thou_shalt_not
celestias shadow We were going over vocabulary words in English today (don't get me started. I know all these fucking words already! It's not MY fault the rest of my class are idiots) and one of them was, I think, covet. (see what I mean? this is TENTH FUCKING GRADE!) My English teacher mentioned the two commandments that talk about not coveting. Something about 'thou shalt not covet they neighbor's wife or goods,' some shit like that.

Naturally it occured to John to turn to me and say 'goods' with the annoying little finger-quotation-mark thingy. However, this did lead me to an invaluable conclusion.

If one is not to covet his neighbor's 'goods,' isn't this obviously a direct message that one is not to partake in penis envy? Seemed that way to me :)
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sabbie and then sometimes
thou shalt
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User24 hmm.. using your example that all women are breaking that commandment, albeit unintentionally by means of penis envy (assuming Freud was correct)

However, (according to Freud) penis envy is a subconscious act; so the Bible, and by implication, God, doesn't care if we -mean- to break the commandments, or if it was an involuntary act; simply commiting the 'guilty act' is enough, without having the 'guilty mind'.

In fact, the Bible doesn't mention defences either; what if someone's insane, or is forced to commit the 'crime'?

I'd say that the commandments would need a fair amount of work before they could be adopted as a legal system.

:p & :D
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t didn't stop that judge in Mississippi

or wherever that was
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u24 what was that? 040124
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oldephebe There is a mantle of mercy draped over the ostensibly austere proscriptions written by holy lightning lancing out of heavens heart, ..tendrilled flame to teach the reprobate how to walk with wisdom and chastisy in the world of men. Okay so there's the fundamentalist understanding. Here's the thing, coveting ANYTHING creates pain, poisons the spirit, unleashes neuro-chemical "toxins". I think initially The Creator was imparting some good advise out of a place of mercy and concern for our welfare. The harshness and brutality glimpsed in the old testament is more of a reflection of inspiried verse being distilled through the partiarchal rigidity of those times. I think true morality cannot be imparted by a bamboo stick and a round of guilt tripping through the tulips. And sure hormonal tempests and spears hurled into our egos sometimes motivates us to react reflexively out of pain towards another or to scrawl graffit over our self-portraits. I'm foraging for a phrase here, there's something more than faintly dissonant in the distance between post-modern retreat from the religiosity of the baby boomers and their children and even to the generation that will come to inhabit the citadels of power, in industry and politics. Those who will become parents themselves one day, searching for something solid to impart to their children, something solid that can be clung to. The anchor within. The transcendant reality. That thing that melts the heart even in the face of anothers malice. That thing that enables one to rise from their knees from that stagnant pool of shame and sorrow and embittered..harboring deep resentments.

Maybe thou shalt not could be replaced by, it would be better for you to xy and z. Not all wisdom has to be acquired bitterly. I have that key to the closet your swollen heart is thumping in, and you know what?..it's shaped out of love. I think that is really the message the should be imparted behind the rigorous inculcation of catchechisms. Anyone who ever attended catholic school knows that all of the lessons never really touched the sorrow, or the awakening curiosities spreading in the cauldron heart of youth. But there is a gentle soothing balm that waiting to cover your heart with kisses and carry you over the coals to abiding peace.
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oldephebe Then of course some would argue that in a meritocrasy it is vital to have a healthy dose of ambition. It is vital, neccessary to cultivate a covetous appetite. It is neccessary to pin that philosophy to your mirror and let it shape your desires, let it be the inextinguishable engine of your steely eyed determination as you throw on your London Fog over coat and stride with purpose into the traffic of competition. I new a man once who fed himself on those flames only to find sadly that it replaced altruism with avarice and nearly every decent, empathic impulse was eroded, subsumed under the dictates of eking out advantage in any situation. Competition and healthy self-esteem are vital to live a self sustaining productive life. No getting around that. Thou shalt not erect deceptive and ostensibly altruistic mechanisms that seek to level the playing field while really what you are doing is allowing individuals who are not equiped to play the game, peole who haven't acquired the grit and cunning and skills required to participate in the meritocrasy to unfairly advance and pass GO while depriving those that have sharpened their swords and their teeth and hardened themselves in healthy competition. So yes altruism can have it's extremes. It can actually coddle a type of person and condition them to whine and thrust the open palm out whenever things get rough. Two extremes, two men who at the end of days will sit at the edge of their bed's and wail the loss of love and life, starving in their spirits for something more.

Balance. The individual is always in a way, aspiring to achieve balance I guess between the Platonic and Aristotlean verses, read in between the lines and find his way in this life.
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deluxe wombat ...think about green monkeys? 040125
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oE well aside from the really plentiful and pungent excrement thing..and not really having been to barbados..really haven't given the frenetic little fellows much thought... 040125
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minnesota_chris I think celestias has got the goods 040125
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. heh heh 040220
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Denis Leary I'm now the leader of the lapse catholic church, and here are the rules, my friends:
Thou shalt not...
Fuck that,
Thou FUCKING SHALL
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Lemon_Soda I had to read your words out loud to others to affirm their existence, oldphebe.

I shed...
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oldephebe hmmm? 040305
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criminally inclined change 240 to 420 on the hymn board 040305
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nonlucid once i read something that said if we were not told what "sin" was we wouldn't know of it, or something

i think it was in the bible somewhere, or perhaps in a jewishly based book, I don't quite remember

but it is true that if you're told not to do something, want to do it more, like when they tell you Not To Touch, even if you didn't particularly want to before, the urge manifests itself as it is denied, what is denied is most coveted, what is given freely is rejected

applies in love also, they tell me, the phrase "hard to get", we never want what we have, want what we lack

perhaps that's why nobody's ever satisfied with what is, but that is the essence of existence also perhaps, the nature of being alive is being dissatisfied, always wanting more than what's there, burning

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goesAwww!"

yet some still plead for silence, for quiet, equilibrium
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