21 January 2019

TheNuffield Foundation has awarded funding to Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) to investigate the feasibility of a new mathematics GCSE curriculum for post-16 resit students.

The aim of this new project is to start a fresh consideration of appropriate mathematical content and qualifications for GCSE resit students, in line with the recommendations of the Smith review. It is hoped this will improve outcomes for young people, and the wider population, by improving knowledge of, and attitudes towards, mathematics.

In England, young people aged 16-18 who have not achieved grade 4 or higher in GCSE Mathematics are required to continue to work towards achieving it. Those studying full-time who achieved grade 3 are required to resit it, which often results in young people lacking confidence in mathematics and the prospect of more of the same can be very de-motivating. The resit success rate is also very low. Over 170,000 young people resat GCSE Mathematics in the summer of 2018, but only 23.7% achieved at least a grade 4 or equivalent. As a result, many young people do not achieve their full potential and can be left with a lasting sense of failure and a reinforced negative attitude towards mathematics. This may prevent them from engaging with learning and using mathematics in the future.

The standard GCSE Mathematics curriculum, which is designed for 14-16 year olds, attempts to do two things: prepare students for further academic study of mathematics, and develop the knowledge and skills to apply mathematics to practical problems encountered in the workplace and other aspects of life. Most resit students need to focus on the latter.

The project will report towards the end of 2019.

Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation, said:

Performance in GCSE maths has both immediate and long-term impact on the education, training and employment trajectories of 16 year olds. Previous Nuffield Foundation funded research has found that students past experiences mean they lack both motivation and confidence when required to retake their maths GCSE, and the resit success rate remains stubbornly low. This feasibility study responds to the Smith Review recommendation that current maths qualifications could and should be reformed to increase the proportion of 18-year-olds with a good understanding of maths. We are pleased to support this new study which aims to develop much needed curriculum options in post-16 maths.

Charlie Stripp, Chief Executive of MEI, said:

Re-sitting a GCSE Mathematics qualification designed for 16 year olds does not meet the mathematical needs of the large majority of students who do not succeed in maths at age 16. These students need a different post-16 GCSE maths curriculum that can motivate them to develop fluency and confidence in the fundamental maths skills they need for everyday life and employment. MEI is delighted that the Nuffield Foundation has agreed to support our work to try to develop such a curriculum.

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A new mathematics GCSE curriculum for post-16 resit ...

Was the Jesuit priest and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin really a racist, fascist, and even genocidal opponent of human dignity? I had thought that, at least among educated Catholics, this question was almost dead, and that holdout pockets of hostility might be vanishing for good, especially after several recent popes admiringly cited Teilhards cosmic vision for its theological beauty and Eucharistic power.

But my optimism was premature. In a December 2016 article in Philosophy and Theology titled Dangerous Tendencies of Cosmic Theology: The Untold Legacy of Teilhard de Chardin, John Slattery writes that from the 1920s until his death in 1955, Teilhard de Chardin unequivocally supported racist eugenic practices, praised the possibilities of the Nazi experiments, and looked down upon those who [sic] he deemed imperfect humans. Slattery, a recent graduate of Notre Dames Department of Theology, claims that a persistent attraction to racism, fascism, and genocidal ideas explicitly lay the groundwork for Teilhards famous cosmological theology. This, he informs us, is a link which has been largely ignored in Teilhardian research.

A more recent article by the same critic in Religion Dispatches (May 2018) is entitled Pierre Teilhard de Chardins Legacy of Eugenics and Racism Cant Be Ignored. In it, Slattery hangs his case on eight stray citations from Teilhards letters and other scattered writings. Most of the quotes present what were speculative inquiries on the part of Teilhardquestions that countless other thoughtful people have asked, including many Catholicsrather than systematically developed theses for public consumption. Their style is provocative and interrogatory, not declarative. Exactly what Teilhard really meant by them is, in every single case, highly debatable.

And yet Slattery holds these excerpts out to us as undeniable evidence that Teilhards true legacy is one of hostility to Catholic affirmation of human dignity, racial justice, and concern for the disadvantaged. Still more important, however, is Slatterys claim that it was Teilhards commitment to these evils that grounds and undergirds his cosmological theology. Nothing could be more preposterous.

Slattery doesnt deny that the bulk of Teilhards religious writings are uncontroversially Christian and in tune with Catholic teaching. Yet he ignores this fact in defining what he calls Teilhards legacy. Though he surely knows that most readers will be unfamiliar with the man and his thought, he has decided to expose them first to what he considers Teilhards most sinister side. In the process he takes a thimbleful of quotes out of context, posts them on a blank background, and says nothing substantive about the remaining 99.9 percent of Teilhards work. Failing to take into account the general architecture of Teilhards thought always leads to the kinds of exaggeration and distortion that Slattery commits.

He begins by reciting the best-known of Teilhards treasurable remarks: If humanity ever captures the energy of love, it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire. Noting that millions who tuned into the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle heard these lines recited in a moving sermon by Episcopal Bishop Michael Bruce Curry, Slattery remarks that listeners who swooned over them were unaware of the poisonous roots of Teilhards religious worldview. He proceeds to reveal the rot he finds in a package of eight passages cherry-picked from Teilhards voluminous letters and writings. I shall condense the most offensive of these below, but I want to begin my response to Slattery by summarizing what other students of Teilhards work consider to be his real legacy. Only after becoming acquainted with his core ideas can we interpret rightly what Slattery finds so offensive in Teilhards work.

Seasoned Teilhard scholars are aware of the questionable remarks he points to; but the seeming offensiveness of such comments fades into the shadows when we read them in terms of the fundamental principles guiding Teilhards scientifically informed vision of the world and God. Here are four of these fundamental principles:

The universe (as science has demonstrated) is still coming into being. Hence the world is not yet perfected. Theologically, this means that creation remains unfinished, and that humans, who are part of this universe, may contribute significantly to its making. The opportunity to participate in building the earth is a cornerstone of human dignity. (It is also a teaching of Vatican II.) The fact that our creativity can sometimes lead to monstrous outcomes does not absolve us of the obligation to improve the world and ourselves. Taking advantage of this opportunity is sometimes dangerous, but it is also essential to sustaining hope and a zest for living, Teilhard maintains. Moreover, nothing clips the wings of hope more severely than the now obsolete theological idea that the universe was completed once and for all in the beginning, and that there is little or nothing we can do to make it new.

To create is to unite. The world comes into beingand becomes newby a process of unification. Scientifically understood, the emerging cosmos becomes intelligible only by gradually bringing increasingly more complex forms of coherence out of its primordial state of diffusion and atomic dispersal. As the universe in the course of time becomes more complex, it also becomes more conscious. Theologically, this principle is implied in Christian hope as summed up in Jesus prayer that all may be one and in the Pauline expectation that everything will be brought to a head in Christ, in whom all things consist. Teilhard stated explicitly that his whole theology of nature is consistent with the expectations of the Apostle Paul and the Fourth Evangelist: Lord make us one. His true legacy lies in his rich Christian sense of a universe converging on Christ and being brought into final union in what he called God-Omega.

True union differentiates. As the creative love of God brings increasing unity to the unfinished universe, it is Gods will that the diversity of creation increases as well, including the emergence of free and unique human persons. In Christ, God seeks to become continually more incarnate in the world not via an order imposed on it, but by a differentiating, liberating, and personalizing communion with it. Many distortions of Teilhards intentions, including Slatterys, stem from a failure to understand what Teilhard means by true union. As we shall see, to miss the deeply Christian motif of differentiating union in his writings is to do him grave injustice.

The world rests on the future as its sole support. As we follow the course of cosmic history from its remote past into the future, Teilhard observes, we discover a law of recurrence in which something new, more complex, and (eventually) more conscious has always been taking shape up ahead. Scientifically speaking, we now know that subatomic elements were organized around atomic nuclei; atoms were gathered into molecules; molecules into cells; and cells into complex organisms, some of which made the leap into thought. The most important kinds of emergence can occur, however, only if the elements allow themselves to be organized around a new and higher center, one that lifts them up to a more elaborately differentiated unity. To experience true union, true being, true goodness, and true beauty, therefore, we must allow ourselveslike Abraham, the prophets, and Jesusto be grasped by the Future.

See the rest here:
Trashing Teilhard | Commonweal Magazine

Bachelor of Science in Education/Early Childhood Education

The Bachelor of Arts in Education (BSED) with a specialization in Early Childhood Education is an undergraduate degree program preparing candidates for teacher licensure in the field of early childhood (birth to age eight/grade 3). The curriculum is aligned with the Interstate Teaching Assessment and Support Consortium's (InTASC) model core teaching standards and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards. The curriculum includes common core standards, child development and learning, building family and community relations, cultural diversity, assessment to support young children and families, strong content knowledge to build developmentally appropriate and meaningful curriculum and experiences, and professionalism and ethics of educators. Throughout the program, students are required to complete verified field experiences and student teaching.

The Bachelor of Science in Education/Early Childhood is an undergraduate degree program intended to prepare students with no prior teaching experience for initial teacher licensure. The program is designed for students who want to work with children from pre-K through grade 3 or age 8 as a licensed early childhood educator. The program includes a clinical component requiring field experiences and student teaching above and beyond program coursework. As licensure requirements may vary by state, it is the students responsibility to ascertain and meet licensure requirements in any state in which the student desires to practice and to contact the applicable state educator licensure agency to verify current requirements to become a licensed teacher. There may be additional qualifications and/or disqualifications applicable in order to work as a teacher with any local, state or federal entity.

The Bachelor of Science in Education/Elementary (BSEd-E) is an undergraduate degree program preparing candidates for teacher licensure. The guiding philosophy of the BSEd/E program is to provide students with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to become competent and effective educators. This program focuses on elementary student learning by developing the skills of the educator responsible for that learning. Student teaching is an integral component of the Teacher Education Program. It provides students with a field-based experience at the appropriate grade and content level. Student teachers work with a cooperating teacher from a school site and with a University of Phoenix faculty advisor. The student teaching experience is designed to emphasize the achievement of state standards leading to certification and to present individuals with growth opportunities that best prepare them to assume the duties of a certified classroom teacher. Throughout the program, students are required to complete a minimum of 100 hours of verified field experiences, covering a variety of developmental levels. The focus of each observation will relate to specific course content.

The Bachelor of Science in Education/Elementary Education is an undergraduate degree program intended to prepare students with no prior teaching experience for initial teacher licensure. The program is designed for students who want to become elementary school teachers and includes a clinical component requiring field experiences and student teaching above and beyond program coursework. As licensure requirements may vary by state, it is the students responsibility to ascertain and meet licensure requirements in any state in which the student desires to practice and to contact the applicable state educator licensure agency to verify current requirements to become a licensed teacher. There may be additional qualifications and/or disqualifications applicable in order to work as a teacher with any local, state or federal entity.

The mission of the Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration program is to prepare education professionals who can address the multiple challenges facing higher education in a dynamic global community. The program prepares students to lead innovative, institutional policy changes and improvements within complex educational environments involving multiple stakeholders. The program addresses the diversity of higher education entities including public and private colleges and universities, governmental entities, accrediting and regulatory bodies, and higher education professional associations. The program emphasizes the discovery, integration and application of knowledge about higher education and leadership, promotes a commitment to professional integrity and development, the value of human diversity, innovative practice, and collaboration.

The Master of Arts in Education/Administration and Supervision program prepares candidates for principal licensure. The standards-based program is designed to provide principal candidates with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to be successful school leaders who can apply theory to practice. The program encompasses instructional leadership, organizational management, technology management, and data-driven decision-making. An administrative internship is an integral component of the program, providing candidates with a field-based experience in the various aspects of school administration and supervision.

The Master of Arts in Education/Administration and Supervision is a graduate program intended to prepare candidates for K12 school principal licensure. Candidates for this program have already earned a bachelors degree. The program includes a clinical component requiring field experiences and an administrative internship above and beyond program coursework. As licensure requirements may vary by state, it is the students responsibility to ascertain and meet licensure requirements in any state in which the student desires to practice and to contact the applicable state educator licensure agency to verify current requirements to become a licensed school principal. There may be additional qualifications and/or disqualifications applicable in order to work as a principal with any local, state or federal entity.

The Master of Arts/Adult Education and Training (MAED/AET) program is designed for individuals interested in working with adult learners in areas such as corporate training, non-profit and community-based organizations, government, postsecondary education, and human services agencies. Learners develop competencies and expertise necessary to align education and training with strategic objectives and human services foundations across an enterprise with culturally diverse populations. Learners expand their knowledge in andragogical theory, instructional design and strategies, assessment of learning, delivering online learning, management and marketing, and technology integration. In addition, learners engage in practice through collaborative learning, social media, and community-based learning. Graduates will be able to serve adult students, colleagues, industries, and communities as expert educators and trainers.

The Master of Arts in Education/Adult Education and Training is a graduate degree program intended for students interested in working with adult learners in an educational or training environment. The MAED/AET does not prepare students for any type of professional certification or state licensure as a teacher. The program is only intended as an advanced degree.

The Master of Arts in Education program with a specialization in Curriculum and Instruction is intended to afford P-12 educators the opportunity to enhance their curriculum, instruction, and leadership repertoire by expanding their knowledge of assessment, instructional strategies, integration of technology, professional development, data-driven decision making, and mentoring and coaching. Educators will develop teacher leadership skills by exploring the latest research, trends, and strategies. Graduates will be able to effectively collaborate with all stakeholders and serve their students, colleagues, and communities as ethical leaders committed to excellence.

The Master of Arts in Education/Curriculum and Instruction is a graduate degree program intended to provide educators with advanced knowledge and skills in curriculum and instruction. The MAED/CI does not prepare students for any type of professional certification or state licensure as a teacher. The program is only intended as an advanced degree.

The Master of Arts in Education/Elementary Teacher Education (MAED/TED-E) is a graduate degree program preparing candidates for initial teacher licensure. The guiding philosophy of the MAED/TED-E program is to provide the adult student, who already has a degree in a discipline other than education, with the knowledge, skills and dispositions that will allow him or her to become a competent and effective educator. This program focuses on elementary student learning by improving the educator's responsibility for that learning. Clinical Practice (student teaching) is an integral component of the Teacher Education Program. It provides students with a field-based experience at the appropriate grade and content level. Student teachers work with a cooperating teacher from a school site and with a University of Phoenix faculty advisor. The clinical practice is designed to emphasize the achievement of state standards leading to certification and to present individuals with growth opportunities that best prepare them to assume the duties of a certified classroom teacher. Throughout the program, students are required to complete a minimum of 100 hours of verified clinical experiences covering a variety of developmental levels. The focus of each experience will relate to specific course content and professional preparation. Documentation will be maintained in the student's professional portfolio.

The Master of Arts in Education/Elementary Teacher Education is a graduate degree program intended for students with no prior teaching experience for initial teacher licensure. The program is designed for students who want to become elementary school teachers. Candidates for this program have already earned a bachelors degree. The program includes a clinical component requiring field experiences and student teaching above and beyond program coursework. As licensure requirements may vary by state, it is the students responsibility to ascertain and meet licensure requirements in any state in which the student desires to practice and to contact the applicable state educator licensure agency to verify current requirements to become a licensed teacher. There may be additional qualifications and/or disqualifications applicable in order to work as a teacher with any local, state or federal entity.

The Master of Arts in Education/Secondary Teacher Education (MAED/TED-S) is a graduate degree program preparing candidates for initial teacher licensure for instruction in secondary education. The guiding philosophy of the MAED/TED-S program is to provide adult students who already have degrees in disciplines other than education with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become competent and effective secondary educators. Rigorous course work, clinical experience, and clinical practice are integral components of this program. Candidates complete a minimum of 100 hours of verified field-based clinical experiences at appropriate grades and content levels to prepare them for a culminating clinical practice as a student teacher. During their clinical practice (student teaching), candidates work with a cooperating teacher at a school site and with a University of Phoenix faculty supervisor. All clinical experiences are aligned to state and professional standards and prepare candidates to be effective educational professionals.

The Master of Arts in Education/Secondary Teacher Education (MAED/TED-S) is a graduate degree program preparing candidates for initial teacher licensure. The guiding philosophy of the MAED/TED-S program is to provide the adult student, who already has a degree in a discipline other than education, with the knowledge, skills and dispositions that will allow him or her (or change to plural throughout) to become a competent and effective educator. This program focuses on secondary student learning by improving the educators responsibility for that learning. Clinical Practice (student teaching) is an integral component of the Teacher Education Program. It provides students with a field-based experience at the appropriate grade and content level. Student teachers work with a cooperating teacher from a school site and with a University of Phoenix faculty advisor. The clinical practice is designed to emphasize the achievement of state standards leading to certification and to present individuals with growth opportunities that best prepare them to assume the duties of a certified classroom teacher. Throughout the program, students are required to complete a minimum of 100 hours of verified clinical experiences covering a variety of developmental levels. The focus of each experience will relate to specific course content and professional preparation. Documentation will be maintained in the students professional portfolio.

The Master of Arts in Education (MAED) with a specialization in Special Education is a graduate degree program preparing candidates for teacher licensure in the field of special education. Candidates for this program have already earned a bachelor's degree and wish to gain the pedagogical skills and knowledge that will assist them in becoming effective special education educators. The program's curriculum includes orientation to the exceptional child, foundations and methodologies of mild disabilities, diagnosis and assessment of disabilities, structured English immersion, reading and language arts instruction, inclusion strategies, and collaboration and resource management for the special educator.

Throughout the program, students are required to complete a minimum of 100 hours of verified field experiences. The focus of each observation will relate to specific course content. Students' field experiences are designed to prepare them for student teaching. Student teaching is an integral component of the Special Education Program. Student teachers work with a cooperating teacher and with a University of Phoenix faculty advisor during a field-based experience in mild to moderate special education setting. The student teaching experience is designed to emphasize the achievement of state standards leading to certification and to present individuals with growth opportunities that best prepare them to assume the duties of a certified teacher.

The Master of Arts in Education/Special Education is a graduate degree program intended for students with no prior teaching experience for initial teacher licensure. The program is designed for students who want to become special education teachers. Candidates for this program have already earned a bachelors degree. The program includes a clinical component requiring field experiences and student teaching above and beyond program coursework. As licensure requirements may vary by state, it is the students responsibility to ascertain and meet licensure requirements in any state in which the student desires to practice and to contact the applicable state educator licensure agency to verify current requirements to become a licensed teacher. There may be additional qualifications and/or disqualifications applicable in order to work as a teacher with any local, state or federal entity.

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Online Education Degree Programs | University of Phoenix

Investment was supposed to boom after the tax cut.

First-quarter economic growth exceeded even the most optimistic expectations, expanding at a 3.2% annualized rate. The Trump administration was quick to take credit for the continued strength in the U.S. economy.

At a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Saturday night, President Donald Trump again declared that his leadership and policies were delivering what he refers to as the best economy in history.

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, got more specific.

The gross domestic product report confirms our view that the momentum from last year was not a sugar high but a serious response to long-run policies that have made the U.S. a more attractive place for business, Hassett told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Theres just one problem with Hassetts assessment.

The unexpected strength in the GDP report came from inventories, trade, and state and local government spending, not from business investment, which is where one would expect to see the response to the kind of long-run, supply-side policies Hassett implied.

Private final demand, which is known in the GDP report as final sales to private domestic purchasers and which should be the beneficiary of tax cuts and deregulation, rose an anemic 1.3%, the smallest increase in six years.

At the same time, net exports (exports minus imports) and inventories accounted for a combined 1.68 percentage points more than half of the first quarters GDP 3.2% growth and the largest contribution in six years.

So wheres the tax-cut-driven boost in capital expenditures?

Real nonresidential fixed investment business spending on structures, equipment and intellectual property rose at a 2.7% rate in the first quarter, half the fourth-quarter pace.

Yes, there were two back-to-back quarters of solid capex growth in 2018 following the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Business fixed investment rose 11.7% in the first quarter of 2018 and 8.7% in the second before slumping to 2.5% in the third.

However, investment posted solid, back-to-back quarters in the middle of 2014 as well, with real GDP averaging 5%.

Also read: Manufacturers grow at slowest pace in April since Trump elected, ISM finds

Whats more, investment in structures posted a third consecutive quarterly decline in the first quarter, while spending on equipment rose a paltry 0.2%. A key barometer of future capital spending, new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, has seen a deceleration in year-over-year growth since its recent peak in September 2017.

Also read: Construction spending tumbles in March as housing takes it on the chin

Meanwhile, housing, or residential investment, posted its fifth consecutive quarterly decline and seventh in the last eight quarters. Fixed investment, both residential and nonresidential, contributed a combined 0.27 percentage points to first-quarter growth. Not exactly a supply-side endorsement.

Mondays Outlook column in the Wall Street Journal begs to differ. The Supply Side of the Economy is Flashing Strength, reads the headline. The article by Jon Hilsenrath cites a consensus-estimate 2.3% jump in first-quarter productivity growth (which was reported on Thursday as a 3.6% increase) and nascent signs of a pick-up in labor-force growth.

That would certainly be welcome news. An aging population and a 15-year slump in productivity are limiting the economys capacity to expand without creating inflationary pressure. Faster potential GDP, of course, would mean that the economy can run hotter for longer without triggering a response from the Federal Reserve.

If you take the Fed at its word, policy makers would like to see a bit more price pressure after years of undershooting their 2% inflation target. It remains to be seen what will happen if and when inflation pierces that barrier and heads higher.

It is always possible that measured productivity growth will show a lagged response to technological innovation, as it did in the 1990s. Economist Robert Solow famously remarked in 1987 that you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.

As if on cue, productivity growth then exited its two-decade slump in the mid-1990s to exceed 3% over the next 10 years.

If you believe, as I do, that much of todays technology is distracting, addictive and productivity-sapping, then Solows prescience may not come to fruition anytime soon.

Now, the first quarters odd distribution of growth was probably a fluke, or just plain weird, as economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, called it. The government shutdown in January may have dampened consumer spending and prompted businesses to delay planned investments. Strong retail sales in March support the idea of deferred consumer purchases.

In 2016, 2017, and 2018 the dominant source of growth was households and businesses, which had contributed more than 100% of growth on average, Holtz-Eakin writes. That compares with 43% of the growth in final sales in the first quarter.

Even a reversal of the first-quarters contributions to growth in the second quarter wouldnt settle the question of whether last years 3% GDP growth was a tax-cut-driven sugar high or a supply-side miracle.

It would take a consistent improvement in productivity growth from the 1.4% post-2004 average and sustained 3% growth in real GDP compared with the sub-2% estimate of potential, before we can extrapolate a new trend, not to mention a new normal.

Read more:
Investment boom? What investment boom? - MarketWatch

In the first essay of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals (OGM), he lays out his famous accusation: Christianity is the religion of the downtrodden, the bullied, the weak, the poor and the slave. And this, precisely, is why it is so filled with hatred. For there is nothing quite as explosive as the sort of bottled up resentment that the oppressed feels towards their oppressor. It's all there in the Bible.

Consider Psalm 137. It begins with the cry of an enslaved people:

By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion'

Such circumstances are a breeding ground for fantasies of violence and revenge. And so the Psalm concludes: " ... happy shall be he who takes your children and smashes their heads against the rock." For Nietzsche, this frustrated anger is the essence of Christian morality. It is the very engine of the church. Christianity is a religion of hatred.

Nowhere is this more obvious, Nietzsche insists, than with the invention of the idea of hell. For hell is a fantasy of the weak that enables them to imagine compensatory revenge against the strong. Evidencing this, he points to Aquinas who wrote that "the blessed in the heavenly kingdom will see the torment of the damned so that they may even more thoroughly enjoy their own blessedness." The whole theological architecture of heaven and hell is, for Nietzsche, the product of "hatred" dressed up to look like love.

But the vengefulness of the pious slave goes a great deal further than simply twisting the idea of God into an instrument of revenge. For Nietzsche's contention is that the very origins of morality itself and secular morality just as much as its Judeo-Christian predecessor can be understood as springing from the same impulse. Socialists beware: he thinks this is your story too.

Don't look for proper history here. In a sense, Nietzsche is re-narrating the myth of the fall. In the beginning, so he says, there was nothing much wrong with the notion of God. Yahweh represented a culture at ease with itself and its prosperity. The festivals of religion were about exuberance, the means by which life was to be celebrated. But then came slavery and deportation into exile. And with this, the whole idea of God was re-imagined. Instead of being an expression of abundant confidence, God was transformed into a vehicle for desired revenge.

It was the Jews who, rejecting the aristocratic value equation (good = noble = powerful = beautiful = happy = blessed) ventured, with awe inspiring consistency, to bring about a reversal and held it in the teeth of their most unfathomable hatred (the hatred of the powerless), saying:

Only those who suffer are good, only the poor, the powerless, the lowly are good; the suffering, the deprived, the sick, the ugly, are the only pious people, the only ones saved, salvation is for them alone, whereas you rich, the noble and powerful, you eternally wicked cruel, lustful, insatiate, godless, you will be eternally wretched, cursed and damned. (OGM 1:7)

With slavery, all values are reversed. "Blessed are the poor" says Jesus. Everything vibrant and life-affirming is redescribed as "bad" so as to undermine the authority of the strong. Morality is a put-down. And with this revolutionary redescription, Nietzsche contends, humanity degrades itself. Humanity withers.

It may be worth nailing the jibe that Nietzsche was antisemitic. Certainly, his talk of "the Jews" in the above reference will make many of us squirm. And his famous friendship with Wagner and the fact that he became Hitler's favourite thinker do nothing to ease this discomfort. Yet, the truth is, Nietzsche loathed antisemites. He thought them vulgar and often said as much. In Beyond Good and Evil he muses: "It would perhaps be a good idea to eject the antisemitic ranters from the country."

Despite the fact that all this is widely accepted by scholars, many who read Nietzsche still experience some residual anxiety that his celebration of the powerful and his denigration of the weak has proto-Nazi overtones. In OGM he speaks approvingly of the "magnificent blond beast avidly prowling around for spoil and victory" in contrast to the "failed, sickly, tired and exhausted people of whom today's Europe is beginning to reek". This is not a reference to Jews. Even so, I think Nietzsche apologists have been far too indulgent of his celebrated rhetorical flamboyance. This sort of language stinks.

But although there are several occasions when the modern reader will want to hold their nose whilst reading Nietzsche, it is worth persevering. For there is much here to ponder, not least the familiar idea that those who are bullied and abused in one generation can often turn into the bullies and abusers of the next. With Nietzsche, this thought becomes the guiding thread of cultural history. The impact of suffering cascades down the generations, finding its way into all aspects of life, cultural and psychological. Yes, he is out to expose the vast weight of poisonous anger that lurks behind that hideous evangelical smile. But his ambition is much greater than this. For Nietzsche contends that Judeo-Christianity has shaped European culture to such an extent that the inversion of values that it promotes has permeated the entire way we see the world. When things are this far gone, a simple declaration of "the death of God" will do little to change things. In fact, it may simply mask the root of the illness. For Nietzsche, atheism is no simple prophylactic against slave morality.

Rev Dr Giles Fraser is the vicar of Putney. He was formerly a lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford. His books include Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief (Routledge, 2002)

Read the original:
Giles Fraser: Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals ...

The book explores crucial themes in Heidegger, Levinas and Nietzsche, primarily centred around the problem of death and dying (chapter one), self and other (chapter two), figurations of being (chapter three), dwelling (chapter four), truth and error (chapter five), and the concept of substance (chapter six). With the exception of the last chapter, Rafael Winkler shows how Heidegger, Levinas, and Nietzsche, as well as Derrida and Ricoeur (not mentioned in the subtitle, but very present throughout the book) are key-players in the still ongoing debate about: (1) the nature of the subject, (2) the limits of thought and experience, and (3) the human dependence on and responsibility for the earth on which we dwell as mortals, neighbours, strangers and guest friends, always mindful of the dead, while, at the same time, seeking to establish a historical home fit for human society.

As he explains in a brief introduction, Winkler takes the concept of "uniqueness" -- that which escapes all categorizing and identification -- as the prism through which he aims to explore death and mourning, dwelling, hospitality, and responsibility in the face of the other, the friend, or Being itself.

But there are at least three distinct takes on "the unique" in his book. First, the dominant meaning throughout denotes the unique as the singularity of a person or subject, or "the non-replaceability of a life" (xiii). Here, "the unique" has an ethical connotation, broadly speaking, for it points to the possible or actual violation of the uniqueness of a life or a person, namely, when we take others or ourselves as replaceable, classifiable, and identifiable, etc.

Second, Winkler also refers to the "the unique" as a formal-ontological category, denoting a "purely formal feature of existence" as such, the mere "haecceity of a being," its pure and as yet unqualified, non-identified "being there at all" (xiii, xv). As he puts it, "when nothing more can be said of it [the something whatsoever, IF] except that it is, then and only then does it stand apart and shine through in the singularity of its existence" (xiv). The sheer something, even prior to its diremption into "someone" or "something" (xiv), is the formal-ontologically unique, the "absolutely other," "the anonymous" or the absolutely strange (xiv).

Although Winkler is aware of these two distinct takes on the unique and even uses this distinction throughout the book, he is, in my view, not sufficiently clear about the full significance of this distinction. For instance, while there is a certain sublimity, strangeness, or otherness in the sheer existence of something that escapes all categorization, identification, etc., which can result in a feeling of awe, shock, or disorientation, as Winkler notes, it is doubtful that the particularly ethical response to the unique, in the encounter of the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, or the relation to one's own death or the mourning of a friend, can be adequately described or subsumed as a specific case of what is unique in the purely formal-ontological sense.

Moreover, Winkler introduces a third dimension of the meaning of "the unique," when he writes that his purpose is "to justify . . . the belief that the unique is everything or, to put it more precisely using one of Plato's expressions, that the unique is to ontos on, the really real" (xii). It is unclear how such a project could avoid prioritizing the formal-ontological meaning of the unique at the expense of the genuinely ethical concept of singularity. Moreover, it is equally unclear how such an undertaking could be achieved without a discussion of nominalism and its long tradition. But there is not a hint of that, and, in the end, Winkler nowhere develops this systematic ontological idea, dropping it for the much more modest idea to highlight differences and commonalities in Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida through the lens of "the unique," clearly taking it as a limit-concept.

In the first chapter, "Death, the Impossible," Winkler pursues three intersecting objectives. First, accepting Heidegger's claim that anticipating one's own death can initiate an utmost singularization at the limit of one's life (11), Winkler contests that the experience of the imminence of death is so shattering and forever elusive that it is bound to dissolve "every kind of unity and identity" in Dasein, without, however, thereby annulling the very experience of it (7).

According to Winkler, Heidegger actually affirms such a position in his lecture "What is Metaphysics?" when he argues that in anxiety we not only lose our grip on the world because it slips away from us, but that we also experience a loss of the "I." He quotes Heidegger's summary of the uncanny experience of anxiety:

At bottom therefore, it is not as though 'you' or 'I' feel ill at ease [nicht 'dir' und 'mir' unheimlich ist]; rather, it is this way for some 'one' [sondern 'einem' ist es so]. In the altogether unsettling experience of this hovering where there is nothing to hold onto, pure Da-sein is all that is still there. (15)

As Winkler rightly notes, this is different from Heidegger's account in Being and Time. But does it really follow that Heidegger here suggests that "the I vanishes," as Winkler puts it (15)? After all, the Da-sein in the human being that experiences anxiety remains intact, and Dasein is determined by Jemeinigkeit and care for itself, even if that mineness is often not very pronounced or foregrounded, or perhaps even weakened.

Second, although Winkler argues that anxiety in the face of death is an overwhelming and shattering limit situation that singularizes Dasein and leads to its disintegration as an identical self, he insists that this experience of dissolution can be had, albeit not "owned", by the authority of the "first person," because precisely this "identity" is undermined by the experience of death. Thus, Winkler argues that an experience is possible even in the absence of an intact "unity of the first person" (1). In defending this view, Winkler goes on to attack Dan Zahavi's account of the necessary unity of consciousness, for which he heavily draws on testimonials of schizophrenic patients (taken from Laing's The Divided Self). But since these testimonials operate with the conspicuous presence of the word "I," thus always presupposing what is said to be absent or shattered (16-17), I fail to see how Winkler can make good his argument on that basis.

Moreover, Winkler's further claim that because of the disintegration of the personal self, brought about by the anticipation of one's death, authenticity and resoluteness in the face of death is impossible and that, therefore, "I cannot own my existence authentically" (1) before death is certainly in need of much more substantiation, because this result flies in the face of everything Heidegger has written.

However that may be, Winkler's third objective is to claim that even though my own death is entirely disorienting and shattering, namely as an always outstanding, imminent but never present "event," it is not, as Derrida would have it, an impossibility in such a way that death comes home, so to speak, only through the death of a friend, i.e., in mourning over the death of the irreplaceable friend (20-24). Since Winkler is primarily focused on the unique, he is quite content with simply noting that Derrida's account of mourning is just as much a genuine figure of the singularizing of death, i.e., the death of a singular and irreplaceable friend, as is Heidegger's account of anxiety in the face of my own death, which singularizes my own Dasein. That is certainly true, but this observation alone does not help to settle the issue, i.e., whether Heidegger's or Derrida's analysis of death is more compelling.

In the second chapter, "Self and Other," Winkler continues his exploration of the unique in human life, that is, in its manifestation in the call of conscience (Heidegger) and the summons of the other (Levinas). According to Winkler, the decisive difference between the two is that while Heidegger's call issues from inside Dasein calling it to its unique self, the summons calls me from outside, singling out the other in his or her absolute singularity. In other words, for Heidegger there is an internal "ontological alterity" at the very heart of Dasein itself, whereas for Levinas there is an "ethical alterity of the other" external to the subject (41).

In this context, Winkler also discusses Ricoeur's attempt in Oneself as Another to find a middle ground between Heidegger and Levinas. Ricoeur suggests that the call at the heart of Dasein must be interpreted as the internal acknowledgment or attestation of the obligation to the other, as a response to an injunction. This would make the call genuinely ethical, which it is not in Heidegger. At the same time, it would anchor the call in the subject's binding itself to its obligation to the other, in contrast to Levinas' merely externally founded summons by the other. As Winkler points out, such a position would also support more recent attempts by Franois Raffoul and Franoise Dastur to derive the alterity of the other from the ontological alterity within Dasein.

However, in contrast to this attempted rapprochement, Winkler argues that "there is no phenomenological or hermeneutical justification" for holding the view that in assigning myself responsibility for my actions (in and through the call), I am already enjoined by the other outside, such that "the injunction of the other" would already reside in me (45). Put differently, there is no way that one can "transpose the vertical relation that structures the interiority of the self onto the social relation between the self and the other" (45.) Binding oneself to the call of one's conscience is not isomorphic with the response of the call coming from the other, and the singularity of Dasein (in acknowledging the call of conscience) is distinct from the singularity with which the other addresses me (46).

The third chapter, "Figurations," explores the idea of absolute alterity or uniqueness, this side of all particular ethical considerations and obligations owed to the other. Winkler starts out by noting that Heidegger's concept of metaphysics and Levinas' concept of ontology have much in common (48-50). Both concepts refer to a totality of entities and beings, fully present, and represented in the understanding, such that whatever falls outside the parameters of theoretical cognition or the metaphysical grasp of entities, is excluded and relegated to nothingness. What thus falls by the wayside is the absolute other that resists integration into the same (Levinas) or the metaphysical totality of beings (Heidegger). Thus, at the limit of ontology or metaphysics emerges "the thought of absolute difference" which eludes all contextualization, anticipation, and rational control (49). It is the unique in its pure form, not an identifiable being, but a mere "figuration of being" (54), prior even to the diremption of beings into "someone" and "something," or "what" or "who" (55).

Winkler holds that Heidegger's concept of the Event or Being, as distinguished from beings, points to such absolute difference, for Being or the Event is not a being. It is the absolute other that "is" withdrawn and stays hidden, a secret in the midst of all the positivity of entities. In his own way, Levinas thinks through the absolute other too, this side of the same, when he discusses the feminine as non-identifiable, non-reducible, non-assimilable to the same, antedating the home, into which, however, she welcomes the host, preparing the home as "the place of exile and refuge," for the guest and the stranger, thus enabling human dwelling or habitation (59). Winkler suggests that Levinas' conception of "the withdrawal of the feminine" is in an import sense a "rethinking of the withdrawal of Being in Heidegger" (59).

As a third attempt to think absolute difference, Winkler points to Derrida's concept of the "absolute arrivant," which is an unconditional and unqualified hospitality towards the future (61). The upshot is that underneath their many surface differences, a careful reading can identify the commonality of the deepest thoughts in Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida.

This is further elaborated in chapter four, "Dwelling," where Winkler by way of an extraordinarily refreshing reading of Heidegger's lectures on Hlderlin establishes Heidegger's very own version of hospitality (Gastfreundschaft), the welcome of the stranger into one's home, as the proper response to the challenge to found what its homely on the self-secluding earth. Quoting from Heidegger's lectures on Der Ister, Winkler shows that Heidegger knows that "the appropriation of the proper is only as the encounter and guest-like conversation with the foreign" (83).

Chapter five, "Beyond Truth," delves into Derrida's and Heidegger's interpretations of Nietzsche's conception of the limits of metaphysics and truth. Assuming a middle position, Winkler critiques Derrida's reading of Nietzsche for "its excessive focus on play and irony" (102), while, correlatively, he takes issue with Heidegger's conspicuous neglect of just this side in Nietzsche (96). However, Winkler's suggestion that Nietzsche did not give up the idea of truth, but rather, endorsed an epoch "in a manner similar to Husserl's suspension of the natural attitude" (87), needs much more elaboration, for it is hardly consistent with Nietzsche's view that by "abolishing the true world" we have also done away with "the apparent world."

Chapter six, "Substance," abruptly departs from the main line of inquiry in the previous chapters and provides a doxographic account of the emergence of the technical term substance or substantia in Roman philosophy. While Winkler notes that it is part of the common understanding that substantia translates the Greek term ousia, he points to the new Roman reality with its emphasis on rhetoric, public conflicts and courts to resolve them as a decisive background that shaped the usage of the term. In the forensic context, the term substantia refers to what a dispute is about, the subject matter of the case and this forensic meaning reinforced the philosophical use of substance (125).

While it is unclear how this insight contributes to the interpretations offered in the earlier chapters, the reader will note that in the course of this discussion Winkler also touches on the Stoic concept of the supreme genus, the something as such (120). This obviously relates back to Winkler's initial inquiry into the unqualified singular, but oddly enough Winkler does not engage this issue at all in this chapter. (Incidentally, Winkler also misses Heidegger's own discussion of the "something" as such in 20 of Zur Bestimmung der Philosophie.)

In conclusion, although the book has some merit in highlighting the real proximity between Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, the various observations and theses Winkler advances are of varying quality, and some need to be elaborated in more detail and with more justification in order to be persuasive.

Read the original:
Philosophy of Finitude: Heidegger, Levinas, and Nietzsche ...

Accommodations

Our housing options are designed for a range of budgets and personal needs and vary from self-pitched tents to luxurious beachfront suites to comfortable cabins. All of our accommodations are welcoming and simple, and the diverse spectrum allows you to relax and enjoy your time with us at the ashram.

Please note

Payments We accept Visa and MasterCard. We do not accept American Express, Discover, personal checks, or travelers checks. All deposits and payments in US dollars only.

Deposits To guarantee your reservation, a $300 deposit is required. The balance is due at least 14 days before your arrival; we will send you an email reminder a week before we process the balance.

Our rates are seasonal

The rates below are per person, per night, and are listed in US dollars. A Bahamian VAT tax of 12% will be added.

Delight in breathtaking, wide-open views of the sparkling ocean from your own beachfront private balcony. Our Beachfront Deluxe Rooms are simple and spacious, furnished with two double beds and include a private bathroom with shower and tub. You will have a miniature refrigerator, kitchen sink, tea kettle, and tableware. These rooms are air-conditioned and available for reservations of at least two adults.

Relax into gorgeous views of the turquoise ocean from your balcony, and be within a stones throw distance from our beachfront yoga platform. Choose from either one king bed or two extra-long twin beds, and enjoy your own private bathroom with shower and tub. These spacious rooms also have a rocking chair, desk, and kitchen area with a small refrigerator, kitchen sink, tea kettle, and tableware. Fully air-conditioned, these rooms are available for reservations of at least two adults.

Our Bayside Rooms with Bath have two single beds and a private bathroom with shower and tub. Within a short distance of the bay, these rooms include simple furnishings, a small refrigerator, tea kettle, and air conditioning.

Private or shared:

The Classic Room with Double Bed allows for single or couples occupancy. They feature one double bed, simple furnishings, and air conditioning. Situated in various locations throughout the ashram, shared bathrooms are always close by. The prices below are for one person, single occupancy. For couples occupancy, the prices per person are the same as those for the Garden Room (shared); see above

Ideal for solo travelers, our Classic Single Room offers a comfortable space with one bed, simple furnishings, and air conditioning. Single rooms are situated in various locations throughout the ashram, including within our main building. Depending on the location of your room, various shared bathrooms are available within a few seconds walking distance.

Fall asleep to the relaxing sounds of ocean waves. Our Beach Huts are comfortable, simple, and seconds from the beach. These shared rooms feature two single beds, simple furnishings, and air-conditioning. Full bathrooms are located within one minutes walk from your room.

Private or shared:

These Garden Rooms are shared rooms, situated within various locations of the ashram. Featuring two single beds and air conditioning, these rooms are simply furnished with shared bathrooms nearby. If you choose this room as a solo traveler, you can expect to share it with a roommate of the same gender.

Private or shared:

Perfect for couples and close friends, our Tent Hut Doubles feature one double bed and allow you to sleep in the Bahamas breeze. Sized for two people, these Tent Huts are comfortably furnished with a simple closet, nightstand with bedside lamp and fan, and electrical outlets. Towels and bedding are provided for you, and shared bathrooms are a short walk away. Tent Huts are available from November through June.

Sleep in the fresh, tropical air while still enjoying indoor comforts including a single bed, electrical outlet, simple furnishings, and a nightstand with bedside lamp and fan. Its the easiest camping youll ever do, while youre safely surrounded by your Tent Hut neighbors. Towels and bedding are provided for you, and shared bathrooms are a short walk away. Tent Huts are available from November through June.

Make friends with interesting people from around the world! Our single-gender Dormitory accommodations are simple and comfortable, furnished with 3-4 single beds. They are located in various parts of the ashram, and shared bathrooms are nearby. Bedding and towels are provided.

Many of our guests are nature lovers. Set up your tent near the beach, bay, or amongst the palm trees. Create your own sacred space within in the ashram to reconnect with nature and sleep close to the earth. And you wont be completely alone get ready to meet tent neighbors from around the world! Bring your own tent (sized up to 8x8), camping gear, mattress, bedding, and towels. Tent Spaces are available from November through May.

Are you new to the idea but want to give it a try? View our blog for some good tenting tips.

Here is the original post:

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas International Day of ...

Accommodations

Our housing options are designed for a range of budgets and personal needs and vary from self-pitched tents to luxurious beachfront suites to comfortable cabins. All of our accommodations are welcoming and simple, and the diverse spectrum allows you to relax and enjoy your time with us at the ashram.

Please note

Payments We accept Visa and MasterCard. We do not accept American Express, Discover, personal checks, or travelers checks. All deposits and payments in US dollars only.

Deposits To guarantee your reservation, a $300 deposit is required. The balance is due at least 14 days before your arrival; we will send you an email reminder a week before we process the balance.

Our rates are seasonal

The rates below are per person, per night, and are listed in US dollars. A Bahamian VAT tax of 12% will be added.

Delight in breathtaking, wide-open views of the sparkling ocean from your own beachfront private balcony. Our Beachfront Deluxe Rooms are simple and spacious, furnished with two double beds and include a private bathroom with shower and tub. You will have a miniature refrigerator, kitchen sink, tea kettle, and tableware. These rooms are air-conditioned and available for reservations of at least two adults.

Relax into gorgeous views of the turquoise ocean from your balcony, and be within a stones throw distance from our beachfront yoga platform. Choose from either one king bed or two extra-long twin beds, and enjoy your own private bathroom with shower and tub. These spacious rooms also have a rocking chair, desk, and kitchen area with a small refrigerator, kitchen sink, tea kettle, and tableware. Fully air-conditioned, these rooms are available for reservations of at least two adults.

Our Bayside Rooms with Bath have two single beds and a private bathroom with shower and tub. Within a short distance of the bay, these rooms include simple furnishings, a small refrigerator, tea kettle, and air conditioning.

Private or shared:

The Classic Room with Double Bed allows for single or couples occupancy. They feature one double bed, simple furnishings, and air conditioning. Situated in various locations throughout the ashram, shared bathrooms are always close by. The prices below are for one person, single occupancy. For couples occupancy, the prices per person are the same as those for the Garden Room (shared); see above

Ideal for solo travelers, our Classic Single Room offers a comfortable space with one bed, simple furnishings, and air conditioning. Single rooms are situated in various locations throughout the ashram, including within our main building. Depending on the location of your room, various shared bathrooms are available within a few seconds walking distance.

Fall asleep to the relaxing sounds of ocean waves. Our Beach Huts are comfortable, simple, and seconds from the beach. These shared rooms feature two single beds, simple furnishings, and air-conditioning. Full bathrooms are located within one minutes walk from your room.

Private or shared:

These Garden Rooms are shared rooms, situated within various locations of the ashram. Featuring two single beds and air conditioning, these rooms are simply furnished with shared bathrooms nearby. If you choose this room as a solo traveler, you can expect to share it with a roommate of the same gender.

Private or shared:

Perfect for couples and close friends, our Tent Hut Doubles feature one double bed and allow you to sleep in the Bahamas breeze. Sized for two people, these Tent Huts are comfortably furnished with a simple closet, nightstand with bedside lamp and fan, and electrical outlets. Towels and bedding are provided for you, and shared bathrooms are a short walk away. Tent Huts are available from November through June.

Sleep in the fresh, tropical air while still enjoying indoor comforts including a single bed, electrical outlet, simple furnishings, and a nightstand with bedside lamp and fan. Its the easiest camping youll ever do, while youre safely surrounded by your Tent Hut neighbors. Towels and bedding are provided for you, and shared bathrooms are a short walk away. Tent Huts are available from November through June.

Make friends with interesting people from around the world! Our single-gender Dormitory accommodations are simple and comfortable, furnished with 3-4 single beds. They are located in various parts of the ashram, and shared bathrooms are nearby. Bedding and towels are provided.

Many of our guests are nature lovers. Set up your tent near the beach, bay, or amongst the palm trees. Create your own sacred space within in the ashram to reconnect with nature and sleep close to the earth. And you wont be completely alone get ready to meet tent neighbors from around the world! Bring your own tent (sized up to 8x8), camping gear, mattress, bedding, and towels. Tent Spaces are available from November through May.

Are you new to the idea but want to give it a try? View our blog for some good tenting tips.

Read more:

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas Preksha Meditation ...

GEORGE IVANOVICH GURDJIEFF

George Ivanovich (G.I.) Gurdjieff was a spiritual leader who advocated for achieving a higher state of consciousness through what he called "The Work" which was internal work on oneself. Born in Russia in the late 19th century to parents of Greek and Armenian origin, Gurdjieff taught in Russia, Georgia, Turkey, France, and eventually the United States.

Gurdjieff taught that the way to experience "The Work," was actual physical labor. He emphasized strenuous labor combined with lectures, music, and sacred dance. His focus was to increase mindfulness and minimize daydreaming. Gurdjieff's choreography, called "Movements," was one method he used to help followers clear and focus their minds. The Movements were not intended for performance, but for spiritual contemplation. Practitioners would repeat movements over and over again until they were perfect and second-nature, allowing them to use the Movements as a form of meditation.

His followers included composer Thomas de Hartmann and his wife Olga, who became Gurdjieff's secretary; Jeanne de Salzmann (who founded the Gurdjieff Foundation in 1949); Alfred Orage (who would eventually supervise The Work in New York); P.D. Ouspensky (one of Gurdjieff's earliest followers) and many others. Among his early pupils was Jessmin Howarth, who became an expert on Gurdjieff's Movements and how they should be performed. Other Movement students included Alfred Etievan and Marthe de Gainernon.

JESSMIN HOWARTH

Jessmin Howarth began her career as a dancer in 1912 when she registered at the Institute of Dalcroze Eurythmics in Germany, which eventually led to a job with the Paris Opera in the early 1920s. In Paris, Howarth encountered Jeanne de Salzmann, who introduced her to Gurdjieff. She immediately began studying the Movements and assumed the task of teaching and preserving the Movements as they were created.

On a Movement Demonstration trip to New York in 1924, Howarth discovered she was pregnant with Gurdjieff's child. After giving birth to her daughter Dushka Howarth later that year, she moved to California and then London, returning to the United States at the start of World War II.

After Gurdjieff's death in 1949, Howarth set about compiling accurate Movement notations and recordings and supervised the training of Movement instructors, assistants, and pianists. She travelled to France to assist Jeanne de Salzmann with filming Movements for posterity. She was also a consultant on the 1979 film Meetings with Remarkable Men. She retired from teaching Movements at the Gurdjieff Foundation in 1978, but continued to lead Movement Seminars until her death in 1984.

DUSHKA HOWARTH

Dushka Howarth was raised in the United States and London by her mother and had little contact with Gurdjieff as a child, though she learned of his teachings and the Movements. In 1949, she traveled to Paris with five other young women to train with Gurdjieff in the Movements, and went on to lead Movement classes in London. Howarth also worked as a tour guide in Paris, followed by a career as a folk singer under the name "Dushka, the Jet-Set Gypsy."

In 1986, Jeanne de Salzmann's daughter Nathalie de Etievan (wife of Alfred Etievan) asked Howarth to return to teaching Movements and join her in South America to help supervise and establish Movement classes. Howarth went on to visit South America many times over the next ten years and conducted Movement seminars, trained teachers, and recruited new pupils.

GURDJIEFF HERITAGE SOCIETY

Dushka Howarth was a founding member of the Gurdjieff Heritage Society, which sought to preserve the Movements and Gurdjieff's teachings in their original form. To do this, members gathered original notes, photographs, music, and descriptions of Movements from around the world in order to compile definitive instructions for as many Movements as possible. The Society also lent resources and support to others undertaking Gurdjieff preservation projects, such as Gert-Jan Blom's preservation of Gurdjieff's harmonium recordings. As the artistic director of Netherland's Metropole Orchestra, Blom was also able to produce full orchestra recordings of Gurdjieff's music with assistance from the Society.

In 2009, the Gurdjieff Heritage Society published Dushka Howarth's book It's Up To Ourselves: A Mother, A Daughter, G.I. Gurdjieff, A Shared Memoir and Family Photo Album. Howarth researched the material for the book over a ten-year period and used her mother's essays, correspondence, photographs, and the accounts of others to piece together the story of Jessmin Howarth's life and her own experiences with Gurdjieff and his pupils. Dushka Howarth continued to work with the Gurdjieff Heritage Society until her death in 2010.

Read this article:
archives.nypl.org -- Howarth Gurdjieff Archive

In the 1920s,Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote several influential books outlining the principles of successful propaganda. In his book by that title, Bernaysarguedthat the mind of the peopleis made up for it bythose persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion and know how to skillfully supply the public with inherited prejudices and verbal formulas.

Bernays comments come to mind in the current climate of hostility and intolerance being directed against individuals pejoratively dubbed by the vaccine lobby as anti-vaxxers. The dumbed-down propaganda being plastered across the mainstream media on an almost daily basis would have the public believe that anyone who questionsanyaspect of vaccination is ignorant, selfish or both. However, there is a glaring flaw with this logic. The incontrovertible factwhich the legislators, regulators, reporters and citizens who are participating in mass tarring and feathering are not honest enough to admitis that many of the people classified as anti-vaxxers are actually ex-vaxxers whose dutiful adherence to current vaccine policies led to serious vaccine injury in themselves or a loved one.

Parental compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDCs) heavy-duty vaccine requirements for infants is often the catalyst for the injuries that start families down the path of becoming ex-vaxxers.

Vaccine coverage in the United States is high. In their first three years,over 99%of American children receive some vaccines. By the governments indirect admission, however, vaccine-related adverse events are also commonwith fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries ever gettingreported.

Parental compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDCs) heavy-duty vaccine requirements forinfantsis often the catalyst for the injuries that start families down the path of becoming ex-vaxxers. In one tragic case, a parent who followed doctors orders lost her six-week-old infant girl 12 hours after the child received eight vaccines; medical experts conclusion that vaccination was thecause of deathprompted a different valuation of risks and benefits with a subsequent child. There aremany othersuch stories. Moreover, when individuals who suffer nonfatal vaccine injuries stick to the standard vaccination regimen, research shows that they often experienceeven more severe injuriesthe next time around.

In the U.S., vaccines have been liability-free since 1986and evidence suggests that vaccine safety hasdeterioratedsignificantly as a result. The only current recourse for the vaccine-injured is to file a petition with the stingy and slow-moving National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). Although the NVICP has paid out over$4 billionin taxpayer-funded compensation, it denies far more petitions than it awards. The family of the six-week-old described in the preceding paragraph eventually received NVICP compensation, but not before the program expended considerable effort to leave the cause of death unexplained. And, literally adding insult to injury, the maximum payout for any vaccine-related death is only$250,000.

The chair of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee has stated, Congress is getting paid tonothold pharma accountable.

When people or their loved ones are vaccine-injured, many begin to unravel the unscrupulous world of pharmaceutical influence on our media, government agency leaders and lawmakers. Connecting the dots is a horrifying and enlightening experience, exposing facts to which the general public generally remains oblivious. These revelations weigh heavily when someone makes the decision to permanently change into an ex-vaxxer.

Why would the peoples elected representatives (and the officials they appoint) propagate smears,promote censorshipand ignore the testimonials of the many families that have experienced devastating vaccine injuries?

Why would officialdom ignore the escalating fiscal implications of vaccine injuries, which are imposing a staggering financial burden onhouseholdsandtaxpayers?

Why do the media increasingly advocate for theeliminationof informed consent and vaccine choice?

One of the inescapable answers has to do with the overt and covert influence of pharmaceutical industry funding on those who shape vaccine policy and public opinion.

At the government level, senior Senators openlyadmitthat drug companies have too much influence in Washington, with big pharma spendingmore than any other industryon lobbying and campaign contributions. For example, the pharmaceutical industry poured an estimated$100 millioninto the 2016 elections, rewarding politicians on both sides of the aisle with its largesse. The chair of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee hasstated, Congress is getting paid tonothold pharma accountable [emphasis added].

studies show that medical journal advertising generates the highest return on investment of all promotional strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies.

Not content to just influence legislators, the pharmaceutical industry puts equallyhigh valueon print advertising directed at doctorsthe all-important gatekeepers between drug companies and patients. In fact, studies show that medical journal advertising generates thehighest return on investmentof all promotional strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies.

Covering all bases, pharmaceutical companies also advertise vaccines and other drugs directly to U.S. consumers. The U.S. is one of onlytwo countriesin the world (along with New Zealand) that permits this type of direct-to-consumer pandering. Drug company spending on television and print advertising in the U.S. rose to $5.2 billion in 2016a60% increaseover 2012with untold additional amounts spent on digital and social media advertising. Astoundingly, pharmaceutical companies even get a tax break for these marketing expenditures, a corporate deduction that costs taxpayersbillionsannually.

The media benefit handsomely from the steady infusion of pharma advertising dollars. Four networks (CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox) receivedtwo-thirdsof the TV ad monies spent on top-selling drugs in 2015, with the Prevnar 13 vaccine representing the eighth most-advertised pharmaceutical product that year. Under these bought-media circumstances, it is somewhat astonishing that a few media outlets were willing to concede that drug money coursing through the veins of Congressdirectly contributedto the opioid crisis. So far, however, no reporters have been willing to connect similar dots between drug money and unsafe vaccines.

What the WHO failed to mention, however, is the preponderant role of commercial interestsand especially pharmaceutical industry interestsin shaping its goals and strategies.

Pharmaceutical industry influence makes itself felt not just domestically but also globally, and this has led to a corresponding amping-up of rhetoric against anti-vaxxers around the world. In early 2019, theWorld Health Organization(WHO) hyperbolically declared reluctance or refusal to vaccinate to be one of ten major global health threats. What the WHO failed to mention, however, is the preponderant role of commercial interestsand especiallypharmaceutical industryinterestsin shaping its goals and strategies.

Back in 2009, sleight of hand by WHO scientists rebranded the swine flu from a perfectly ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic. This maneuver successfully generatedbillionsin profits for vaccine and anti-flu drug manufacturers; however, the vaccine in question (Pandemrix) caused cases ofnarcolepsymany inyoung peopleto surge all over Europe tonearly four times higherthan prevaccine levels. In all likelihood, the parents of the narcolepsy-afflicted youth joined the ranks of ex-vaxxers. A researcher looking back on the Pandemrix fiasco recentlystated:

If vaccine regulators were serious about safety, the entire vaccine fleet would have been grounded following the Pandemrix narcolepsy disaster, to check for the same mechanism of failure in other vaccines. But nothing of that sort happened.

If consumers want to learn about the potential risks of widely used FDA-approved drugs, they canwith a little legworkfind detailed information on hundreds of drugs on the FDAs website. Forazithromycin, for example, the FDA links to studies showing that the antibiotic increases risks of cancer relapse and cardiovascular problems. A link forfentanylclearly warns of the potential for life-threatening harm from accidental exposure and deadly risks to both children and adults. Although it can be an uphill battle to get drugs taken off the market, the ongoing pressure of lawsuits has succeeded in removing some egregious offenders such as Vioxxand Merck, Vioxxs manufacturer, has been forced to pay outbillionsin settlements.

In contrast, consumers who go to the FDA website for risk information about vaccines (classified as biologics rather than drugs) will search almost in vain, finding sparse information for onlyfour vaccines. One of the four is Gardasilalso manufactured by Merck, and one of the most notoriously dangerous vaccines ever rushed onto the market. While the FDA cautiouslystatesthat concerns have been raised about reports of deaths occurring in individuals after receiving Gardasil, the agency asserts that there was not a common pattern to the deaths that would suggest they were caused by the vaccine. The 2018 book,The HPV Vaccine on Trial, contradicts this benign narrative and describes how Gardasil has caused thousands of perfectly healthy young women and men to suddenly lose energy, become wheelchair-bound, or even die while Merck continues to enjoy soaring revenues.

For government and the media to dismiss these and other accounts of serious vaccine injuries as insignificantwhile falsely labeling injured individuals and their advocates as irresponsible anti-vaxxersis both shameful and insulting.After revealing how the mainstream narrative about Gardasil is riddled with discrepancies and half-truths, the authors ofThe HPV Vaccine on Trialissued a call for greater civility. Noting that marginalization and bullying of the vaccine-injured destroys civil public discourse and discourages scientific inquiry, they pointed out that we urgently need both.

Sign upfor free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Childrens Health Defense. CHD is planning many strategies, including legal, in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured.Yoursupportis essential to CHDs successful mission.

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Barbara Marx Hubbard Peacefully Passed Away April 10th, 2019 ...