1 🔗
“Bible has nothing to do with western civilisation, profesore please go back to the Greek philosophers”
Factually wrong. History exists whether you approve of it or not. The Western Tradition is a braid of Athens and Jerusalem and this is a fact not under my control. Save your feelings about a book you’ve never read for a more appreciative audience.
From “The Bible and Western Culture Part 1”
2 🔗
“Tell us Dr. Sugrue… how much caffeine and how many stimulants did it require to establish such a forceful delivery??? I also suppose perhaps none, there are those that vibe so high that there’s nothing to do but tone it down.”
Don’t be any denser than you need to. No, I was not on meth or cocaine or Adderall or any other narcotics (legal or illegal) and the question implies a weak misunderstanding of what I do. Read Chuang Tzu’s parable about the Emperor and the Cook. When I am teaching I am thinking out loud, being myself, only moreso. Simultaneously, all my lectures are all extemporaneous. They require that I empty myself to focus and become transparent. Only getting into “the zone” via an extended period of silence and reflection before lecturing allows me to be myself only less so. The goal is to become a human superconductor of the Holy Spirit, all flow, no impedance. 🔗
3 🔗
“Buddha said, ‘Forgiveness demands that you completely abandon all hope of a better past’. His disciples objected, insisting that improving the past makes no sense. Buddha said nothing.”
I am not ashamed to admit that I have learned from Jesus and Buddha, Plato and Marcus Aurelius, Al Farabi and Confucius and Maimonides and Rumi, even from a large collection of fools as well. If you cannot learn from fools by watching their conduct, you are one of them. 🔗
4) A comment under Mike and Darren Unplugged ep.9 🔗
“please run for president we need you”
One of my daughters once said I would make a good king, and we laughed because she knows I hate politics and cannot think of a less desirable job than sorting out other people’s problems. I have enough problems of my own. However, your point struck a nerve in me, so I have decided to run for President in 2024. I am going to run on the Surrealist Party ticket, and I hope to get Dr. Staloff as my veep. We will recreate the consensus about American politics that has been missing for a century or more. My campaign slogan will be unifying: “Mike Sugrue for President: No Worse Than the Rest”. My supporters will like my candor, my critics will be met with the retort, “He’s no worse than the rest of them”, and the fair-minded among them will concede, “Well, you’re right about that”. We can revive the center of American politics in this way. Dr. Staloff will also be a powerhouse campaigner. His campaign slogan, parallel to my own will be: “WTF Did You Expect? Biden/Trump 2024: Better Than We Deserve” I am not going to raise campaign funds. Pro bono, I just want the American people to demand of the Democratic and Republican nominees a videorecorded unedited 8 hours of Socratic discussion with me, and I guarantee that we will all truly meet the candidates then. Having these clowns debate each other is like watching a boxing match between grandmothers. They cannot box, talk or think and the spectacle is pathetic and repulsive and stupid. Kamela Harris is the Democratic Sarah Palin, not nearly ready for prime time and probably never will be. Uncle Joe was always a tad simple and like his son Hunter and the rest of his family, he is as crooked as a bucket of eels. Mr. Trump, the soon to be jailbird, known primarily as a liar and a skirt chaser, is the least qualified presidential candidate since the last time he ran and before that, Andrew Johnson. Anybody who is willing to serve as his running mate should stop and ask themselves if power is worth forsaking all self respect. Anybody who answers yes is prima facie unfit for high office and eight hours of questioning by me on videotape will deliver to them the gift of consignment to political oblivion. If anyone of the Republicans is tempted, have them read some Roman history, imagining Sulla as Cataline’s vp. If the American public demanded that the President and VP nominees answered my questions on unedited videotape, for eight hours on four consecutive Saturdays starting six weeks from election day, if people could actually see who these jokers are without the cosmetics and handlers and soundbites, they would only get the votes of people as hopelessly corrupt as they are. If this were to happen, I believe that the American electorate would be so appalled by the quality of our leadership that they might seriously wonder if the Surrealist Party is the best alternative or if the Surrealists already had won and surrealistically hadn’t told anybody.