Romulus and Remus

Lupa di Roma: weesen / Wee Sen Goh

Romulus (circa 771 BCE – 717 BCE) and Remus (circa 771 BCE – 753 BCE)  are the twin sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin.

According to legend Romulus and Remus founded Rome. The story has it that they were thrown into the Tiber river and floated downstream to the Palatine, where they were discovered and nurtured by a she-wolf.

Upon maturation, they erected a city wall at the site where they’d been rescued by the she-wolf. Later, the two entered into a dispute about who among them was favored by the gods to name the new city. The upshot of this conflict was that Romulus – or possibly one of his henchmen – murdered Remus.

Romulus then became the first ruler of Rome and the city was named after him.

The ancient writers Plutarch and Livy treat this tale as if it were factual history.  » Gemini

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Romulans

Romulan fights Andorian for Vlad: GizmoDoc

Romulans are an alien, imperial race in the original Star Trek TV show, sharing common ancestry with the Vulcans.

Instead of using their considerable intelligence for the promotion of peace, as do Vulcans, Romulans are bellicose and at perpetual war with the Federation (an interplanetary organization that includes humanity).

The Romulans are notorious for being able to “cloak” their ships–i.e. render them invisible. This makes for dramatic battle stories analogous to the contemporary naval destroyer and submarine.

Most likely the creators of the original Star Trek chose the appellation ‘Romulans’ to resemble that of ‘Romans,’ evoking a subconscious resonance with notions of power, military intelligence and dishonorable acquisition.

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Romeo and Juliet

Balcony of Romeo and Juliet: -JvL-

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare (1595-6).

Romeo and Juliet outlines the brief lives of two “star crossed lovers” who come from families, the Capulets and Montagues, that have been engaged in a longstanding feud.

In 1938 The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote a ballet after the story.

The theme of rival families is found throughout Greek and Indian mythology.

In Greece, for instance, the father of the Gods, Zeus, challenges the power of his own father Cronus and lives in an uneasy tension with his wife and sister, Hera, as well as with the Giants.

And in India, the Mahabharata epic tells of a feud that leads to full-scale, bloody war between kith and kin, this being the plot line of the Hindu holy book, The Bhagavad Gita. » Projection, Radha

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Rome

Burning Rome: cuellar / Jose Maria Cuellar

Rome is the vibrant capital of Italy which has a long and complicated history, dating back to the 8^th century BCE.

Pre-Christian Rome fell in the 5^th century to Germanic invaders. In the 6^th century it became an important center for the Christian Church, with Vatican City on the West bank of the Tiber river.

In 1871 Rome became the capital of modern Italy.

When it was the center of the old Roman Empire, Rome was a symbol of worldly power and also of the cruel persecution of the early Christians. Ironically, the center for the persecution of Christians was to become the center for Christianity and later, as the Protestant revolution arose, for Catholicism.

The historian Arnold Toynbee and several others note that as soon as the Christian Romans gained power, they began persecuting individuals just as the pagan Romans had previously persecuted Christians.

Toynbee believes it was mostly power – and the greed and arrogance that often goes with it – that was responsible for this exceedingly cruel behavior among human beings.

» Acts of the Apostles, Aeneas, Aeneid, Caesar (Julius), Church Fathers,  Mythic Inflation, Romulus and Remus, Vestal Virgin

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Romans (Paul’s Letter To The)

At Ancient Corinth: J. Griffin Stewart

Paul’s Letter To The Romans is an important book of the Christian New Testament, which most scholars say was  written by the apostle Paul c. 57 CE., probably in the Greek city of Corinth.

Paul writes to a community he was planning to visit for the first time. His message is clear: While the Laws of the Old Testament remain holy, strict legalistic adherence will not guarantee salvation.

Christians have symbolically died to the old law and are reborn in the faith of Christ. With a pure heart set on Jesus, good thoughts and actions spring forth.

Paul also breaks new ground by saying that salvation through Christ is for Gentiles, Jews and for all people–not just a select few.

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Rock and Roll

Rock & Roll: pisitoenmadrid / David Alayón

Just let me hear some of that
Rock and roll music,
Any old way you choose it;
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it,
Any old time you use it.
It’s gotta be rock and roll music,
If you want to dance with me,
If you want to dance with me.

–Rock and Roll Music, Chuck Berry

Rock and Roll is a form of popular music originally emblematic of the freedoms, joys, challenges, heartaches and rebellion of youth.

Rock and Roll developed in the 1950s as a synthesis of Country-Western and Blues music. Interestingly enough, the accent falls on the back beat which emphasizes the second and fourth beat (ta TA ta TA), the reverse of the military march, which accents the first and third beat (TA ta TA ta).

The biggest stars in early Rock and Roll were figures like Bill Haley (1925-81), Elvis Presley (1935-77), Little Richard (1932- ) and Chuck Berry (1926-).

In the 1960s and 70s the target market of Rock expanded, as did the music. Dianna Ross and The Supremes helped to shape the Motown sound (music from a record company based in the automobile producing city of Detroit), while British groups like the Moody Blues and the perhaps unsurpassable Beatles made Rock accessible to kids from 2 to 102. Meanwhile, American groups like The Doors (with Jim Morrison) and soloists like Jimi Hendrix remained a threat to conservative parents throughout North America and beyond.

At this time Rock branched out into different styles and related marketing categories: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Funk, Raggae, Soul, Easy Rock, Disco, Glam Rock, Pop Rock, Bubble Gum Rock, Folk Rock, etc.

Some of the major players in this period were Paul McCartney and Wings, The Rolling Stones, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Elton John, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Carole King and many more talented outfits. But things needed to change.

The late 1970s brought on reactionary trends such as Punk Rock and New Wave. Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols are often credited with spearheading Punk Rock, while innovative groups with a stripped-down sound like Devo, The B-52s and The Talking Heads enjoyed success. The Talking Heads continued to make their mark into the 80s, their apparently postmodern approach being avidly discussed among ivory tower academics.

Rock in 1980s, however, was mostly characterized by increasingly slick studio productions, made possible by the advent of digital recording technology. Duran Duran is a good example of this new lush sound, whereas Depeche Mode used digital sampling to create a more industrial sound. Other important groups such as Soft Cell and The Eurythmics used technology to minimal effect while The Art of Noise used the new digital sampling technique in their own way, often emphasizing the orchestra hit–i.e. having a full-burst orchestral sound at the touch of a finger.

Madonna was a sensation in the 80s, as was Sting and The Police and, of course, Michael Jackson. Meanwhile, the New Age movement and ‘ambient music’ emerged. Ambient music is a diffuse style (some might say spacey) that was pioneered by the respected producer Brian Eno (Eno also made Rock and Roll albums) in the late 70s. Eno’s most important album is probably “Music For Airports” (1978), a soft and repetitive strain of analogue voice and piano loops. The idea and sound carried through into more accessible digital New Age productions with the likes of Enya, Windham Hill records and others. And stars like U2, David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Philip Glass periodically collaborated with Eno.

In 1980 John Lennon and Yoko Ono released the commercially successful album, Double Fantasy. Sadly, Lennon was murdered by a misguided fan in that same year.

You're No Rock N Roll Fun: lism. / Lis Ferla

The 90s saw increasingly lush studio production with the likes of Mariah Carey and Celine Dione. Others like the late Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) and The Smashing Pumpkins kept it straight up and simple. And Radiohead came up with a sound reminiscent of the 70s band Jethro Tull.

Some veteran rockers continued to flourish in the 90s with top-selling albums, such as Elton John and David Bowie. Other stars like Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan released cds but seemed to lose touch with the pulse of the people.

Rap, Hiphop, Dance, Grunge and Techno (now a branch of Electronica) also took off in the 90s.

The new millennium has seen more powerful woman acts like Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, and it’s fitting that Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones, who’ve billed themselves as the “longest running rock act,” continue to fill large stadiums.

There’s no easy summary of Rock’s meaning today. Some see it as a consumer-driven sellout; others, as a window to artistic and social possibilities.

Ironically, some rock stars are now seen as more socially responsible than many corporate and political leaders. The widely respected granddaddy of Grunge, Neil Young, for instance, has become a prominent spokesperson for the development of Green technologies. And figures like Bob Geldof, Bono and The Rolling Stones (who did a Toronto concert to help that city’s economy after a SARS scare while Billy Joel and Elton John canceled) have virtually inverted the rotten apple image that the moral majority originally imputed to rock stars.

Recently, however, critics have suggested that international simulcast benefit concerts are starting to look more like shallow publicity stunts than effective measures toward global betterment.

And the beat goes on…

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Rishis

Traditionally, rishis are primal Hindu seers mentioned in the Vedas as their authors.

The rishis belonged to an elite class of holy persons said to have received the Veda through revelation. That is, they ‘heard’ and then passed on the sacred Vedic hymns (through oral repetition) to disciples for centuries until the verses were eventually recorded in writing.

For this reason any mention of authorship of the Veda is problematic because no one really knows when the Vedas were orally composed.

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Roberts, Jane (1929-84)

my dad and my mom on a bookshelf: Ari Moore

1970s channeler who wrote the popular Seth Books and several less commercially successful fiction novels before the idea of channeling became a New Age publishing sensation.

Roberts allegedly went into a trance and channeled a spirit entity called ‘Seth’ while her husband Robert Butts transcribed the sessions.

At times Roberts, herself, wondered whether it was just her unconscious speaking but most of the time she writes as if Seth were a separate entity.

Regardless of Seth’s true nature, the worldview advanced by the Seth character is noteworthy.

Seth’s cosmology (i.e. map of the universe) has intersecting parallel universes connecting among themselves backwards and forwards through time. The past and future of all parallel universes – to include our supposed parallel selves – interact with and have an effect on the present as perceived now.

As with other mystical traditions, Seth suggests that part of the self is located in the flesh while other aspects of mind and soul exist beyond the material plane.

The Seth model differs from the belief in reincarnation in three ways:

1. Reincarnation stresses the effects of past lives on our present life, largely ignoring the possible influence of future selves on the present
2. Seth advances the idea of interactive selves existing in parallel universes
3. Not unlike Shakti Gawain, Seth highlights the importance of life in the present, whereas reincarnational theories tend to emphasize an escape from Samsara (the wheel of worldly rebirth)

Science fiction TV shows Sliders and Charlie Jade dramatize some of Seth’s ideas about parallel universes, while many Star Trek scripts deal with a ‘temporal continuum.’

Similarly, respected theorists like C. G. Jung view time, if perhaps not parallel universes, within a holistic framework. And the idea of parallel universes has gained some academic scrutiny through figures like Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku.

As a final note, the belief in an interactive past, present and future is not necessarily equivalent to the theological idea that God knows the past, present and future. Many traditional theologians become uncomfortable with the idea, for instance, that the future could be seeping into or impinging on the present. They prefer to stick to the old idea that the future just doesn’t exist yet.

This traditional perspective, however, is challenged by the modern physics worldview that space and time are not absolute but rather, relative, multiple and interactive positions.

Perhaps it’s just too challenging for some people to think that far out of the box, and adhering to their cherished old religious and philosophical ideas gives them psychological comfort, much like a baby needs a breast or a bottle before it grows up enough to learn how to walk to the store to buy some milk.

» Leibniz (Gottfried, Wilhelm), Locke (John), Soul

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Reversal

A broader idea than turning against the self, this Freudian defense mechanism occurs when the ego converts an instinctual impulse into its opposite behavior. For instance, the miser becomes a philanthropist and the pervert a prude.

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Ricardo, David (1772-1823)

Image credit: sundancingbliss / Shannon Haugh

Ricardo was an English economist, influenced by Thomas Robert Malthus, who is often credited along with Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill as a founder of the so-called classical school of economics.

By his mid-twenties Ricardo became a wealthy stockbroker. He later joined the British Parliament from 1819-1823.

His main contribution to the history of ideas is found in Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), where he develops innovative theoretical models to account for the distribution of wealth.

Ricardo advocated national specialization and open competition (i.e. free trade). His work on the labor theory of value had an effect on Karl Marx, who adapted some of Ricardo’s ideas in his teleological view of history (now recognized as flawed), his critique of Capitalism and advocacy of worldwide socialism.

Ricardo’s labour theory of value suggests that food prices determine wages. Food prices, themselves, are determined by production costs, which in turn are determined by the degree of labor required for food production.

In short, this theory suggests that value is set by labor.

Ricardo became an MP in 1819, using his status and position to foster the free-trade movement. Since that time the idea of free trade has been critiqued by those believing that some degree of government regulation is necessary.

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