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me+ME+Multatuli: How respect came into the
world |
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"If
we believe absurdities,
we shall commit atrocities."
Voltaire
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I am not well and shall today only do some translating of
Multatuli's
idea 107, that
dates from ca. 1860 and is in the first of seven volumes of his Ideas,
all on my site with my extensive notes, all in Dutch except the
introductory page that sketches what manner of a man
Multatuli was
(Wikipedia)
Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February
1887), better known by his
pen name Multatuli (from
Latin
multa tuli, "I have suffered much"), was a
Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel,
Max Havelaar (1860) in which he denounced the abuses of
colonialism in the colony of the
Dutch East Indies (today's
Indonesia).
- a former Colonial Administrator who opposed the
Dutch exploitation of the Javanese, wrote a classic book about it,
Max Havelaar: Or
the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (Dutch: Max Havelaar, of de
koffij-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij),
translated into at least 27 languages, and a great writer, social
philosopher, activist, atheist, satirist and opponent of incompetent
authorities, of the suppression of women, of exploitation of workers and
by general acclaim the greatest writer in Dutch.
He is neither well liked, nor well read nor well
understood by the vast majority of the Dutch ever since he wrote and
lived, because they soon find he was very satirical and critical of very
many Dutch abuses, stupidities, postures, hypocrisies and other human
weaknesses, and he wrote an extra-ordinarily beautiful Dutch (that these
days has been declared "too difficult to read for
the Dutch", for which reason Dutch very minor lights "retranslate"
him, so as to have this "retranslations", with their copyright
shoved upon the Dutch schoolsystem as forced reading for 15 year olds,
with Learned Notes By The (Re-)Translator) ...
-> nau sea <-
... lets not talk about this least gifted and most
hypocritical of all nations, with most born conformists and
collaborators, and turn to
Multatuli's idea 107:
Idea 107. I will
tell you how respect(1) came in the world.
Pygmee was of small stature and
loved seeing others from above.
Which he rarely succeeded in doing because he was so bitterly small.
He went voyaging looking for people
that were smaller than him but found them not. And his desire to look
down upon others became more and more strong and fiery.
He came in Patagonia where the
people are so tall that a child, immediately after birth, looks down upon
his father.
This did not please Pygmee... in
someone else. But in his desperation to find human beings smaller than
him, he thought of a means. He invented a virtue that prescribed as
first principle : whoever is greater than Pygmee, must bow
down till below the line of sight of Pygmee, and this new value
found acclaim. All Patagonians became virtuous. If anyone sinned against
these "first principles" by standing straight, he was punished in a
peculiar manner. Everyone bowed down and virtuous jumped the sinner
around the neck and pulled him down, until his head had reached the level
of Patagonian correctness. And who carried all of Patagonia on his
shoulders without becoming virtuous, was put on view with a sign around
his neck on which was written a Patagonian word that really means:
this man stood in the way of Pygmee.
This word is translated into
English(2) with: selfrespect(3).
(1) a.k.a. humility a.k.a.
respectfulness
(2) or Dutch or Doubledutch
(3) a.k.a. highmindedness a.k.a. arrogance a.k.a.
pride
Human degenerates - the majority of the conformist stupid and
ignorant - are so vain of their own conformist excellency that they
look down upon all form of pride and selfrespect that do not derive
from being a chauvinist conformer:
One must be much advanced in the study of morality to be able
to distinguish between pride and vanity. The former is lofty,
calm, highminded, tranquil, unshakable; the latter is base,
unsure, shifty, restless and changeable. The one makes men great,
the other inflates them. The former is the source of a thousand
virtues, the latter gives rise to nearly all vices and every form
of deceit. There is a kind of pride that comprises all the
commandments of God, and there is a kind of vanity that comprises
the seven deadly sins.
-- Chamfort
The only "pride" such naturally low born -
the conformist stupid and ignorant - approve of is the vanity of
group
chauvinism as in "gay pride", "black pride":
Then suddenly
mock
humans who have handed in their personal guts and balls to the
local authorities as heartfelt honest proof and pledge of their
loyalty
to Our Leaders
are publicly applauded for doing
a group
performance for bland
conformist
onlookers that generally stresses precisely those
charicatureistically denigrating features attributed to the group
that insists on public chauvinistic displays of group chauvinism and
correctness falsely called "pride". (American example: Al Jolson and
his corksooted crew). (*)
Idee 107.
Ik zal u vertellen hoe de nederigheid into de wereld is gekomen.
Pygmee was klein
van statuur en hield er van heen te zien over anderen. Dat zelden lukte
omdat-i zo bitter klein was.
Hy ging op reis en zocht mensen die kleiner waren dan hy maar hy vond ze
niet. En z'n begeerte om heentekyken over anderen, werd al heviger en
vuriger.
Hy kwam in Patagonië waar de mensen zoo groot zyn dat 'n kind, terstond
na de geboorte, heenziet over z'n vader.
Dit beviel Pygmee niet... in 'n ander. Maar uit wanhoop om
menschen te vinden, kleiner dan hy, bedacht hy een middel. Hy vond 'n
deugd uit, die voorschreef als eerste beginsel : wie grooter is
dan Pygmee, moet zich bukken tot onder de gezichtslyn van Pygmee,
en de nieuwigheid vond ingang. Alle Patagoniërs werden deugdzaam. Als
iemand zondigde door rechtopgaan tegen de "eerste beginselen"
van Pygmee's deugd, werd hy op eigenaardige wyze gestraft . Al
wat gebogen was en deugdzaam, sprong den hardnekkige om den hals, en
trok hem naar beneden, tot z'n hoofd het peil bereikte van patagonische
braafheid. En wie heel Patagonië op z'n schouders droeg zonder
deugdzaam te worden, werd te pronk gesteld met 'n bordje waarop 'n
patagonisch woord geschreven stond, dat eigenlyk betekent: deze man
stond Pygmee in den weg.
Dit woord vertaalt men in 't hollandsch met: hoogmoed.
How to become
respectable and rich in Holland
The citizen's version:
Learn Dutch. Look Dutch. Behave as a hooligan. Think as a
Neanderthalian. ALWAYS, ALWAYS AND ALWAYS CONFORM TO ANY DUTCH MAJORITY
WITH RESPECT. Respect anything that speaks Dutch, looks Dutch, behaves as
a hooligan and thinks as a Neanderthalian.
In case of failure (non-Dutch non-elastic spine: rare
cases occur): Vomit and shit upon anybody who is not like everybody
Dutch, with a great show of enormous respect, while chanting "We all have
a right to any ideas whatsoever: We Are All Equal! We Are All
Individuals!".
The academic version:
For the readers of Dutch here is your instruction leaflet how to make it
in Holland in case you lack the balls to be a drugsdealer:
Be a real lying corrupt sadistic lying bastard and
you'll be mayor, alderman, parliamentarian or minister
real soon, even without having worked
one serious day of your life, while knowing nothing than bullshit and
formulating it brokenly and idiotically like a neurotic ass (our present
PM Balkenende excells in this), and having no talents or tastes or real
knowledge or abilities whatsoever except for getting rich by deceiving
and hurting others:
There are no civilised Dutchmen who can make it to any
position of any real power, for the control to all position of any real
power is carefully guarded by the bastards who have fought their way to
the top already, and only allow true and tested bastards of their own
kind on their own level of governance:
P.S. The more intelligent reader may have surmised a certain likeness
here as regards a similar man, with a simular manner of treatment, and
similar ideas and values: It is the human history of all time.
For context, background and hints for explanations and diagnoses see:
For Multatuli, in case one reads Dutch, apart from the Ideën
See also
-
Yodeling for Beginners
(<- page 25 - presently at ->
31)
(latest issue - one: ME humor - The Laughter
Process (tm) CoFIBS at work).
And some of the evidence that Herr Professor & Frau Doctor Wessely vom
Weasel zum Weisel are mentally
sane if and only if (iff) I am not - as they wholly agree, miraculously
almost!
But see here which of the two logical alternatives a true iff comprehends
applies:
Short descriptions:
1. Ten reasons why ME is a real disease by a professor
of medicine of Harvard.
2. Long essay by a professor emeritus of medical chemistry about
maltreatment of ME.
3. Explanation of what's happening around ME by an investigative
journalist.
4. Report to Canadian Government on ME, by many medical experts.
5. Advice to psychiatrist by a psychiatrist who understands ME is an
organic disease
6. English mathematical genius on one's responsibilities in the matter
of one's beliefs:
"it
is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon
insufficient evidence".
7. A space- and computer-scientist takes a look at psychology.
8. Malcolm Hooper puts things together status 2010.
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"Ah
me! alas, pain, pain ever, forever!
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?
I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,
Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,
Heaven's ever-changing Shadow, spread below,
Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, forever!"
- (Shelley, "Prometheus Unbound")
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"It was from this time that I developed my way of judging the
Chinese by dividing them into two kinds: one humane and one not. "
- (Jung
Chang) |
Supplements on ME
(*) Or in other words
If the cruel truths, the painful discoveries, the secrets of
society that make up the science of a man of the world who has
reached the age of forty, became known to the same man at the age of
twenty, he would have fallen into despair, or he would have corrupted
himself; even so, one sees a small number of wise men, who have
reached that age, who are versed in all these matters, who are quite
enlightened, and who have not become corrupted nor unhappy. It is
prudence that directs their virtues through public corruption, and it
is the strength of their characters, joined to the light of their
cultivated intelligence, that elevates them beyond the bitterness
that inspires the perversity of men.
-- Chamfort
If at the age of 60, one hasn't seen deep into the truth that
Quand on a pris le parti de ne voir
que ceux qui sont capables de traiter avec vous aux termes de la
morale, de la vertu, de la raison, de la vérité, en ne regardant les
conventions, les vanités, les étiquettes, que comme les supports de
la société civile; quand, dis-je, on a pris ce parti (et il faut bien
le prendre, sous peine d'être sot, faible ou vil), il arrive qu'on
vit à peu près solitaire.
-- Chamfort
it is because one belongs to that large majority of half men half
beasts that has become the human norm in these postmodern times where
one's publicy personal civilisation is approximately equal to the time
one has spend in front of a TV and the great majority of nobodies
drowns anyone outstanding in their public vomit and shit because the
few outstanding individuals are an ever rankling taunt and satire upon
their base beastliness:
"It was from this time that I developed my way of judging the
Chinese by dividing them into two kinds: one humane and one not. It
took an upheaval like the Cultural Revolution to bring out these
characteristics in people (..)"
(Jung
Chang)
.. except for the fact that human history shows that,
so far at least, these are the beastly characteristics of the
majority of men, that strange half beastly half divinely gifted
creature that in large historical and native majority was more beast
than (half-)god - which explains this diagnosis that is also Bayle's,
Chamfort's, Mill's, Nietzsche's, Russell's, Ramsey's and mine - and
anyone who has read history with at least half a mind and half a heart
“Man is wicked and unhappy; everywhere prisons, hospitals, gibbets
and beggars; history, properly speaking, is nothing but a collection
of the crimes and misfortunes of mankind.”
(Bayle)
"History is little else but the register of the crimes, follies
and misfortunes of mankind"
(Gibbon)
"Presque toute l'Histoire n'est qu'une suite d'horreurs."
(Chamfort)
This is mostly because the great mass of mankind is far more
stupidly, cowardly, egoistically and conformistically inclined than
not, and live their lifes hypocritically posturing, lying, falsifying,
levelling and demeaning, in the name of universal respect for the
majority of half beasts like themselves:
"They do but flatter with their lips, and dissemble in their
double heart."
(Bible
- Psalms)
"They have mouths but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they
smell not."
(Bible
- Psalms)
But if they can crucify or behead someone better or taller than
them, they will do so almost without fail, from native malice and horde
instincts.
May I also kindly insist that nothing I've said upon the nature of
man in the average - that is: the ordinary men that perpertrate and
fight the wars, do the colonial exploitations, live on slavery of
others if possible, and conform everywhere and always to the socalled
Silent Majority from a firm grasp of their own smallness - in any way
contradicts any of the main teachings about mankind of any of the
wellknown religious prophets?
Man on average is an ill and evil creature that behaves humanely
mostly towards loyal conformist group members within the groups he is a
member of but not to other human beings: As the
Heidelberger Cathechism has it, and this atheist lives in a nation
of "Calvinist" hypocrites who got the main part of their enormous
riches by piracy, slavery, colonialism and trading opium, slaves and
coffee, here is for the right sort of estimate of the average moral and
intellectual character of most men:
Question 8. Are we then so corrupt that we are
wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
Answer: Indeed we are; (a) except we are
regenerated by the Spirit of God. (b) (^)
(a) Gen.8:21 The imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth; John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Gen.6:5 And
GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
not one. Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he
which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Job 15:16 How
much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like
water? Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and
their belly prepareth deceit. Isa.53:6 All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. (b) John 3:3 Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:5 Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 1 Cor.12:3
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the
Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 2 Cor.3:5 Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God;
(...)
Question 10. Will God suffer such disobedience
and rebellion to go unpunished?
Answer: By no means; but is terribly displeased
(a) with our original as well as actual sins; and will punish them
in his just judgment temporally and eternally, (b) as he has
declared, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things,
which are written in the book of the law, to do them."
(^) Or personally speaking:
"except we are regenerated by the" love of
logic and
rational
science
Maarten Maartensz
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