay off at least equally well. In the above photo showing orphans in Kenya, you will see Jacinta Njoroge Lahti, a native of Kenya and a resident of Sweden, who founded the depicted orphanage and school. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Stockholm International, which club continues to be a major supporter of the school.

Note on figures used in this article

All figures were derived from The CIA World FactBook

Should the USA Emulate Sweden in Financing and Managing Medical Care?

The quick answer is “no.”

My reasoning is that Sweden and the USA are so different, despite both having roots in European culture and values, that what works in Sweden will not work in the USA.

First, please let us agree that we are not discussing “health care” or “healthcare.” These are marketing abstractions having no basis in reality. We are discussing how to pay for medical and hospital care and how to assure that a basic acceptable level is available to all.

Here are some positive reasons to look at Sweden as an example for the USA:

The infant death rate in Sweden is among the lowest four in the world, the others being Iceland, Singapore and Japan. The USA is 33rd. [Source]

The average life expectancy at birth in Sweden is among the highest 10 in the world, and the USA is 50th. (I will argue, however, this disparity has less to do with medical care than with the quality of public health programs in each country). [Source]

Using the chart below to interpolate, the average American pays around 70% more for “healthcare” than does the average Swede.

[Please click on the image for clearer detail]

Here come the “howevers,” however…

Sweden is much smaller in size and population
The country is shaped similarly to California, but 10% larger. The San Francisco Metropolitan area has 7.4 million people; all of Sweden has less than 9.1 million. The total of the USA’s is estimated at 307.2 million. [Source]

Sweden has comparatively low military expenditures
The Swedes gave up warfare and being a world power 200 years ago after dominating northern Europe for the previous 200 years. Estimated figures for year 2005 show that the USA spent around 4.1% of its Gross Domestic Product on military expenditures while Sweden spent 1.5% of GDP. [Source]

Sweden has unique social traditions absent in the USA
I refer, here, mainly to the tradition of lagom. There is no equivalent in English, but it is often explained to English speakers as “not too much and not too little.” [Source] Having lived all but the last seven years in the USA, I confidently opine that there may be parts of the USA population that adhere to this spirit of moderation, but the most visible part of the culture seems to be saying (until the recent economic downturn, perhaps) “too much is not enough.”

Jante Law: There is another set of traditions, still prevalent in the Nordic (North) countries, named, in Swedish jantelagen. These are essentially unwritten laws that are strong social levelers.
 
The above may be sufficient to support my point, but it is at least interesting to note, in addition:
 
 

 
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with an attractive royal family who represent the country well.
 
Sweden is, within its constitution, a parliamentary democracy with a single legislature (Riksdag or Parliament). As a transplanted American I have found one aspect of the political system very odd and frustrating: one votes for the party, not the person (there are around 8 parties, and the government rules through a coalition of parties). So, when I feel I have a complaint, observation or suggestion to make to my elected representative at the national level, I cannot identify one.

Population Centers: In year 2005, the five largest urban areas, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala, and Västerås, all in the southern third of the country, contained around 2.3 million people, or 25% of the county’s population. The rest of the country is comprised of cities, towns and villages of less than 100,000 people each, most of them concentrated in the southern third of the country.

[Image source]

The personal habits of Swedes are different from those in the USA. As anecdotal evidence of this, whenever I visit my family in California and Alaska, I am surprised at the great number of people who are of an unhealthy size. One rarely sees an obese person in Sweden. On the other hand, I am constantly amazed at the number of young women in Stockholm, at least, who smoke cigarettes. And, I am informed that many young men are addicted to snus, powdered tobacco in small pouches placed in the mouth.

In testing the comments in this article against the opinion of my friend, the Hairy Swede, he points at the movement towards privatization of service here in Sweden, as well as there being long waits for certain elective services. (There is a “single payer,” the government, but you can pay privately from your own pocket).

My retort to the perceived long waits, which I have heard about from other Swedes, is that additional taxes from the people could solve this, if effectively and efficiently used. After all, they spend ‘only’ around 9.2% of the country’s GDP on “healthcare,” and have a long way to go to catch up with the USA at around 15.5%.
 

 
So, just because the Swedish way promotes better health at lower cost for its people as compared with the USA, at least according to the few measures I use here, this doesn’t mean a Swedish approach would work similarly for the people in the USA, given population and cultural differences.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

If you want to know what I think is a good start toward something better in the  USA, see my article of 30 December, 2007.

Skål! (a wish for good fortune and good health).

Back in the USSR

Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee, it’s good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I’m back in the USSR
You don’t know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the US
Back in the US
Back in the USSR
(Lyrics by John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
© SONY BEATLES LTD; SONY/ATV TUNES LLC

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolved 25 December 1991, almost 18 years ago. There were 15 “republics” in the union. What, now, are the names of these countries? How are they doing?

I asked myself these questions as I prepared to write an article on Uzbekistan, a former republic of the USSR.

As for how the fifteen, individually, are “doing,” the answer has to be, in part: “compared to what?” I chose to compare a few demographic statistics with The World as the reference point. As I have so often in these pages, I went to the The World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA.

I chose seven demographic measures:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita

Life expectancy at birth for females

Life expectancy at birth for males

Net migration per 1000 population (number of immigrants minus number of emigrants)

Infant mortality (usually within 30 days of birth) per 1000 live births

Fertility rate (number of births per year, per the number of all women)

The live birth rate per thousand population, minus the death rate per 1000

I arrayed these seven measures by country and compared each characteristic to that of the world, whether more, or less, favorable.

[Please click on the image for clearer detail]

For the specific data in each country and the world, click here

I then gave a score to each country by subtracting the number of negative results, compared to world averages or ratios, from the number of positive results (a positive number shows a positive comparison to the world, and the converse for negative number):

Countries Scoring “+3″: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan

Countries Scoring “+1″: Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Uzbekistan

Countries Scoring “-1″: Turkmenistan

Countries Scoring “-3″: Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Ukraine

So what makes Belarus and Kyrgyzstan so special—at least with respect to world averages and ratios? (One must keep in mind that probably none of the readers of this article would care to live in an area where these demographics are at or near World averages and ratios; and, that the data aggregation agency, in this case the CIA, is at the mercy of the quality of data collection and reporting in each country).

Belarus
Despite low fertility and high overall death rate, Belarus has high GDP per capita, low infant mortality, high life expectancy at birth for both females and males, and more people are entering the country than leaving it. So, the overall population is growing. It does seem counter-intuitive for the population to be growing despite low fertility and high death rate, but perhaps there is still some in-migration of ethnic Belarusians from the other former republics who were dispersed during the Soviet era.

“Since 1996, Belarus has been negotiating with Russia to unify into a single state called the Union of Russia and Belarus.” [Source]

In looking at the nature of Belarus’s government before and since the dissolution of the USSR (see under the “Belarus” link, above), there is much room to doubt the accuracy of information coming from, essentially, a totalitarian state in existence for 70 years.

Kyrgyzstan
More people leave Kyrgyzstan than enter it, as residents, and GDP per capita is low, but all the life and health data are high. “Kyrgyzstan has undergone a pronounced change in its ethnic composition since independence [1991]. The percentage of ethnic Kyrgyz increased from around 50% in 1979 to nearly 70% in 2007, while the percentage of European ethnic groups (Russians, Ukrainians and Germans) as well as Tatars dropped from 35% to about 10%. The Kyrgyz have historically been semi-nomadic herders, living in round tents called yurts and tending sheep, horses and yaks. This nomadic tradition continues to function seasonally as herding families return to the high mountain pasture in the summer.” [Source]

Nine countries are scored “+1.” Rather than list and discuss them individually, I will present what they have in common.

Statue of Lenin, founder of the USSR, in Tiraspol, Moldova [Source]

The life expectancy at birth for females is higher than The World average.

Other than for Kazakhstan and Russia, the life expectancy at birth for males is higher than the world average. Russia is lowest at 59.3 years, compared to the world average at 64.5 years. It is remarkable that the life of expectancy at birth for females in Russia is 73.2 years, almost a 14 years more than for males.

All, except Russia, have more people leaving than entering the country as residents. Note, again, that there has been a general migration of expatriates toward their countries of origin after the dissolution of the USSR.

The infant death rate for all 15 countries is lower than the world average. The three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are lowest in this measure, by far (a good thing), between 6.5 and 8.8 deaths per thousand births. The world average is 40.9. Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are highest, at 20.2, 23.4 and 25.7 infant deaths per thousand births, respectively.

The fertility rate of all 15 countries is well under the World average of 2.6 children per woman. A country needs around 2.1 live births per woman in order to maintain the country’s population at a given level.

Except for Uzbekistan, the difference between the birth rate and the death rate (BR minus DR) is lower than the world average of 11.8 per thousand population (not good). Russia is lowest at a difference of (negative) 5.0 per thousand people.

Turkmenistan (“-1″)
The only three positive factors for this country are life expectancy for males and females, and the birth rate minus the death rate. “The former Communist Party, now known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, has been the only one effectively permitted to operate. Political gatherings are illegal unless government sanctioned. Turkmenistan is among the twenty countries in the world with the highest perceived level of corruption …” [Source]

Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Ukraine at “-3” score
The GDP per capita of all three countries is below the World average of $10,400, with Tajikistan by far the lowest at $1,800. Life expectancy for males born today is less than the World average, for all three. Except for Ukraine (at 8.9) the infant death rate is above the world average of 40.9 deaths per thousand live births. The fertility rate for Azerbaijan and Tajikistan is well above the World average, but Ukraine is among the lowest countries at 1.3 births per woman. Similarly, the birth rate far exceeds the death rate in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, but Ukraine is the lowest of all fifteen countries in this measure at (negative) 6.2; that is, the there are 6.2 more people dying than being born, per thousand population, in the current year.

1 Armenia 2 Azerbaijan 3 Belarus 4 Estonia 5 Georgia 6 Kazakhstan 7 Kyrgyzstan 8 Latvia

9 Lithuania 10 Moldova 11 Russia 12 Tajikistan 13 Turkmenistan 14 Ukraine 15 Uzbekistan

There is hard living almost everywhere in the former USSR. Look at the averages of these seven measures for the 27 countries of the European Union vs. those of Russia, the largest country, by far, of the former SSRs, and the most dominant, politically and economically:

European Union GDP per capita: $33,700 Life expectancy, female: 82.0 Life expectancy, male: 75.5 Net migration: 1.5 Infant death rate: 5.7 Fertility rate: 1.5 Birth rate minus death rate: -0.4

Russia GDP per capita: $16,100 Life expectancy, female: 73.2 Life expectancy, male: 59.3 Net migration: 0.3 Infant death rate: 10.6 Fertility rate: 1.4 Birth rate minus death rate: -5.0

I have been to two countries of the former USSR: Estonia and Latvia. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of the people for their freedom from totalitarianism, and the resultant social and economic progress, the ravages of the Soviet rule are still quite apparent.

With all respect to the poetry of Messrs. Lennon and McCartney, let’s not go back to the USSR.

Political Correctness and the “Cult of Personality”

Image Source [Please click on the image]

The phrase “politically correct,” or “PC,” didn’t begin in the 1960s in the USA. It was first publicly used by a British Ministry of Information official during the First World War. It later appeared in Mao Zedung’s “Little Red Book” in the early 1960s and was adopted, originally tongue-in-cheek, by the radical left in the USA. In Marxist–Leninist and Trotskyist vocabulary, “correct” was the common term denoting the “appropriate party line” and the ideologically “correct line.” [Source]

What brings me to discuss this today is my current reading of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward:

Solzhenitsyn’s novels are autobiographical, presenting a vivid account of a man maintaining his freedom against the vicious repressions of an authoritarian regime. Clearly a novelist in the 19th-century tradition, he is often considered Russia’s greatest 20th-century novelist.

His difficulties with the authorities began on Feb. 8, 1945, when he was arrested for having written critical remarks about Joseph Stalin in a letter to a friend that was intercepted by the censors. Sentenced without a trial to 8 years of hard labor, he remained until 1953 in a number of labor camps, one of which was a research institute where he worked as a mathematician. In 1952 he contracted cancer of the skin, and was treated in a hospital in Tashkent (the setting for Cancer Ward). Pronounced cured, he completed his sentence a year later and, although still in exile, was able to teach mathematics and to begin writing. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature.” [Source]

There are many reviews of Cancer Ward on the Internet, so it would be superfluous to offer my own review here, except to talk about one of the characters who exemplified the totalitarian state that was the USSR:

Bureaucracy and the nature of power in Stalin’s state is represented by Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov, a “personnel officer.” The corrupt power of Stalin’s regime is shown through his dual desires to be a “worker” but also achieve a “special pension.” At the end, Rusanov’s wife drops rubbish from her car window, symbolising the carelessness with which the regime treated the country. [Source]

I pause here to give some background for the ensuing comments on political correctness. It is important to know the period in which the action of Cancer Ward takes place. Here are the leaders of the USSR, in date order:

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, 26 Oct 1917 – 21 Jan 1924
Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, 3 Apr 1922 – 5 Mar 1953
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 7 Sep 1953 – 14 Oct 1964
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, 14 Oct 1964 – 10 Nov 1982
Yuriy Vladimirovich Andropov, 12 Nov 1982 – 9 Feb 1984
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, 13 Feb 1984 – 10 Mar 1985
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, 11 Mar 1985 – 24 Aug 1991

Please note the hiatus of top leadership between March and September, 1953. After Stalin died there was a political struggle among several pretenders to Stalin’s throne. Stalin held the top post in several functions and, after his death, there was a dispersion of these duties to several people so no one could claim to be Stalin’s sole heir, until Khrushchev finally gained the support necessary.

Khrushchev began a gradual change in the legacy of Stalin and, suddenly, in a 1956 speech “On the Personality Cult and its Consequences” to the closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, he denounced Stalin’s dictatorial rule and cult of personality. He also attacked the crimes committed by Stalin’s closest associates.

This speech destroyed the legitimacy of Khrushchev’s remaining Stalinist rivals, solidifying his domestic power. He began to ease many restrictions, and freed millions of political prisoners from the “Gulag”–penal labor camps spread across the Soviet Union. (Read Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago).

This “thaw” in the political, cultural and economic life of the Soviet Union included some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies, helping living standards to rise and promoting a higher level of economic growth. Censorship was also relaxed. Some subtle criticism of Soviet society was tolerated, and artists were allowed to produce some works that didn’t have government-approved political content–but there were still limits an artist or writer could not go beyond without reprisal.

The novel Cancer Ward is set in a hospital in Soviet Uzbekistan in 1955, before and during the period when the changes to Stalin’s policies and apparatus were culminating. One of the patients in the cancer ward was Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov, as mentioned above. While in the hospital he learns from a newspaper, and from his visiting wife and daughter, that the Soviet regime is changing: prisoners are being released from the Gulag, having been officially “rehabilitated.”

One of these prisoners, Rusanov fears, is a man, a former friend and compatriot, whom he falsely denounced to achieve some advantage in the factory where they both worked. Here are some excerpts to show the disorientation and fear the new rules of political correctness engendered in him:

Now times had changed, things were bewildering, unhealthy, the finest civic actions of earlier days were now shameful. Would he now have to fear for his own skin?

[Rusanov mentally reviewing the past] The nature of Rusanov’s work had been…that of personnel records administrator. It was a job that went by different names…but the substance of it was always the same. Only ignoramuses and uninformed outsiders were unaware what subtle, meticulous work it was, what talent it required. It was a form of poetry not yet mastered by the poets themselves. As every man goes through life he fills in a number of forms for the record, each containing a number of questions. A man’s answer to a question on one form becomes a little thread, permanently connecting him to the local centre of personnel records administration. There are thus hundreds of little threads radiating from from every man, millions of threads in all…They are not visible, they are not material, but every man is constantly aware of their existence. The point is that a so-called completely clean record was almost unattainable, an ideal, like absolute truth. Something negative or suspicious can always be noted down against any man alive. Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look hard enough to find out what it is.

…The poetic side of [Rusanov's] work lay in holding a man in the hollow of [his] hand without even starting to pile on the pressure. (Emphasis added)

[Later, Rusanov talking with his daughter, Alla, a well-placed writer who has recently visited Moscow and who is visiting him in the hospital] ‘Listen,’ her father said quietly, do you remember. I asked you to find something out? That strange expression–you come across it sometimes in speeches or articles–”the cult of personality”–are those words an illusion to…?’ [He means Stalin]

‘I’m afraid they are, Father…I’m afraid they are. At the Writers’ Congress, for example, the phrase was used several times. And the trouble is, nobody explains what it means, though everyone puts on a face as if they understand.’

‘But it’s pure blasphemy! How dare they, eh?’

[Alla] ‘…Generally speaking, you have to be flexible, you have to be responsive to the demand of the times. This may annoy you Father, but whether we like it or not we have to attune ourselves to each new period as it comes! I saw a lot in Moscow. I spent quite a lot of time in literary circles–do you imagine it’s easy for writers to readjust their attitudes over the last two years? Ve-ry complicated! But what an experienced crowd they are! What tact! You can learn a lot from them!’

Well, this is enough, I hope, to elicit your interest in the book, and to provide some food for thought about the potential power of government to shape our lives.

Will Rusanov be cured of his neck tumor? Will his old “friend,” released from the Gulag, visit him? Will Oleg (the main character) find love and happiness with one of the two hospital workers he is romancing? Will Oleg be returned to the Gulag after he is cured (if he is cured)?

Don’t ask me… read the book!

Addendum: If you have an interest in the current debate regarding how to finance and array medical care in the USA, you should certainly read at least Part Two, Chapter 9, “The Old Doctor” in this book. Take your time with it; it is poetically written (and, apparently, faithfully translated)

Colin Wilson

I just finished reading The Outsider, by Colin Wilson. I will read it, I am sure, no less than two more times, and will make copious notes while doing so.

It is one of those rare books by a contemporary author, or author of any era, which helps one understand the works of celebrated writers, philosophers and a few artists, in this case, by putting them into perspective with each other and within a conceptual framework that gives the reader an overall comprehension of their respective contributions to man’s understanding of himself.

Another book which I found to be similarly helpful, although different in tone and approach, is one by philosopher and academic Philip H. Rhinelander which I recently reported on, in two parts:

July 1, 2009: Attempting to Comprehend Man, Part 1

July 8, 2009: Attempting to Comprehend Man, Part 2

I have long admired the written work of Colin Wilson and have also listened to him on taped radio interviews which, unfortunately, I have lost through being so peripatetic.

I believe the first book of Wilson’s I read is The Mind Parasites, around thirty-five years ago. Since then I have read many more of his books, having lent some out indefinitely, it seems. The ones I have managed to retain, in addition to The Mind Parasites, are:

Aleister Crowley: The Nature of the Beast

G.I. Gurdjieff: The War Against Sleep

Nikos Kazantzakis

Lord of the Underworld: Jung and the twentieth Century

The Philosopher’s Stone

The Strange Life of P.D. Ouspensky

The Outsider, first published in 1956 when Wilson was 24, rocketed him to fame, yet I hadn’t read his most widely known book until now. Here is a synopsis:

…an insightful work of literary and philosophical criticism—a timeless preoccupation which perhaps garners more mainstream attention than his subsequent writings on the occult and crime. The book is structured in such a way as to mirror the outsider’s experience: a sense of dislocation, or of being at odds with society. These are figures like Dostoevsky’s “Insect-Man” who seem to be lost to despair and non-transcendence with no way out.

More successful—or at least hopeful—characters are then brought to the fore. These include Steppenwolf and even the hero of Hesse’s book of the same name—and these are presented as examples of those who have insightful moments of lucidity in which they feel as though things are worthwhile/meaningful amidst their shared, usual, experience of nihilism and gloom. Sartre’s Nausea is herein the key text—and the moment when the hero listens to a song in a cafe which momentarily lifts his spirits is the outlook on life to be normalized. Wilson then engages in some detailed case studies of artists who failed in this task and tries to understand their weakness—which is either intellectual, of the body or of the emotions. The final chapter is Wilson’s attempt at a “great synthesis” in which he justifies his belief that western philosophy is afflicted with a needless “pessimistic fallacy”—a narrative he continues throughout his oeuvre under various names… [Source].

Colin Wilson

The Outsider has been, and will continue to be, especially valuable to me because in it Wilson discusses many of the authors and their works I have read, some mentioned in the pages of this blog, including:

Hermann Hesse

Thomas Mann

G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky

Rainer Maria Rilke

William James

Aldous Huxley

In no way have I given you the essence of The Outsider in this brief discussion. It is a very important book to start one on one’s journey to self-realization, or to help the older of us to make course corrections toward realizing our fullest possible potential.

I can say that engaging in armchair philosophy might be helpful, but insufficient. One must act.