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#89 | 2025-12-04 22:13:43 UTC
Re: On consolation
StJohn Piano

- Great post. Very true. - Where I'm at mentally: Human activity can be so bad that it's preferable to believe in God in order to have a defense against demonic behavior. - To go one level deeper, and to turn the focus away from other people, I understand my own proclivity towards evil / sin, which is quite strong, and the church offers a remedy, which is significantly better than the only two real alternatives: buddhism & nilihism. (I don't consider Nietzche's Ubermensch a viable alternative.) - That said, i still think the faith should be held in balance / tension against instinct / thor / odin / zeus / darwin. Sanity / truth emerges from the tension of opposites. - Incidentally, this is a way to avoid the temptation to try to justify christianity in the terms of scientific proof. I watched a lot of people try to do this. It's pointless. Cedes frame. - The faith is the faith. It needs no further justification. - cf "I am who i am" / ipsum esse

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#28 | 2025-07-09 11:32:11 UTC
Growing Regionalism in Spain 2
Guillermo Pablos Murphy

Spain operates like an asymmetric confederacy in key areas – some regions manage their own taxes, security, as well as schooling and public media – although it maintains that it’s a state of autonomies. I doubt this will be reversed, even if governments halt further devolution. There isn’t the political capital – or narrative – to recentralise power. Growing regionalism is especially a threat to Spain’s national story. The inequality of treatment and privileges between supposed equals can destroy the narrative of Spain as one people, one state. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Spain will devolve into micro-states, but it’s a reminder that de facto > de jure. Brexit, the Catalan declaration of independence in 2017, and UN resolutions are all WEAK politics attempting to play _de jure_. Navarre’s gradual devolution – see log/25/, Catalonia’s collection of income tax, and Norway and Switzerland’s relationship with the EU are STRONG politics that care about _de facto_ reality.

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