Empathy, Compassion, and Honour

[Lyra]

http://www.cosmicbeing.info/

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[merzbau]

"David Myatt (born 1950) - also known as Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt - is a British Muslim and a former neo-nazi.

...

During his three-decade long involvement with neo-nazism, Myatt authored thousands of essays and pamphlets about National Socialism, in many of which he describes the Holocaust as “a hoax”. Following his conversion to Islam, he began writing about Islam, and so far has produced hundreds of articles, many of which advocate Islamic martyrdom operations, express support for Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, and, in line with Al Qaida’s radical Islamist stance, support the killing of non-combatants."

http://www.cosmicbeing.info/rumours/dwm-about.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul-Aziz_ibn_Myatt

[Lyra]

Ah, the wikipedia character-judgement.

He's a complex man, and one who it's impossible to understand without considered and prolonged study. Reading wikipedia will only obfuscate, given that the way information is structured and determined appropriate there is mutually exclusive with any expression which provides understanding of his character. The Wikipedia article simply isn't useful in forming any intelligent opinion of him.

He would say that you are being dishonourable by passing a superficial-causal judgement without taking the time to either meet and discuss matters with him or, at least, seriously attempt to understand things from his perspective before making an empathetic judgement, and not reactively judging in accordance with emotive-abstract labels.

At least read his poetry if you're going to post about him (not any points he's made or his Philosophy on their own merits). That's where you can see the man as he is, and come to some limited appreciation of the kinds of things that motivate his actions; instead of seeing him as he plays at being for the sake of understanding. (Yes, understanding-- how dedicated would a person have to be that they would be prepared to immerse themselves in violent subcultures such as radical Islam for the purpose of understanding that which is heretical from the inside? You'd have to want understanding more than anything else. You'd have to be a martyr to wisdom, doing that in the knowledge that you'd forever be instantly rejected upon the basis of some label you'd voluntarily taken on. Bear in mind that he's alternated between the Numinous Way, radical Islamism and other positions for years now. That's not the behavior of a self-identified ideologue or true believer. )


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A few relevant quotes. Don't mind his idiosyncratic grammar-- I don't think it detracts from his writing. I think it's often intentional, actually:

“As for The Numinous Way, I do now incline toward the view that this ethical Way of Life, which I have developed, is now independent of me, a complete philosophy of life, and can and should be judged as all such Ways, all such philosophies are judged, on their merits or their lack of them, independent of the life, and wanderings and mistakes, of those individuals who may have brought such Ways into being, or rather, who have presenced something of the numinous in the causal, just as the life of an artist, while it may or may not be interesting, does not or should not detract from or colour an artistic, aesthetic, judgement of his, or her, works of art.”

Q: To achieve this abolition, do you advocate revolution, the overthrow of States, and governments?
A: I advocate nothing, I only suggest some answers, and give some of my own, personal, conclusions that have resulted from my thinking. People are free to agree with these answers, these suggestions, or reject them; or use them as some beginning of their own. In respect of change, what is required, by the ethics of The Numinous Way, is a self-transformation, an inner change - a living according to the ethics of The Numinous Way. That is, compassion, empathy, honour, reason - the cessation of suffering, and the gradual evolution, development, of the individual: a move toward, a return to, an evolution of, empathy.
This is a personal change, and a slow, social change. The social change arises, for example, when groups of people who follow such a Way freely decide to live in a certain manner through, for example, being part of, or creating, a small rural community. The social change also arises when others are inspired by the ethical example of others.
All this takes us very far away from political or violent revolution - very far away from politics at all. So no, a violent revolution, the overthrow of some State or some government, is not the answer; instead, inner personal development and ethical social change are answers. To quote from my dialogue A Personal Learning:

"The great change toward the cessation of suffering - toward a better world - begins with this reformation of ourselves, this evolution of ourselves, this inner development. This is the essence of the social change, the social process, that is necessary."

Q: But didn't you once advocate the violent overthrow of what you called "The System"?
Yes, years ago, in that foolish period which for me lasted for several decades. Before I fully understood the nature of suffering and the causes of suffering; before I fully understood honour and empathy and all their implications. Before I fully developed The Numinous Way as a result of my experiences and my thinking. Before, that is, I placed empathy and compassion at the centre of my own personal life.