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The Second Coming

By Rick Ackerman Posted on April 22, 2013, 12:01 am EDT Last Updated April 22, 2013, 5:22 am EDT

Forum discussion generated by our last topic, The FBI Will Get Them, was starting to stink worse than week-old fish.  We’ll leave it to the Alex Jones crowd to determine whether the Tsarnaev brothers were in fact double agents who betrayed their U.S. and Saudi handlers, as is now being plausibly claimed. Meanwhile, below is something new and different for you to ruminate on:  Yeats’ always timely The Second Coming, arguably the greatest poem of the last hundred years. Your comments will have a better chance of being published if you stay on-topic and show some imagination.

  • Robert April 23, 2013, 6:52 pm

    Far out, man. Far out.

    Yeats, Erudites, Apocalyse and the destruction of civilization… These last couple days’ commentaries have had it all.

    Do any of you who fear the “evil, murderous drug lords” actually KNOW any?

    The Boogeyman is NOT your enemy. Your enemy must be known- you must have looked into his eyes before you can formulate the rationale for why you would be willing to terminate his life before yours.

    Get it?

    When FEAR is your natural response to nature, then you deserve your natural fate- whatever it may be.

    If the idea of defending yourself, your family, and your way of life scares you, then that is your conscience telling you that you need to look in the mirror and be a little more honest with yourself. Weakness of character is a normal by-product of indifference and complacency.

    Get out there and swing an axe for a while. Go out and look for a Black Widow or a Scorpion, and step on it, instead of cowering away as if the bug were Satan himself.

    You can read all the books; and you can compare/contrast each and look for dogmatic loopholes that enable you to rationalize why your particular brand of sinful ways are less sinful than the ways of the scary, murderous boogeymen out there.

    All the books declare the same thing: In the end, Good wins, Evil loses.

    Love wins, Hate loses.

    Nature wins, Unnatural willfullness loses

    Character wins, Hubris loses.

    Intelligence wins, Stupidity loses.

    God wins, Satan loses.

    Entropy wins, Fleeting, temporary systems of order lose.

    Finally, Sanity wins, Insanity loses.

    BUT –

    NOWHERE is it written that the prey win, and the predators lose. There is one brief observation in the book of Isaiah that discusses the Wolf living with the lamb, and the bear grazing with the calf; but this is a break-even at best… no winners or losers.

    And, I suppose such an event COULD come to pass on the day that our physical beings no longer require the caloric energy derived from the consumption of other (formerly) living things… but I don’t think even Erudites have a well-formed thesis for how to make this little miracle occur…

    Digital technology improves much, but we’re still a long way from digitally printing nutritionally correct, yet fully synthetic chicken breasts and broccoli

    So, in the meantime, we’re stuck with the predators; and if you expect to disarm a predator, you can only do so by understanding his/her mind.

    Taking away the guns ain’t gonna do it. Pretending that paper (or digital) bills of credit are money ain’t gonna do it either (especially when said bills are issued by a system wherein the predatory psychopaths are installed in the role of the “creditors”)

    I really must ask- Are you all REALLY so fearful of what the future holds? If so, then I am even more thankful to the Oneness of the Universe that I am me, and not you.

    I do my best to help my children understand the world as it is, and to help them shape it into what they would want it to be.

    But, I absolutely do not gloss over the harshness and psychopathy of the predatory (and parasitic) mindset.

    It’s all just Nature. Fearing it is simply wasted energy.

  • bc April 23, 2013, 12:05 am

    I don’t know what it is about Wikipedia but nobody gets to be a true giant in their book. Read the entry on Gibbs or Gauss. Nothing special here. Just a couple of average science blokes. It’s quite infuriating not to mention absurd in its wrong headedness.

  • gary leibowitz April 22, 2013, 8:34 pm

    The eons of retrospective melancholy can be seen more of an individuals despair. I would never place current events with a notion that we are heading down the path of hell. The very same arguments have been made during wars, economic collapse, tragic events both man made and by nature. It is our nature to strive for answers. The obsessive need to tag our history as special falls flat against the same claims made over the centuries. We move, change, stumble, get back up, and most importantly move forward. Yes move forward. With all our problems today can you qualify any other period in time that you would wish to have lived? the romantic era wasn’t very romantic. The huge disparity between rich and poor today still dwarfs where we were 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, etc. we complain while we still enjoy the best of everything. Medicine, food, recreation, freedom to aspire both spiritually and economically.

    Yeats was at his best when he stuck to love poems.

  • le scott April 22, 2013, 3:34 pm

    I think the Second Coming is an emotional reaction on Yeats’s part to the folly of World War I. His vision is by no means historical, in that his Second Messiah would not be Christlike but that of a rough beast emitting more hatred and battles to upcoming civilization. In fact, some removed versions of the poem depict thirty centuries, not twenty as what the future holds. Many of his ideas were gleaned from the Book of Revelation.

    Although mystical and historically inaccurate, Yeats did foresee that despite Man’s stupidity would far overshadow any breakthroughs in his conquest to make this a better world.

  • Buster April 22, 2013, 1:41 pm

    I’ve spent a lot of time studying different religions, ideas & philosophies, but for the most part find myself a little frustrated by the motives & lack of clear reasoning of the majority. Accepting that most people would find fault in my own statements without knowing the background details that they’re based on, I still find a real shortfall in these others, usually also due to this same background of detail that I use for my analysis. A good example is the recent ‘manifesting’ ‘religion’. Most of the proponents selling this idea appeal to the main desire of most people seeking help, that being the desire for more money. Don’t get me wrong, I can see the benefits of this type of visualization & focus as well as positive thinking, but only when it is on something we have power over or is in the flow of the trend in play. Due to the coveted monopoly to make money, that isn’t one of them, & though this sort of focus may well work during the time of orchestrated money expansions during the debt cycle, it doesn’t quite fulfil people’s expectations during the busts like we are now experiencing. I’ve argued before that this whole scenario is a ‘put up job’, a ‘pump & dump’ scheme on a massive scale & the present volume of money now being created isn’t actually fed down to the masses who are instead giving up their assets to the corrupt financial oligarchs who have been overseeing this whore of a financial system for their own benefit for centuries, as the evidence of history attests quite clearly. To put the whole thing in perspective as far as the real role of positive thinking & ‘manifestation of money, I’ll cite some facts for due process amongst you:

    As the Banksters strangled the real economy & starved it of money that they controlled during the depression of the 1800’s, the American money supply contracted from $50.46 per head in 1866 to just $6.67 per person by 1886. If you were in debt to the Banksters you lost everything whatever you tried manifesting! Reality has a tendency to lay bare our ‘dillusions’, as many trend fighters will attest. (Unless they use hidden pivots, of course!)

    BTW. That depression was supposedly used to make the Americans too poor & weak to care about the changes the Elites wanted to impose on them, so there’s nothing new there, then!
    Together with this, I would also argue that the whole Elliot wave theory of pre-ordained cycles are in fact nothing more than the wave measured consequence of the Moneymasters designs of their debt based monetary system, with its consequent boom & bust asset transfer mechanism & world domination scheme taking its toll on the human individual & collective psyche. Funnily enough, the mood of a nation is transformed pretty darned quickly as soon as the money supply is allowed to flow again after an austerity heist such as has been happening throughout the centuries, as now, or after the imposition of a new mechanism of control in the ever onward & downward spiraled march of the ‘Agenda’ of the the Elites/Banksters is complete & they let us come up for air. Rather than the collective social psyche wagging the tail, as Bob Prechter argues, the Banksters little stub has been wagging the dog for centuries, as we are all gradually ‘realizing’.

    As proof of my theory, which is at odds with Prechter, I would bring any lottery winner as my witness.

  • Dave April 22, 2013, 9:53 am

    The erudites here may be oohing and ahhing on the deep meaning of this greatest poem but when you delve further, it appears to be no more than a Nostradamus-style prediction put to prose. Per the Wiki article on Yeats, he and wife Georgie were into psychics, mysticism, automatic writing, trance and Yeats questions if he’s deluding himself by considering his work A Vision “his” best.

    “During the first years of his marriage, he and George experimented with automatic writing, and George contacted a variety of spirits and guides they called “Instructors.” The spirits communicated a complex and esoteric system of characters and history, which the couple developed during experiments with the circumstances of trance and the exposition of phases, cones, and gyres.[clarification needed] The spirits notified George that they were ready to communicate by filling the Yeats’s house with the scent of mint leaves.[58] Yeats devoted much time to preparing this material for publication as A Vision (1925). In 1924, he wrote to his publisher T. Werner Laurie admitting: “I dare say I delude myself in thinking this book my book of books”

    Later on in this Wiki article,

    “Yeats’ mystical inclinations, informed by Hindu Theosophical beliefs and the occult, provided much of the basis of his late poetry,[91] which some critics have judged as lacking in intellectual credibility. The metaphysics of Yeats’ late works must be read in relation to his system of esoteric fundamentals in A Vision (1925).[92]

    His 1920 poem, “The Second Coming” contains some of literature’s most potent images of the twentieth century.

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.[93]

    Here, Yeats incorporates his ideas on the gyre – a historical cycle of about 2000 years. He first published this idea in his writing ‘a vision’ which predicted the expected anarchy which would be released around 2000 years after the birth of Christ. Indeed, the whole poem is an antithesis to the reality of Christianity.[clarification needed]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats

    • Rick Ackerman April 22, 2013, 10:09 am

      A mere ‘Nostradamus-type prediction’? I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove, but I can find no support for trivializing Yeats’ masterpiece in the Wikipedia analysis you’ve cited. By your measure, Mozart’s Requiem might just as easily be described as a maudlin attempt to sacralize death.

      Were Yeats’ poem said by some Ivy League teaching assistant to contain a recipe in code for bran muffins, would that diminish its power? Readers are capable of judging for themselves.

  • mario cavolo April 22, 2013, 8:24 am

    And on Yeats pray tell…? 🙂

  • mario cavolo April 22, 2013, 5:40 am

    A welcome rest Rick, from the analysis and insanity of reality to the shadows of philosophy and divinity… I’ll just copy/paste what I had written a few days back to JJ referencing the “Second Coming”…

    “Hey JJ, If I was a Christian extremist religious zealot I would actually finally believe with good reason that we are in the apocalyptic end times of our existence as creatures of the Creator. I’ve mentioned that I recently read the Penguin World Book of History, a must read, a tough read, and I am boggled by how there was a line drawn in the sand of “accelerating change” about 50 years ago. We can surely talk about historical comparisons as you noted such as the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire, Rome, etc. They are all great case guides for us to compare. However, the rate of change and transformation and the acceleration of that rate is now exponentially off the chart…”

    We are alive in a generation that is singular, truly beyond the belief of all previous generations that they were also incredibly unique compared to previous…

    Imagine the gradual levels of a furiously spinning tornado; the rate of change of spinning at the bottom compared to the middle and top; it seems quite clear, identifiable by us as intelligent observers in numerous, measurable ways, that is where our current existence is currently positioned in the vortex of time and history. I have no interest in “believing” it, I’m just “observing” it and that’s what we are all seeing…what the hell is next, an unfathomable oblivion followed by new birth or a transforming blossoming to new heights?…If the history of mankind, where the few benefit disproportionately by the hardship of the many, is any indicator, we should not have our hopes up it is the later…

    Cheers, Mario

    • Buster April 22, 2013, 10:41 am

      Hi Mario.
      I find it difficult, nay futile, talking to either believers or non believers on this subject. Both are usually just too biased to discuss some of the evidence on the table, which can be ambiguous, admittedly.
      Though I am quite sure that there are Gods or a God, it’s still a tricky question whether ‘he’s’ a physical or metaphysical being or beings, or maybe even both! That said, my own research has led me to conclude that all religions are at worse controlled by TPTB, at best directed by misguided people, but again,probably both, as despite the multitude of beliefs & even outright claims to divine representation, I see no proof of this in ANY of them. Stuck between the cunning misdirection of the Powerz, & the mass delusion of the many, I’ve found it best to seek my own counsel, yet doubt it every step of the way. I couldn’t honestly follow any religion due to the flaws I see in their ‘plan’, but do suspect some are at least looking in the right direction. That said, I have been very impressed lately by the work of Tim McHyde. I think he’s as close as anyone can be at this stage to a coherent outline of where we are & where we are going, though I would add a few details to his script, based on personal study.
      As you say, things have been speeding up since around 50 years ago, which is a very, very interesting point, as according to anecdotal evidence it was around about then that a certain discovery was made, which I find more than a small coincidence based on actions taken since then, which also fits in with Tim’s unparalleled analysis of scripture very well.
      In conclusion, I’ll leave it to others to eventually grasp the reality that there are very dark forces running the world who are guilty of crimes against humanity on a global & historic scale. The real question is not ‘if’, it’s ‘why’, & particularly, why the sudden hurry!?
      If the answer to this question is what is suspected by some, including myself, we may well all be very close to an epiphany.
      Not wanting to sound cryptic, but I am wary of talking about these things until confident in the evidence, which, as is typical of anything that really matters, is hard to get hold of & only forthcoming when it’s too late to do anything about it.
      A religious man who was impressed with my knowledge on his own religion as well the general subject, was shocked when I told him that actually I don’t ‘believe’ in God. His shock was displaced when I explained that I only ‘hope’ in ‘him’, & not from a personal desire, but for the sake of the world.
      The world needs a saviour, an external solution, of that I am all but certain. Without this we are all in deeper trouble than most could believe or I can dare or even bear to visualize.
      Coincidently (or maybe not??) such a hope is described as coming for a way to escape what looks to be baked in the cake already, as well as the worst case scenario that looks likely to be revealed very soon.
      It is this escape which I am focused on finding for any of us who don’t want a part in all of this, & though undeserving as we probably are, it is about the only thing I hope, & even pray for in the meantime short of a permanent solution, which I feel is likely coming eventually.
      I’ll end with saying that I sincerely hope those learned ones here may ‘escape all these things’,

  • jeff kahn April 22, 2013, 4:28 am

    (my favorite Yeats):
    “When You are Old”
    When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
    And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
    And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
    Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
    How many loved your moments of glad grace,
    And loved your beauty with love false or true,
    But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
    And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
    And bending down beside the glowing bars,
    Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
    And paced upon the mountains overhead
    And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

  • Seawolf April 21, 2013, 10:57 pm

    Somewhere in the universe a planet revolves around its central star, oblivious.

    The legions of the empire are no longer effective.

    The client states of the periphery fall away, no longer contributing treasure to the center.

    The central banks ease to infinity, but begin to fall victim to the law of diminishing returns.

    The leaders are seen as uncaring, interested only in increasing their own wealth and power.

    The people begin to cry out for a leader, a man of action, who will lead the out of this chaos and lead them back into the land of prosperity.

    Where is the second coming of Winston or Franklin, he of the new deal, or Adolf or Josef, great men of action, to lead us.

    Excuse me here folks if I may interrupt, but if you recall these guys created a lot of blood and destruction which ended with a pair of mushroom clouds, all of which was really hard on the indigenous life forms.

    The future looks bleak and dark.

    The people’s savings become subject to confiscation to save the soulless banker.

    Only Vultures seem to be populating the air.

    What deadly creature waits in the darkness to be born that will come to destroy our way of life?

    There is no past. There is no future. All you have is now. Use it wisely.

    &&&&&&

    Very nice touch, Seawolf. Thanks for the post.     RA

  • John Jay April 21, 2013, 3:50 pm

    What happens when Uncle Sam runs out of money and all the Sturmabteilung type agencies and mercenaries here are left to their own devices?
    Mexico, Central, and South America are already being carved up by drug/gold/war lords.
    And US Government Policy is hell-bent on merging our society and economy with them.
    I am watching the latest incarnation of Amnesty being pushed through Congress with the same sense of dread that I had when Slick Willie pimped NAFTA and financial deregulation back in the 1990’s.
    Of course, now that it’s too late, Slick Willie, like David Stockman is contrite and full of regret.
    http://tinyurl.com/2vfv4yc
    Slick Willie is contrite on the down low, David S is more vocal.
    But there is no turning back now, and they both are well aware of that hard fact of life.

  • BKL April 21, 2013, 3:41 pm

    This was a nice young man by nearly all accounts; this harbinger of the apocalypse. Fourteen years ago, he would have been designing web pages. In the seventies, he probably would have become an appropriately compensated teacher or social worker.

    In 2013, he only has easy access to two things, guns and explosives. HE is not the problem.

  • TRISCEL April 21, 2013, 1:29 pm

    The seeds of the future planted in the past and then
    “Things fall apart , the centre cannot hold” .
    History doesnt repeat it rhymns ,
    Good Call Rick.
    From the homeland of W.B

  • Buster April 21, 2013, 12:16 pm

    Good morning Rick on this beautiful Sunday morning.
    In tune with todays commentary, I’m sure you’ll love the following sermon….’bless the name of the Lord’:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=wNIrk5sPMrU

    &&&&&

    Scary stuff, especially for those of us who have dared to bring children into this world. RA

    • richard diamante April 24, 2013, 1:11 am

      un furtunately we all dont want to see what is in front of our noses.. especially when we are comfortable in our houses and have our suvs or whatever…

      the truth that something is very , very wrong and can not be hidden from any more.

      we crossed a line last week…

      probably not since the civil war has the army been involved in door to door searches and sequesterd an entire city… that is a us army on us soil… all to search for one 19 year old who by all accounts was contained in some 2 block area…

      no yeats erry sumation is probably upon us….as he wittnessed trully mind wrenching times.. world war 1

      inevitable how life seems to cylcle… eastern philosphy calls it samsara..
      we keep repeating what we dont learn..

      rip. pose comitatus…

  • Benjamin April 21, 2013, 11:23 am

    A Sunday commentary? It’s weird seeing that here, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on a Sunday before. Don’t see that it’s much a change in subject, really, but no matter.

    The truth is beautiful and simple. There is no wonderment from me over the why. Or the when.

    &&&&&

    The subject is Yeats’ poem, Benjamin, and any comments that go too far off-topic willl not be printed. RA

    • Cam Fitzgerald April 21, 2013, 12:03 pm

      No surprise, Benjamin. Some of the comments were verging on insane. You can’t even debate the lunatic class nor their commentary. Their righteous indignation brooks no alternate thought as their certainty in conspiracy is absolute and unflinching.

      Like how gold is going to 7,000 dollars. Give it a rest!

      &&&&&&

      Seems you’ve tired of the sludgefest as well, no? You ought to have seen some of the posts that I trashed, Cam. Any additions to this thread that are even slightly lacking in civility will go unpublished as well. They can take it to Alex Jones. RA

    • Dave April 21, 2013, 11:37 pm

      So, where IS gold going to when the SHTF?

    • allen April 22, 2013, 2:12 am

      Your buddy Max Keiser seems to be a close ally of Alex Jones.

      &&&&&

      My buddy Max is good-natured and his heart is generally in the right place. I’m not quite so sure about Alex Jones, however. RA

    • Benjamin April 22, 2013, 4:44 am

      Rick,

      Yeah, I know my post was a dud. I knew that upon seeing Cam’s response. So I just walked away, not wanting to fuel the flame I accidentally lit. And I can see why you and Cam took it the way you did. That wasn’t my intention, though, and yes, I really didn’t see that the subject (a bombing, not conspiracies thereof, being one of seemingly a zillion other tragedies, and the end of times) was a great shift. Here’s what I meant, guys…

      This year may well be the year my faith in all things, dies. I never thought I’d see that day, but it’s on the horizon. Maybe it’s such a humungous event that it only looks so close, but is really far away yet. Doesn’t matter when, really. I can see it and enough details of it. As to why that is a beautiful thing… All truth is. But I don’t think I could convey to anyone why the loss of faith in all things (mankind, for without him all things are pure truth, requiring no faith) is a beauitful thing. That’s why I didn’t articulate.

      Sorry to have been misleading in my necessary vagueness.

  • J April 21, 2013, 8:33 am

    Haunting…and timely


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