Comments on: A Review of Butler Shaffer’s “Calculated Chaos”

By: Blair Hamilton

Blair Hamilton — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:49:52 +0000

Thank you for your prompt reply. I firmly believe that the "transcendent truth" you refer to is so simple and unchanging that it has simply been ignored by human society as irrelevant. The paradigm of an angry God demanding submission to a set of rules serves to justify organized religions and their established hierarchy through fear, but clear thinkers throughout history have always exemplified humility as the trademark of maturity. When individual intelligence is seen as a tiny speck of an ocean of wisdom, knowledge, compassion and power, the purpose of communication becomes an exercise in hearing from and speaking for the ocean, so that other specks will stop creating chaos. The "Golden Rule" has always been, and will always be, the only viable, non – institutional alternative to the power struggles and frustration of humanity, but without the confidence that the "ocean" exists, we are all afraid to accept the risk.

By: jeremy6d

jeremy6d — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 19:12:21 +0000

I find myself sympathetic towards just about everything you say, although I see the solution being the assumption by individuals of their responsibility to exercise their belief in what they think is "true" and "right" as a creative act rather than following some transcendent truth they assert compels them from "out there". Don't get me wrong: I suspect a transcendent truth exists. I just doubt my ability to understand it completely and sufficiently (at least intellectually) and I doubt even less my ability to demonstrate it convincingly to others. What I like about Shaffer's approach is that he seems to genuinely get the idea that how we think about ourselves has consequences for how we experience reality, and that much of what he go through is a choice, not merely "human nature". So making that choice becomes an active decision for which we take responsibility, not a passive act of submission.

By: Blair Hamilton

Blair Hamilton — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:44:39 +0000

Dear Jeremy: I was intrigued by your eloquent review and enthusiastic about the clarity of thought outlined by Mr. Shaffer, however, I don't count myself as either an anarchist or a "libertarian". Essentially, I trace the misery of society to a single factor – a universal tendency to arrogance that places our individual imaginations higher than reality itself, and then concocts complicated justifications for our madness. The institutions that we have created to curb this inner disease (of trying to rationalize irrationality) are ineffective and counter-productive simply because all groups and organizations become a concentration of our sickness and devolve into perfect examples of our singular pomp and pride, eventually becoming protected by the threat of violence. Solving the problem will require acknowledgement of a higher intelligence and curtailment of the freedom to offer wild speculations and outright deception in the place of simple truth.