- Thales – apolitisk.
- Anaximander – enten konservativ eller en art socialliberal.
- Anaximenes – apolitisk.
- Xenofanes – proto-liberal. Mere klassisk liberal end libertær.
- Heraklit – apolitisk. Dog antidemokrat.
- Parmenides – apolitisk.
- Zenon – apolitsk.
- Melissus – apolitisk.
- Empedocles – proto-socialist.
- Demokrit – demokrat.
- Sokrates – apolitisk.
- Platon – radikal kollektivist og teknokrat.
Category Archives: Filosofi
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans III
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans. To see a modern and updated version of the same theme, go here.
The quick introvert is often versatile enough to work in more than one field, but two genres are peculiarly his: decoration and landscape. As a decorator he is generally anonymous; but in all the field of ornament that is based on natural forms, from Minoan pots through Greek gems and Gothic sculpture and illumination to Turkish brocades and Audenarde tapestries, we may recognize his hand. He loves the sweetness of a curve more than the rigidity of geometric forms; but his designs have a boldness of idea, a consistency of form, that makes them completely different from the soft and graceful achievements of the quick extravert. Similarly, his colours run through a deeper and more resonant gamut than the quick extravert’s pale and elegant hues; but blacks and whites he usually eschews, preferring dark browns and creamy yellows for his extreme tints. His decoration is often sculptured, but it has always the curve of natural growth rather than the angularity of stone, whether it be the plane leaves that lie upon the surface of a Roman altar, the budding foliage of a Gothic capital, or the more formal leafage of Donatello’s balustrade. Even in iron work it will lose all spear-like quality and be as easy and gracious in its curves as is the gate of the Casa de Pilatos at Seville. Something so formal as script he will turn from Trajanic severity into a decorative arabesque, whether it be the Gothic alphabet of the Studley Royal bowl or the magnificent Cufic of such metal-work as Alp Arslan’s silver dish and of such architectural ornament as that of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan.
The quick introvert decorator enjoys many of the forms of classical architecture, but is apt to use them freely and unclassically, as decoration rather than as architecture. At its worst his enjoyment of curves and mouldings for their own sake may become as extravagant as the interior of the Cartuja at Granada; at its best it may have the sober dignity and elegant proportion of Philibert de I’Orme’s ‘French Order’ or of the French classicism of Versailles. It is never very scholarly; and the classic purity of line is often obscured. We may suspect his hand in the most diverse buildings in which architecture and ornament are completely fused, whether in the Erechtheum at Athens, or in the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, or in Exeter Cathedral or in the cloister at Gloucester. Such work will often show two characteristics: a preference for the ogival line, and a multiplication of structural forms in order to achieve decorative effect. The ogival line will be found in structures as diverse as the Alhambra at Granada, the Lady Chapel at Ely, the tower of Jacques Coeur’s house at Bourges, the choir screen at Albi and the baroque baldacchino of the Cathedral of Worms. The multiplication of forms recurs as far apart in time and space as the Alhambra of Granada and Tessin’s Riddarhus at Stockholm. We are apt to accept all Gothic as structural; but Exeter Cathedral might well have been built with fewer than sixteen colonnettes to the piers, eightfold mouldings to the archivolts and eleven ribs to the vaulting.
I have already instanced William Morris as a quick introvert. He may stand as the type of all the unnamed decorators and architects of that temperament. Characteristically plenteous in production and generous in mind; impulsive, yet with a deep-lying consistency of purpose, hot tempered, self-centred, decisive; in every-thing responsive to beauty and in everything a reformer. His biographer tells us: ‘To him the House Beautiful represented the visible form of life itself. Not only as a craftsman and manufacturer, a worker in dyed stuffs and textiles and glass, a pattern designer and decorator, but throughout the whole range of life, he was from first to last the architect, the master-craftsman, whose range of work was so phenomenal and his sudden transitions from one to another form of productive energy so swift and perplexing because, himself secure in the centre, he struck outwards to any point on the circumference with equal directness, with equal precision, unperplexed by artificial subdivisions of art, and untrammelled by any limiting rules of professional custom.’ It is entirely characteristic that he considered the qualities fatal to art to be vagueness, hypocrisy and cowardice.
In his pictures and sculpture as in his designs the quick introvert has always a strong sense of weight. Compare with a Byzantine mosaic a painting by Mantegna, that has a massiveness that gives to his figures what we call a sculptural quality, since material weight is inescapably bound up with plastic art. Compare with the levitational scheme of the Sistine Madonna the triptych of the Virgin Enthroned by the Maitre de Moulins. She sits in an aureole nimbed by a glory of rainbow light, and beyond it floats a circle of adoring angels. Yet the Virgin and the angels alike obey the laws of gravity, and their earthly weight in no wise detracts from their heavenly beauty. Compare with the weight of a figure painted by Gains-borough the weight of a figure painted by Reynolds, and the same contrast is evident; one tends to float, the other stands.
A quick introvert’s compositions tend to be static; it is not that his personages cannot move, but they are not moving at the moment when he portrays them. Compare the dynamic schemes of Rodin with the static compositions of his pupil Maillol, and you see the difference between extravert and introvert sculpture. No sculptor can lay less stress on muscle than Maillol, or more on static mass. Bronzino balances the traditional dynamic scheme of his Christ in Limbo by the static figure of a woman, just as Manet stresses and centres his Musique aux Tuileries with the static seated figures in the left foreground. Even when the figures are in motion they still obey the laws of gravity; Mantegna’s dancing figures in Parnassus have more weight than Botticelli’s standing ones. The quick introverts’ are the compositions which Mademoiselle Marcelle Wahl has qualified as ‘immobilized’. A quick introvert artist most often finds religious significance in a scheme of hieratic stability; Berenson admirably defines this quality as ‘processional gravity’.
The quick introvert’s innate gift for simplification-‘the liberating of what is significant from what is not’-makes him paint pictures that are stylized designs, interpretations of nature far more vivid than any exacter portrayals. Wilson’s Snowdon, for example, is no topographical study, nor does it slavishly follow the classical tradition of Italian landscape, yet few pictures better convey the essential beauty of the landscape of Wales. In these compositions there is often a great sense of space and distance caused by crossing and receding planes; and often a sense of what Morris calls ‘the melancholy born of beauty’. For if the slow extravert brings wit into art, and the quick gaiety, the art of the introvert is always serious. Roger Fry has left a remarkable description of the process by which such a composition is achieved:
‘Almost any turn of the kaleidoscope of nature may set up in the artist a detached and aesthetic vision, and, as he contemplates the particular field of vision, the (aesthetically) chaotic and accidental contemplation of forms and colours begins to crystallize into a harmony; and, as this harmony becomes clear to the artist, his actual vision becomes distorted by the emphasis of the rhythm that is set up within him. Certain relations of line become for him full of meaning; he apprehends them no longer curiously but passionately, and these lines begin to be so stressed and stand out so clearly from the rest that he sees them more distinctly than he did at first. Similarly, colours which in nature have almost always a certain vagueness and elusiveness, become so definite and clear to him, owing to their now so necessary relation to other colours, that, if he chooses to paint his vision, he can state it positively and definitely.’ As Binyon says of Francis Towne, ‘His attitude, perhaps, is intellectual even more than emotional. He feels the need to understand.’ This is confirmed by some of the precepts in Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting. All our knowledge, he says, comes from feeling; but the painter should always be transmuting into thought the things that he sees and always be conscious of the effect of their surroundings upon their light and colour. He sets painting before sculpture because it is inimitable; and characteristically combines the need for a fine theory to precede practice with a need for the direct and profound observation of nature. This same need for the transmutation of things seen by thought has been likewise felt by quick introverts whose medium is words: Keats writes of ‘the innumerable compositions and decompositions which take place between the intellect and its thousand materials before it arrives at that trembling, delicate and snail-horn perception of beauty’. Steamer the centres of pictures in which the actual facts are transmuted into a strange beauty that is yet essentially true.
The quick introvert’s need for simplification of scheme is sometimes, especially outside landscape, balanced by his delight in decorative detail. Mantegna paints an Adoration in which one of the Kings from the East offers the Child a bowl of blue and white Persian porcelain; Domenico Ghirlandajo delights in jewels; Bartolommeo Veneto uses them almost as a signature, and Simone Martini combines a characteristic emphasis on formal line, balance and weight with exquisite flower detail, delicately figured brocade, jewelled ornament, and elaborate woodwork, in a fashion that shows that had he not been a great painter he would have been a great decorative artist.
It is comparatively rarely that a quick introvert devotes himself to portraiture. When he does the picture is transmuted into something essentially decorative. The well-known portraits of the Duke, and Duchess of Monte-feltro by Piero della Francesca may stand as examples: characterized yet stylized, perfectly static, exquisite in their decorative detail, and set .against a landscape back-ground, only a quick introvert could have painted them. The same characteristics reappear in the Renaissance in Bronzino; and their essentials will be found in work as apparently diverse as the portraits of Reynolds and Manet.
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans II
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans. To see a modern and updated version of the same theme, go here.
In compositions in which a normal perspective and stability are followed the quick extravert’s dissatisfaction with the world as it is finds ‘expression in a peculiar confusion and urgency of line. Worringer writes of German Gothic art: ‘The unsatisfied impulse existing in this confusion of lines, clutching greedily at every new intensification, to lose itself finally in the infinite, is its impulse, its life. It is this exalted hysteria which is above all else the distinguishing mark of the Gothic phenomenon’. The quality is certainly evident in many of the late-medieval German paintings that Worringer illustrates: for instance, the Crucifixion in the Church of St. Stephen at Mainz, the Entombment of the Church of St. James at Gottingen and the Crown of Thorns in the Regler Kirche at Erfurt; and in such sculpture as Riemenschneider’s altarpiece in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Heidelberg. The quality is much less often evident in the medieval art of France: an exceptional instance is the tympanum of the great door of Vezelay.
The quick extravert is apt to set colour above form- EI Greco declared that ‘el colorido es superior al dibujo’ – and is less shocked by his own drawing than men of other temperaments often are. His aim is
To bring the invisible full into play!
Let the visible go to the dogs – what matters?
Because of this emphasis on colour, and because his rejection of the laws of gravity is with difficulty reconcilable with plastic necessities, the quick extravert is less often a sculptor than a painter. When he is, he achieves in place of colour a sculptural morbidezza. This will be found in works as distant in time as the Hermes of Praxiteles, the head of Sainte Fortunade from the Correze and the work of Sir Alfred Gilbert. An extreme instance is the sculpture of Medardo Rosso.
The quick extravert is not naturally attracted to landscape, unless it be as the background of a Fete galante. I. On the rare occasions when he paints pure landscape, it would seem as if he strove to find in it the expression of a personal sentiment rather than the disinterested emotion which inspires the quick introvert. Van Gogh writes to his brother:
‘A row of pollarded willows sometimes resembles a procession of almshouse men. Young corn has some-thing inexpressibly pure and tender about it which awakens the same emotion as the expression of a sleeping baby … A few days ago, when it had been snowing, I saw a group of white cabbages standing frozen and benumbed, that reminded me of a group of women in their thin petticoats and old shawls which I had seen early in the morning standing near a coffee stall.’ Later, when it was a question not of seeing but of painting a picture, the same sentimental preoccupation continues to be evident:
‘I have a view of the Rhone – the iron bridge at Trinquetaille – in which sky and river are the colour of absinthe, the quays a shade of lilac, the figures leaning on the parapet blackish, the iron bridge an intense blue, with a note of vivid orange in the background and a note of intense malachite… I am trying to get some-thing utterly heart-broken.’ Not thus would Cotman or Turner have written. A certain instability of composition is evident even in the landscapes of the quick extraverts. Laurence Binyon has pointed out that Fire is Blake’s most constant subject: ‘the flames which rush up and leap and bend and flicker’ – and there is a flamelike quality about Van Gogh’s paintings of flowers and even of landscape – for example, Le Ravin and The Cypress Tree – that is another expression of this tendency.
In decoration, as in other art, the quick extravert loves to deny the sense of gravity; a remarkable instance is, that column from the Abbaye de Coulombs in which traditional architectural forms and ornament in stone are not only twisted as if they had been cast in clay and contorted in a plastic state, but are also broken by human figures that seem to swim and float on the violent stream of ornament.
As in his landscape, there is often a flamelike instability about a quick extravert’s schemes of decoration. Normally such ornament is confined to its native boudoir; occasionally it makes an appearance in other fields. Those who are not quick extraverts and know Gaudi’s Portal of the Nativity in the church of the Sagrada Familia at Barcelona, will have readily believed the rumour that it was one of the first ecclesiastical buildings to be attacked by the mob at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Architecture is, in the main, an art too strictly immobilized and too straitly conditioned by stability for the quick extravert; but certain styles, in their reduction of pure structure to a chassis for scenic effects, suggest the quick extravert mind. Such are those Italian churches that are all facade and interior, with barn-like exterior sides that are not meant to be seen. Such too are those rococo structures in which everything is made subservient to ornament and every line is curved in at least three directions; and such are the productions of the ‘art Nouveau’ of the 1900’s, with a fluidity and softness of line that recalls the quality that Verlaine demands for poetry:
De la musique avant toute chose;
Et pour cela prefere l’Impair
Plus vague et plus soluble dans l’air
Sans rien en lui qui pese ou qui pose.
A very curious example of such architecture was the Goetheanum built by the ‘anthroposophical’ followers of Steiner. Their gospel was a farrago of mysticism derived from many sources; and their temple was its perfect architectural expression.
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans I
Excerpt from ‘Taste and Temperament’ by Joan Evans. To see a modern and updated version of the same theme, go here.
The slow introvert, who strives to understand so much, rarely turns his mind to the understanding of concrete works of visual art. It is entirely characteristic that Plato’ in the Republic should desiderate a beauty of style and a harmony and grace that depend upon simplicity, and in the Timaeus should add a proportion that links the work of art with the universal and moral order, with no further discussion of the aesthetic qualities of visual art. It is equally characteristic that for him music should be the dominant art; poetry the next, and the visual arts no more than the vaguest background.
It is not often that the slow introvert will express an opinion about a work of visual art; yet if its sudden beauty forces him to do so, his canons of proportion and relation and his natural sincerity make him a critic to be respected. It is a characteristic of almost diagnostic validity that he does not write about the visual arts, unless he is a practising artist; then he writes as a crafts-man rather than a critic.
The individual is apt to find a peculiarly congenial quality in works of art produced by men of his own temperament. Delacroix, who might stand as the type of the slow extravert artist, admired (and sometimes even copied) the works of Goya, Rowlandson, Rubens, Ingres, Constable and Lawrence; and I should conceive all these artists to have been of the same temperament as himself. Curiously often the man who is conscious of this spontaneous liking will describe it in terms of friendly affinity. William Morris wrote of the Gothic Churches of Northern France that they were ‘the grandest, the most beautiful, the kindest and most loving of all the buildings that the earth has ever borne’. The late Professor of Poetry at Oxford writes:
‘Some poets are more friendly than others. I like to think that among the friendly poets are some of the greatest. The most friendly of them all is the first of them, Chaucer … After Chaucer… the most friendly of them is, beyond a doubt, the greatest of them, Shakespeare… After Chaucer and Shakespeare for friendliness we must go, I think, to two Scots-to Burns and “Sir Walter”.’ Such frankly subjective criticism is revealing because- as here – it is apt to group together writers and artists of similar temperament.
A man will always tend to have a primary attraction towards the art produced by men of like temperament with himself; so the slow extravert Daumier had a passion for Rembrandt and Rubens, and David – a man of the same temperament – admired Van Ostade, Teniers, Subleyras and Rembrandt, all slow extraverts likewise. Yet a man may also experience a secondary attraction to the work of men of another type. A slow introvert, if he be sad or tired, may find the work of another slow introvert depressing, and may turn to that of a man of a quicker form of his own temperament. A slow extravert in like case may turn to the work of a quick extravert, and find there either the human gaiety or the mystical reassurance that he needs. In his turn the quick extravert (though rarely) may seek reassurance from those who are closer to actuality than himself; so Van Gogh writes: ‘I feel always a great attraction for the figures either of the English draughts-men or of the English authors, because of their Monday-morning-like soberness, and studied simplicity and prosaicness and analysis, as something solid and strong that can give us strength in days when we feel weak’. So the quick introvert may find in the gracious calm of the work of the slow introvert the peace that his over-stimulated mind demands. Thus the quick introvert William Morris had an especial admiration for the work of the melancholic Van Eyck and Holbein, and Corot enjoyed and even imitated Vermeer of Delft. Manet said of Velasquez: ‘II ne m’a pas etonne, mais il m’a ravi’. Such secondary attractions, however, are often symptomatic of fatigue or stress, and are less characteristic and more variable than the attraction of like to like.
INFP MBTI Type Portrait
- Portrait of an INFP MBTI Type. If you want an MBTI test, go here to test your personality.
- If you’re uncertain as to what your type is (but you think it’s INFP or INFJ), go here to take the INFP or INFJ Test.
- In the routines rituals of daily living, INFPs tend to be compliant and may even prefer having decisions made on their behalf–until their value system is violated.
- INFPs also may, at times, assume an unwarranted familiarity with a domain, because their global, impressionistic way of dealing with reality may have failed to register a sufficient number of details for mastery.
- INFPs can make outstanding novelists and character actors, for they are able to efface their own personalities in their portrayal of a character in a way other types cannot.
- At times, in fact, INFPs may seem fearful of exuberant attainment, afraid that current advances may have to be paid for with later sacrifices.
- To understand INFPs their cause must be understood, for they are willing to make unusual sacrifices for someone or something believed in.
- At work, INFPs are adaptable, welcome new ideas and new information, are well aware of people and their feelings, and relate well to most, albeit with some psychological distance.
- Thus INFPs may live a paradox, drawn toward purity and unity but looking over the shoulder toward the sullied and desecrated.
- The deep commitment of INFPs to the positive and the good causes them to be alert to the negative and the evil, which can take the form of a fascination with the profane.
- The almost preconscious conviction that pleasure must be paid for with pain can cause a sense of uneasiness in the family system of an INFP, who may transmit an air of being ever-vigilant against invasion.
- INFPs present a calm, pleasant face to the world and are seen as reticent and even shy.
- INFPs have a gift for interpreting symbols, as well as creating them, and thus often write in a lyric fashion.
- Often they hear a calling to go forth into the world to help others; they seem willing to make the necessary personal sacrifices involved in responding to that call, even if it means asking others to do likewise.
- INFPs prefer the valuing process over the purely logical.
- They often have a subtle tragic motif running through their lives, but others seldom detect this inner minor key.
- Life with an INFP will go gently along for long periods, until an ideal is struck and violated.
- They are sensitive to the feelings of others and enjoy pleasing those they care for.
- Although they demonstrate a cool reserve towards others, inside they are anything but distant.
- They have a strong capacity for devotion, sympathy, and adaptability in their relationships, and thus are easy to live with.
Friheden i Danmark og dens forøgelse
Friheden fremmes ikke altid bedst ved revolution. I Danmark har vi f.eks. et stabilt og (set i en global sammenhæng) ukorrupt statsvæsen, og selv om friheden sagtens kan forøges i Danmark, så er der, set fra et klassisk liberalt perspektiv, snarere brug for en friheds-evolution end en friheds-revolution i Danmark.
Af Ryan Smith
Som liberal er der meget at beklage ved den politiske orden, vi lever under i dag. Men det er ikke alt sammen skidt. I løbet af de sidste tre år har vi set begyndelsen til et opgør med det system af passiv forsørgelse, som har skabt Fattig-Carina og Dovne Robert. Og for blot fem år siden kunne Ugebrevet 4A kunne spørge læserne, om liberalismen overhovedet havde en fremtid i Danmark, eftersom ”hverken befolkning eller politikere vil kendes ved de liberale ideer og grundholdninger.” (Ugebrevet 4A 01.10.2007).
Sådan spørger de ikke mere. Så noget er der altså sket. Men der er stadig et stykke vej igen. Her er fire områder, hvor friheden i Danmark kunne have godt af en frihedsevolution.
Statens størrelse
På trods af en række mindre reformer har Danmark stadig en af de største og dyreste offentlige sektorer i verden. Alligevel er der meget få (om nogen) af Folketingets partier, som tør sige, at den offentlige sektor skal være mindre.
Danmark har også noget nær den laveste vækst i den udviklede verden. Ifølge økonomen Niels Westy Munch-Holbek er Danmarks velstand per indbygger vokset med sølle to procent siden år 2000, mens det tilsvarende tal for Sverige ligger på omkring 21 procent.
Den britiske premierminister Winston Churchill sagde engang, at en nation, der forsøger at beskatte sig til velstand, er som en mand, der står i en spand og forsøger at hæve sig selv op ved håndtaget. I Danmark må vi slås med en stat, der belemrer, beskatter og bebyrder det øvrige samfund i en helt urimelig grad. Effekterne af den forslugenhed, der findes i den offentlige sektor, kan ses i form af udeblivende vækst og en stagnation i de kerneydelser, som staten rettelig bør tilbyde, såsom efterforskning af overfald og tyverier. Er man således enig i, at staten ikke bør levere meget-men-dårligt, men hellere lidt-men-godt, så er der god grund til at gå til kamp mod statens størrelse.
Udlændinge og indvandring
I den liberale familie er der intern uenighed om udlændingespørgsmålet, og det liberale spektrum spænder helt fra Nozick/Rothbard’ske rettighedsliberale, som mener, at landegrænser er et overgreb mod individets rettigheder, til selvbestaltede ”nationalliberale”, som overhovedet ikke har nogen betænkeligheder ved at afvise indvandringen.
Mellem disse to positioner finder man det klassisk liberale perspektiv: I lighed med Nozick og Rothbard, så skatter man frihed som et mål i sig selv, men i lighed med de ”nationalliberale”, så ønsker man ikke at sætte nationalstaten over styr i jagten på et ideal. Som Karl Popper sagde, så må man nærme sig idealet gradvist, således at der kan etableres trinvis sikkerhed for, at idealet ikke fører os på vildspor.
Vi nyder alle godt af den velstand, som de højt kvalificerede udlændinge skaber i Danmark, og som økonomen Thomas Sowell har vist, så er det ofte højt kvalificeret arbejdskraft fra udlandet, som driver vækst- og innovationsbooms i værtslandet. Ud fra en pure utilitaristisk betragtning ville det således være at skyde os selv i foden at lægge forhindringer i vejen for, at virksomheder og universiteter kan skaffe sig adgang til de dygtigste og mest ambitiøse specialister fra udlandet.
Imidlertid findes der også en gruppe lavt kvalificerede indvandrere, som fortrinsvis kommer til Danmark fra lande som Tyrkiet, Irak, Pakistan og Somalia. Disse indvandrere har typisk kun få erhvervskompetencer, og de kommer hertil med en anden kultur og et andet sæt normer, som gør, at de har meget svært ved at tilpasse sig det danske samfund. Følgevirkningerne er arbejdsløshed, kriminalitet og politisk radikalisering på sådan en skala, at visse sociale friheder i Danmark allerede er gået tabt.
Det er således med udgangspunkt i friheden, at man kan argumentere for, at vi i Danmark bør koncentrere os om at integrere de utilpassede indvandrere, som allerede er her, før vi lukker flere af disse ind. Frihed er grundstenen i det liberale tankegods, men friheden kan ikke trives under vilkår som dem, vi har set i indvandrerdominerede områder som Vollsmose og Tingbjerg. Friheden kan ikke trives under forhold, hvor folk ikke kan stole på hinanden, og hvor de konstant skal frygte for kriminalitet. Af samme grund kan man af frihedshensyn også argumentere for, at det skal blive nemmere at udvise udlændinge, som begår kriminalitet.
Den frihed, som Danmark har kendt, er unik i en global kontekst. Hvis ens liberalisme skal forankres historisk, snarere end at være et rent idealistisk foretagende, så må man anerkende, at friheden ikke kommer af sig selv, men at den blandt andet er et produkt af den tillid og tryghed, der findes i det danske samfund. At vi som mennesker kan regne med hinanden, er en af de helt centrale forudsætninger for, at staten kan slippe grebet om civilsamfundet.
Fra et klassisk liberalt synspunkt er der således intet til hinder for en udlændingepolitik, der koncentrerer sig om at integrere de problematiske udlændinge, vi allerede har, førend vi får flere af disse herop, og ej heller er der noget til hinder for, at man som liberal kan arbejde for øgede udvisningsmuligheder, hvad angår dem, der ikke vil følge landets regler.
Ytringsfrihed
Efter mange års stædig kamp for ytringsfriheden begynder flere og flere stemmer i debatten at få øjnene op for, at enhver normativ indskrænkning af ytringsfriheden tjener til at bestyrke reaktionære interesser i minoritetsmiljøer. Via de nyere sager, som straffesagen mod den iranske kunstner Firoozeh Bazrafkan og dødstruslerne mod den palæstinensiske digter Yahya Hassan, er multikulturalismens ide om minoriteters kollektive subjekt blevet udstillet som et falsum for fuld skrue.
Dog ønsker et flertal af Folketingets partier stadig at fastholde de såkaldte blasfemi- og racismeparagraffer, der indskrænker ytringsfriheden og fører et væld af lurvede retssager med sig. Borgerne får mindre respekt for loven, når de oplever retsvæsenet agere smags- og tonedommer, og når politiet skal rejse sager om, hvad folk har sagt til en julefrokost i eget hjem.
Der findes kun spinkle beviser på, at hate speech-lovgivning og statsligt opsyn med avisspalterne rent faktisk stopper radikalisering. Tværtimod viser historien, at ekstremistiske grupper ofte bruger disse begrænsninger i ytringsfriheden til søge martyriet og til at bekræfte sig selv i, at de har fat i en stor, forbudt og farlig sandhed, som det omkringliggende samfund ikke kan tåle at høre.
En tro på den personlige frihed er en tro på, at civilsamfundet selv kan finde ud af at gå i rette med skændige udtalelser, uden at domstolene behøver holde opsyn med, om nu nogen bliver stødt af ’tonen.’ Når vi finder racisme modbydeligt, så er det jo ikke, fordi staten siger, at vi skal.
Er man således tilhænger af en fri og energisk samfundsdebat, hvor domstolene ikke agerer anstandsdame, så er der grund til at kæmpe for afskaffelsen af blasfemi- og racismeparagrafferne i Danmark.
Kontrol med borgerne
Sidst, men ikke mindst, bør en klassisk liberal være bekymret for de øgede beføjelser, som offentlige myndigheder, herunder især SKAT, har fået over for landets borgere. Samtlige medlemmer af den liberale familie er selvfølgelig enige om, at skatten skal ned, men helt uafhængigt af diskussionen om skattetrykket er der også spørgsmålet om, hvilke magtmidler man kan tage i brug over for borgerne. Dette sidste spørgsmål er også et spørgsmål om frihed.
Da den nuværende regering således vedtog, at SKAT kan foretage kontrolaktion i folks hjem uden forudgående retskendelse, var det blot en fortsættelse af den linje, som den forrige regering havde lagt årene forinden. Her udvidede man også SKATs beføjelser med den ene nye bemyndigelse efter den anden, og den tidligere regering gik endda så vidt som at stille lovforslag om, at SKAT uden dommerkendelse skulle kunne beordre sig private firmaers harddiske udleveret med alt, hvad der lå på dem, herunder private mailkorrespondancer, bestyrelsesreferater og deslige.
Som erhvervsjuristen Henriette Kinnunen har sagt, så kan man roligt sige, at den tidligere regering ”åbnede ballet ved at give SKAT flere beføjelser og således banede vejen for en retssikkerhedsmæssig glidebane, hvor den ene beføjelse til SKAT har åbnet op for den anden.” (BT 21.06.2013)
SKAT har i dag mere vidtgående beføjelser, end Politiet har. I et klassisk liberalt perspektiv må man sande, at der er noget grundlæggende galt med den prioritering. Skattesyndere skal fanges, men det skal ikke ske på bekostning af den grundlæggende retssikkerhed i Danmark. Er man enig i dette, er der god grund til at kæmpe for frihedens fremme i Danmark.
INTJ Personality MBTI Portrait
INTJ is one of the 16 MBTI types. Which one are you? There is a free online MBTI Test that you can take to know.
The INTJ personality type is one of the rarest and most interesting types. INTJs are often seen as highly intelligent and perplexingly mysterious. The main reason behind this is that INTJ personalities are both private and incredibly rational – they find it very difficult to understand the complex social rituals that are considered part of the dating game, especially in Western societies. When someone with the INTJ personality has mastered their chosen area of knowledge (INTJs can find their strengths in several fields), they can quickly and honestly say whether they know the answer to a specific question.
INTJ personalities rarely seek managerial positions – if they do, this is probably because they need more power and freedom of action, not because they enjoy managing people. If someone with the INTJ personality type starts working with a new system, they will regard the task as a moral obligation, merging their perfectionism and drive into one formidable force.
INTJ personalities radiate self-confidence, relying on their huge archive of knowledge spanning many different topics and areas. However, INTJ personalities do not seek nor enjoy the spotlight and may often decide to keep their opinions to themselves if the topic of discussion does not interest them that much.
INTJs are very decisive, original and insightful – these traits push other people to accept the INTJ’s ideas simply because of that sheer willpower and self-confidence. An INTJ will retreat into the shadows, maintaining their grip on the most important decisions – but as soon as the leader fails and there is a need to take the steering wheel, the INTJ will not hesitate to act, maybe even while staying in the background.
There is one area where their brilliant mind often becomes completely useless and may even hinder their efforts – INTJs find it very difficult to handle romantic relationships, especially in their earliest stages. INTJ personalities also often shoulder the burden of making important decisions without consulting their peers.
Things like flirting or small talk are unnatural to them; furthermore, INTJs (especially females) tend to see typical attraction tactics (such as feigning disinterest) as incredibly stupid and irrational. They are natural leaders and excellent strategists, but willingly give way to others vying for a leadership position, usually people with Extroverted personalities (E personality type).
INTJ personalities are perfectionists and they enjoy improving ideas and systems they come in contact with. People with this personality type are more than capable of loving and taking care of the people close to them, but they are likely to be completely clueless when it comes to attracting a partner. INTJ personalities also have an unusual combination of both decisiveness and vivid imagination.
However, they always try to remain in the rational territory no matter how attractive the end goal is – every idea that is generated by the INTJ’s mind or reaches it from the outside needs to pass the cold-blooded filter called “Is this going to work? ”. Whatever the circumstances, you can always rely on the INTJ to “fill in” the gaps in the idea – they are most likely to come up with an unorthodox solution.
Imagine a giant chess board where the pieces are constantly moving, trying out new tactics, always directed by an unseen hand – this is what the INTJ’s imagination is like. Anyone who does not have enough talent or simply does not see the point, including the higher ranks of management, will immediately and likely permanently lose their respect.
Vajrayana-buddhismen – er det falsk buddhisme?
Når man læser om Vajrayana-buddhisme, så kan det nemt ske, at jo mere man læser, des mere tager man sig til hovedet. Ja, man kan nemt komme til at tvivle på, om Vajrayana overhovedet er buddhisme, eller om det mon er en “falsk” buddhisme.
Eksempler:
- Buddha sagde, at man ikke skulle styre efter hurtig oplysning. Vajrayana styrer efter hurtig oplysning.
- Buddha sagde, at hans lære var for alle. Vajrayana er esoterisk og benytter sig af hemmelige ritualer.
- Buddha sagde, at der ikke findes mirakler, kun indsigt i dharmaen. Vajrayana siger, at der er magi.
Og sådan kunne man blive ved. Nu er det velkendt, at andre former for buddhisme også tager sig nogle kunstneriske friheder ift. den oprindelige lære, men den anden store afvigende tradition, Mahayana, fremstår alligevel som en filosofisk-logisk udbygning af Buddhas oprindelige doktrin, samt eliminering af indre modsigelser i Buddhas lære. Det samme kan man ikke umiddelbart sige om Vajrayana. Umiddelbart siger Vajrayana nemlig ofte det stik modsatte af det, som Buddha oprindeligt belærte os om, som de tre eksempler ovenfor også viser.
Men er det nu også rigtigt?
Svar på eksempler – kontrasten til Zen:
Lad os sammenligne Vajrayana med Zen-traditionen, som ofte opfattes som ren og minimalistisk, hvor Vajrayana er overbelæsset og ritualistisk.
- Hurtig oplysning: Der er ikke nogen buddhistisk retning, som går stærkere ind for vigtigheden af at styre efter hurtig oplysning end Zen.
- Buddhismen som anti-elitær: På trods af, at Zen har en folkelig “Mahayana”-side, med et bodhisattva-ideal og hvor oplysning i princippet kan nås af alle (selv amøber eller orme), er Zen samtidig meget elitær, monastisk, intellektuel og snobbet over for de andre traditioner.
- Magi og mirakler: Zen-traditionen er fuld af mirakler – det er bare ikke det, der er blevet fremhævet, sådan som Zen er blevet formidlet i vesten. Men i primærlitteraturen fra Tang-, Sung- og Ming-dynastierne samt fra Japan og Korea gennem alle tider optræder der utallige mirakler og fantastiske ting, som vitterligt får Det Nye Testamente til at blegne.
Forskellen på Varayana og Zen er dog, at det mirakuløse i Varayana trods alt er større.
Det fusionistiske perspektiv – hvordan Vajrayana også er buddhisme:
Der er et par ting, som er vigtige at huske på: For det første, at Buddhismen har mange ansigter. Det drejer sig om 2500 års udvikling i alle mulige sekter. Der opstår stadig nye skoler i mange lande, undertiden blandet op med forskellige folkelige traditioner og myter. Buddhismen har altid varieret sig selv og fornyet sig; den har tilpasset sig de folkelige skikke, der hvor den er kommet frem. Forskellige former for buddhisme har således forskelligt tros-indhold, magier, overtro og dualismer.
Det andet er, at Vajrayana har en oprindelse i indisk Kundalini-yoga og forskellige hindu Tantriske praksisser, som ikke ligner Mahayanas praksis. Der er mange forskellige Buddhaer og Budhisattvaer, hvis ikonografi man må kende for at forstå praksis og den religionspsykologi, som det drejer sig om. Det er her et spørgsmål om fortolkning. Enten en magisk, mystisk og overtroisk fortolkning eller en down to earth menneskelig og eksistentiel bevidsthedsteoretisk fortolkning. Det er subtil eksistensteologi i begreber, vi ikke er vant til, men det kan selvfølgelig forstås som Buddhisme, som vi kender fra Theravada og Zen.
Det fjerde er, at Buddhismen opdelt i mange forskellige institutioner i mange forskellige lande er en kirke med liturgi, ritualer og dødsmesser. I Japan, som har alle de skoler og traditioner, som har været i Indien og Kina fra begyndelsen, regner folk i almindelighed med, at det drejer sig om en liturgisk praksis for at forbedre den afdødes rejse i det hinsides og hans genfødsel til et bedre liv, helst som menneske igen.
Buddhismen ude i verden er noget helt andet end den, vi kender i Vesten. Der er tekster, som vi holder meget af, som Hjerte Sutraen. Men der er også en mængde tekster, som ikke kan oversættes, fordi det er magiske opremsninger med mere eller mindre okkulte formuleringer. Det er buddhisme som en kirke – et tempel for et mysterium.
Men her må vi passe på, at vi ikke gør buddhismen til et spørgsmål om lærdom frem for et spørgsmål om praksis: Buddhismen er først og fremmest en praktisk nøgle til at forstå, hvad ens egentlige identitet er, eller hvad den universelle bevidsthed er. Livets mysterium er løst; der er intet omverdenproblem, intet bevidsthedsproblem, intet erkendelsesproblem. Alt er en situationstotalitet eller et evigt nu, som ikke er adskilt fra noget som helst, fordi bevidsthedsrummet ikke kan adskilles fra bevidsthedsindholdet. Dette vedvarende øjeblik er Buddhanaturen.
Men den folkelige og institutionerede Buddhisme kan være så mange andre ting. Og der er et utal af Buddhistiske præster, munke, abbeder og akademikere, som skal betjene de uvidende og med flere dualistiske ord, som blot fører dem længere væk fra erkendelsen. Det er deres arbejde. Fred være med dem.