Chapter Forty-Two of Keeping Score In America: "The Pursuit of Bliss" By Michael Moriarty My title is in quotes because it comes from the philosophy of a great American mythologist, philosopher and writer named Joseph Campbell. ![]() all the heavens, all the hells, are within us." The quote just above this sentence is his. That means these gods, heavens and hells are not thousands of years behind us, stuffed in Homer's Odyssy, Virgil's Aenaeid or Dante's Divine Comedy. They are living now within us. Just recently I realized that the horrors being committed by Kim Jong-un, homicidal tyrant of contemporary North Korea, are exact replicas of ancient nightmares recorded in the Judeo-Christian Bible. I doubt if this madman, whose crimes surpass even those of Hitler and Stalin combined, has ever even read a single word of the Bible. "All the gods, However, I won't sacrifice the bliss of heaven because of my fear of hell. That's the Devil's blackmail to keep one's soul out of all heavens. I've a 73 year, personal experience with the Devil's promise of agony if one's intimate experience with bliss is attained. The Crucifix tells us everything: The two, Despite the predictability of Hell, particularly if you seek Heaven on Earth, Joseph Campbell advises: "Pursue your bliss!!" Therefore because of the certainty of agony in the pursuit of heaven, I wear a Crucifix on my person at all times. I am not, however, a Catholic. I am what I call a Christonysian. A combination of the two greatest wine gods: Christ and the greatest Greek God of Wine: Dionysus. The first, Christ, is a Wine God of Suffering. The second, Dionysus, is a Wine God of Vengeance. Dionysus is a highly theatrical Death Wish avenger, specifically serving up bloody justice to all ecstasy-despising, bliss-hating hypocrites! Read and, if ever possible, see The Bacchae! In that play, the leading tragic figure, due to the powers of the Greek divinity Dionysus, is torn to bits by the very teeth of his own mother. The woman is seized by Dionysian ecstasy and thrown into a homicidal trance, a diabolical possession that drives her to eat her own son alive. In other words the Dionysian battle cry is: "Excruciating death to all hypocrites!" Why is this son a hypocrite? Before he, the hypocrite, does anything about his mother's naughty ways, he wants to see those obscene women, his mother particularly, watch them enacting their naughty deeds which may or may not include bestiality, the sexual coupling of women with animals. To this day bestiality is illegal in many countries and North American states. To this day, censors of pornography are obliged to view levels of sexual abandon to which most of the world is forbidden access. That is censorship's So the son of this "Naughty Lady of Bacchanalia Lane" is allowed to get off on his mother's own addiction while, at the same time, preparing to punish his mother and the practitioners of this pastime. Sexual orgasm is indisputably a "Bliss". Joseph Campbell had to know that sex would be a major if not the central example of bliss-inspiring life. To this day, even after all the lessons of history, from the life of Christ to Romeo and Juliet, pain and imprisonment of one sort or another has always accompanied bliss of almost every kind. The only ones left with any dignity to my mind are the shamelessly open and honest pursuers of bliss. Most know the price they will pay at the hands of "The Righteous". Despite all those righteous warnings and ominous possibilities, they and I, instead and always, "Pursue Their Bliss!" Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.
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