Monthly Archives: December 2019

Myths as Beliefs

Belief Systems, Just for Fun

Myths as Beliefs

I have always felt that there were at least some truths contained in what we refer to as Ancient Myths. What we may not adequately consider is that, in most instances, the people that documented these events did not view them at myths. The “myths” were the accepted “belief system” of their time.

The Sumerian beliefs were first documented Circa 4,000 BC using cuneiform script, one of if not the oldest written language. These writings referred to a much earlier time and documented the Kings List going back hundreds of thousands of years!

The oldest Egyptian writings date to the mid-4th Century BC and document their beliefs in many gods, again from a much earlier time and whose origins were off planet.

The earliest Chinese writings date to 1,700 BC and document their beliefs of the time. In India, Indus Script dates to Circa 3,000 BC and other, more modern script dates to well over 1,000 BC. The Oldest written document was found in Northern Greece. The Dispilio tablet dates to circa 5,500 BC.

The consensus is that Aramaic appeared Circa 900 BC and arguably documents events back to about 4,000 BC. There is little doubt that the Greeks and Romans sincerely believed in their pantheon of gods and their powers.

I often wonder what an off-worlder would think about our modern-day beliefs? Would they consider them myths? Would their view be any different than our view of the many beliefs that we currently consider “Myths”?

Operation Paperclip

History

Operation Paperclip

“”Operation Paperclip was the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program in which more than 1,500 Germans, primarily scientists but also engineers and technicians, were brought to the United States from Nazi Germany for government employment starting in 1945 and increasing in the aftermath of World War II. It was conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) and in the context of the burgeoning Cold War.

One purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific expertise and knowledge to the Soviet Union[2] and the United Kingdom, as well as to inhibit post-war Germany from redeveloping its military research capabilities. A related course of action was taken by the US with regard to Japanese human experimenters employed from Unit 731. The Soviet Union had the somewhat similar yet much more limited Operation Osoaviakhim.

The JIOA’s recruitment of German scientists began after the Allied victory in Europe on May 8, 1945, but U.S. President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 1945. Truman’s order expressly excluded anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.” However, those restrictions would have rendered ineligible most of the leading scientists whom the JIOA had identified for recruitment, among them rocket scientists Wernher von Braun, Kurt H. Debus, and Arthur Rudolph, as well as physician Hubertus Strughold, each earlier classified as a “menace to the security of the Allied Forces.”

The JIOA worked independently to circumvent President Truman’s anti-Nazi order and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, creating false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged the scientists’ Nazi Party memberships and regime affiliations from the public record. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, the scientists were granted security clearances by the U.S. government to work in the United States. The project’s operational name of Paperclip was derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new political personae to their “US Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.””

This type of action is often referred to as the end justifies the means. While I do not agree with the illegal actions that were taken, I have a more interesting question.

If the intention of Operation Paper Clip was initiated to ensure that we secured the best German expertise and if Wernher von Braun was the best the brightest how did the Soviet Union take the initial lead in the space race?

Entitlements & the four Freedoms

Broken in the USA, Perspectives

Entitlements & the four Freedoms

The following are a few excerpts from FDRs address to the 77th members of Congress. The entire address is well worth the read and I encourage you to view it. You can easily access it via a google search:

“A free nation has the right to expect full cooperation from all groups. A free nation has the right to look to the leaders of business, of labor, and of agriculture to take the lead in stimulating effort, not among other groups but within their own groups.

The best way of dealing with the few slackers of trouble makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example, and, if that fails, to use the sovereignty of Government to save Government.

Certainly, this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world.

For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
– Jobs for those who can work.
– Security for those who need it.
– The ending of special privilege for the few.
– The preservation of civil liberties for all.
– The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement.

As examples:

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.
We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
We should plan a better system by which persons deserving of needing gainful employment may obtain it.

I have called for personal sacrifice. I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call……………………………………….

 ………………………The Four Freedoms:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
    * The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
    * The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.
    * The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a     healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.
    * The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception – the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change – in a perpetual peaceful revolution – a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions – without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.”

Source: The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940: War and Aid to Democracies.