JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE
Thanks to Michael Arrington I’m a Robert Heinlein fan. Michael introduced me to the classic Stranger in a Strange Land
Job: A Comedy of Justice
In this one religion happens to be the main theme. Faith is also a common theme throughout the book. I was able to relate to this story on a personal level in a lot of different ways. I love the way he opens up every chapter with a verse from The Bible. The book is a fun ride worth checking out. So check it out. Below I’ll share a few excerpts that I thought were interesting, funny and/or timely. Check it out when you get a chance.
(Pg. 28, a little shout out to his classic: Stranger In A Strange Land)
“Between shocking speech, incredible immodest exposure, and effects of two sorts of strange and deceptive potions lavishly administered, I was utterly confused. A stranger in a strange land, I was overcome by customs new and shocking.”
Chapter 5 Opening Bible verse Proverbs 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
(Pg. 46-47)
“My morals certainly had ceased to bind-or I could not have sat there with a glass of Devil’s brew in my hand while I stared at naked female flesh.
I found that I had not even a twinge of conscience over anything. My only regret involved the sad knowledge that I could not handle the amount of alcohol I would have enjoyed. “Easy is the descent into Hell.”"
(Pg. 48-49)
“It does not require a broad education to function as a social and economic animal . . . as long as you know when to rub blue mud into your bellybutton. But a mistake in local customs can get you lynched.”
(Pg. 85-87)
“Paranoia. The delusion that the whole world is a conspiracy. Only it’s not a delusion.”
“That’s because you are still trying to avoid calling me paranoid-and thank you, dear, but my being paranoid is the simplest hypothesis. If the joker pulling the strings had intended to kill me, the easy time to do it would have been with the iceberg. Or earlier, with the fire pit. But he’s not out to kill me, at least not now. He’s playing with me, cat and mouse. So I’ll be rescued. So will you, because we’re together. You were with me when the iceberg hit-your bad luck. You’re still with me now, so you’ll be rescued-your good luck. Don’t fight it, dear. I’ve had some days to get used to it, and I find that it is all right once you relax. Paranoia is the only rational approach to a conspiracy world.”
Chapter 13 Opening Bible verse Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all thy works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit.
(Pg. 160)
“This isn’t likely to happen with Chicanos as they usually want to save money to send back to Mexico. But I’ve yet to see the Chicano who could handle the scullery to suit Luke . . . and I need Luke more than I need a particular dishwasher. Negras-Luke can usually tell me whether a spade is going to work out, and the good ones are better than a white boy any time. But the good ones are always trying to improve themselves . . . and if I don’t promote them to pantry boy or assistant cook or whatever, soon they go across the street to somebody who will. So it’s always a problem. If I can get a week’s work out of a dishwasher, I figure I’ve won. If I get two weeks, I’m jubilant. Once I got a full month. But that’s once in a lifetime.”
Chapter 15 Opening Bible verse Proverbs 27:1
Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
(Pg. 360-361)
“Alec, to be able to read and write is as wonderful as sex. Or almost. You may not fully appreciate what a blessing it is because you probably learned how as a baby and have been doing it casually ever since. But when I was a whore in Canaan almost four millennia ago, I did not know how to read and write. I learned by listening . . . to johns, to neighbors, to gossip in the market. But that’s not a way to learn much, and even scribes and judges were ignorant then.”
THE WISDOM AND THOUGHTS OF JAMES ALLEN
THE WISDOM AND THOUGHTS OF JAMES ALLEN
Admittedly, I am a self-help junkie. I love self-improvement. I love reading about it and engaging in the practice of doing it which is always more difficult than just reading about. Reading about it makes you knowledgeable in the area of self-improvement but does not adequately prepare one for what one discovers when engaged in the act of self-improvement. And its a never ending journey. That’s what makes it so much fun. Last week I hooked up with Big Jay and he had this book in the backseat of his truck. I asked could I borrow it and couldn’t put it down. Its worth checking out if you are interested in becoming a better you. Check out a few excerpts and then go and get the book.
(Pg. 64-65)
“As you succeed in gaining mastery over your impulses and thoughts you will begin to feel, growing up within you, a new and silent power, and a settled feeling of composure and strength will remain with you. Your latent powers will begin to unfold themselves, and whereas formerly your efforts were weak and ineffectual, you will now be able to work with that calm confidence which commands success. And along with this new power and strength, there will be awakened within you that interior illumination know as “intuition,” and you will walk no longer in darkness and speculation, but in light and certainty. With the development of this soul-vision, judgment and mental penetration will be incalculably increased, and there will evolve within you that prophetic vision by the aid of which you will be able to sense coming events, and to forecast, with remarkable accuracy, the result of your efforts. And in just the measure that you alter from within will your outlook upon life alter; and as you alter your mental attitude towards others they will alter in their attitude and conduct toward you. As you rise above the lower, debilitating, and destructive thought-forces, you will come in contact with the positive, strengthening, and up-building currents generated by strong, pure, and noble minds, your happiness will be immeasurably intensified, and you will begin to realize the joy, strength, and power, which are born only of self-mastery. And this joy, strength, and power will be continually radiating from you, and without any effort on your part, any, though you are utterly unconscious of it, strong people will be drawn toward you, influence will be put into your hands, and in accordance with your altered thought-world will outward events shape themselves.”
(Pg. 82)
“If you would acquire overcoming power you must cultivate poise and passivity. You must be able to stand alone. All power is associated with immovability. The mountain, the massive rock, the storm-tried oak, all speak to us of power, because of their combined solitary grandeur and defiant fixity; while the shifting sand, the yielding twig, and the waving reed speak to us of weakness, because they are movable and non-resistant, and are utterly useless when detached from their fellows. He is the man of power who, when all his fellows are swayed by some emotion or passion, remains calm and unmoved.”
(Pg. 85)
“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it. Let nothing draw you aside; remember that “The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” ”
(Pg. 89-90)
“Most people will admit that selfishness is the cause of all the unhappiness in the world but they fall under the soul-destroying delusion that it is somebody else’s selfishness, and not their own. When you are willing to admit that all your unhappiness is the result of your own selfishness you will not be far from the gates of Paradise; but so long as you are convinced that it is the selfishness of others that is robbing you of joy, so long will you remain a prisoner in your self-created purgatory.”
(Pg. 123-137; This whole chapter is off the chain, Son. Here are the 1st 2 paragraphs though)
THE TWO MASTERS, SELF AND TRUTH
“Upon the battlefield of the human soul two masters are ever contending for the crown of supremacy, for the kingship and dominion of the heart; the master of self, called also the “Prince of this world,” and the master of Truth, called also the Father God. The master self is that rebellious one whose weapons are passion, pride, avarice, vanity, self-will, implements of darkness; the master Truth is that meek and lowly one whose weapons are gentleness, patience, purity, sacrifice, humility, love, instruments of Light.”
“In every soul the battle is waged, and as a soldier cannot engage at once in two opposing armies, so every heart is enlisted either in the ranks of self or of Truth. There is no half-and-half course; “There is self and there is Truth; where self is, Truth is not, where Truth is, self is not.” Thus spake Buddha, the teacher of Truth, and Jesus, the manifested Christ, declared that “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” ”
(Pg. 149)
“He who strives to reach and to accomplish the divine will be tried to the very uttermost; and this is absolutely necessary, for how else could one acquire that sublime patience without which there is no real wisdom, no divinity?”
(Pg. 150-151)
“Once come to regard your failings, your sorrows and sufferings as so many voices telling you plainly where you are weak and faulty, where you fall below the true and the divine, you will then begin to ceaselessly watch yourself, and every slip, every pang of pain will show you where you are to set to work, and what you have to remove out of your heart in order to bring it nearer to the likeness of the Divine, nearer to the Perfect Love. And as you proceed, day by day detaching yourself more and more from the inward selfishness, the Love that is selfless will gradually become revealed to you. And when you are growing patient and calm, when your petulances, tempers, and irritabilities are passing away from you, and the more powerful lusts and prejudices cease to dominate and enslave you, then you will know that the divine is awakening within you, that you are drawing near to the Eternal Heart, that you are not far from that selfless Love, the possession of which is peace and immortality.”
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