1. The Devil’s Advocate
Time Stamp: 10:20
- 9sense Letter: Should I join?
- I joined the Temple of Set some 8 months ago, because I anticipated something like LaVey + Robert Greene + more philosophical psychodrama. My bad. I also anticipated that these guys understand their Setian mythos and “holy books” as psychodramatic tools for generating temporary beliefs important in rituals. But WTF?! They seem, at least most of them, to take all this stuff literally and they REALLY believe in it. Most of the time they discuss, speculate and ponder about their imagined realities and impractical matters. Completely lost in it, dead serious and stiff, pushing into some collectivist activities, ignoring the enormous cost opportunity of all this nonsense. I am always looking at the real function (real life impact) of any philosophy/teaching as opposed to how it looks “on a paper” and in the case of Setianism it’s devitalisation. And enclosement in the “occult social bubbles” exactly as you pertinently described in the last episode of 9sense.
- Moreover, studying and discussing magical theories and topics is nice and cozy, but it is not magic and it will not make a magician from anybody. Also rituals and ceremonies are merely the first steps into real magic and technique. I am certainly not interested in the magical LARPing. Since I am in the ToS, (he goes on to share his personal accomplishments) Now these guys are acting like all of this somehow doesn’t matter and more important are “right answers” about metaphysical mumbo-jumbo in an email “Recognition dialogue”. C’mon. (What I told them.)
- I am a Chaos Magic veteran working mainly with psychological/parapsychological or panpsychist models of magic focused on real-world success. (Why even bother with magic without this focus? Without it it’s just plain nonsense.) I consider a magician who is still imprisoned in a lousy nine to five job a weak magician. A beginner. I don’t care what titles he/she flashes. Many if not most of the mundane jobs are such profound waste of time/potential/energy that I cannot see how anybody would choose it if he/she has other options. And a magician without options in such an important life domain is not a magician at all according to my standards.
- I made myself independent and autonomous by magic. I can do anything I want, anytime I want it, wherever and with anybody I choose. I am not subservient to my boss, to any company or institution. In fact, I could stop working today completely and I would be fine financially until my death. I accomplished this by two decades of magic, mastery and focused creativity. Completely from the scratch, from a small town and without any backup.
- So I am surprised to see (on social media, skype/zoom sessions or other presentations) many high, even highest grades members of the ToS evidently struggling financially and in lousy jobs. I am not impressed by their real world – not imagined – accomplishments. I am also surprised by the fact that many of them are obese, not physically fit and even sloppy. Some of them probably not mentally fit too, judged by their undignified political and ideological rants on social media. And some, maybe, even on drugs or heavy drinking. I don’t see proclaimed perfection.
- Next, I am confident that another important attribute of a real magician is mastery. Concrete domain is not so important, but the mastery must be evident. Presented artistic creations (paintings, songs, poets, etc.) of the many ToS members are mediocre at the best.
- So I want to ask. Sincerely, is the situation in the Church of Satan somehow different? I have read The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore and it was great. I also watched all the official CoS videos on youtube and your stuff. It looks/sounds excellent. But what is an inner reality of the CoS and its membership?
- Do you think I should consider a membership with my presented views? Would it be my real-world achievements (after proving them) somehow taken into account in the Church of Satan? If yes, how?
- Is membership in the CoS mutually exclusive with membership in the ToS even on a level of registered membership? (I intend to quit from the ToS in 2 – 3 months. For now, I am still learning a lot in the ToS, though in a negative way – what I am not, what are not my authentic values and goals, what not to do, what to avoid etc. That is precious too.)
2. Infernal Informant
Time Stamp: 34:12
- ‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master’s Degrees That Don’t Pay Off
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/financially-hobbled-for-life-the-elite-masters-degrees-that-dont-pay-off-11625752773
- Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000.
- Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year.
- At New York University, graduates with a master’s degree in publishing borrowed a median $116,000 and had an annual median income of $42,000 two years after the program, the data on recent borrowers show. At Northwestern University, half of those who earned degrees in speech-language pathology borrowed $148,000 or more, and the graduates had a median income of $60,000 two years later. Graduates of the University of Southern California’s marriage and family counseling program borrowed a median $124,000 and half earned $50,000 or less over the same period.
- Undergraduate students for years have faced ballooning loan balances. But now it is graduate students who are accruing the most onerous debt loads. Unlike undergraduate loans, the federal Grad Plus loan program has no fixed limit on how much grad students can borrow—money that can be used for tuition, fees and living expenses.
- It has become the fastest-growing federal student loan program and charged interest rates as high as 7.9% in recent years.
- The no-limit loans make master’s degrees a gold mine for universities, which have expanded graduate-school offerings since Congress created Grad Plus in 2005. Graduate students are for the first time on track to have borrowed as much as undergraduates in the 2020-21 academic year, federal loan data show.
- It has become the fastest-growing federal student loan program and charged interest rates as high as 7.9% in recent years.
- The no-limit loans make master’s degrees a gold mine for universities, which have expanded graduate-school offerings since Congress created Grad Plus in 2005. Graduate students are for the first time on track to have borrowed as much as undergraduates in the 2020-21 academic year, federal loan data show.
- “There’s always those 2 a.m. panic attacks where you’re thinking, ‘How the hell am I ever going to pay this off?’ ” said 29-year-old Zack Morrison, of New Jersey, who earned a Master of Fine Arts in film from Columbia in 2018 and praised the quality of the program. His graduate school loan balance now stands at nearly $300,000, including accrued interest. He has been earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year from work as a Hollywood assistant and such side gigs as commercial video production and photography.
- Highly selective universities have benefited from free-flowing federal loan money, and with demand for spots far exceeding supply, the schools have been able to raise tuition largely unchecked. The power of legacy branding lets prestigious universities say, in effect, that their degrees are worth whatever they charge.
- “As a poor kid and a high-school dropout, there was an attraction to getting an Ivy League master’s degree,” said Mr. Clement, 41. He graduated in 2020 from Columbia, borrowing more than $360,000 in federal loans for the degree. He is casting for an independent film, he said. To pay the bills, he teaches film at a community college and runs an antique shop.
- Columbia grad students who borrowed money typically held loans that exceeded annual earnings two years after graduation in 14 of the school’s 32 master’s degree programs tracked by the Education Department, the Journal found. In about a dozen Columbia master’s programs, the majority of recent graduates weren’t repaying the principal on their loans or took forbearance, according to data released for the first time this year.
- Debt counselors recommend students not borrow more than they will earn right out of school. Yet about 38% of master’s programs at top-tier private universities in the U.S. failed that test, according to the Journal’s analysis of salary data for graduates from the 2015 and 2016 classes, the latest available.
- At for-profit schools, a common target of regulators for high student debt and poor job prospects, 30% failed to meet the debt counselors’ advice.
- Whether or not students should have better weighed the personal consequences of borrowing heavily to pursue lower-paying careers, the burden is far-reaching. After 20 to 25 years on an income-dependent payment plan, the balance on Grad Plus loans—roughly $11.2 billion issued in the school year that ended in 2020—can be forgiven. Taxpayers will bear any losses.
- At least 43% of the people who recently took out loans for master’s degrees at elite private universities hadn’t paid down any of their original debt or were behind on payments roughly two years after graduation, the available data show.
- “We were told by the establishment our whole lives this was the way to jump social classes,” he said of an Ivy League education. Instead, he said he feels such goals as marriage, children and owning a home are out of reach.
- During a car ride last year with three friends from the film program, Mr. Black said, they calculated they collectively owed $1.5 million in loans to the federal government. “Financially hobbled for life,” he said. “That’s the joke.”
- Statue of Confederate general removed from a Louisiana city hall
- https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/563562-statue-of-confederate-general-removed-from-a-louisiana-city-hall
- A statute of a confederate general was removed from a city hall in Louisiana, according to multiple reports.
- Video taken by The Daily Advertiser Saturday afternoon showed the statue of Gen. Alfred Mouton getting hoisted off of its base outside of the Lafayette City Hall as spectators cheered.
- Photos of the removal were also shared to Twitter by KATC TV3. The news outlet said that a flag pole will be put in its place.
- The removal comes after a decades-long legal dispute over taking it down.
- The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statute to the city in 1922, but officials wanted to move it in 1980. According to The Advocate, the group successfully filed for an injunction to stop the move.
- The city tried again to remove the Mouton statute in 2016, but ultimately did not do so because the United Daughters threatened a lawsuit, the newspaper reported.
- In 2019, members of Move the Mindset filed paperwork to intervene in the dispute, and the city joined the group in 2020, according to The Associated Press.
- The city reached a settlement with the United Daughters on Friday. Under the agreement, the city would be able to remove the statute to a location determined by the group, according to a local ABC affiliate.
- The United Daughters have 45 days to tell the city where to move the statute, otherwise the city can dispose of it as it chooses, the news outlet reported.
- The removal of the statue comes amid an ongoing push to remove Confederate monuments.
- Last Saturday, the city of Charlottesville, Va., removed a statute of Robert E. Lee after a two-year legal dispute. The statute that was the site of a 2017 “Unite the Right” rally that resulted in the death of a counter protestor.
- The House has passed legislation to remove artwork from the Capitol that honors people who defended slavery and served in the confederacy.
3. Creature Feature
Time Stamps: 1:03:18
- Book Clubs
- Encourages you to keep up with others and continue reading
- Provides insight into the content you may not otherwise have
- Reading is very, very good for you. Research shows that regular reading:
- improves brain connectivity
- increases your vocabulary and comprehension
- empowers you to empathize with other people
- aids in sleep readiness
- reduces stress
- lowers blood pressure and heart rate
- fights depression symptoms
- prevents cognitive decline as you age
- contributes to a longer life