I believe that credentials--advanced degrees, fellowships, etc.--are vital for the development of disciplines, especially the more specialized ones. Within the various fields of surgery the great advances will occur through the work of credentialed surgeons. Within the field of nanotechnology the advances will require people working with expensive electron microscopes in university lab settings, or in corporate R&D settings, and these people will be credentialed. But what amazes me is how, throughout history, some of the greatest breakthroughs were the work of people who lacked credentials.

Albert Einstein was working in a patent office not at a leading University Physics program when he made several of his scientific breakthroughs in 1905. Why was he in a patent office? He was unable to get a teaching position. In his spare time he worked towards getting a doctorate and puzzled over the questions tackled by physicists. Working alone, away from academia, he saw what others could not see.

Thomas Edison, when he invented the phonograph, had nothing in the way of credentials to qualify him for this work. He was poorly educated, was not part of some research consortium or lab. But who cared about his credentials when the phonograph worked?

Or imagine a small backwoods, country doctor puttering around in his home made laboratory presenting his work that would revolutionize microbiology to some University professors. What would their reaction be? Dismissive. He had no credentials. But he had discovered something real, and once someone studied his work he concluded, “Gentlemen, Herr Koch has done all of our work for us.” He was Robert Koch, discoverer of the tuberculosis bacillus and one of the founders of microbiology.

The point is this: credentials often stand in the way of revolutionary breakthroughs, because they come with a set way of thinking. They help a person discover advances within the box of their discipline, but they hinder thinking outside of this box. An advanced degree along with years of working within a discipline, comes with its own way of doing things, its intellectual baggage. So when John Calvin, a humanist lawyer by training, wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion without a degree in theology I am not surprised in the least.

Grace and peace,

Tom

It is not his favorite memory from the campaign trail. One of political history's best campaigners, President Barack Obama, had been outed as a copycat, to use a word that is kinder than plagiarist.

Obama said on Feb. 16, ”Don’t tell me words don’t matter. 'I have a dream’— just words? ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ — just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words? Just speeches?”

His friend, Deval Patrick, said virtually the same thing when he was campaigning in 2006.
(See http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/800015,obama021808.article).

But candidates Obama and Patrick had it right. Words do matter. They have the power to move nations to war, to heal broken hearts, encourage the exhausted to reach the summit, and mislead people ever deeper into deception's coils. In short, they have the power to accomplish great good and great evil. This brings us to the philosophy of deconstruction and its impact on words and meaning. We will look first at the life of deconstruction's inventor, Jacques Derrida, and then at what it might mean for our time.

Like Sartre (see previous post from 11-12-2010), the seed that was Derrida's birth was followed by a new seed, his early writings, which then found their fulfillment in some of his most important and influential philosophical works: He was born in 1930 (1930—44 squared-1I, 22 squared-4I, 11 squared-16I; squared numbers are important time cycles). We then read that his career as a published philosopher of influence began, like most new directions do, in a weak way:

“Though his first published work (1962) [1962—44 sq-1N, etc.]—about Husserl’s essay on geometry—won a philosophical prize, Derrida was not widely known until 1966 [1966—44 sq-1C].” In other words, the new direction in 1962 took about four years until his influence began to be felt. The following year, 1967, registered the tectonic nature of his philosophical innovation. In that year Derrida wrote three works that “…attacked the enterprise of philosophy itself. ‘Deconstruction,’ as Derrida’s approach in these works was now called, claimed that the very nature of a written text …undermines itself. To ‘deconstruct’ a text, then, is to dismantle inherent hierarchical systems of thought, to seek out unregarded details, to find the ‘margins’ of the text, where there are new possibilities of interpretation.” 

Deconstruction holds that writing is an inherently flawed form of communication (as is speech). If you take a text and disassemble it you will find, almost invariably, contradictions between the metaphors and the main argument. This allows new meanings to emerge and accidental features in the text to reveal essential meanings. For example, let us deconstruct the sentence God is infinite. This is an attempt to define God in some way, and the act of reducing God to words is an argument for His finitude. Though the author wrote God is infinite it is obvious that he actually meant God is finite. With this example we have entered the looking glass world of deconstruction where a word, in the hands of a talented deconstructor, can mean anything one wants it to mean.  

When words no longer mean what they are intended to mean, but are shredded and reconstituted to mean the exact opposite, the plunge into irrationality is complete and man, as a thinking being, no longer exists because he has turned his back on this responsibility. Right can be wrong and wrong can be right, and before you know it you are confused, lost in the maelstrom, and unable to regain your bearings in a formless emptiness as vast as that which preceded creation.

To define deconstruction concisely is an unenviable task that Derrida refused to accept. He claimed it was what he struggled to do in numerous essays, and this brings us to the quintessential point (that I am sure is upended, betrayed and refuted by accidents within the text of this section): Derrida, for all of his philosophical brilliance, cannot overcome the simple fact that his ideas were communicated by writing. If writing fails to communicate, then why did he write so many books? When you deconstruct Derrida’s life you might come to the uncharitable conclusion that he lived a lie and loved this lie with all his heart.

Call deconstruction lunacy, stupidity or whatever comes to mind, but name calling will not change the fact that it has exerted a profound influence on the way modern man now thinks. It opened the door for denying the obvious meanings of certain texts and replacing them with meanings that suit one’s fancy. For example, through deconstruction the Bible can be said to justify sinful behavior, deny Christ’s divinity, and allow the worshipping of other gods. Once I reduce a work to the letters of the alphabet I can reconstruct the text to say anything that suits my agenda.
 
Though Derrida gets most of the credit, perhaps the Gnostics were the first deconstructionists. Gnosticism was essentially a rereading of Christianity. It looked at the texts, appropriated the terms—Christ, Holy Spirit, crucifixion, resurrection, atonement, etc.—and developed a theology utterly at odds with the essential truths of the Bible. When the Beast arrives, as is prophesied, and he seeks to justify his being worshipped I am sure a little deconstructing here and there will provide the Biblical rationale for those who want or need it.

Words are important. It is evident that God thinks so. Did He not use the medium of words to communicate to humanity? Where deconstruction and so many other reductionist philosophies get it wrong is this. The fact that we cannot communicate perfectly, or ever achieve absolute knowledge, does not invalidate the fact that we can communicate and know.

The lives of important people unfold on the Template of Time. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in both my book and in this blog. The template tells us where this world is headed. If you are interested in its insights the book is available through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Grace and peace,

Tom
 

One of the things covered in The Template of Time: Our Destiny Decoded, is the impact of philosophy on the progress of history. We tend to think of Philosophers as background noise, but their ideas have a way of changing our way of thinking and this has immense historical consequences. The Template looks at the role played by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in the revolutionary second stage of this 500-year season that is now reaching its culmination. What the book did not cover, for space reasons, were some of the philosophers who followed him and helped to develop the movement he started. This philosophical movement is in the process of achieving its culmination, as are all of the historical processes that began in this 500 year season.

One of these philosophers was Jean-Paul Sartre, an influential figure in the popularization of the ideas of existentialism. In brief, our life in the world, according to Sartre's brand of existentialism, is meaningless beyond the meaning that we give to it. Bad things don’t necessarily happen to bad people, they can happen to anyone at anytime in this totally random, absurd chaos of life. I, obviously, believe the exact opposite of that since I hold that history is structured, purposeful and follows a plan. However, I do agree that bad things can and do happen to good people (e.g., righteous Job), and to everyone for that matter.

What made Sartre such a force was his writing ability that used novels, short stories, plays and philosophical works to communicate his ideas to a wide audience. The power and importance of his writing won him the Nobel Prize in 1964, though he never accepted it. To have done so would have been…how can I put it…absurd?

He was born in 1905 (1905—147-13I, 72-39I) and his life began to unfold on the Template of Time. With the publication of his early writings we see his life moving in the new direction of philosophy and this new direction culminated in the publication of his most important philosophical work. The events and the dates that follow conform nicely to the Template of Time.

     “Among his early publications were the philosophical novel Nausea (1938) [1937—
     147-13N] and the collection of short stories The Wall.

     “…Even during the war, Sartre continued his writing, and in 1943 [1941—147-13C] he
     published his most important philosophical text, Being and Nothingness.” 

He has is born, his life moves in the new direction that would occupy the remainder of his years about 32 years later, and about four years after that he publishes the culmination of his existential thinking. Just another one of the thousands of amazing coincidences that appear on the template. After a while we will need to come up with a word that replaces coincidence, because the definition no longer fits what is routinely occurring on the Template of Time.

Existentialism, however, is no longer a major force in the world of philosophy as a much more toxic philosophy reigns. It is called Deconstruction and it originated with a philosopher named Jacques Derrida.

We will cover his life, and how it unfolds on the Template, in the next blog post.

Grace and peace,

Tom
 

After I slept last night with one eye open and a geiger counter's radiation detector on the deck outside my bedroom, supplies of water and canned goods in a plastic encased basement, I woke up to find the predicted thermonuclear strike on 11-8-2010 never materialized. I also learned that the person behind this web-bot driven prophecy believes that the web chatter he analyzes can predict the future because it is based on the words of human beings who inherently possess the gift to see into the future. Perhaps that is where the theory falls to pieces.

Paranormal, General Interest and Christian-Themed Interviews

If you have followed my interviews you will have noticed that most of them have been on radio programs that focus on the paranormal. Some have been paranormal programs that are New Age in their orientation and others have been Christian. Other interviews have been general interest programs, akin to a morning show. But only one has been primarily Christian in its focus. Why is that?

Many Christians have a mind-set that brooks no dialogue with opposing points of view, or views that differ from the orthodoxy etched in stone in their own minds. This is both bad and good. It is good when such orthodoxy extends to the pillars of the faith: Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God; we are saved by faith alone through grace alone; and so on. However, often this rigid orhtodoxy extends to matters that are disputable such as the pre-trib/post-trib rapture, or the interpretation of who the Great Beast is, or you name it. Many Christian shows would never dare have me on lest I broadcast notions that undermined, or went contrary, to these "fundamentals" of their faith. As my publicist told me when I asked why there weren't any Christian prophecy venues on my interview list she said, "They want to have prophetic views that agree with theirs."

Here is the problem afflicting a person, Christian or otherwise, who is governed by a hermetically-sealed mind. They are intellectually dead. They cannot grow because everything in their mental universe is virtually set in concrete. Oh yes, they can add to the existing superstructure, buttress the walls to their fortress with other related notions, but this isn't organic growth. It is more like the growth of a landfill. Like contents are accumulating, but nothing new is growing.

I expected this and I expect something else. Should my work continue to reach an ever-broader audience and gain traction, then those same brothers and sisters in Christ, who are locked into a mind-set on disputable matters, will become very snarky and hostile. As I noted in my book on the section dealing with Focus on the Family, most Christian movements or ideas receive their strongest opposition from Christians and this included opposition to D. L. Moody's campaigns to save souls. Having studied the history of the church and state's war against heresy I am well aware of the way this character-defect has infected the church from the earliest of times, and even prevented such a genius as Martin Luther from considering another Reformation lumnary, Ulrich Zwingli, a Christian in good standing because of their dispute over the presence of the body of Christ in the communion bread. Yes, this strain runs deep in the soul of the church as I have experienced and will undoubtedly experience again.

Grace and peace,

Tom

Previous Posts

Before I go into this week's radio interview schedule I would just like to point out that the last two posts, involving activity on the Korean DMZ and the Chinese Space Program, may be of interest to you. The one on the Chinese Space Program offered an example of how the template has helped to guide me in my research of history. It showed me where to look for the starting point of a sequence of events.

Interviews

If you've never heard me on a live interview you may want to tune in to one of the following programs this week. I will be speaking tonight at 6 PM CST with Dr. Lou. The link is:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dr-lou/2010/11/01/author-tom-payne

Then later in the week, on Thursday, Nov 4, at 11 PM CST, I will be interviewed on the show entitled "Indigo Children." That link is below.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indigochildrenradio/2010/11/05/the-template-of-time-our-destiny-decoded

Grenada

I was reading a novel over the weekend and it mentioned the Spice Island named Grenada, famous for having been invaded by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 (1984--70-7I). And so I thought I would look into its history to see if it revealed anything. It did.

If you look at the "Forecasts" section in the upper navigation bar you will see how two powerful sequences are intertwining with each other in the year 2010. There is the 1974 (1974--180-11I, 110-18I) sequence that culminates in 2010 (2010--180-11C, 110-18C) and the 1978 (1978--4 cubed-31I) that moves in a new direction in 2010 (2010--4 cubed-31N). Therefore, when a nation, island, historical movement or individual has important events occurring in both 1974 and 1978, then thye point to another important occurrence around the year 2010. Here is what happened in Grenada on or around those years:

1974: Grenada achieves its independence from Great Britain
1979: Maurice Bishop leads a paramilitary rising that overthrows the government. He suspends the constitution and rules by decree.

Okay, so we have what are undeniably important turning points occurring on or around these important cycle dates. The independence movement in 1974 initiated a sequence that has yet to be fulfilled. That should occur around 2010 which will also host a new direction in the sequence involving the overthrow of the country. This points to the start of a power struggle over control of the government of Grenada that may take up to four or so years to achieve its aims. This is because the 1979 sequence involving the overthrow of the government initiated a sequence that will culminate in 2014 (2014--4 cubed-31C).

What is interesting is the USA's involvement in this second go-round. It is suggested by the fact that the American invasion sequence initiated in 1983 (1984--70-4I) will be entering its new direction phase around 2016 (2016--70-4N).

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have a world free of war? Such is the promise of the kingdom of God and for this reason I ended my book with the final words of Jesus and the prayer of John the Revelator: "'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come Lord Jesus." 

If you've read my book "The Template of Time: Our Destiny Decoded," then you know that it forecasts an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, probably aided by the USA, around the year 2010. When the history of this battle is written (providing it occurs), we may one day find out that the first blow was struck in cyberspace.

Details about the "Stuxnet worm" are slowly coming out. It is an extraordinarily sophisticated software program that is designed to infect industrial-control systems and disrupt a specific process at a specific plant. For example, this program wormed its way into several plants in Germany, but it did not harm them because it was not looking for German plants. No, this cyber-missile was a heat seeker that appears to have been aimed at Iran and specifically its nuclear facilities. Iran admits it infected some of its computers at its Bushehr nuclear facility, but claims it did no damage. No one can say for sure how effective or ineffective this weapon was, but it is certain that Iran would not provide such valuable damage-assessment intelligence.

Hackers design malware that is indiscriminate. They do not seem to care if the computers they infect are German or Iranian. For this reason, and because of its sophistication, the Stuxnet worm is widely believed to be the work of either Israel or the U.S. If it is, then the first shot has been fired in this Iranian conflict, and it is virtually certain that this will be followed by shots that are less virtual and more real.

Market Update

Finally, in previous posts I mentioned how the market appears to be headed for a sharp downturn. Several stocks have taken steps in this direction (eg, Amazon and Apple), and with the European markets down sharply this morning (the German DAX and the French CAC 40 are both down about 1% at the time of this writing), and the U.S. futures indicating a bad start to the week, this downturn may be picking up steam. If it does occur, then I am looking at Friday, October 8, or Tuesday, October 12, as the time period when it will likely end. Negative catalysts could be European debt concerns that rise and fall with a tidal regularity, and the monthly jobs report on Friday. The key is how the market responds to the earnings announcements of the financial stocks and that starts with JP Morgan before the market opens on October 13. Depending on its reaction to earnings the downturn could continue.

News From the Neighborhood

I live in a neighborhood called Old Town, and within this neighborhood is a historic district known as the Old Town Triangle. This neighborhood is about a 30 minute walk from the shops on Michigan Avenue so it is close to the action, but it is far enough away to be amazingly quiet. It has a small town feel in the sense that the neighbors know one another. Part of the social glue that holds this neighborhood together is the Old Town Triangle Association. Among the things this institution does is publish a newsletter about ten times a year. The October newsletter included a very nice review of my book from Old Town's historian and unofficial mayor, Shirley Baugher. So thanks to Shirley for the kind and encouraging words.

Have a great week everyone!   

Tomorrow I look forward to my last +20 mile run before the marathon. It will probably be a 22 miler with a one mile cool down at the end. Then the training drops dramatically until the week before the race during which I may run a total of six miles. Yea! I'm in the process of lining up a cause to support for next year's marathon.

I had an interview with Joe Marra this afternoon and enjoyed my time with him. Tonight I will be interviewed by Anthea Appel, a woman who has a most interesting background--she served 20 years as an NYC police officer. So, I look forward to that one as well.

With respect to the markets, today produced little. The Dow was up 13 points, the Nasdaq was up .5% for a reasonably good gain, and the S&P, like the Dow, was up fractionally having risen only 1 point. If the market continues to rise, as I expect it will, it should experience a surge that finally draws back in many investors who have been sitting on the sidelines. I think that strategy will end in disaster, because a sharp drop often follows those ecstatic peaks. I look for the S&P 500 to hit around 1170 on September 22. It closed this Friday at 1126 so that would represent a 3.9% gain over three days.

If the market hits this level I will take a small short position in advance of the Thursday jobless claims report and then add to it should the market start falling. Other than that, I plan of resting my bones and enjoying the great fall weather we are having, and I hope you are able to do the same. I will also watch my Chicago Bears take on the suddenly fallible looking Dallas Cowboys. With the exception of last week's final drive, our defense looks like it is better than expected and the offense can move the ball (okay, "can move the ball against the Lions"), but can't seem to hang onto it after having marched down the field. Go Bears! But over the next three days, Go Bulls!

As always, there is never a guarantee that anyone's investment ideas are right and you are responsible for your own investment decisions, no matter who you are listening to.  So develop your own system, test it, and if it works, stay true to it.

Have a great weekend, Tom.

So far the market is performing as forecast. It dropped significantly in the early going, but it seems like it is holding up above a key point of resistance. There are still a little over 2 hours left in the trading day so this could change. That said, I am glad I hung onto Akamai (AKAM) and sold off the other positions. AKAM is one of the few stocks that is up (+1.5%) among the ones I follow. Overall about 75% of stocks are down, 20% are up and 5% are unchanged. Even Potash (POT) is down after an encouraging start to the trading day.

Here is what I did this morning. I bought heavily into CVS (stock and options) because it dipped to a level of resistance that made it attractive. If you are a long term investor you may want to consider adding this stock to your portfolio. I also bought call options on Ciena (CIEN) which is flat at the moment. After it fell I bought back into Apple (AAPL) and with that I called it a day. APPL is the only one I am a little worried about short-term. It could drop to $255.50, but if it does, I will add to my existing position.

Tonight I will be interviewed by Derek Gilbert of PID Radio. The link is:

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pidradio/2010/08/07/vftb-live-tom-payne--the-template-of-time

I also posted the link on my Facebook page. The interview takes place at 8 PM CST tonight and it will be archived if you just so happen to have better things to do this evening!

As always, there is never a guarantee that anyone's investment ideas are right and you are responsible for your own investment decisions, no matter who you are listening to.  So develop your own system, test it, and if it works, stay true to it. Have a great weekend and

Safe travels, Tom.
 

The interview from last night can be replayed by going to www.theendtimetribune.com. It was an enjoyable experience and it covered a lot of ground. The host was very complimentary of my book--he said he couldn't put it down and would give it to his kids to read--and I appreciated that. More book promotion is slated and I will post news of it as it arrives. For now, the next interview is scheduled for 8 PM CST on PID Radio on August 6th. Each of these interviewing opportunities are great learning experiences. If I do not have any helpful critiques from any listeners then I will still be able to grow from the experience because I have already critiqued myself.

The markets are currently digesting the GDP number that showed 2.4% growth, which is good, but it is lower than last quarter's growth which is not good. So the markets look poised to open lower.

My Potash (POT) investment exceeded my expectations. It was up intraday over 5% so I cashed out of my call options and remain in the stock. I then invested in Akamai (AKAM). The stock was down 12.9% after beating earnings ($.34 actual vs. an estimate of $.24). This plunge was on high volume and it looked like a capitulation drop which is often followed by a strong rebound. It is down is premarket trading this morning so it looks like it may fall further, but I don't have any plans on bailing out of it just yet. Currently my view is that the market will open sharply lower and climb up for the rest of the day, but this could be one of those days that establishes a downward trend for the entire market. Time will tell.

As always, there is never a guarantee that anyone's investment ideas are right and you are responsible for your own investment decisions, no matter who you are listening to.  So develop your own system, test it, and if it works, stay true to it.

Safe travels, Tom.

Interview

The interview that was scheduled for August 3rd has now been moved up to July 29th, at 7 PM CST. The link you can paste in your browser's address window is:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-endtime-tribune

The interview will be an hour long and, if you are able to tune in, it should be an interesting time.

Pakistan

Recently a flood of classified documents were published on the Web and they appear to confirm some unsavory suspicions others have had about our "ally" Pakistan. It seems their intelligence service has been aiding the Taliban. Whether this is true or not, the widely held belief that it could occur shows the degree to which Pakistan's Armed Forces, which include its intelligence service, can act independently of the civilian government that is supposed to be in control.

The constitution of Pakistan was suspended in 1977 (1978--4 cubed-31I) when Zia-ul-Haq established a military government. The year 2010 (2010--4 cubed-31N) has arrived and it is time for a new impulse of historical energy to appear that redirects this movement. (If you are unfamiliar with the above notations please click on this website's link and read chapter one.)

What possible path appears to be the most likely one? Which direction is suggested by the Template of Time? The forecast appears in The Template of Time, in the chapter entitled "2010 AD." 

As an article in today's Wall Street Journal notes: "Pakistan needs to become less an army with a country and more a country with an army." (Sadanand Dhume, A Sanctuary for Terror, July 27, 2010, Section A 19). I agree with the author's conclusions, but doubt such a change is imminent.

Time will tell.