INFORMAL MAXIMS
Aphoristic Philosophy
Copyright © 2009 John
O'Loughlin
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1. Only
a clod would prefer the heaviness of the flesh to the lightness of air, and
thus pleasure to joy.
2. To
distinguish between the sanity of God, which is spiritual, and the insanity of
the Devil, which is emotional.
3. To
distinguish, likewise, between the rationality of man, which is intellectual, and
the irrationality of woman, which is sexual (instinctual).
4. Sanity is spiritual and
insanity emotional, whereas rationality is intellectual and irrationality
sexual.
5. The
sanity of Heaven, as against the insanity of Hell.
6. The
rationality of Purgatory, as against the irrationality of the World.
7. The negative sanity
(light) of the Clear Light of the Void vis-à-vis the positive sanity (air) of
the Holy Spirit of Heaven.
8. The negative insanity
(fire) of the Clear Heat of Time vis-à-vis the positive insanity (blood) of the
Holy Soul of Hell.
9. The negative
rationality (water) of the Clear Coldness of Volume vis-à-vis the positive
rationality (intellect) of the Holy Mind of Purgatory.
10. The negative
irrationality (earth) of the Clear Darkness of Mass vis-à-vis the positive
irrationality (flesh) of the Holy Will of the World.
11. The negative sanity of
the leading class vis-à-vis the positive sanity of the classless.
12. The negative insanity
of the ruling class vis-à-vis the positive insanity of the upper class.
13. The negative
rationality of the managing class vis-à-vis the positive rationality of the
middle class.
14. The negative
irrationality of the working class vis-à-vis the positive irrationality of the
lower class.
15. There is a metaphorical
sense in which it could be argued that if 'God' invented words, then the
'Devil' invented numbers.
16. If the essence of words
is religious, then the essence of numbers is scientific.
17. Characters, being
joined together into words, are essentially cultural, whereas digits, separated
one from another, are fundamentally barbarous.
18. Words are generally
written and numbers printed, though it is equally possible to print words and
to join numbers.
19. An age which prints
words and joins numbers is rather more phenomenal and secular than noumenal and cultural.
20. The more one prefers to
join characters the less one is likely to print numbers.
21. Printing characters, as
in 'John', is the 'worst of a good job', whereas writing numbers, as in 'one,
two, three', is the 'best of a bad job'.
22. Hell
and the World respond to numbers, whereas Purgatory and Heaven relate to words.
23. Hell's numbers are
printed and the World's numbers written, whereas Purgatory's characters are
printed and Heaven's characters written.
24. The noumenal
objectivity of printed numbers (digits) vis-à-vis the phenomenal subjectivity
of written numbers.
25. The phenomenal
objectivity of printed characters vis-à-vis the noumenal
subjectivity of written characters.
26. The
greater the artist, the more will he prefer to write numbers as words than to
print them as digits.
27. The
true philosopher will refrain from using digits altogether, even if he is
occasionally obliged to write numbers.
28. The
thought number is always a word, not a digit; for digits, being symbolic, are
merely apparent.
29. Numbers derive their
sounds from words, as in 'one-two-three', whereas '1-2-3', being digits, are
merely symbolic.
30. A symbol has no sound, since
the hollow reflection of a vacuous alpha.
31. The
more vacuous the society, the greater the importance it attaches to symbols and
the less importance, by comparison, to sounds.
32. Now is the age of the
'hollow men' (Eliot), who are first mesmerized and then dominated by digits.
33. Time is measured by
digits which tick (repetitively) and/or flicker (sequentially) from number to
number in symbolic vacuity.
34. One may read the
repetitive time of a ticking watch, but to read the sequential time of a
digital watch would be a contradiction in terms.
35. The digital watch is
merely symbolic and deserves only to be noted, not read!
36. Digital watches/clocks
are the hollow reflection of a vacuous alpha - the alpha of sequential time.
37. Sequential time is
fascist and weak, whereas repetitive time is fundamentalist and strong.
38. Sequential time
correlates with fire and repetitive time with blood.
39. 'Old Father Time' is
repetitive time, and contrasts with the sequential time (digital) of what might
be called 'New (in relation to digitals) Satan Time'.
40. Time is never moral,
whether repetitive or sequential, but repetitive time has the advantage over
sequential time of at least being positively (rather than negatively) immoral.
41. The man who is
dominated by time cannot know and realize the absolute freedom of space.
42. Time acts as an
emotional barrier to the spiritual freedom of space.
43. The
sequential timelessness of spatial space, as against the repetitive
timelessness of spaced space.
44. Both the Clear Light of
the Void and the Holy Spirit of Heaven are timeless, but the timelessness of
the former, having reference to spatial space, is sequential, whereas the
timelessness of the latter, being affiliated to spaced space, is repetitive.
45. The man who is
dominated by mass cannot know and realize the relative freedom of volume.
46. Mass acts as a sexual
barrier to the intellectual freedom of volume.
47. The
massed masslessness of volumetric volume, as against
the massive masslessness of voluminous volume.
48. Both the Clear Coldness
of Volume and the Holy Mind of Purgatory are massless,
but the masslessness of the former, having reference
to volumetric volume, is massed, whereas the masslessness
of the latter, being affiliated to voluminous volume, is massive.
49. Purgatory stands
between the World and Heaven as a kind of half-salvation relative to the
intellect.
50. The
man who is dominated by mass may not know and realize the relative freedom of
volume, but if he renounces the World he can know and realize the absolute
freedom of space.
51. The
absolute freedom of space is commensurate with salvation, whether negatively,
as in the case of spatial space, or positively, as in the case of spaced space.
52. Absolute freedom
differs from relative freedom as the noumenal from
the phenomenal, or Heaven from Purgatory.
53. Likewise, absolute
binding (enslavement) differs from relative binding as the noumenal
from the phenomenal, or Hell from the World.
54. The
World is relatively bound, but can achieve deliverance from its binding (sin)
through the absolute freedom of Heaven.
55. Purgatory is relatively
free, and such a relative freedom leads not to the heaven of absolute freedom
but to the hell of absolute binding.
56. Delivered from mass for
the salvation of space.
57. Driven from volume to
the damnation of time.
58. The Last shall be first
and the First shall be last; for the World is destined for Heaven and Purgatory
for Hell.
59. The
Catholic Irish shall be the transcendentalist First and the Protestant British
the fundamentalist Last; for Ireland, being of the World, is destined for
Heaven, whereas Britain, being of Purgatory, is destined for Hell.
60. The British are a purgatorially clever people in the process of becoming
hellishly foolish.
61. The Irish are a worldly
stupid people in the process of becoming heavenly wise.
62. When the British are no
longer intellectually clever but soulfully foolish, then will they be damned.
63. When the Irish are no
longer sexually stupid but spiritually wise, then they will be saved.
64.
65. Ireland has yet to be
saved, despite appearances to the contrary, to the heaven of spiritual wisdom.
66. Ireland will only be
saved to the heaven of spiritual wisdom when the People vote, compliments of
the Second Coming, [Whether or not this is a veiled reference to the author of
this text and to other texts by the same writer, the term should be understood
loosely and equivalently, rather than literally and pedantically. There can be no literal Second Coming
of Jesus Christ, so far as I am concerned!] for
religious sovereignty.
67. Britain's damnation to
the hell of soulful folly will only be official on the day that, for whatever
reason, nonconformism is eclipsed by fundamentalism,
and Moslem parliamentarianism replaces the Protestant parliament of
68. Time alone will tell
whether Britain can avoid official damnation and become, like Ireland, a country
of the Saved; though the odds, at present, are rather
stacked against it!
69. That man who is beyond
time will disincline to wear a watch.
70. Time is ever a mark of
the Devil, and he who wears a watch is rooted in the diabolic, whether negatively
(fascism) or positively (fundamentalism), depending whether his watch is
sequential or repetitive.
71. To transcend time in
the timeless space of heavenly salvation.
72. To distinguish between
the voyeuristic/oral idealism of 'heavenly sex' and the fetishistic/masturbatory
naturalism of 'hellish sex'.
73. To
distinguish, likewise, between the sadomasochistic/heterosexual realism of
'worldly sex' and the homosexual/lesbian materialism of 'purgatorial sex'.
74. The sexual idealism of
Heaven vis-à-vis the sexual naturalism of Hell.
75. The sexual realism of
the World vis-à-vis the sexual materialism of Purgatory.
76. To transcend mass in
the massless volume of purgatorial intellectuality.
77. The
transcendentalism of Purgatory, being intellectual, is necessarily a false
transcendentalism which accords with nonconformist opposition to the World.
78. True transcendentalism
can only be spiritual, and thus not opposed to the World, like Purgatory, but
beyond it!
79. True transcendentalism
is rather akin to oral sex beyond conventional heterosexual intercourse.
80. Oral sex, by which I
primarily mean kissing, is thus akin to a mode of sexual salvation which
transcends the World.
81. Oral sex is the type of
sexuality most appropriate to a heavenly society, which is focused on the
breath.
82. The illusory nature of
voyeurism vis-à-vis the truthful nature of oral sex.
83. The weak nature of
fetishism vis-à-vis the strong nature of masturbation.
84. The evil nature of homosexual
intercourse vis-à-vis the good nature of lesbianism.
85. The ugly nature of
sadomasochism vis-à-vis the beautiful nature of heterosexual intercourse.
86. Sex is no-less
ideological than politics or religion, and people can be known and judged according
to their sexual preferences.
87. Salvation does not
entail an abandonment of sex so much as a transmutation of and refinement upon
it, as from heterosexual intercourse to oral sex.
88. People who kiss in
public are guilty of no more than a divine approach to sex.
89. Because the public is
outer and the private inner, it could be argued that whereas kissing in public
corresponds to outer spirit, private kissing, by comparison, corresponds to
inner spirit.
90. Likewise a distinction
could be drawn between public and private voyeurism on the basis of an
outer/inner dichotomy in relation to light.
91. Hence a spectrum of
'divine sex' stretching from public voyeurism to private kissing via public
kissing and private voyeurism.
92. Because the public is
outer and the private inner, it could be argued that whereas public
masturbation corresponds to outer soul, private masturbation, by comparison,
corresponds to inner soul.
93. Likewise a distinction
could be drawn between public and private fetishism on the basis of an
outer/inner dichotomy in relation to heat.
94. Hence a spectrum of
'diabolic sex' stretching from public fetishism to private masturbation via
public masturbation and private fetishism.
95. Because the public is
outer and the private inner, it could be argued that whereas public lesbianism
corresponds to outer mind, private lesbianism, by comparison, corresponds to
inner mind.
96. Likewise a distinction
could be drawn between public and private homosexuality on the basis of an outer/inner
dichotomy in relation to coldness.
97. Hence a spectrum of
'purgatorial sex' stretching from public homosexuality to private lesbianism
via public lesbianism and private homosexuality.
98. Because the public is
outer and the private inner, it could be argued that whereas public
heterosexuality corresponds to outer will, private heterosexuality, by
comparison, corresponds to inner will.
99. Likewise a distinction
could be drawn between public and private sadomasochism on the basis of an
outer/inner dichotomy in relation to darkness.
100. Hence a spectrum of
'mundane sex' stretching from public sadomasochism to private heterosexuality
via public heterosexuality and private sadomasochism.