Caesar and Christ – The Story of Civilization by Will Durant - 9 out of 10

 

Caesar and Christ – The Story of Civilization by Will Durant

 

9 out of 10

 

 

It depends on your view, notwithstanding the fact that there are new discoveries, whether you support one or the other of the parties in conflict, and furthermore, it is said that we only hear from the winners, even if sometimes there are outré occurrences, for instance, The Fall of Constantinople, in 1453, when the ottomans took it

 

We have documents from the losing side, albeit there is an increased interest on the Turkish side, they now have a nut job (so many in the world, there is an epidemic, besides the fact that some bad people are attracted to power, they want to be in front) as president, Erdogan, a would-be despot, friend of Putin, an obnoxious fellow

When this Hamas leader died recently, the one killed with a time bomb in Teheran, Erdogan has placed flags at half mast, but this is just one of his idiotic beanos, I understand that they now haunt the stary dogs, he wanted low rates of interest from the national bank, just as inflation was reaching more records and more of the same

 

Now going back a bit, Christians have managed to impose their time on the world, for the Muslims have the start at what, somewhere around 622, the Jews have thousands of years of history, before Christ, and then there are other calendars, but somehow, we are in 2024, just because we start counting with Christ

The Muslims in fact report their zero to the migration to…was it Medina, a time of transformation, change, and then Christ is a prophet for their faith, and once upon a time, they would pray looking towards Jerusalem, only some of the initial tribes changed allegiance, and then they later have another orientation

 

Karen Armstrong is the ultimate expert on religion, she has a few fantastic books, one is A Short History of Islam https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/islam-short-history-by-karen-armstrong.html and there are fascinating aspects there, one would be this Mohamed – there is only one Allah, and Mohamed is his prophet

Revenons a nos moutons, coming back to the subject, Constantine is the keystone, he is the one who was fighting to become emperor, there were about seven, maybe more competitors, and Constatine was one of the would be succesors, when, just before a battle, he has this dream and then he puts the sign on his flags

Since he is victorious, with his armies, he becomes Caesar aka emperor, and then he converts to Christianity, which becomes thus the official religion of the empire, and there is another gesture, a paramount act, that of the Donation he makes to the church, making the vicar of Rome ruler over the west

 

That is, if we are to believe some sources, in particular, what the Catholic church would have us think – well, I am not familiar with the latest acts, so maybe they have toned down some of this – only it was demonstrated to be a fake, the emperor never made such a colossal paradigm shift, never anointed the pope as leader

Based on that claimed donation, the successive popes pretended that they have control not only over spiritual, unearthly matters, but they are also entitled to be ‘monarchs’, one called the emperor, was it Fredrich, and made him kneel, and over centuries, they abused this authority to meddle over matters that were political

 

Karen Armstrong https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/fields-of-blood-and-religion-by-karen.html explains in her wonderful works that very often, the interpretations given to the holy texts are wrong, they have to be seen as mythical stories, the creationists and others take their reading to extremes, reaching false conclusions

The world was not made in seven days, Noah did not take all the species (that would make what, billions) on that famous ark, which was again, virtual, not an immense vessel, which would have had to be the size of Australia or something, the popes claim legitimacy from that donation, and it there was no such munificence

 

What is absurd and awful for this reader is that you have evangelicals, believers that in the name of a generous doctrine (that is if we ignore the Old Testament and its incitements to genocide, rape, torture and more) have made some of the most disgusting, heinous acts, and they keep at it, if not on the level of the Inquisition

Look at the idiot that they favor to become (again!) leader of the free world, Orange Jesus (this is the nickname that congress fools from their cult have found for the Chosen one) is not just incompetent, suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder and other ailments, but he is the epitome of the sinful devil

 

I know, I know, they say that ‘God works in mysterious ways, the paths of God are unknown and the like’, but to have The Almighty choose this disgusting demon is insulting Him, really, I am an atheist, but to me it sounds like a bad joke, in best case scenario, or a tragic slap in the face of their All-Powerful Colorist and sculptor

Mel Brooks has that funny take in his History of the World https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-producers-written-and-directed-by.html where Moses is up that mountain, to get the Ten Commandments and then he says to God ‘I hear you, I hear you, a deaf man can hear you’, only Orange Jesus broke all those rules, what with lying, the wife of the neighbor and all the rest, and you put this role model in charge?!

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”