Thursday, 20 December 2018

18) From green paradise to the desert!
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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18) From green paradise to the desert!
(translated by Bence)

How does a jungle or green land become a barren desert? Humanity destroys nature, even with the simplest agriculture.
When Moses led the Jewish tribes out of Egypt to show them the land of Canaan, after 40 years of wandering through the desert they came to Palestine. Because of scientific research, we now know that milk and honey, as described in the Bible, were unlikely to flow there but that the quantity of rainfall was much higher than it is today.
Today, oranges from this area exported in the whole world can only grow because of intensive irrigation.
Ancient Greek myths tell us that Apollo killed the dragon at Delphi in a forest and later built the temple for the oracle there.
Acteon was chasing a deer with his dogs across the forest when he saw Diana bathing naked in a small lake.
Titus Livius informs us about the Romans having to march across a large forest when they were at war with one of the nearby peoples. These neighbours had previously sawn the trees to bring them down all together and bury the Romans under them. The cunning plan worked out well and that way a whole legion was literally crushed without the least fighting.
Another Roman writer wrote that a monkey climbing a tree in Gibraltar could swing from branch to branch and reach the Pyrenees without even once touching the ground.
This wealth of wood was later needed for shipbuilding.
At the time of the greatest expansion of Roman Empire, just the small plain between Danube and Theiss had been omitted because it was deep swamp and forest, so the excellent Roman turtle combat formation couldn’t be used.
Later the Hungarians with their small ponies hid in these swamps to escape the persecution of the German knights, who with their large horses and heavy armour immediately sank in the swamp.
This landscape dramatically changed only at the time of Bela, who after the invasion of the Tartar had ditches dug, in order to drain the soil to make it suitable for agriculture.
Catholicism lasted for a very long time in Wales, because the barbarian Angles, Saxons, and later Normans did not dare to enter the marshy area and the English king was only able to call it part of his kingdom after he had managed to dry it and cut most trees out.
Northern and Western Europe were spared of agricultural devastation, as overpopulation found a channel to America in the form of emigration.
In the background of this short historical overview, it can be observed that even careful or organic agriculture leads to the destruction of the soil and nature.
The solution to this problem would be the reduction of the world's population to around 10 million, which would leave nature the opportunity to regenerate.
It is very funny to hear some politicians irresponsibly talking about necessary population growth, especially considering that Europe (the territory of the European Union) is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth after India, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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16) The disobedient leaf (A fairy tale for adults)
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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16) The disobedient leaf (A fairy tale for adults)
(translated by Bence)

It had been hanging there for a long time. If it had been a fruit, it would have had to fall overripe on the ground. However, it did not depend on the leaf to still hang there. The tree held it tight, did not want to let it go.
"Where do you want to go?" The tree asked his little sprout.
"It's true, I'm hanging very high here and see a lot. But what's behind it, beyond the horizon?" The leaf replied.
"Why are you interested in that? Why don’t you ask the clouds, or the birds sitting beside you on the branch?" sounded the critics of the other leaves.
"I want to gain my own experience, to grasp everything with my senses!"
The surrounding trees and their leaves also looked at the leaf with suspicious eyes. They did not like someone else thinking and wanting something different like them.
"How can you be so stubborn and antisocial?" They thought to themselves.
The leaf sometimes felt lonely and misunderstood. What had it done? Was it a sin to dream a bit, to send the senses flying with the birds and .........?
It hung there. It just hung, it did not hold on anymore, it was held. Held by the tree that did not want to let it go. Then the wind came to its aid. This heavenly child blew strongly into the tree’s branches for several times. The tree groaned because he did not want to lose any of his dear children. The leaves screamed because they were afraid, fearful of the unknown. Only the small, disobedient leaf was happy, shaking that iron hand that did not want to let it go. However, suddenly it flew in the air, it was free. It enjoyed the absence of gravity. The wind played with it, blew it up and down, to the right than to the left.
It heard high voices of other leaves screaming in fright, and the deep voices of trees shouting angrily. "What do you want, what are you doing?"
But the leaf did not want to listen to them anymore. It flew and was free. Then the wind got quieter and quieter and slowly stopped blowing. The leaf sank lower and lower. It was a long way from its tree, but there were other trees.
 "Where are you from? Where are you going? Why did you leave your tree? Why did you leave your safety?"
Fortunately, our leaf did not hear the last question, otherwise it would have wondered if all trees and leaves were the same everywhere.
It fell into a small brook in which other leaves danced on the waves. They played together "Find me", danced around and much more. As it had found some traveling companions who thought the same way as it did, the adventure was even more enjoyable. They swam together, danced, parted again, met new friends, saw wonderful landscapes, as the brook grew ever wider, becoming a river and finally reached the sea. How wonderful life is, the leaf thought.
Then the summer was over. The leaf was flushed onto an unknown shore, dug itself into the ground, to look up at the sun the next year as a small tree sprout.
Let's hope our leaf has learned something and will not even tell its own leaves that life is dangerous.

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Saturday, 1 December 2018

17) Self-criticism, and 'Them or Us'!
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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17) Self-criticism, and 'Them or Us'!
(translated by Bence)

What is the meaning of left-wing, liberal or tolerant? For right-wingers, these are just as impertinent as gay and traitor. For us these terms are smoke in the wind, in reality, we don’t want to waste our time on anything or anyone, it’s only our personal life which is important. What did we do when we met such a poor, fanatical, religious, nationalist, and perhaps even talked to him? We only smiled at him. But if we were really serious about him then we even laughed at him. We felt strong and independent. We performed in our theatres, enjoyed our modern pieces, looked at our latest and most modern works of art, which we mostly did not even understand ourselves (The more incomprehensible and modern our art was, the more enthusiastic we were about it and despised those who could not or did not want to follow us.) and looked down on these poor, suffering right-wingers. We were fashionable, rich and successful. Not because we were tolerant, but because we devoted our time to nothing and no one, except ourselves. We took away the most beautiful girls and were more than visible, we were conspicuous!
They swore revenge! What we see today is the revenge of the misunderstood, the outraged, the outcast, the sometimes despised of the nations. We thought that kind of spirit had long since died out, lying six feet under the ground. We really thought that right-wing people had learned something. But from whom should they have learned, if not from us? We did not want to waste our time on them. We were satisfied with ourselves! If we were so smart and thought we could stand above everything and were convinced that our way was the way forward, we should not have left these poor, misunderstood, right-wing children of the nations so lonely and alone.
Now they are taking revenge, and this revenge is bitter, not only for us but for themselves as well. I do not think they notice anything, because we too did not want to notice the way they suffered. But there is a big difference between them and us: they are zombies who do not even sense their own pain.

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Saturday, 14 April 2018

5) Smaller writings (translated by Bence and Rainer)
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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text missing xxxxx
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Again I’ve got shipwrecked on the hard ground of reality!
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The great thinker
(translated by Bence)

A great sage was sitting under a tree, deeply plunged into his thoughts, he looked into the distance with empty eyes. Once a young man approached and addressed him: "Great sage, excuse me for daring to disturb you in your thoughts! But tell me! How do I become as great a sage as you? "The scholar stared in the direction from where the voice had come. He opened his mouth to say something, but immediately closed it again. Only in his eyes one could read: "Go out into the world, hear the singing of the birds, do everything your heart commands you, but do not become a slave of yourself. And then, sit under a tree and wait until a youngster approaches and asks you: "Great sage! ......... ""

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The decent character of a personality
(translated by Bence)

The hare lived with many other very different animals in the forest. There was the badger, the frog, the deer, the fox, the raven ……….. By himself, he thought shattered one day: "How can I have a distinctive personality here in the forest, where there are so many different animals. Each one is outstanding in its own way. I have to look for a more suitable area." So he set off to leave the forest. He came into the desert. But there was no animal to whom his personality could have been expressed. So he set off again to search. He came to a meadow where many sheep grazed. "What is the name of this land?" He asked the first sheep. The answer came promptly and was very simple: "Baaah!" "This is the ideal place for me!" - thought the hare.

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All losers consider themselves brilliant and despised and hindered by society to be successful.
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The elite’s greatest dilemma consists in the desire of being recognized.
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It’s better to kneel down than to bend over!
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Sometimes it is a compliment not to be loved by a certain person.
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As it is important for parents and their children to quarrel in order to loosen their ties, the same can be observed within friendships as to make it possible for them to get married.
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Rules in society are only necessary where the law of the strongest doesn’t help development.
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Life is fun! If it’s sour for you, don’t blame the world! If others do well, it can only be your own fault!
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Excluding oneself from the functioning part of society leads to a kind of loneliness which culminates in the feeling of belonging to an elite.
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I can’t fight for you if I have to fight against you.
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Happiness is a comfortable way for lazy people to satisfy very simple needs.
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As nationalism has its origin in a lack of self-confidence it shows the desire to belong to a bigger group which offers security.
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Use your lexical knowledge not only to strengthen your point of view, but to get to more appropriate conclusions.
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The greatest disadvantage of autocratic systems, there are few getting their feet kissed and even more kissing feet. In democracy one gets advantage because of ability.

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One is only brave, if he does something he doesn’t dare!
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A woman: “Excuse me, but I can’t cause less trouble than that.”

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Why should we expect something to last for ever, which causes us nothing else but momentary fun!
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Don’t stand beside the big ones, because you will be small! Stand beside the small, then you will be grand! Don’t stand beside the powerful, because you will be their slave! Stand beside the small, he won’t hurt you, he is glad not to be hurt by others!


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Thursday, 5 April 2018

30) The history of the Catholic Church as a servant of the powerful (translated by Bence)
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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30) The history of the Catholic Church as a servant of the powerful (translated by Bence)

How was it possible for the Catholic Church as an institution to last for so long and to be so successful?
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism have no unified institution and can be considered pure religions. It looks different with Catholicism. After Constantin having appointed the Church as state religion, she has been linked to the various ruling layers and served them as organizer and henchman ever since.
At the time of Diocletian, the first Christians or early Christians were forced to gather in communities to better escape persecution. There were fewer slaves than middleclass artisans and small traders who turned to this ideology, so they often could read and write. Constantin made this small but throughout the empire spread minority his allies. The previously persecuted now helped him to control others. They fit well into the new system and made it their own. The boundaries of the former Roman administrative districts can still be partially recognized in the division of today's dioceses.
When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church without scruples offered the Germanic barbarians their administrative services. Thus, from the kingdom of the Goths to the Frankish kingdom, various kingdoms were created, all of which then disappeared again; only the Catholic Church remained and served the new rulers.
Slowly nation-states appeared, which, as in 1906, constitutionally prescribed the separation of Church and state. So she turned to those powers who wanted to continue to use her services. England had her own Church, France wanted to live independently and communism was anti-religious. So she had no choice but to join fascism. Franco and Mussolini counted on her and Hitler concluded a pact of "respecting each other" with her. Had communism not been so hostile to religion, the Church would have served it as well.
But what is the situation of the Church in the 21st century?
From a financial point of view, it is pretty bad for Catholicism, though the Church is still one of the richest organizations in the world thanks to the riches she’s been able to accumulate over the centuries. In some states, such as Germany, there is still a church tax, in others it is otherwise supported by the state and believers still donate a lot of money. In order to manage her vast administrative apparatus, the organization uses monks and nuns, for whom she pays almost no tax, for example by curing them in her own hospitals and transferring them to church-owned old age homes at retirement age, or by free volunteer work by believers. Nevertheless, her importance is constantly decreasing. The German Pope Benedict went back to the past, wanted to reintroduce the church ceremony in Latin, thus creating a small but narrower elite circle out of church fellowship. The Church did not want to follow him. The question of women and homosexuals as pastors, paedophile scandals in many educational institutions of the Church, unassimilated past (Inquisition, Hitler pact, etc.), the right to abortion, slowly corrode her from the inside. But the world is changing too fast for dogmas to adapt to these changes adequately.
Amen!

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Thursday, 29 March 2018

2) Cosmetician, hairdresser, psychologist and teacher (translated by Bence)
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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Cosmetician, hairdresser, psychologist and teacher

Why do people go to the hairdresser or cosmetician? I am not just thinking about women, but men as well. The hairdresser is important because you can either better show your forehead with your hair or hide it. The facial massage at the cosmetician is necessary to massage out the spasm in the facial muscles that you have contracted because the whole long day has to be smiled. But in this case, I would simply suggest a sour lemon because it pulls the facial muscles in exactly the opposite direction, and relaxes them that way. The psychologist? No, that's too direct. We all have problems most of the time, but either we store them or try to solve them at best. But mostly we do not feel so ill to run to the psychologist right away, the cosmetician or hairdresser is considered to be too talkative. The best friend or best girlfriend is never at hand when you really need them, and not even there, one can really open one's heart, because, of course, one does not want to destroy the positive image, which has been built up in this person for years about oneself, by a careless, possibly false alarm. The dilemma is usually that one can thereby least tell such a person. So where? Maybe at a private language teacher! We go there to learn a language, so to speak. You can talk about a lot of things. And after a short time you can talk about more intimate topics. If it gets too embarrassing at some point, you send this teacher a text message, and say a friendly goodbye. The teacher is ideal from this point of view, he does not know your friends, acquaintances and family, he does not really know anything about you and therefore you do not take much risk that your secrets might be divulged to thirds. I invite everyone to try it for themselves. 🙂

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Thursday, 22 March 2018

1) Esoteric, UFO, superstition and other fantasies! (translated by Bence)
Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74
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Esoteric, UFO, superstition and other fantasies!

In recent decades, esoteric and similar trends (parapsychology, the flat-earth movement, homeopathy, "intelligent design", etc.) have grown into a real fashion. In masses, "would-be scientists" with much written nonsense can be found on the book market. What is the cause of their popularity and where does the people’s credulity come from? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing used the term "Esoterics" in his book "Hamburgische Dramaturgie" in connection with people who were privy to the inner happenings of theatre life. Esoteric = insider! In a city like New York, where there are 1000 rules (laws, house rules, rules in the lift or in the office, etc.), people try to circumvent some of these written and unwritten rules because otherwise life becomes a torment and these regulations often contradict each other. In the southerly, more rural parts of the US, where one ranch is often miles away from the other, people still create additional rules (mostly moral ones), although obviously, there is no need for that because they have too much space to talk to each other without having to step on each other’s feet. The reason for this is the feeling of a lack of guidelines. Nowadays there is also the feeling of a lack of mysticism. Today, one lives in an age in which he/she is expected to always think logically and seek an explanation for everything. Not only at the workplace, the hospital or school but everywhere there is a flood of science and technology. In this way, one creates his/her own mystical world in his/her private life: his/her ancestors came from the planet Sirius, his/her soul was in a different body in a previous life, just to name a few of these fantasies. Of course, one could now ask the question why he/she does not engage in art when he/she has the need for spiritual things. An explanation for this is probably not that complicated. For example, to find satisfaction in music, one should ideally learn to play a musical instrument, and this will take years to produce a fair success. The same applies to painting. To actually get a better picture of this art, you need to grab the brush or at least the pen. However, a human is basically addicted to orgasm or hormone doses. He/she gladly leans back and waits for this feeling to be communicated to him/her by others without much self-effort, and this semi-knowledge of esotericism is very suitable for that.

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