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Feb 10, 2023Liked by Farasha Euker

Farasha, that was brilliant! I will be reading it again and again in an effort to absorb as much as possible given my pedestrian brain. I sincerely appreciate all your efforts, and as always will look forward to your next chapter. Thank you.

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What do you think that Heidegger meant when he said that 'only a god can save us now'? For me, it brings to mind Alexander Dugin's notion of 'the fourth political theory' - i.e. that whereas the first three political theories - liberalism, communism and fascism - despite their superficial differences, all share the same materialist premises, a fourth political theory centred on Being (Beyng) and not race, class or individual autonomy, can give us the paradigm shift we need and restore way of being that is orientated towards the Divine and not shadows on the wall of the cave. It's an interesting and vital premise - that it might not take hundreds of years to turn things around but only an instant, and that it's not humans per se that are the problem but rather our attachment to false gods.

My sense is that it will all seem very obvious iand clear in retrospect - after the paradigm shift - but from where we are now things can feel very obtuse and hard-edged and it's not so easy to see how we can get from here to there. Thank you.

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Great, Farasha, thank you. I recently obtained a recent English translation of an earlier book by Ellul, called, if I remember correctly, Presence in the Modern World, which is about how to live in the face of the ubiquity of La Technique. I'm keen to see how it is related to the attitudinal change you call for. Don't you think Illich was a good example of the right stance? He couldn't take down the modern medical machine he so brilliantly described, but he did show, by personal example, the right attitude to take. (On matters of health and autonomy, he remains my inspiration). I was also struck by your quotation from Abbey. For what he says about the harmlessness of 'mindfulness' etc. in the West may, I'm beginning to suspect, be said of "Buddhist economics" in its latest manifestations, as it works its way through the business schools -- a kind of comforting, harmless palliative for post-Christian Westerners who crave something but are unwilling/unable to draw on their own ancient tradition. Anyone who decides, like Illich, to take the naked Christ seriously, or for that matter the true Buddha, is in for some serious life upheaval as they embrace voluntary poverty and renunciation. Keep up your good work, Farasha. I'll get to Kazantzakis yet, by the way!

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