Editor's Page
"A Short Refutation of Natural Selection"
The
famous example of monkeys reproducing Shakespeare as illustration of
the role played by chance in biological evolution has often been
attributed to T. H. Huxley, although that is probably not true. In
fact the analogy goes back at least as far as Aristotle – in a
different context and without the typewriter. It goes like this: If
a thousand immortal monkeys sit down at a thousand indestructible
typewriters, they would eventually produce, along with a lot of
nonsense of course, all the works of Shakespeare...
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"Mafalda - Living upside-down"
Felipe: We live upside down? Where did you get that stupid idea?
Mafalda: Just look at a globe. Read more
Letters to the Editor
Dear Mr. Smith,
Just wanted to send a note of thanks - all of the articles in this edition seem very timely. But I wanted to send a special note of thanks to Steve Talbott for his exposé - I missed it over on netfuture, so it is good you all brought it to everyone's attention. Thanks for your devoted work ... we've been watching the SCR since the earliest days ... wonderful to see how everything is progressing!
Sincerely,
Howard Pautz
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Fiction
"The Tacuino" by R. Ariel Gomez
I bought the notebook in Florence. One for him, and another for me. The
golden band that enveloped the black leather binding announced that
it was called Tacuino and was still manufactured in the same way it
had been when the greats had used it, like Maupassant, Hemingway, and
some of our other favorite authors...Read more
"La Tacuino" -
Compré
la libretita en Florencia. Una para él, y otra para mí.
La faja de papel dorado que envolvía sus tapas de cuero negro,
anunciaba que la libretita se llamaba Tacuino y que se la seguía
manufacturando de la misma manera que cuando la usaban grandes como
Maupassant, Hemingway, y algunos otros de nuestros escritores
favoritos... Leer más
"The Multicolored Goddess in Anthroposophical Heaven" by Roberto Fox as told to Frank Thomas Smith
Chiche
invited me to a lecture at the local Anthroposophical Society on
Saturday evening [...] Chiche is the
nickname of one of my ex-clients who became a friend. I was able to
discover the fate of her husband during the military dictatorship
through my contacts in the Federal Police. He had been drugged,
weighted and thrown out of a helicopter into the Rio de la Plata –
the updated Argentine method of New York mafia killings where boats
were used to the same effect and the body is never found. It was one
of the many reasons why I decamped from Argentina and sat out the
“dirty war” in the U.S. I didn’t want to be one of
them. The information about her husband meant the end of hope for
Chiche, who was already along in years then, and now she is in her
eighties. She is a wonderful, courageous, intelligent woman, a school
teacher by profession, and I didn’t have the heart to refuse
her invitation...Read more
Current Events
"In Bed with the U.S. Army" by Ann Jones
In
the eight years I’ve reported on Afghanistan, I’ve
“embedded” regularly with Afghan civilians, especially
women. Recently, however, with American troops “surging”
and journalists getting into the swing of the military’s
counterinsurgency “strategy” (better known by its
acronym, COIN), I decided to get with the program as well. Last
June, I filed a request to embed with the U.S. Army...Read more
"Oil on Troubled Waters in Burma" by Kaye Thomson
When
Pandora opened the forbidden box and let loose all the miseries of
greed, despair, lies and wrath, she slammed the lid shut while it
still held imprisoned hope. Today hope still remains
in limbo for the people of Burma who desperately desire a democratic
government and freedom from the reign of terror wielded by the
totalitarian regime in power.A
military coup ousted the democratically elected National League for
Democracy led by 65 year old, Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, and
has held her under house arrest since July, 1989. The junta also
suspended the constitution, outlawed all other political parties in
Burma and imprisoned over 2,000 political opponents of the regime...Read more
Features
"Carta a 'Pepe' Mujica de Oscar Arias"
Excelentísimo
señor Presidente:
No
le escribo hoy a don José Alberto Mujica Cordano, sino al
"Pepe" revolucionario, a ese hombre que en medio del fango
del horror, conservó siempre intacta la flor de la justicia;
a ese soñador que no apagó la luz de la utopía,
ni en el más oscuro rincón de su celda olvidada; a ese
idealista que defendió, ante ofensas y amenazas, una fe
inquebrantable en un futuro mejor para Uruguay y para América
Latina. Le escribo al "Pepe" para decirle que queda
todavía, en el morral del tiempo, una última utopía:
la abolición del ejército uruguayo...Leer más
"Letter to 'Pepe' Mujica from Oscar Arias"
Dear Mr. President,
I am not
writing today to Jose Alberto Mujica Cordano, but to "Pepe"
revolutionary, the man who in the mud of horror, always kept intact
the flower of justice, to that dreamer who did not put out the light
of Utopia, not even in the darkest corner of his forgotten cell, to
that idealist who defended, against insults and threats, an abiding
faith in a better future for Uruguay and Latin America. I am
writing to "Pepe" to say that there is still time for a final utopia: the abolition of the Uruguayan army...Read more
"God, Satan and Human" by Amos Oz
When
I was a child in Jerusalem, our teacher at a Jewish orthodox school
taught us the book of Job. All Israeli children, to this day, study
the book of Job. Our teacher told us how Satan travelled all the way
from that book to the New Testament, and to Goethe's Faust, and to
many other works of literature. And although each writer made
something new of Satan, the devil, der Teufel, he was always the very
same Satan: cool, amused, sarcastic and sceptical. A deconstructor of
human faith, love and hope...
A Pair of Worn Shoes by Ken Wilber
In
his essay entitled "The Origin of the Work of Art,"
Heidegger interprets a painting of a
pair of shoes by Van Gogh in order to suggest that art can disclose
truth. And however much we might agree with that general conclusion,
Heidegger's path, in this particular case, is a prime example of what can go so horribly wrong when holonic contexts are ignored. The painting to which Heidegger refers is simply of a pair of rather worn shoes,
facing forward, laces undone, and that is pretty much all; there are no other discernible objects or items. Heidegger assumes they are a pair of peasant shoes, and he tells us that he can, with reference to the painting alone, penetrate to the essence of its message...Read more
Anthroposophy
"Initiation - The Rose-Cross Meditation" by Rudolf Steiner
The
attainment of a supersensible state of consciousness can only proceed
from everyday waking consciousness. In this consciousness the soul lives before its elevation. Through the training the soul
acquires a means of lifting itself out of everyday consciousness. The
training that is under consideration here offers among the first
means those that still may be designated as functions of everyday
consciousness. The most important means are just those that consist
of quiet activities of the mind. They involve the opening of the mind
to quite definite thoughts. These thoughts exercise, by their very
nature, an awakening power upon certain hidden faculties of the human
mind... Read more
Karmic Relations, Volume 1, Lectures 4 and 5 by Rudolf Steiner
Today
I wish to bring before you certain broader aspects concerning the
development of karma, for we shall presently enter more and more
into those matters which can only be illustrated — shall we
say — by particular assumptions...Read more
The Consolidation of the Anthroposophical Movement by Rudolf Steiner
Having
talked about various outer circumstances as well as the more intimate
aspects of modern spiritual movements, I will attempt today and
tomorrow to provide an interpretation of the conditions which govern
the existence of the Anthroposophical Society in particular. And I
will do so by means of various events which have occurred during the
third phase of the movement...Read more
Poetry
Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayler
The
Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The
score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And
then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A
sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
A
straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to
that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They
thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that -
We'd put
up even money, now, with Casey at the bat...Read more
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reads: La Cruz del Sur.
Frank Thomas Smith, Editor
JoAnn Schwarz, Associate Editor
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