The current crisis and its global response of omni-surveillance and micro-control - which I believe to be engineered by the personal powers of purposive evil, which we could term demons - is being interpreted by nearly-Everybody as A Good Thing, overall.
Each believes that the crisis is going to be of help in advancing towards his own agenda. Despite that these agendas are ostensibly pointing in all sorts of incompatible, and even opposite directions!
(So far as I can gather) Church-affiliated Christians of many denominations (and - it seems - the other big religions) believe that the world totalitarian takeover is necessary and net-beneficial; so (apparently) do all the (anti-Christian) governments (and opposition parties) of all the nations of the world; so do the (anti-Christian Leftists) in the mainstream mass Media; so do secular right-wingers (including those regarded/labelled as 'extreme' 'alt' and 'nationalist' right-wingers); so do globalist capitalists and the ultra-leftists in small revolutionary parties; so do libertarians and the strong-man centralizers; so do 'climate change' environmentalists; and (HBD) human biodiversity advocates, and feminists, and both pro- and anti-diversity folk; and... well... everybody.
In sum; I have not found any grouping of any size, power or wealth who is opposed to what has happened; all believe it to be Good - and all believe it to be likely to be moving events in a direction that will profit their cause.
That is the extraordinary thing; because (on the face of things) it cannot be true... The response to the current crisis simply cannot be advancing all of these causes, simultaneously.
Of course, all these extremely-various people could simply be making the best of a bad job (making a virtue of necessity - Pollyanna style). They believe the socio-political changes are well-motivated and effective - and pretend (for the sake of minimizing cognitive dissonance) that their own favoured wishes are therefore also 'on the side of history'.
Or they might simply be mistaken - and indeed at least some (or all) of them must be mistaken; but why are they all mistaken at the same time? This sort of thing doesn't happen; or hasn't happened before.
Unless, their 'cause' is not what it seems; unless all of these advocates of universal surveillance and control are not truly mutually-opposed, but are instead covertly united by a cause which is not detectable nor measurable by the usual materialistic criteria.
I mean that the reality is they are united but in a spiritual cause. I mean that all the apparently vehemently opposed major groupings of this world are in reality united by their membership of the same side in the ongoing spiritual war of this world; and all believe that the current crisis will benefit that side.
This has always traditionally been regarded as a feature of the Antichrist: I mean a person or entity whose actually evil-motivated schemes are interpreted by nearly-Everybody (including those who would generally have been regarded as faithful Christians) as Good.
Interesting, yes?
Meanwhile: Stay Safe, Keep Well, and... err (aha!) Be Nice.
(Remember - as Frank Burns said: It's nice to be nice... to the nice.)
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
The Wood Pile, by Robert Frost
Out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day,
I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther - and we shall see."
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went through. The view was all in lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by
So as to say for certain I was here
Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.
A small bird flew before me. He was careful
To put a tree between us when he lighted,
And say no word to tell me who he was
Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.
He thought that I was after him for a feather -
The white one in his tail; like one who takes
Everything said as personal to himself.
One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.
And then there was a pile of wood for which
I forgot him and let his little fear
Carry him off the way I might have gone,
Without so much as wishing him good-night.
He went behind it to make his last stand.
It was a cord of maple, cut and split
And piled - and measured, four by four by eight.
And not another like it could I see.
No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.
And it was older sure than this year's cutting,
Or even last year's or the year's before.
The wood was gray and the bark warping off it
And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.
What held it though on one side was a tree
Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,
These latter about to fall. I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself, the labor of his ax,
And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
Note:
Like so many of Frost's poems - more than those by any other poet - this one sticks in my mind and recurs.
At a simple level of accurate natural observation; I think of it whenever I encounter a wood pile; and often when an animal tries to escape by running along the path where I am heading - instead of off to one side or another.
Then there is that sense with Frost that there is a further depth to the poem; that it is also about more than what it says (as is all good poetry, of course); and usually with Frost (because he was working in the modernist era) this is about being a poet, creating, his art and craft.
I feel sure that 'small bird' was a particular someone - another poet I would guess - who had a paranoid and persecutory traits, and was "one who takes everything said as personal to himself"- but the point is universal, because we all know such people (or else are ourselves such a person). Frost recognises this in himself; and mocks it!
(It is not that the great poet rises above human pettiness, not at all - Shakespeare craved the title and official coat of arms of a 'gentleman'; the 'honour' denied his father - but instead that great poets know the petty qualities in themselves, and know both their roots and absurdities.)
And the woodpile itself... A poem, a creative work, anything upon which we once lavished effort and attention; and yet have all-but forgotten about. And how different is this from the me-me-me attitude of the small bird. How much better to be "Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks".
Thus the poet reminds and exhorts himself - and there is the further consolation that this forgotten work (the wood pile) is not utterly wasted in the large scheme; since, as it gradually fades from memory, it nonetheless warms the frozen swamp with real but invisible influence.
I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther - and we shall see."
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went through. The view was all in lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by
So as to say for certain I was here
Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.
A small bird flew before me. He was careful
To put a tree between us when he lighted,
And say no word to tell me who he was
Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.
He thought that I was after him for a feather -
The white one in his tail; like one who takes
Everything said as personal to himself.
One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.
And then there was a pile of wood for which
I forgot him and let his little fear
Carry him off the way I might have gone,
Without so much as wishing him good-night.
He went behind it to make his last stand.
It was a cord of maple, cut and split
And piled - and measured, four by four by eight.
And not another like it could I see.
No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.
And it was older sure than this year's cutting,
Or even last year's or the year's before.
The wood was gray and the bark warping off it
And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.
What held it though on one side was a tree
Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,
These latter about to fall. I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself, the labor of his ax,
And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
Note:
Like so many of Frost's poems - more than those by any other poet - this one sticks in my mind and recurs.
At a simple level of accurate natural observation; I think of it whenever I encounter a wood pile; and often when an animal tries to escape by running along the path where I am heading - instead of off to one side or another.
Then there is that sense with Frost that there is a further depth to the poem; that it is also about more than what it says (as is all good poetry, of course); and usually with Frost (because he was working in the modernist era) this is about being a poet, creating, his art and craft.
I feel sure that 'small bird' was a particular someone - another poet I would guess - who had a paranoid and persecutory traits, and was "one who takes everything said as personal to himself"- but the point is universal, because we all know such people (or else are ourselves such a person). Frost recognises this in himself; and mocks it!
(It is not that the great poet rises above human pettiness, not at all - Shakespeare craved the title and official coat of arms of a 'gentleman'; the 'honour' denied his father - but instead that great poets know the petty qualities in themselves, and know both their roots and absurdities.)
And the woodpile itself... A poem, a creative work, anything upon which we once lavished effort and attention; and yet have all-but forgotten about. And how different is this from the me-me-me attitude of the small bird. How much better to be "Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks".
Thus the poet reminds and exhorts himself - and there is the further consolation that this forgotten work (the wood pile) is not utterly wasted in the large scheme; since, as it gradually fades from memory, it nonetheless warms the frozen swamp with real but invisible influence.
Monday, 30 March 2020
Romantic Christianity across three centuries - wrong choices, lost opportunities
My understanding of Romantic Christianity is that there were several periods since the Industrial Revolution began; where events were aligned (presumably under divine influences, because this was Man's destiny) such that issue became clearer in The West.
I mean times and places when there was a significant awareness of a choice between the path of continued modernisation (based on continual growth based on increased technology, specialisation, trade etc); and a very different kind of religion, spirituality, ideology, way-of-being - that was Christian and also Romantic.
In none of these eras was that choice made. There were a few individuals, a small following of Romantic Christians - but the powerful and influential people and a large majority of the Western 'masses' chose instead to follow the path of increasing atheism, secularism, materialism, scientism, positivism and bureaucracy.
A smaller proportion adhered (in dwindling numbers, with diminishing conviction) to some form of traditional - Church-driven and externally-orientated - Christianity; or else chose an anti-or un-Christian Romanticism of (either or both) utopian politics and the secular revolution.
The first such era was the beginning of Romanticism itself in the late 1700s and early 1800s, originating in Farnce, Germany and Britain. It dissipated into the characteristic combination of atheism, leftist politics and sexual license that we see in the circle of Byron and Shelley.
At this time, the world's population was at its agrarian/ medieval level about one billion - and from a materialist point-of-view there was no problem about switching to a different and more spiritual way of life. The extra productivity/ efficiency of the agrarian/ industrial could - in principle - have been directed to alleviating absolute poverty, then reducing the quantity of drudgery and labour; and freeing more time and energy for 'higher things'.
The next Romantic era came at the end of the 19th century; but this again was dissipated into sex and politics; and creativity went-into radical experiments in the arts. There was the establishment of a 'Bohemian' lifestyle for drop-outs from the aristocrats, upper and professional classes. World population was about one and a half billion - about a quart of which was of European descent.
The next significant Romantic revival was not until the middle 60s-70s; when world population had grown to about three and half billion; and had reached the point at which an adoption of the Romantic lifestyle would have caused a very significant reduction in the standard of living people had become used to.
Nonetheless; there was among some people a clearly articulated sense that that material production had reached the point of 'more than enough'; and that it would be valuable to scale back on industialisation, trade and labour in order to have a life that was more free and more spiritual.
But, instead there was an expansion of the Bohemian lifestyle - radical politics, sex, drugs, and rock & roll - beyond the young upper-crust and to include pretty much anyone who wanted it: at first the middle classes, later everybody. There was a brief burst of creativity in the populist arts (pop music, pop art, modern dance etc); but before long, all of these were channelled into varieties of consumerism and bureaucracy.
We got to the present situation where most people are some kind of manager working for a branch of the global bureaucracy, and deploying their leisure in doing, watching, day-dreaming about whatever hedonic activity is favoured.
Since the middle 1970s there has never been any serious or large-scale attempt to move towards the Romantic Christian idea; instead the genuine problem has been lost sight of in a world of increasing diversions, short-termism and dishonesty taken to a level of ingrained habit.
Thinking has never been at a lower ebb - with high status intellectuals unable to follow a couple of steps in reasoning and unable to recognise even simple explanatory patterns behind observations.
The above is (very approximately, painted with a very broad brush) how we in The West (or the developed world) now find ourselves where we currently are; at the end of that era which began in the 1700s with the agrarian then industrial revolutions; after a sequence of chances and failures and evasions.
This end was inevitable because the situation was unsustainable - for many, many reasons; but mainly because generation upon generation of spiritual evasion, dishonesty, and outright lying has reached a point where people have decided - en masse - that things must be brought to an end.
We are observing as vast act of rejection of Life, at all the levels in which Life is manifested in this world. By the revealed preferences of hundreds of millions of people; nothing (including radical politics, sex, and hedonism generally) is valued enough to risk anything for it - all has been unceremoniously dumped.
As Thoreau accurately commented more than 150 years ago, and the situation has increased several-fold since: The mass of Men lead lives of quiet desperation; and in the past few weeks desperation has (for most of the mass) turned to despair, and an end is sought.
And perhaps (as was prophesied by various people at various times) most of those who have apparently been among the most devout of self-identified Christians are - it turns-out - as bad as everybody else.
Naturally enough - in a Godless, Christ-rejecting and repentance-denying world - this colossal act of global suicide is being dishonestly self-denied. But that is what's afoot.
Yet, because God is the creator, our loving parents and we his children - for every person at every moment there is an 'instant' solution to this suicidal despair; and the promise of everlasting, Heavenly, resurrected life to come.
(Everybody is an unique individual, but) At some level, we all know (from our pre-mortal life as spirits) the nature of this promise and that this promise is real; but the mass of Men are now so deeply corrupted that such a basic act of acknowledgement is beyond them - or else they know, but choose otherwise - choose sin, or choose annihilation of The Self.
It is better to make such choices during this mortal life; because that is what this immortal life was designed-for; but even if the choice is evaded and denied there will come a point (maybe at the moment of death, manybe sometime after) when we will be confronted with this choice.
Best be prepared.
I mean times and places when there was a significant awareness of a choice between the path of continued modernisation (based on continual growth based on increased technology, specialisation, trade etc); and a very different kind of religion, spirituality, ideology, way-of-being - that was Christian and also Romantic.
In none of these eras was that choice made. There were a few individuals, a small following of Romantic Christians - but the powerful and influential people and a large majority of the Western 'masses' chose instead to follow the path of increasing atheism, secularism, materialism, scientism, positivism and bureaucracy.
A smaller proportion adhered (in dwindling numbers, with diminishing conviction) to some form of traditional - Church-driven and externally-orientated - Christianity; or else chose an anti-or un-Christian Romanticism of (either or both) utopian politics and the secular revolution.
The first such era was the beginning of Romanticism itself in the late 1700s and early 1800s, originating in Farnce, Germany and Britain. It dissipated into the characteristic combination of atheism, leftist politics and sexual license that we see in the circle of Byron and Shelley.
At this time, the world's population was at its agrarian/ medieval level about one billion - and from a materialist point-of-view there was no problem about switching to a different and more spiritual way of life. The extra productivity/ efficiency of the agrarian/ industrial could - in principle - have been directed to alleviating absolute poverty, then reducing the quantity of drudgery and labour; and freeing more time and energy for 'higher things'.
The next Romantic era came at the end of the 19th century; but this again was dissipated into sex and politics; and creativity went-into radical experiments in the arts. There was the establishment of a 'Bohemian' lifestyle for drop-outs from the aristocrats, upper and professional classes. World population was about one and a half billion - about a quart of which was of European descent.
The next significant Romantic revival was not until the middle 60s-70s; when world population had grown to about three and half billion; and had reached the point at which an adoption of the Romantic lifestyle would have caused a very significant reduction in the standard of living people had become used to.
Nonetheless; there was among some people a clearly articulated sense that that material production had reached the point of 'more than enough'; and that it would be valuable to scale back on industialisation, trade and labour in order to have a life that was more free and more spiritual.
But, instead there was an expansion of the Bohemian lifestyle - radical politics, sex, drugs, and rock & roll - beyond the young upper-crust and to include pretty much anyone who wanted it: at first the middle classes, later everybody. There was a brief burst of creativity in the populist arts (pop music, pop art, modern dance etc); but before long, all of these were channelled into varieties of consumerism and bureaucracy.
We got to the present situation where most people are some kind of manager working for a branch of the global bureaucracy, and deploying their leisure in doing, watching, day-dreaming about whatever hedonic activity is favoured.
Since the middle 1970s there has never been any serious or large-scale attempt to move towards the Romantic Christian idea; instead the genuine problem has been lost sight of in a world of increasing diversions, short-termism and dishonesty taken to a level of ingrained habit.
Thinking has never been at a lower ebb - with high status intellectuals unable to follow a couple of steps in reasoning and unable to recognise even simple explanatory patterns behind observations.
The above is (very approximately, painted with a very broad brush) how we in The West (or the developed world) now find ourselves where we currently are; at the end of that era which began in the 1700s with the agrarian then industrial revolutions; after a sequence of chances and failures and evasions.
This end was inevitable because the situation was unsustainable - for many, many reasons; but mainly because generation upon generation of spiritual evasion, dishonesty, and outright lying has reached a point where people have decided - en masse - that things must be brought to an end.
We are observing as vast act of rejection of Life, at all the levels in which Life is manifested in this world. By the revealed preferences of hundreds of millions of people; nothing (including radical politics, sex, and hedonism generally) is valued enough to risk anything for it - all has been unceremoniously dumped.
As Thoreau accurately commented more than 150 years ago, and the situation has increased several-fold since: The mass of Men lead lives of quiet desperation; and in the past few weeks desperation has (for most of the mass) turned to despair, and an end is sought.
And perhaps (as was prophesied by various people at various times) most of those who have apparently been among the most devout of self-identified Christians are - it turns-out - as bad as everybody else.
Naturally enough - in a Godless, Christ-rejecting and repentance-denying world - this colossal act of global suicide is being dishonestly self-denied. But that is what's afoot.
Yet, because God is the creator, our loving parents and we his children - for every person at every moment there is an 'instant' solution to this suicidal despair; and the promise of everlasting, Heavenly, resurrected life to come.
(Everybody is an unique individual, but) At some level, we all know (from our pre-mortal life as spirits) the nature of this promise and that this promise is real; but the mass of Men are now so deeply corrupted that such a basic act of acknowledgement is beyond them - or else they know, but choose otherwise - choose sin, or choose annihilation of The Self.
It is better to make such choices during this mortal life; because that is what this immortal life was designed-for; but even if the choice is evaded and denied there will come a point (maybe at the moment of death, manybe sometime after) when we will be confronted with this choice.
Best be prepared.
Catch 22 for Churches
If people are left bereft by the closure of churches, withdrawal of sacraments, withdrawal of fellowship etc. etc. - they will feel themselves to have been spiritually betrayed; and will never again trust their Church.
But if people adjust-to the coercively-imposed unilateral-withdrawal of their Church; and manage their spiritual lives satisfactorily, well, or better than when they attended Church - these people will realise that they do not need the Church.
It is Catch 22.
Either way - Churches are finished. By which I mean that, even if they survive in some form as institutional structures; for serious Christians, Church will never again be the origin and focus of their Christian life.
But if people adjust-to the coercively-imposed unilateral-withdrawal of their Church; and manage their spiritual lives satisfactorily, well, or better than when they attended Church - these people will realise that they do not need the Church.
It is Catch 22.
Either way - Churches are finished. By which I mean that, even if they survive in some form as institutional structures; for serious Christians, Church will never again be the origin and focus of their Christian life.
Attitudes to The Matrix depends on what lies behind it (and where that is located)
We live - to a considerable extent, at least - in a Matrix, a fake world, a simulation/ hologram, a 'virtuality' that corresponds (approximately) to the 'information' system - the mass media and bureaucracy, supplemented by institutions such as education and the propaganda systems of health services, the legal system etc.
Those who use the term The Matrix for this single, global meta-system regard it as a malign thing, an evil-motivated thing, a deceptive and manipulative thing: aimed at feeding people false perceptions and data, and making people behave against their best interests.
However, for The Matrix to be a fake, entails that there must also be a contrastive reality - somewhere, somehow. And here opinion differs; and differs widely.
For some people, including many New Age-type spiritual folk; The Matrix is merely a modern term for the fundamentally illusory nature of this world ('maya'). Matrix-ness is a consequence of 'matter' and the transitoriness of the material. So mortal life on this earth just-is (necessarily and inevitably and always) illusion. The only escape from The Matrix is into the timeless world of pure spirit.
For some Christians; the illusory nature of this world is a product of The Fall - this world is meant to be real, it was intended to be without-change, without-decay or disease, without death - but due to wrong choices, sin came into the world. So, The Matrix is regarded as a consequence of sin; and the only possible escape would be Heaven (which is seen as changeless perfection; outside of time and space).
For me, The Matrix is a fake world wickedly superimposed-upon and obscuring the real-reality of this mortal life on earth. For me; mortal life on earth is a real-reality; intentionally-'designed' to be as it is which is always-changing and terminated by death - because it has been created by God as a temporary phase of mortal incarnation; sandwiched between our preceding, pre-mortal Heavenly life as a spirit and (if we choose it) our post-mortal Heavenly life as a resurrected immortal.
For me; The Matrix is a fake world that is intrinsically net-evil when regarded as the true-reality; and is only legitimate if it is subordinated to our personal knowledge and experience of the real world.
By my understanding, therefore; to escape The Matrix is not a matter of leaving this world and/or our bodies; but of penetrating a pervasive illusion; to discover the reality, the truth and divinity inside our-selves and all around us; a reality that is always present but masked, blocked, buried; imprisoned by abstractions, ignoring and denial.
Escaping The Matrix is a matter of discovering the divine self underneath the false selves of 'personality'; and of discovering (by direct knowing, by true intuition) the personally-experienced reality of living Beings behind the screen of abstract concepts and data.
Those who use the term The Matrix for this single, global meta-system regard it as a malign thing, an evil-motivated thing, a deceptive and manipulative thing: aimed at feeding people false perceptions and data, and making people behave against their best interests.
However, for The Matrix to be a fake, entails that there must also be a contrastive reality - somewhere, somehow. And here opinion differs; and differs widely.
For some people, including many New Age-type spiritual folk; The Matrix is merely a modern term for the fundamentally illusory nature of this world ('maya'). Matrix-ness is a consequence of 'matter' and the transitoriness of the material. So mortal life on this earth just-is (necessarily and inevitably and always) illusion. The only escape from The Matrix is into the timeless world of pure spirit.
For some Christians; the illusory nature of this world is a product of The Fall - this world is meant to be real, it was intended to be without-change, without-decay or disease, without death - but due to wrong choices, sin came into the world. So, The Matrix is regarded as a consequence of sin; and the only possible escape would be Heaven (which is seen as changeless perfection; outside of time and space).
For me, The Matrix is a fake world wickedly superimposed-upon and obscuring the real-reality of this mortal life on earth. For me; mortal life on earth is a real-reality; intentionally-'designed' to be as it is which is always-changing and terminated by death - because it has been created by God as a temporary phase of mortal incarnation; sandwiched between our preceding, pre-mortal Heavenly life as a spirit and (if we choose it) our post-mortal Heavenly life as a resurrected immortal.
For me; The Matrix is a fake world that is intrinsically net-evil when regarded as the true-reality; and is only legitimate if it is subordinated to our personal knowledge and experience of the real world.
By my understanding, therefore; to escape The Matrix is not a matter of leaving this world and/or our bodies; but of penetrating a pervasive illusion; to discover the reality, the truth and divinity inside our-selves and all around us; a reality that is always present but masked, blocked, buried; imprisoned by abstractions, ignoring and denial.
Escaping The Matrix is a matter of discovering the divine self underneath the false selves of 'personality'; and of discovering (by direct knowing, by true intuition) the personally-experienced reality of living Beings behind the screen of abstract concepts and data.
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Globally interconnected world versus Segmentary world: Why impending collapse is so obvious to me - but not to others
One reason must be the seven or so years I spent in the middle 2000s studying complex systems; mostly in a close collaboration with Professor Peter Andras.
Some of the main publications can be found on www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton: in the book The Modernization Imperative, and concentrated in the sections called Systems Theory and Modernization, also Management and Policy.
I realised that we are now living in a globally interconnected world - that is, we are each a tiny part of one extremely-large and extremely complex and inter-dependent system.
In the past, everybody lived in a world consisting of many much smaller and simpler and often unconnected systems. That is, the world was divided into segments - each substanially independent.
An obvious example is the 'feudal system' in medieval Europe: where each village was mostly self-sufficient for food and other everyday items, and a nation like England was almost-completely self-sufficient - with nested levels in-between nation and village (as represented by the national military hierarchy from King down through regional Earls, local Lords, Knights etc.).
(The original hunter gatherers were, of course, the ultimate segmentary societies.)
The advantage of the segmentary system is that it is extremely robust to even severe damage - units can survive for long periods when cut off, larger grouping hardly notice the destruction of composite units; and society can be rebuilt from almost any small unit.
Segmentary societies can degrade 'gracefully' or quantitatively - by increments, while retaining functionality, albeit reduced.
But segmentary systems are inefficient, with a great deal of duplication; and all units are compelled to be generalists.
There have since been several hundred years of increasing interdependency; especially since the agrarian and industrial revolutions which kicked-off in England in the middle 1700s. Indeed, the interconnectedness of the world has been accelerating for most of this time; and has now reached a very high level - far, far beyond anything attained in the past.
The theoretical advantage of large, complex, interconnected systems is that they can be much more efficient due to differentiation and coordination; that is specialisation, coordination of the specialists (by markets and regulations); and by trade.
This is what Adam Smith (in his Wealth of Nations) termed 'division of labour'; the efficiency of which was shown by his example of the pin factory.
In systems theory terms; large, complex systems are potentially more efficient, have greater capability (due to specialisation), and are more resilient to small stresses (due to specialised compensatory mechanisms).
Increasing system complexity was the mechanism whereby the population of the world was able to increase from one billion in 1800 to more than seven billion now.
However, when subjected to stresses too great for the built-in compensatory mechanisms; complex systems fail rapidly and catastophically - because the interdependency means that failure propagates within the system in a positive-feedback fashion.
Failure of one sub-system leads to failure in all the sub-systems that depend upon it; localised damage causes further- and more-widespread damage; damage is therefore amplified at each stage, in an accelerating fashion.
In sum, complex systems hardly notice stresses; until the stresses go beyond the capacity to adjust, at which point they collapse completely.
Thus inefficient segmentary societies fail quantitatively and reversibly - they will degrade but not collapse; efficient complexly-interdependent global systems will fail qualitatively and irreversible: they will collapse.
The modern world is qualitatively unprecedented in the unity, interconnectedness, inter-dependency of its organisation - there has never been a large, complex, single world system before now; so past historical examples of collapses are so very misleading as to be worthless.
If our globally- interconnected world system fails - then it will fail very fully indeed; and the failure will be all-encompassing and un-avoidable.
Once the stress on the system has reached the point of triggering failure, it will be impossible to stop or undo the positive feedback process.
Not least, because there can be no significant external intervention to save the system - because there is nothing external to the system.
Some of the main publications can be found on www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton: in the book The Modernization Imperative, and concentrated in the sections called Systems Theory and Modernization, also Management and Policy.
I realised that we are now living in a globally interconnected world - that is, we are each a tiny part of one extremely-large and extremely complex and inter-dependent system.
In the past, everybody lived in a world consisting of many much smaller and simpler and often unconnected systems. That is, the world was divided into segments - each substanially independent.
An obvious example is the 'feudal system' in medieval Europe: where each village was mostly self-sufficient for food and other everyday items, and a nation like England was almost-completely self-sufficient - with nested levels in-between nation and village (as represented by the national military hierarchy from King down through regional Earls, local Lords, Knights etc.).
(The original hunter gatherers were, of course, the ultimate segmentary societies.)
The advantage of the segmentary system is that it is extremely robust to even severe damage - units can survive for long periods when cut off, larger grouping hardly notice the destruction of composite units; and society can be rebuilt from almost any small unit.
Segmentary societies can degrade 'gracefully' or quantitatively - by increments, while retaining functionality, albeit reduced.
But segmentary systems are inefficient, with a great deal of duplication; and all units are compelled to be generalists.
There have since been several hundred years of increasing interdependency; especially since the agrarian and industrial revolutions which kicked-off in England in the middle 1700s. Indeed, the interconnectedness of the world has been accelerating for most of this time; and has now reached a very high level - far, far beyond anything attained in the past.
The theoretical advantage of large, complex, interconnected systems is that they can be much more efficient due to differentiation and coordination; that is specialisation, coordination of the specialists (by markets and regulations); and by trade.
This is what Adam Smith (in his Wealth of Nations) termed 'division of labour'; the efficiency of which was shown by his example of the pin factory.
In systems theory terms; large, complex systems are potentially more efficient, have greater capability (due to specialisation), and are more resilient to small stresses (due to specialised compensatory mechanisms).
Increasing system complexity was the mechanism whereby the population of the world was able to increase from one billion in 1800 to more than seven billion now.
However, when subjected to stresses too great for the built-in compensatory mechanisms; complex systems fail rapidly and catastophically - because the interdependency means that failure propagates within the system in a positive-feedback fashion.
Failure of one sub-system leads to failure in all the sub-systems that depend upon it; localised damage causes further- and more-widespread damage; damage is therefore amplified at each stage, in an accelerating fashion.
In sum, complex systems hardly notice stresses; until the stresses go beyond the capacity to adjust, at which point they collapse completely.
Thus inefficient segmentary societies fail quantitatively and reversibly - they will degrade but not collapse; efficient complexly-interdependent global systems will fail qualitatively and irreversible: they will collapse.
The modern world is qualitatively unprecedented in the unity, interconnectedness, inter-dependency of its organisation - there has never been a large, complex, single world system before now; so past historical examples of collapses are so very misleading as to be worthless.
If our globally- interconnected world system fails - then it will fail very fully indeed; and the failure will be all-encompassing and un-avoidable.
Once the stress on the system has reached the point of triggering failure, it will be impossible to stop or undo the positive feedback process.
Not least, because there can be no significant external intervention to save the system - because there is nothing external to the system.
Living in the present and eternity
CS Lewis once said that we ought to live in the present and eternity; not the past or the future.
This seems to me the best possible advice at present.
We need to live in the present by self-remembering. And in eternity by our Christian faith.
Of course we will sometimes want or need to think about the past; and it is necessary also to have some kind of framework for the future if we are to understand what things means and how best to respond. But ideally, these should be intermittent and time-limited activities (like the post which follows this one).
For the bulk of our mortal lives, we should be engaged in consciously appreciating the present moment - in the context of our hope of eternal resurrection to dwell in Heaven.
Simple to say, simple to understand - and difficult to do: but that's our task, as Jesus taught again and again through the Gospels.
This seems to me the best possible advice at present.
We need to live in the present by self-remembering. And in eternity by our Christian faith.
Of course we will sometimes want or need to think about the past; and it is necessary also to have some kind of framework for the future if we are to understand what things means and how best to respond. But ideally, these should be intermittent and time-limited activities (like the post which follows this one).
For the bulk of our mortal lives, we should be engaged in consciously appreciating the present moment - in the context of our hope of eternal resurrection to dwell in Heaven.
Simple to say, simple to understand - and difficult to do: but that's our task, as Jesus taught again and again through the Gospels.
The Big Sleep... Where is this thing going?
My understanding is that people are about a thousand times too worried about the possible risks from the birdemic; and about a million times not-worried-enough about the disastrous global collapse that will inevitably be caused by the global shutdown and confinement - which is supposedly a 'response' to the birdemic.
It is worth asking ourselves, for at least a few minutes each day: Where is this thing going?
For me, this unpacks to the question of What They (i.e. those who created the current situation) are aiming-at.
(I mean, aiming at in a materialist sense - since this is a spirual war, their ultimate aim will no doubt be mass self-chosen damnation, and gratification of their own sinful desires. But They are materialists, and thus believe that specific material situations will reliably produce specific spiritual consequences.)
It was some considerable time ago that the response became disconnected from the problem - with harmless/ beneficial outdoor activities now being forbidden and publicly vilified. It's pretty clear that the aim is for the mass of people to stay indoors pretty much all of the time - only connecting with the external world via media (for as long as these are provided).
As the bodies fail to pile-up; yet the lockdown keeps getting intensified and extended, with continual threats of further extensions; it is clear that either there is an utter recklessness concerning the consequences in terms of a truly massive civilizational collapse - or else these consequences are exactly the primary aim.
But even if that is accepted (as it surely will be, sooner or later, by most people) - there remains the question of why?
Is this a Big Sleep strategy? A mass kill? It does look more and more like the preparation for a multi-pronged plan abruptly to end the era of the industrial revolution, and to kill-or-let-die (?) several billion people in short order.
The first stage is that people are confined in their homes under curfew, and troops mobilized and on the streets - which we are told is happening at present. (This is current explained with the rationale of the military 'helping' with the response to the birdemic; and that may be how it would start, but it is not how it would finish.)
Then - presumably - some of the usual combination of famine, violence and pestilence will do the rest?
But, perhaps I should say that this will happen, whether planned or not; because I suppose it is possible that since demonic thinking is so deeply permeated and interwoven with lies; they may believe they are building a brave new (transhumanistic) world in line with their leftist, 'environmentalist', ideals.
The Ahrimanic-bureaucratic types who run our world believe in the reality of simplified materialistic 'models' (like those managerial flow charts used in quality assurance auditing), and that people are interchangeable units who merely need to follow protocols - They may not realize what they are doing...
I'm not sure about this system-collapse-mega-death scenario, but it seems very probable. And the longer this shut-down continues, the more comprehensive the shut-down, the further ahead are the projections for its continuation - the more a massive and irreversible global collapse of many kinds of production becomes unavoidable.
Once it starts happening, it will accelerate by positive feedback as supplies run-out and cannot be replaced; and lost supplies of one thing causes losses of others in a multiplicative way (like multi-system failure in the human body).
In the big picture; it may well be that even mass death is preferable to the alternative. That alternative being techno-totalitarian future, the comprehensive system of omni-surveillance and micro-control, the damnation-torment-machine; which was being implemented step-wise up until the past month.
Indeed, many of the Establishment are still implementing this scheme with accelerated speed during this crisis, and are hoping it will advance unopposed under the birdemic excuse (omni-surveillance and micro-control have taken vast strides in the past few weeks).
But it seems obvious to me that when global civilization collapses, it will also bring down the means of techno-totalitarianism: global governance will very quickly become impossible.
If we understand where we are headed, we understand better what is happening to us. There isn't anything we personally can Do about stopping this (at least, nothing material we can do); firstly because if the Global Establishment wants to pull down the world, they have the power to do so; and secondly because apparently a large majority of the masses actively desire to be locked-up for their own protection; and told exactly what to think, believe and do.
This stuff is something I think we need to take cognizance of each day, at least briefly - and then get-on with living in the present and eternity.
It is worth asking ourselves, for at least a few minutes each day: Where is this thing going?
For me, this unpacks to the question of What They (i.e. those who created the current situation) are aiming-at.
(I mean, aiming at in a materialist sense - since this is a spirual war, their ultimate aim will no doubt be mass self-chosen damnation, and gratification of their own sinful desires. But They are materialists, and thus believe that specific material situations will reliably produce specific spiritual consequences.)
It was some considerable time ago that the response became disconnected from the problem - with harmless/ beneficial outdoor activities now being forbidden and publicly vilified. It's pretty clear that the aim is for the mass of people to stay indoors pretty much all of the time - only connecting with the external world via media (for as long as these are provided).
As the bodies fail to pile-up; yet the lockdown keeps getting intensified and extended, with continual threats of further extensions; it is clear that either there is an utter recklessness concerning the consequences in terms of a truly massive civilizational collapse - or else these consequences are exactly the primary aim.
But even if that is accepted (as it surely will be, sooner or later, by most people) - there remains the question of why?
Is this a Big Sleep strategy? A mass kill? It does look more and more like the preparation for a multi-pronged plan abruptly to end the era of the industrial revolution, and to kill-or-let-die (?) several billion people in short order.
The first stage is that people are confined in their homes under curfew, and troops mobilized and on the streets - which we are told is happening at present. (This is current explained with the rationale of the military 'helping' with the response to the birdemic; and that may be how it would start, but it is not how it would finish.)
Then - presumably - some of the usual combination of famine, violence and pestilence will do the rest?
But, perhaps I should say that this will happen, whether planned or not; because I suppose it is possible that since demonic thinking is so deeply permeated and interwoven with lies; they may believe they are building a brave new (transhumanistic) world in line with their leftist, 'environmentalist', ideals.
The Ahrimanic-bureaucratic types who run our world believe in the reality of simplified materialistic 'models' (like those managerial flow charts used in quality assurance auditing), and that people are interchangeable units who merely need to follow protocols - They may not realize what they are doing...
I'm not sure about this system-collapse-mega-death scenario, but it seems very probable. And the longer this shut-down continues, the more comprehensive the shut-down, the further ahead are the projections for its continuation - the more a massive and irreversible global collapse of many kinds of production becomes unavoidable.
Once it starts happening, it will accelerate by positive feedback as supplies run-out and cannot be replaced; and lost supplies of one thing causes losses of others in a multiplicative way (like multi-system failure in the human body).
In the big picture; it may well be that even mass death is preferable to the alternative. That alternative being techno-totalitarian future, the comprehensive system of omni-surveillance and micro-control, the damnation-torment-machine; which was being implemented step-wise up until the past month.
Indeed, many of the Establishment are still implementing this scheme with accelerated speed during this crisis, and are hoping it will advance unopposed under the birdemic excuse (omni-surveillance and micro-control have taken vast strides in the past few weeks).
But it seems obvious to me that when global civilization collapses, it will also bring down the means of techno-totalitarianism: global governance will very quickly become impossible.
If we understand where we are headed, we understand better what is happening to us. There isn't anything we personally can Do about stopping this (at least, nothing material we can do); firstly because if the Global Establishment wants to pull down the world, they have the power to do so; and secondly because apparently a large majority of the masses actively desire to be locked-up for their own protection; and told exactly what to think, believe and do.
This stuff is something I think we need to take cognizance of each day, at least briefly - and then get-on with living in the present and eternity.
Saturday, 28 March 2020
Swingle Saturday
I was listening to my vinyl recording of Walter/ Wendy Carlos's Moog transcriptions of JS Bach's Brandenberg concerto's (purchased in 1980 at the Harvard Coop, during my medical elective study); which I would regard as among the very best performances of these absolute favourite works - presumably because Carlos was a consummate musician.
But they aren't available on YouTube (only inferior pastiches) - and in searching I stumbled across the Swingle's version of the first movement from Brandenberg 3 - which is an absolute joy. Some of the effects of this delighful arrangement (e.g. from 1:00 is A-Mazing) make clear aspects of the texture and harmony that had previously passed me by in the 100s of times I've listened to this piece:
The Swingles were almost as much of a 60s/70s phenomenon as Carlos (indeed I join them by association with their contemporary Glenn Gould, who was a great fan of both); and they had a remarkable range of styles, such as this lyrical gem:
Note: The presiding genius founder-arranger Ward Swingle is standing on the extreme right - singing tenor.
But they aren't available on YouTube (only inferior pastiches) - and in searching I stumbled across the Swingle's version of the first movement from Brandenberg 3 - which is an absolute joy. Some of the effects of this delighful arrangement (e.g. from 1:00 is A-Mazing) make clear aspects of the texture and harmony that had previously passed me by in the 100s of times I've listened to this piece:
The Swingles were almost as much of a 60s/70s phenomenon as Carlos (indeed I join them by association with their contemporary Glenn Gould, who was a great fan of both); and they had a remarkable range of styles, such as this lyrical gem:
Note: The presiding genius founder-arranger Ward Swingle is standing on the extreme right - singing tenor.
The fact of world government: Global Coup or Black Death on Steroids?
I am still struggling to comprehend that - several weeks down the line - hardly anybody has apparently noticed that there has-been (past tense) a Global coup. We now live in a totalitarian world, in which the nation is subordinated to an international Establishment.
But really, it's not so difficult to understand; because for most people the idea of a Global coup is (like a divine miracle) beyond possibility; therefore it cannot happen - therefore it did not happen.
I think this disbelief has two main aspects. The first is that people cannot imagine any cabal of human beings planning and executing such a large scale, long-termist operation. I agree - but then I believe that the 'masterminds' behind it all are immortal spirits, not incarnate humans; that they are the powers of purposive evil: aka. demons.
But for the mass of mainstream people, that is even further beyond possibility than is an evil cabal - so, even if the coup were accepted as a reality, there is a further blockage on comprehension.
Of course, most people believe that the... what might we call it? - sudden international unity? - is a rational and necessary response to a viral plague that is - shall we say - the Black Death on Steroids (BDoS): that is, an unprecedented threat to human survival.
In a nutshell; the birdemic so potentially so terrible that (exactly in those disaster movies when earth is threatened by a comet impact or alien invasion) all the petty divisions have been set-aside, and the world has been united and mobilized to defeat the lethal threat-to-us-all.
After all - what was that old Green mantra? - international problems require international solutions.
And thus we have the spontaneous convergence of all governments (who are, after all, composed of rational Men of goodwill and basic common sense) on the necessary measures to limit the deadly threat: universal house arrest, curfew, destruction of international trade and the world economy, suppression of all (nearly all) human interaction and contact with the natural world etc.
It is all regrettable, but justified by the scale of the threat.
And the advertised hope is that it will lead to a New Age (which it surely will - we are in the first days of the fourth cultural era that follows nomadic foraging, agrarian societies and the industrial revolution); an Age characterised by a continuation of this new-found spirit of unity and peace; all men living and working together with a single purpose.
A New World Order, in actual fact (to coin a phrase beloved of the Global Establishment).
This is perfectly sincere: All men; Single purpose. Directed entirely at saving mortal men on this earth this world, this mortal life. Based on the conviction that this is the real world, and the 'real world' is all that matters, all that is.
And so we come to the crux of it all. What comes first Man or God, this mortal life or an eternal perspective?
If Man, then that means obedience to the single agenda aimed-at the survival of the human species on this planet.
So anyone who puts God and eternity first; will be known as an enemy of the agenda; therefore an agent of eco-sabotage and species-death - and therefore dumb, deluded or evil.
This isn't fantasy - it's here already, emerging more clearly day by day: the choice between Antichrist (Man in This World); or Jesus Christ (God and Eternity).
However; for most people, there is no 'choice' because (to the masses of the world, as evidenced by their behaviour) - Antichrist (human beings and the earth) is real because material, observable, measurable...
But Christ is not real, God does not exist; and this mortal life is everything since 'eternal life' is just childish or manipulative wishful-thinking.
And that's why the global coup is invisible to most people; and will remain so.
And that's why the birdemic is necessarily (by assumption) the BDoS.
But really, it's not so difficult to understand; because for most people the idea of a Global coup is (like a divine miracle) beyond possibility; therefore it cannot happen - therefore it did not happen.
I think this disbelief has two main aspects. The first is that people cannot imagine any cabal of human beings planning and executing such a large scale, long-termist operation. I agree - but then I believe that the 'masterminds' behind it all are immortal spirits, not incarnate humans; that they are the powers of purposive evil: aka. demons.
But for the mass of mainstream people, that is even further beyond possibility than is an evil cabal - so, even if the coup were accepted as a reality, there is a further blockage on comprehension.
Of course, most people believe that the... what might we call it? - sudden international unity? - is a rational and necessary response to a viral plague that is - shall we say - the Black Death on Steroids (BDoS): that is, an unprecedented threat to human survival.
In a nutshell; the birdemic so potentially so terrible that (exactly in those disaster movies when earth is threatened by a comet impact or alien invasion) all the petty divisions have been set-aside, and the world has been united and mobilized to defeat the lethal threat-to-us-all.
After all - what was that old Green mantra? - international problems require international solutions.
And thus we have the spontaneous convergence of all governments (who are, after all, composed of rational Men of goodwill and basic common sense) on the necessary measures to limit the deadly threat: universal house arrest, curfew, destruction of international trade and the world economy, suppression of all (nearly all) human interaction and contact with the natural world etc.
It is all regrettable, but justified by the scale of the threat.
And the advertised hope is that it will lead to a New Age (which it surely will - we are in the first days of the fourth cultural era that follows nomadic foraging, agrarian societies and the industrial revolution); an Age characterised by a continuation of this new-found spirit of unity and peace; all men living and working together with a single purpose.
A New World Order, in actual fact (to coin a phrase beloved of the Global Establishment).
This is perfectly sincere: All men; Single purpose. Directed entirely at saving mortal men on this earth this world, this mortal life. Based on the conviction that this is the real world, and the 'real world' is all that matters, all that is.
And so we come to the crux of it all. What comes first Man or God, this mortal life or an eternal perspective?
If Man, then that means obedience to the single agenda aimed-at the survival of the human species on this planet.
So anyone who puts God and eternity first; will be known as an enemy of the agenda; therefore an agent of eco-sabotage and species-death - and therefore dumb, deluded or evil.
This isn't fantasy - it's here already, emerging more clearly day by day: the choice between Antichrist (Man in This World); or Jesus Christ (God and Eternity).
However; for most people, there is no 'choice' because (to the masses of the world, as evidenced by their behaviour) - Antichrist (human beings and the earth) is real because material, observable, measurable...
But Christ is not real, God does not exist; and this mortal life is everything since 'eternal life' is just childish or manipulative wishful-thinking.
And that's why the global coup is invisible to most people; and will remain so.
And that's why the birdemic is necessarily (by assumption) the BDoS.
Friday, 27 March 2020
Man in the Corner Shop by The Jam
A little known but perfect song from the English New Wave (post-punk) band The Jam - who were, like many of the iconic bands, a trio; from the album Sound Affects in 1982.
At this time, The Jam had good claim to be the number one band in the UK. But they never 'crossed the pond' - too English.
Puts up the closed sign does the man in the corner shop
Serves his last and he says goodbye to him
He knows it is a hard life
But its nice to be your own boss really
Walks off home does the last customer
He is jealous of the man in the corner shop
He is sick of working at the factory
Says it must be nice to be your own boss (really)
Sells cigars to the boss from the factory
He is jealous is the man in the corner shop
He is sick of struggling so hard
He says- it must be nice to own a factory
Go to church do the people from the area
All shapes and classes sit and pray together
For here they are all one
For God created all men equal
At this time, The Jam had good claim to be the number one band in the UK. But they never 'crossed the pond' - too English.
Puts up the closed sign does the man in the corner shop
Serves his last and he says goodbye to him
He knows it is a hard life
But its nice to be your own boss really
Walks off home does the last customer
He is jealous of the man in the corner shop
He is sick of working at the factory
Says it must be nice to be your own boss (really)
Sells cigars to the boss from the factory
He is jealous is the man in the corner shop
He is sick of struggling so hard
He says- it must be nice to own a factory
Go to church do the people from the area
All shapes and classes sit and pray together
For here they are all one
For God created all men equal
The value-inversion of Fear into Virtue
Returning from my short period of permitted outdoor exercise; came to mind the following song from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers.
"In Enterprise of Martial Kind" Song - Duke of Plaza-Toro with Duchess, Casilda and Luiz
DUKE - First verse
In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind--
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O--
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE - Second verse
When, to evade Destruction's hand,
To hide they all proceeded,
No soldier in that gallant band
Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war,
And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE - Third verse
When told that they would all be shot
Unless they left the service,
That hero hesitated not,
So marvellous his nerve is.
He sent his resignation in,
The first of all his corps, O!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
To men of grosser clay, ha, ha!
He always showed the way, ha, ha!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
WS Gilbert is second only to Shakespeare as a source of wordly aphorisms - here is an example of why.
The second verse seems to describe the attitude of the general public of the world at this time (to evade Destruction's hand, To hide they all proceeded... He lay concealed throughout the war, And so preserved his gore); the third verse more specifically brings to mind the leadership of the major Christian churches (He sent his resignation in, The first of all his corps, O!)
As Ghandi wisely said: The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is really fear." As 1 John says - fear is the opposite of Christian love: "Perfect love casteth out fear".
To be in a state of fear is to be in a state of sin.
To be rid of the damning effect of sin it must be acknowledged as a sin, and repented. That may seem like not-much-to-ask; but it does require faith in Jesus.
What instead I perceive rampant is unacknowledged and denied - instead rationalised - fear; I see unrepented - but instead self-justified, advocated and amplified - fear.
Consequently, we see value inversion and the widespread, aggressive promotion of fear as a virtue! The public are being encouraged to celebrate their lack of courage - e.g. by joining-in propitiatory rituals of submission to secular authorities.
Since fear is indeed a sin; we should not be surprised that it feeds upon itself, and leads to other sins - and (because unacknowledged and unrepented) has a generally corrupting effect.
You can see it in people's faces, in their eyes (windows to the soul); and you can apparently see this at a glance, almost instantly - the division of the population into a large majority following the fear-embracing sinful strategies of Satan; and the small minority on the side of God, creation and the primacy of love.
You can see, hear or read in a few moments which side people have taken in this spiritual war.
"In Enterprise of Martial Kind" Song - Duke of Plaza-Toro with Duchess, Casilda and Luiz
DUKE - First verse
In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind--
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O--
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE - Second verse
When, to evade Destruction's hand,
To hide they all proceeded,
No soldier in that gallant band
Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war,
And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE - Third verse
When told that they would all be shot
Unless they left the service,
That hero hesitated not,
So marvellous his nerve is.
He sent his resignation in,
The first of all his corps, O!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL
To men of grosser clay, ha, ha!
He always showed the way, ha, ha!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
WS Gilbert is second only to Shakespeare as a source of wordly aphorisms - here is an example of why.
The second verse seems to describe the attitude of the general public of the world at this time (to evade Destruction's hand, To hide they all proceeded... He lay concealed throughout the war, And so preserved his gore); the third verse more specifically brings to mind the leadership of the major Christian churches (He sent his resignation in, The first of all his corps, O!)
As Ghandi wisely said: The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is really fear." As 1 John says - fear is the opposite of Christian love: "Perfect love casteth out fear".
To be in a state of fear is to be in a state of sin.
To be rid of the damning effect of sin it must be acknowledged as a sin, and repented. That may seem like not-much-to-ask; but it does require faith in Jesus.
What instead I perceive rampant is unacknowledged and denied - instead rationalised - fear; I see unrepented - but instead self-justified, advocated and amplified - fear.
Consequently, we see value inversion and the widespread, aggressive promotion of fear as a virtue! The public are being encouraged to celebrate their lack of courage - e.g. by joining-in propitiatory rituals of submission to secular authorities.
Since fear is indeed a sin; we should not be surprised that it feeds upon itself, and leads to other sins - and (because unacknowledged and unrepented) has a generally corrupting effect.
You can see it in people's faces, in their eyes (windows to the soul); and you can apparently see this at a glance, almost instantly - the division of the population into a large majority following the fear-embracing sinful strategies of Satan; and the small minority on the side of God, creation and the primacy of love.
You can see, hear or read in a few moments which side people have taken in this spiritual war.
Thursday, 26 March 2020
Why didn't God 'communicate' by direct knowing in past ages?
I have deliberately asked this question in the opposite way than usual.
The usual question is along the lines of wondering why the supernatural has receded, why people disbelieve in deity, why God does not communicate with modern Men using visions, dreams, voices and by the 'channelling' of scriptures and other revelations?
Of course, one answer is that God still does all of these things - because some people do continue to experience them. However, plenty of people do not, and cannot, have such experiences; furthermore, those who do have such experiences do not seem to be transformed by them in the way they were in the past. Modern supernatural experience sometimes seems more like a lifestyle choice, hobby, or a way of making a living.
However, what is less often remarked is that these are all 'communications' - I mean, these are indirect means by which God may transmit knowledge to people. All require the use of perceptual, sensory information - which may be defective. Furthermore, these sensory inputs must be interpreted in order to be understood.
Whereas now - it seems - God communicates by directly implanting understanding into the mind, into the stream of thinking. This cuts-out the need for potenitally faulty, errorful perceptions; and cuts-past the problems of misunderstanding.
When God makes himself known by direct means, he goes straight to the limit of capability of that individual. However, this isn't 'perfect' because each person's capability is limited and also distinctively biased. Plus there are the same (usual) problems about communications between people.
Nonetheless, it might reasonably be assumed that direct knowing is superior to the older modes of 'communication'.
If so, why then did God 'bother' with what seems like a worse method? Why did he persist with it for so long?
The answer is apparently that this is related to the evolutionary-development of human consciousness. Men in the past quite naturally and spontaneously perceived God and the spiritual realm.
Then, as development proceeded through the ages, this spontaneous capacity diminished.
Why? Because the divine intention was that Man could be independent of the divine and spiritual - could become able to disbelieve and deny in order that he could freely choose to align with God's creation.
Thus, in his personal development, each Modern Man becomes detached from the spontaneous immersion in the spiritual and contact with the divine of young childhood; and then is able freely to choose to join with the divine plan, to become a divine friend of God - not only a child of God, but a grown-up child of God.
And then, but only then; Man can directly know, can (sometimes, but not in a sustained way) align his own thinking with God's thinking; have his thinking be also a part of the divine thinking.
Can potentially participate - consciously and by choice - in the creative work of God
Note: The above ideas are derived mainly from Owen Barfield, and to some degree from William Arkle - as I understand and have developed them.
The usual question is along the lines of wondering why the supernatural has receded, why people disbelieve in deity, why God does not communicate with modern Men using visions, dreams, voices and by the 'channelling' of scriptures and other revelations?
Of course, one answer is that God still does all of these things - because some people do continue to experience them. However, plenty of people do not, and cannot, have such experiences; furthermore, those who do have such experiences do not seem to be transformed by them in the way they were in the past. Modern supernatural experience sometimes seems more like a lifestyle choice, hobby, or a way of making a living.
However, what is less often remarked is that these are all 'communications' - I mean, these are indirect means by which God may transmit knowledge to people. All require the use of perceptual, sensory information - which may be defective. Furthermore, these sensory inputs must be interpreted in order to be understood.
Whereas now - it seems - God communicates by directly implanting understanding into the mind, into the stream of thinking. This cuts-out the need for potenitally faulty, errorful perceptions; and cuts-past the problems of misunderstanding.
When God makes himself known by direct means, he goes straight to the limit of capability of that individual. However, this isn't 'perfect' because each person's capability is limited and also distinctively biased. Plus there are the same (usual) problems about communications between people.
Nonetheless, it might reasonably be assumed that direct knowing is superior to the older modes of 'communication'.
If so, why then did God 'bother' with what seems like a worse method? Why did he persist with it for so long?
The answer is apparently that this is related to the evolutionary-development of human consciousness. Men in the past quite naturally and spontaneously perceived God and the spiritual realm.
Then, as development proceeded through the ages, this spontaneous capacity diminished.
Why? Because the divine intention was that Man could be independent of the divine and spiritual - could become able to disbelieve and deny in order that he could freely choose to align with God's creation.
Thus, in his personal development, each Modern Man becomes detached from the spontaneous immersion in the spiritual and contact with the divine of young childhood; and then is able freely to choose to join with the divine plan, to become a divine friend of God - not only a child of God, but a grown-up child of God.
And then, but only then; Man can directly know, can (sometimes, but not in a sustained way) align his own thinking with God's thinking; have his thinking be also a part of the divine thinking.
Can potentially participate - consciously and by choice - in the creative work of God
Note: The above ideas are derived mainly from Owen Barfield, and to some degree from William Arkle - as I understand and have developed them.
Miracles and the Global totalitarian coup - both explained-away by Modern Man
I've often heard people ask why God does not just make big miracles so that people would have no alternative but to believe. One reason is that no miracle is big enough that Modern Man can't explain it away - as the Fatima miracle makes clear.
When people assume miracles cannot happen, they become unable to notice miracles. What instead happens is that modern materialism simply develops multiple strategies for explaining-away: illusion, delusion, insanity, fraud, manipulation...
In the end; we have reached a point that if a typical person experienced a miracle, he would assume himself to have had a mental breakdown, and would seek psychiatric treatment.
Indeed, there is nothing that I can imagine which is big enough that ordinary Modern Men cannot explain it away. In the space of about a month; just about everyone in the world has been placed under house arrest and a curfew imposed - the starkest possible totalitarian takeover on a vastly greater scale then ever before. And apparently hardly anybody has noticed.
This situation varies in the degree of completeness; but is interpreted by many (and the intent for all seems to be) that everybody (except defined key workers, while at work) ought-to stay indoors and alone, until given the all-clear in weeks, or months, or a year's time - or whenever (if ever) they are permitted to emerge.
The most basic human and natural contact has been, or will be, abolished - we most not meet people, we must not experience nature. Our world has shrunk to the media...
And yet people explain it away as a rational response to a birdemic that is (if only we could see past the hundredfold lack of dead bodies, the tiny numbers and proportion of people being killed by it) worse than the Black Death on steroids.
Consequently, most of the people in the world have apparently failed to notice the biggest and fastest political change in the history of the world!
Of course this means that people will go along with it, they believe it is all for their own good (and maybe, by the prevalent demonically-inverted ideas of 'good', they are right?).
But more deeply; it means that people of many kinds, races and places have nearly-all chosen to believe the biggest and most obvious lie in the history of our species. No wonder they double-down on the ludicrous assertions that we are experiencing a (worse) re-run of the Great Plague, and that mandatory international solitary confinement is a rational response!
To do otherwise is to open understanding to the real gravity of our situation; and to the deeply shocking revelation of the extent of our corruption and active embrace of evil.
Anyway; since The Plan is for us to experience the world only vicariously, via the mass and social media, in a fake virtuality that They control - I have decided to cut down on it and spend more of my time reading, writing by hand, meditating, praying - and appreciating life day by day, hour by hour. In a nutshell, I intend to convert enforced solitary confinement to a hermit-like family-monasticism including (at its heart) direct empathic communion with the divine.
When people assume miracles cannot happen, they become unable to notice miracles. What instead happens is that modern materialism simply develops multiple strategies for explaining-away: illusion, delusion, insanity, fraud, manipulation...
In the end; we have reached a point that if a typical person experienced a miracle, he would assume himself to have had a mental breakdown, and would seek psychiatric treatment.
Indeed, there is nothing that I can imagine which is big enough that ordinary Modern Men cannot explain it away. In the space of about a month; just about everyone in the world has been placed under house arrest and a curfew imposed - the starkest possible totalitarian takeover on a vastly greater scale then ever before. And apparently hardly anybody has noticed.
This situation varies in the degree of completeness; but is interpreted by many (and the intent for all seems to be) that everybody (except defined key workers, while at work) ought-to stay indoors and alone, until given the all-clear in weeks, or months, or a year's time - or whenever (if ever) they are permitted to emerge.
The most basic human and natural contact has been, or will be, abolished - we most not meet people, we must not experience nature. Our world has shrunk to the media...
And yet people explain it away as a rational response to a birdemic that is (if only we could see past the hundredfold lack of dead bodies, the tiny numbers and proportion of people being killed by it) worse than the Black Death on steroids.
Consequently, most of the people in the world have apparently failed to notice the biggest and fastest political change in the history of the world!
Of course this means that people will go along with it, they believe it is all for their own good (and maybe, by the prevalent demonically-inverted ideas of 'good', they are right?).
But more deeply; it means that people of many kinds, races and places have nearly-all chosen to believe the biggest and most obvious lie in the history of our species. No wonder they double-down on the ludicrous assertions that we are experiencing a (worse) re-run of the Great Plague, and that mandatory international solitary confinement is a rational response!
To do otherwise is to open understanding to the real gravity of our situation; and to the deeply shocking revelation of the extent of our corruption and active embrace of evil.
Anyway; since The Plan is for us to experience the world only vicariously, via the mass and social media, in a fake virtuality that They control - I have decided to cut down on it and spend more of my time reading, writing by hand, meditating, praying - and appreciating life day by day, hour by hour. In a nutshell, I intend to convert enforced solitary confinement to a hermit-like family-monasticism including (at its heart) direct empathic communion with the divine.
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
Explaining the evil of birdemic totalitarianism in terms of the final triumph of Ahrimanic Materialism
A few months ago, Amo Boden (of the excellent Brief Outlines channel) wrote a satire on the Climate Change mania; interpreting it as aspiring to the triumph of materialism, with everything in life being reduced to measuring parts-per-million of Carbon Dioxide.
It suddenly struck me that this has actually happened with the birdemic response. What I see all round is that the whole of human life is being incrementally reduced to quantitative data concerning a virus.
This is evil; but evil of a kind that most modern people regard as Good - which is why the triumph of evil has gone almost unnoticed.
All of human society is being sacrificed to the demands of quantitative variables relating to this virus. The world is a prison; all are under house-arrest and in a curfew - without time limit, worsening by the day.
Human health-in-general, human happiness and nearly-all the satisfactions of life (science, arts, sports, dancing, conversation, contact with nature and beautiful places...) is being sacrificed to 'control' of the virus (= control of the humans who suffer it).
All of humanity: basic, direct, loving human contact; marriages, families, friends, colleagues - all have been damaged and are apparently en-route to being eliminated. Isolation is being step-wise imposed on tens of millions; in ways that are (rightly) regarded as cruel and barbaric in prisons.
All of medicine is being progressively re-ordered around this single cause of illness and death (drugs are running out, operations have been cancelled, cancer treatment has been stopped, increasing difficulty even to meet a doctor and get a diagnosis)... all is reduced to the surveillance and control of a single disease.
This, then, is the triumph of that kind of evil that Rudolf Steiner termed Ahrimanic. More commonly, it is termed Satanic - in that Satan is the term sometimes used for the devil in his strategic, logical, unhuman, bureaucratic role; cold, controlling and constricting.
This as contrasted with the devil as Lucifer, the fallen light-bringer - a manifestation of animalic impulse; short-termist selfishness, cruelty and lust.
Arhimanic evil is modern evil; materialism, positivism, scientism; it is life being reduced to the measurable and quantifiable - and everything else denied and eliminated.
It is happening because that is the mind-set of modern, Godless, spirit-denying Man. It is happening at the request of such Modern men - at their demand indeed.
The mass of people are (by their actions) actively seeking to have this single-issue world imposed upon themselves; because (from where they view the world) nothing else matters.
If only they and theirs can avoid getting this specific virus, and dying of the birdemic; then nothing else matters enough to save it from destruction. They will burn the whole world to be safe from the corvids.
And this is seen as ethical; as, indeed, the only moral way to behave; and anybody objecting to this reduction of human life on earth to the demands of a virus is hated, feared and resented.
This, then, is the triumph of Satan in this world.
It suddenly struck me that this has actually happened with the birdemic response. What I see all round is that the whole of human life is being incrementally reduced to quantitative data concerning a virus.
This is evil; but evil of a kind that most modern people regard as Good - which is why the triumph of evil has gone almost unnoticed.
All of human society is being sacrificed to the demands of quantitative variables relating to this virus. The world is a prison; all are under house-arrest and in a curfew - without time limit, worsening by the day.
Human health-in-general, human happiness and nearly-all the satisfactions of life (science, arts, sports, dancing, conversation, contact with nature and beautiful places...) is being sacrificed to 'control' of the virus (= control of the humans who suffer it).
All of humanity: basic, direct, loving human contact; marriages, families, friends, colleagues - all have been damaged and are apparently en-route to being eliminated. Isolation is being step-wise imposed on tens of millions; in ways that are (rightly) regarded as cruel and barbaric in prisons.
All of medicine is being progressively re-ordered around this single cause of illness and death (drugs are running out, operations have been cancelled, cancer treatment has been stopped, increasing difficulty even to meet a doctor and get a diagnosis)... all is reduced to the surveillance and control of a single disease.
This, then, is the triumph of that kind of evil that Rudolf Steiner termed Ahrimanic. More commonly, it is termed Satanic - in that Satan is the term sometimes used for the devil in his strategic, logical, unhuman, bureaucratic role; cold, controlling and constricting.
This as contrasted with the devil as Lucifer, the fallen light-bringer - a manifestation of animalic impulse; short-termist selfishness, cruelty and lust.
Arhimanic evil is modern evil; materialism, positivism, scientism; it is life being reduced to the measurable and quantifiable - and everything else denied and eliminated.
It is happening because that is the mind-set of modern, Godless, spirit-denying Man. It is happening at the request of such Modern men - at their demand indeed.
The mass of people are (by their actions) actively seeking to have this single-issue world imposed upon themselves; because (from where they view the world) nothing else matters.
If only they and theirs can avoid getting this specific virus, and dying of the birdemic; then nothing else matters enough to save it from destruction. They will burn the whole world to be safe from the corvids.
And this is seen as ethical; as, indeed, the only moral way to behave; and anybody objecting to this reduction of human life on earth to the demands of a virus is hated, feared and resented.
This, then, is the triumph of Satan in this world.
In case I have not made myself clear: *All* Christians *now* live in a post-church era, as a matter of fact
I've already covered this on the blog - but I don't think everybody understood what I was saying, or maybe thought I was exaggerating; so I'll say it again.
In broad terms, my feeling is that all the major Western Christian churches have revealed themselves as at best lacking sufficient faith to have courage, as universally dishonest, and at worst as unbelieving hypocrites.
All the Western Christian churches - so far as I know.
For example (and I use this example because the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination, and 'officially' they are solid supernaturalists)...
(...Sorry, I still can't get my head around this one!)
The healing pools at Lourdes have been closed to prevent spread of the birdemic. The healing pools...
If the RCC believed the pools worked, they would not close them (quite the opposite); if they don't believe the pools work, then why is Lourdes just-about the biggest Catholic shrine in the world?
The Christian churches have abandoned and excommunicated Christians (either literally in denying communion, or whatever equivalent is regarded as most significant church provision in non-Catholic denominations).
This is not a speculation about what might happen 'if' - it has already happened; officially, from the leaderships.
There has been, in the space of a few weeks, a clear statement in the form of action, that the self-identified Christian churches don't really believe what they say; and that when the chips are down (as now) they actually believe that speculative, manipulative, evil hype from politicians, media, and pseudo-scientists is More Valid than all the 'Christian stuff' that they spout from the pulpits.
Christians are Now living in a post-church era.
Now I am a Romantic Christian, so I was already living in this era - by choice and by conviction.
I believe that Christianity is primarily between me and God - and that there is a direct and umediated contact between Man and the Divine. I believe that God has not left us bereft of all the guidance we need. Even if we lack valid churches, traditions, scriptures and theology - we will each individually be provided with what we need - if we turn to Jesus for help.
(Not least because we knew Jesus personally, and knew the nature of his mission, in our pre-mortal lives; and will recall this when our decision is needed on whether or not to follow Jeus; recalled whether in this mortal life, or afterwards.)
I believe that any particular church/ churches have a secondary and optional role (sometimes helpful, sometimes useless, sometimes harmful) - we may choose to join or 'use' the resources of a particular church or denomination to help our Christian life; or choose not.
But we choose and the churches job is to serve us; each of us.
Romantic Christianity is now the only game in town for serious Christians. The churches have signalled explicitly and unambiguously that they simply do not believe that they offer anything essential for Christians in a time of crisis and need.
If you are a Christian, then you too live in this post-church world - like it or not. You live in a post-church world even if this is against your wishes and convictions; because you have just been abandoned by your church; and sooner or later you will (if you remain a Christian) be compelled to acknowledge this as a fact.
I trust I make myself clear?
Note: All of this is conditional - of course; because some churches may yet repent and acknowledge their sins and errors in this matter.
In broad terms, my feeling is that all the major Western Christian churches have revealed themselves as at best lacking sufficient faith to have courage, as universally dishonest, and at worst as unbelieving hypocrites.
All the Western Christian churches - so far as I know.
For example (and I use this example because the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination, and 'officially' they are solid supernaturalists)...
(...Sorry, I still can't get my head around this one!)
The healing pools at Lourdes have been closed to prevent spread of the birdemic. The healing pools...
If the RCC believed the pools worked, they would not close them (quite the opposite); if they don't believe the pools work, then why is Lourdes just-about the biggest Catholic shrine in the world?
The Christian churches have abandoned and excommunicated Christians (either literally in denying communion, or whatever equivalent is regarded as most significant church provision in non-Catholic denominations).
This is not a speculation about what might happen 'if' - it has already happened; officially, from the leaderships.
There has been, in the space of a few weeks, a clear statement in the form of action, that the self-identified Christian churches don't really believe what they say; and that when the chips are down (as now) they actually believe that speculative, manipulative, evil hype from politicians, media, and pseudo-scientists is More Valid than all the 'Christian stuff' that they spout from the pulpits.
Christians are Now living in a post-church era.
Now I am a Romantic Christian, so I was already living in this era - by choice and by conviction.
I believe that Christianity is primarily between me and God - and that there is a direct and umediated contact between Man and the Divine. I believe that God has not left us bereft of all the guidance we need. Even if we lack valid churches, traditions, scriptures and theology - we will each individually be provided with what we need - if we turn to Jesus for help.
(Not least because we knew Jesus personally, and knew the nature of his mission, in our pre-mortal lives; and will recall this when our decision is needed on whether or not to follow Jeus; recalled whether in this mortal life, or afterwards.)
I believe that any particular church/ churches have a secondary and optional role (sometimes helpful, sometimes useless, sometimes harmful) - we may choose to join or 'use' the resources of a particular church or denomination to help our Christian life; or choose not.
But we choose and the churches job is to serve us; each of us.
Romantic Christianity is now the only game in town for serious Christians. The churches have signalled explicitly and unambiguously that they simply do not believe that they offer anything essential for Christians in a time of crisis and need.
If you are a Christian, then you too live in this post-church world - like it or not. You live in a post-church world even if this is against your wishes and convictions; because you have just been abandoned by your church; and sooner or later you will (if you remain a Christian) be compelled to acknowledge this as a fact.
I trust I make myself clear?
Note: All of this is conditional - of course; because some churches may yet repent and acknowledge their sins and errors in this matter.
A message from John Fitzgerald on Lady Day/ destruction of the One Ring Day - 2020
"I've had dim glimmerings of a mood of trust and faith in the Divine will a couple of times of late. Very faint to be sure, but there nonetheless.
"It seems, in my mind, to be connected to today - March 25th - the Feast of the Annunciation; a feast which was very important to Charles Williams, for instance; and also the date on which Sauron was overthrown in The Lord of the Rings.
"From a Catholic point of view, it's also worth noting that on the next Sunday - March 29th - England will be solemnly rededicated to Our Lady.
"It's one of the best ideas that English bishops have had in recent years, and when it was announced I had the feeling that it would be both significant and important. I didn't, of course, realise how much so!
"My sense, then, is that there are good things happening and God is very much at work.
"I don't know if any of this will be visible, or whether it'll be more in the nature of 'seeds planted'; but it'd be nice to think that we might be about to reach some kind of turning-point. 'Watch and pray,' etc.
"Happy Restoration of Gondor day!"
Edited and published, with his permission, from an email message I got this morning, from John Fitzgerald.
"It seems, in my mind, to be connected to today - March 25th - the Feast of the Annunciation; a feast which was very important to Charles Williams, for instance; and also the date on which Sauron was overthrown in The Lord of the Rings.
"From a Catholic point of view, it's also worth noting that on the next Sunday - March 29th - England will be solemnly rededicated to Our Lady.
"It's one of the best ideas that English bishops have had in recent years, and when it was announced I had the feeling that it would be both significant and important. I didn't, of course, realise how much so!
"My sense, then, is that there are good things happening and God is very much at work.
"I don't know if any of this will be visible, or whether it'll be more in the nature of 'seeds planted'; but it'd be nice to think that we might be about to reach some kind of turning-point. 'Watch and pray,' etc.
"Happy Restoration of Gondor day!"
Edited and published, with his permission, from an email message I got this morning, from John Fitzgerald.
The invisible world, in which we swim
If we are to try to 'remember to self-remember' - that is, to come awake from our usual semi-consciousness into the awareness of the present: Me! Here! Now! - then (to be genuinely valuable) this needs to be continued on to a consciousness of our situation in the world.
In different words: self-remembering can (and I think should) continue into an awareness of the invisible world that surrounds us.
This can be imagined in three 'layers' - pagan, theistic and Christian. I see these as increasing levels, each built upon what went before so.
So we can (very swiftly, in a matter of seconds I mean) transform our awareness through the pagan, theistic and Christian by becoming aware of these in turn - finishing with Jesus Christ.
Something like:
1. Awareness of nature, in the form of nature spirits
The first step is recovering that 'animistic' awareness that all is alive and sentient, that the world is a world-of-Beings.
So there are nature spirits around us, constituting both anything that is alive (plant or animal) and also the supposedly-not-alive - sky, clouds, stars, water; and including the artefacts made by men. I don't mean 'imagining' that some specific 'thing' (like a chair, house, or computer) is a disrete nature spirit - but having the awareness of being surrounded by living and conscious beings. (These may be benign or hostile - happy Beings or in despair.)
Wherever we are; Everything is a Being or part-of a Being - and as such is aware of us, and in-communication to some degree - even if only very simply and slowly so.
2. Awareness of God's creation
Moving swiftly to this level; we might remember (or notice) that we live in God's creation; that this is a creation in which we live.
That there is purpose to everything, meaning to everything. That all the Beings around us (and our-selves) are part of this divine creation. And that divine creation is accomplished by God who is our loving parent/s, who regards us each as a beloved child.
We are not 'lost in space' - we are instead 'at home in the universe'!
This comes-through as a sense somewhat-like being held safely in the arms of an invisible, benign and loving person that surrounds us; a sense that all is ultimately well, if we choose it so ("...all manner of things shall be well").
3. The presence of Jesus
And then we may move on to become aware of the actual presence of Jesus Christ (that is, the Holy Ghost*), here-and-now, in the room with us; and in direct contact with our hearts and minds - present in the thoughts of our real and true selves.
Jesus as someone we can ask (if our questions are validly framed), and who will answer truthfully and relevantly.
(If, that is, answering is expedient to us... Remembering that the default in mortal life is that we ought to work think out for our-selves, by trial and error if necessary: that being the best way to learn. So, inexpedient questions are not answered: and that is the answer.)
*By my understanding of the Fourth Gospel; we have been told (and intuitive experience confirms it for me) that the Holy Ghost is the person of Jesus, present in this mortal world, as spirit.
It might be asserted (often is asserted) that Christians could-and-should go straight to an awareness of Jesus - should in particular ignore or shun the pagan awareness. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this idea - except that it misses-out most of this mortal world, making for a thin and demotivating understanding of reality; and also (for people like myself) it just doesn't work very well.
What I am suggesting can be regarded as a rapid recapitulation of the historical development of Christianity - from pagan, through Jewish monotheism, to Jesus Christ. It can also be taken to represent a development that - in the past - will have been followed by many Christians as they grow-up and mature.
And it represents the track of some ex-atheist adult converts to Christianity - such as CS Lewis and myself: beginning with a love of pagan myth and legend, passing through a philosophical theism, finally into an awareness of the essential role of the person of Jesus.
At any rate, this is something that might be tried, practised a few times, and evaluated as to its effect (good or ill - because anything which is strong enough medicine to do good to one Man, may harm another) - by those who seek more depth and breadth in their lives; by those who seek the friendship and guidance of the Holy Ghost.
In different words: self-remembering can (and I think should) continue into an awareness of the invisible world that surrounds us.
This can be imagined in three 'layers' - pagan, theistic and Christian. I see these as increasing levels, each built upon what went before so.
So we can (very swiftly, in a matter of seconds I mean) transform our awareness through the pagan, theistic and Christian by becoming aware of these in turn - finishing with Jesus Christ.
Something like:
1. Awareness of nature, in the form of nature spirits
The first step is recovering that 'animistic' awareness that all is alive and sentient, that the world is a world-of-Beings.
So there are nature spirits around us, constituting both anything that is alive (plant or animal) and also the supposedly-not-alive - sky, clouds, stars, water; and including the artefacts made by men. I don't mean 'imagining' that some specific 'thing' (like a chair, house, or computer) is a disrete nature spirit - but having the awareness of being surrounded by living and conscious beings. (These may be benign or hostile - happy Beings or in despair.)
Wherever we are; Everything is a Being or part-of a Being - and as such is aware of us, and in-communication to some degree - even if only very simply and slowly so.
2. Awareness of God's creation
Moving swiftly to this level; we might remember (or notice) that we live in God's creation; that this is a creation in which we live.
That there is purpose to everything, meaning to everything. That all the Beings around us (and our-selves) are part of this divine creation. And that divine creation is accomplished by God who is our loving parent/s, who regards us each as a beloved child.
We are not 'lost in space' - we are instead 'at home in the universe'!
This comes-through as a sense somewhat-like being held safely in the arms of an invisible, benign and loving person that surrounds us; a sense that all is ultimately well, if we choose it so ("...all manner of things shall be well").
3. The presence of Jesus
And then we may move on to become aware of the actual presence of Jesus Christ (that is, the Holy Ghost*), here-and-now, in the room with us; and in direct contact with our hearts and minds - present in the thoughts of our real and true selves.
Jesus as someone we can ask (if our questions are validly framed), and who will answer truthfully and relevantly.
(If, that is, answering is expedient to us... Remembering that the default in mortal life is that we ought to work think out for our-selves, by trial and error if necessary: that being the best way to learn. So, inexpedient questions are not answered: and that is the answer.)
*By my understanding of the Fourth Gospel; we have been told (and intuitive experience confirms it for me) that the Holy Ghost is the person of Jesus, present in this mortal world, as spirit.
It might be asserted (often is asserted) that Christians could-and-should go straight to an awareness of Jesus - should in particular ignore or shun the pagan awareness. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this idea - except that it misses-out most of this mortal world, making for a thin and demotivating understanding of reality; and also (for people like myself) it just doesn't work very well.
What I am suggesting can be regarded as a rapid recapitulation of the historical development of Christianity - from pagan, through Jewish monotheism, to Jesus Christ. It can also be taken to represent a development that - in the past - will have been followed by many Christians as they grow-up and mature.
And it represents the track of some ex-atheist adult converts to Christianity - such as CS Lewis and myself: beginning with a love of pagan myth and legend, passing through a philosophical theism, finally into an awareness of the essential role of the person of Jesus.
At any rate, this is something that might be tried, practised a few times, and evaluated as to its effect (good or ill - because anything which is strong enough medicine to do good to one Man, may harm another) - by those who seek more depth and breadth in their lives; by those who seek the friendship and guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Impossible good news
"Syme could only
feel an unnatural buoyancy in his body and a crystal simplicity in his
mind that seemed to be superior to everything that he said or did. He felt
he was in possession of some impossible good news, which made every other
thing a triviality, but an adorable triviality."
From The man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton, 1908
That's how I felt this morning; as if bouyed by an impossible - indeed ridiculous and paradoxical - upwelling of Good News. Evidence of a pretty large, and positive, change in my perspective - living more here and now and in the divine presence; no longer living so much in the past and the future.
From The man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton, 1908
That's how I felt this morning; as if bouyed by an impossible - indeed ridiculous and paradoxical - upwelling of Good News. Evidence of a pretty large, and positive, change in my perspective - living more here and now and in the divine presence; no longer living so much in the past and the future.
How far will this be taken?
I would assume that the Global Establishment want to take the collapse just to that point where they have achieved the maximum power; by means of their currently-favoured mechanisms of omni-surveillance, total control and the domination of a single bureaucracy.
But such would necessarily be a high-tech highly-organised modern dystopia; whereas if things go much further in the direction of collapse; high-tech and organisation will be among the first casualties - and likely impossible to restore.
This is an aspect yet to emerge, yet to become clear. Will this global collapse stop short of destroying the infrastructure of global governance? Or will it continue beyond that point? Is this of the nature of an intended re-set, or is it an all-consuming, apocalypic outcome that is planned? Re-boot or Revelations?
It looks as if those in ultimate control (that is, the demonic entities who influence, sometimes control, the most powerful humans engineering the totalitarian takeover) may well intend to take this collapse a great deal further than would benefit the Global Establishment... Into realms where the vast apparatus of world trade, economic specialisation and coordination, bureaucracy and the mass media - and the vast leftist ideologies of equality, antiracism, pseudo-environmentalism and the sexual revolution - all collapse into universal chaos.
If matters continue to the point where the Global Establishment cannot govern - because the tools of governance have been destroyed by the same collapse that (so they believed) would lead them to absolute power; then this may turn-out to be a situation in which the Global Establishment have been demonically deceived, along with the masses.
On the whole this latter scenario seems likely: that the Global Establishment will at some point realise that they have been tricked; and are not going to be raised up as total rulers of the world; but instead reduced to the same level as the masses of the world.
After all, the demonic spritits are not 'on the side of' any human beings, indeed ultimately each is only out for himself; and such double-crossing deceptions are, apparently, their favourite activity of all.
So when evil is triumphant, we should Not expect to see the emergence of 'a new stability' - but wave after wave of increasing chaos with no end-point sought or attainable; as evil turn-upon evil in sub-dividing groups; until it is each for himself, here and now. And ultimately a single winner, presumably Satan - and then (since he hates all of creation) his own suicide.
(Meanwhile, those who have chosen Heaven will look on all this with sorrow; but with other and greater matters of loving creation as their primary concern.)
But such would necessarily be a high-tech highly-organised modern dystopia; whereas if things go much further in the direction of collapse; high-tech and organisation will be among the first casualties - and likely impossible to restore.
This is an aspect yet to emerge, yet to become clear. Will this global collapse stop short of destroying the infrastructure of global governance? Or will it continue beyond that point? Is this of the nature of an intended re-set, or is it an all-consuming, apocalypic outcome that is planned? Re-boot or Revelations?
It looks as if those in ultimate control (that is, the demonic entities who influence, sometimes control, the most powerful humans engineering the totalitarian takeover) may well intend to take this collapse a great deal further than would benefit the Global Establishment... Into realms where the vast apparatus of world trade, economic specialisation and coordination, bureaucracy and the mass media - and the vast leftist ideologies of equality, antiracism, pseudo-environmentalism and the sexual revolution - all collapse into universal chaos.
If matters continue to the point where the Global Establishment cannot govern - because the tools of governance have been destroyed by the same collapse that (so they believed) would lead them to absolute power; then this may turn-out to be a situation in which the Global Establishment have been demonically deceived, along with the masses.
On the whole this latter scenario seems likely: that the Global Establishment will at some point realise that they have been tricked; and are not going to be raised up as total rulers of the world; but instead reduced to the same level as the masses of the world.
After all, the demonic spritits are not 'on the side of' any human beings, indeed ultimately each is only out for himself; and such double-crossing deceptions are, apparently, their favourite activity of all.
So when evil is triumphant, we should Not expect to see the emergence of 'a new stability' - but wave after wave of increasing chaos with no end-point sought or attainable; as evil turn-upon evil in sub-dividing groups; until it is each for himself, here and now. And ultimately a single winner, presumably Satan - and then (since he hates all of creation) his own suicide.
(Meanwhile, those who have chosen Heaven will look on all this with sorrow; but with other and greater matters of loving creation as their primary concern.)
Monday, 23 March 2020
Statto world and the birdemic
A statto is a number cruncher - derogatively, someone who sees life through the stats, rather than using stats to understand life.
Stattos have been a near-lethal plague in medicine (especially in the form of Evidence-Based Medicine TM) - and in-and-around when I was an epidemiology lecturer (1993-6) I produced a stream of papers and talks to explain the dangers of statistically-minded people pretending that what they did was science, and that their type of expertise trumped that of those with substantive knowledge (such as doctors).
I completely failed! (no surprise) - and we now live in statto world; where people with some kind of numerical expertise are regarded as experts on everything - especially so regarded by them-selves!
In scientific reality (a world that has all-but disappeared) statistics are used almost entirely to clarify by summary a large quantity of data, so that it can be grasped and understood by somebody who understands the subject. But when somebody does not understand the subject (and especially when they are not truly interested in knowing the truth about it - but have some other agenda) they make truly immense mistakes, with total confidence and a stubborn inability to acknowledge their errors.
Truthful knowledge of a subject is what lets us know what numbers are relevant to an issue, and what (the vast bulk of them) are Not relevant. Shall I give you an example?
It relates to the current birdemic. Given that the death rate is so very low and the bodies stubbornly refuse to pile-up; the entire rationale for the global totalitarian takeover is to stop the limited supply of intensive therapy facilities being overwhelmed.
Yet the birdemic is lethal almost-only to the old and infirm; especially the very old and/or very infirm - and such people would not (in normal, good, medical practice) be put into ITUs on ventilators - because 'their time has come'.
We all will die, and most of us would prefer a good death, but ventilated death under IT is a Bad death - bad for the patient and the family and loved ones. It is also futile, as confirmed by eye witness accounts that almost everybody put onto a ventilator for the birdemic dies anyway.
Assuming these reports really are facts (which I don't know for sure, because so much of the truth is being withheld and spun) there is Not going to be a shortage of rare intensive therapy facilities unless such a shortage is artificially-created by treating people who would not, and should not, be treated under normal conditions of humane medical practice.
(Also, pragmatically - if (in an insane world) old, multiply sick people with upper respiratory tract infections were to be routinely treated; all the ITU facilities in the world always would be full all of the time - and would never treat anyone who might benefit; because URTI in the elderly and multiply-sick is probably the commonest acute cause of death in the world.)
My point is that a couple of relevant facts, whose relevance is not appreciated by stattos, make all the difference in the world.
Even these facts aren't really needed if we take the birdemic at face value, and notice the simple stat that it has killed a small proportion of almost-entirely old-sick people, even in the worst case scenarios (like on board that cruise boat).
But none of this makes any difference in statto world!
And since this crisis is in fact a spiritual war in which everyone is being compelled to take sides; we can see that - with some noble exceptions such as William Briggs (who anyway is not, by my definition, a 'statto') - the stattos have ended-up on the wrong side, fighting on the side of wrong*.
*Instances include Greg Cochran, Nicholas Taleb, and (sadly) Vox Day.
Stattos have been a near-lethal plague in medicine (especially in the form of Evidence-Based Medicine TM) - and in-and-around when I was an epidemiology lecturer (1993-6) I produced a stream of papers and talks to explain the dangers of statistically-minded people pretending that what they did was science, and that their type of expertise trumped that of those with substantive knowledge (such as doctors).
I completely failed! (no surprise) - and we now live in statto world; where people with some kind of numerical expertise are regarded as experts on everything - especially so regarded by them-selves!
In scientific reality (a world that has all-but disappeared) statistics are used almost entirely to clarify by summary a large quantity of data, so that it can be grasped and understood by somebody who understands the subject. But when somebody does not understand the subject (and especially when they are not truly interested in knowing the truth about it - but have some other agenda) they make truly immense mistakes, with total confidence and a stubborn inability to acknowledge their errors.
Truthful knowledge of a subject is what lets us know what numbers are relevant to an issue, and what (the vast bulk of them) are Not relevant. Shall I give you an example?
It relates to the current birdemic. Given that the death rate is so very low and the bodies stubbornly refuse to pile-up; the entire rationale for the global totalitarian takeover is to stop the limited supply of intensive therapy facilities being overwhelmed.
Yet the birdemic is lethal almost-only to the old and infirm; especially the very old and/or very infirm - and such people would not (in normal, good, medical practice) be put into ITUs on ventilators - because 'their time has come'.
We all will die, and most of us would prefer a good death, but ventilated death under IT is a Bad death - bad for the patient and the family and loved ones. It is also futile, as confirmed by eye witness accounts that almost everybody put onto a ventilator for the birdemic dies anyway.
Assuming these reports really are facts (which I don't know for sure, because so much of the truth is being withheld and spun) there is Not going to be a shortage of rare intensive therapy facilities unless such a shortage is artificially-created by treating people who would not, and should not, be treated under normal conditions of humane medical practice.
(Also, pragmatically - if (in an insane world) old, multiply sick people with upper respiratory tract infections were to be routinely treated; all the ITU facilities in the world always would be full all of the time - and would never treat anyone who might benefit; because URTI in the elderly and multiply-sick is probably the commonest acute cause of death in the world.)
My point is that a couple of relevant facts, whose relevance is not appreciated by stattos, make all the difference in the world.
Even these facts aren't really needed if we take the birdemic at face value, and notice the simple stat that it has killed a small proportion of almost-entirely old-sick people, even in the worst case scenarios (like on board that cruise boat).
But none of this makes any difference in statto world!
And since this crisis is in fact a spiritual war in which everyone is being compelled to take sides; we can see that - with some noble exceptions such as William Briggs (who anyway is not, by my definition, a 'statto') - the stattos have ended-up on the wrong side, fighting on the side of wrong*.
*Instances include Greg Cochran, Nicholas Taleb, and (sadly) Vox Day.
Demonic cleverness is destructive, not creative
We can see all around us, more clearly than for many generations, the extreme cleverness of demonic destructiveness. And They are indeed extremely clever. But they are not creative,
Tolkien understood that when he made Morgoth - his Satan - brilliant at the arts and sceinces of ruination. So long as The One had created something, morgoth could usually ruin it, and turn it to evil purposes. Thus he made orcs from elves, trolls from ents (probably), balrogs from angelic maia and so forth.
But never did Morgoth perform any act of primary creation such as Aule did in co-fashioning the dwarves or Elbereth the Ents - which would need him to be in harmony with, and thus able to shape, the originative creativity of The One.
The demonic powers have been working relentlessly over the past decades, indeed centuries, to destroy most of that which was overall-good and necessary; and replacing them with ideologies based on resentment and short-termist pleasure-seeking. And now, with a cleverly-timed blow ("coup") they have dealt a wrecking blow at the material basis of survival for the billions of inhabitants of this planet.
Since their aim is that as many as possible will choose damnation; my best guess is that they hope to induce widespread fear and despair (these being sins) - and also encourage a range of other sins as the delicate creative structures collapse and (real!) plagues, famines and wars begin to bite.
I think they believe that the populations of the world have been reduced to a sufficiently corrupt and depraved level that the reactions to stress will be negative, in this way. In the short term, they are happy to encourage minor or fake virtues such as 'altruism' that they know will collapse like a pack of cards under duress, because based in little more than-virtue signalling and 'niceness'.
However, their scheme may backfire; if many people recognise this situation for what it is - a spiritual war - a great battle between Good and evil; and recognise that a spiritual war takes place in the minds and hearts - but especially the hearts - of individual people, and those they genuinely love; and that this will all be weak, counter-productive and ineffectual unless rooted in the solidity of Love of God and the following of Jesus.
In other words, in order not to be co-opted to the vast work of destruction and damnation - we need each to be in harmony with the creative love of God. Only you can do this for yourself, and yourself is the place you must start.
Tolkien understood that when he made Morgoth - his Satan - brilliant at the arts and sceinces of ruination. So long as The One had created something, morgoth could usually ruin it, and turn it to evil purposes. Thus he made orcs from elves, trolls from ents (probably), balrogs from angelic maia and so forth.
But never did Morgoth perform any act of primary creation such as Aule did in co-fashioning the dwarves or Elbereth the Ents - which would need him to be in harmony with, and thus able to shape, the originative creativity of The One.
The demonic powers have been working relentlessly over the past decades, indeed centuries, to destroy most of that which was overall-good and necessary; and replacing them with ideologies based on resentment and short-termist pleasure-seeking. And now, with a cleverly-timed blow ("coup") they have dealt a wrecking blow at the material basis of survival for the billions of inhabitants of this planet.
Since their aim is that as many as possible will choose damnation; my best guess is that they hope to induce widespread fear and despair (these being sins) - and also encourage a range of other sins as the delicate creative structures collapse and (real!) plagues, famines and wars begin to bite.
I think they believe that the populations of the world have been reduced to a sufficiently corrupt and depraved level that the reactions to stress will be negative, in this way. In the short term, they are happy to encourage minor or fake virtues such as 'altruism' that they know will collapse like a pack of cards under duress, because based in little more than-virtue signalling and 'niceness'.
However, their scheme may backfire; if many people recognise this situation for what it is - a spiritual war - a great battle between Good and evil; and recognise that a spiritual war takes place in the minds and hearts - but especially the hearts - of individual people, and those they genuinely love; and that this will all be weak, counter-productive and ineffectual unless rooted in the solidity of Love of God and the following of Jesus.
In other words, in order not to be co-opted to the vast work of destruction and damnation - we need each to be in harmony with the creative love of God. Only you can do this for yourself, and yourself is the place you must start.
The greatest piece of music ever written by a child
There are many child prodigies in music - usually performers, but some composers as well. The most famous - Mozart - did not write any of his canonical works while a child, and indeed his early works are merely curiosities.
The fact is that compositional ability (like the related ability to do creative mathematics) apparently requires an adult brain, adult experience - or some-thing that takes a while to ripen.
But the exception is Mendelssohn; who wrote the above Overture to Midsummer Night's Dream shortly before he was eighteen, and this is recognised as first rate of its kind. To my ear, it is indeed the best thing Mendelssohn ever did.
The only other child-written music which is in the Western canon, and fairly often performed, are Rossini's String Sonatas done when he was just twelve years old!
These are merely light, entertaining trifles; and nothing like as good as the composer's later work; but they are very pleasant, and good enough that people still voluntarily listen-to and play them, two hundred years later!
Sunday, 22 March 2020
A comforting thought
In my struggles to comprehend and decide; it's all to easy for me to forget that God knows! God knew that this current totalitarian takeover by the Global powers of evil was planned, and he knows the nature of these plans.
And - although we are free agents whose choices are not foreknown - God had an accurate prediction of how things were likely to play-out - given the dispositions and histories of all the people (and demons) involved, and the structures of this world.
So God know what best to do about it; and that is exactly what God is doing. Now. Every moment of every day. Everywhere.
I need to remind myself that that best is, of course, Not a matter of sustaining and rectifying worldly arrangements - Not about optimising global or national peace, prosperity and comfort.
God's best efforts are directed towards my spiritual well-being and development... And yours... And every person's (we are all God's children, after all).
So, as events unfold; God is intervening and shaping events in ways large and small (mostly behind the scenes, naturally), for our ultimate, eternal, spiritual well-being.
That's what I call a comforting thought!
And - although we are free agents whose choices are not foreknown - God had an accurate prediction of how things were likely to play-out - given the dispositions and histories of all the people (and demons) involved, and the structures of this world.
So God know what best to do about it; and that is exactly what God is doing. Now. Every moment of every day. Everywhere.
I need to remind myself that that best is, of course, Not a matter of sustaining and rectifying worldly arrangements - Not about optimising global or national peace, prosperity and comfort.
God's best efforts are directed towards my spiritual well-being and development... And yours... And every person's (we are all God's children, after all).
So, as events unfold; God is intervening and shaping events in ways large and small (mostly behind the scenes, naturally), for our ultimate, eternal, spiritual well-being.
That's what I call a comforting thought!
If way to the better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst
Thus said Thomas Hardy - a man rather notorious for his unChristian pessimism. Yet he was surely right on this point.
At least, that is my philosophy, and that of this blog. Some readers sometimes comment and send e-mails assuming I am on the cusp of some kind of despairing breakdown; but the truth is that I regard ignorant, self-blinded optimism as a feeble kind of pseudo-faith.
Before being cheerful stoical, and 'making the best of things'; we ought to consider, in a realistic fashion, if not exactly 'the worst' - at least where this situation is planned to go (by its architects); and also where it might go if it escapes from the plans (which happens often enough).
That is, at any rate, what I have attempted over the past few weeks. I think the plan for the world is a very evil one; and the actuality may be even worse; but having looked at that - I have found many compensations in the almost-palpable (well, actually palpable!) daily (hourly - when looked-for) evidences of the presence of the Holy Ghost and the work of God 'behind the scenes'.
(In between the usual 'wobbles' and waves of despair...) I have felt a deepending and strengthening of my Christian faith, an improvement in the scope of my perspective, a more solid hope and anticipated joy.
But all this exacts a full look at the worst - which ought not to be denied or ignored.
At least, that is my philosophy, and that of this blog. Some readers sometimes comment and send e-mails assuming I am on the cusp of some kind of despairing breakdown; but the truth is that I regard ignorant, self-blinded optimism as a feeble kind of pseudo-faith.
Before being cheerful stoical, and 'making the best of things'; we ought to consider, in a realistic fashion, if not exactly 'the worst' - at least where this situation is planned to go (by its architects); and also where it might go if it escapes from the plans (which happens often enough).
That is, at any rate, what I have attempted over the past few weeks. I think the plan for the world is a very evil one; and the actuality may be even worse; but having looked at that - I have found many compensations in the almost-palpable (well, actually palpable!) daily (hourly - when looked-for) evidences of the presence of the Holy Ghost and the work of God 'behind the scenes'.
(In between the usual 'wobbles' and waves of despair...) I have felt a deepending and strengthening of my Christian faith, an improvement in the scope of my perspective, a more solid hope and anticipated joy.
But all this exacts a full look at the worst - which ought not to be denied or ignored.
Who are the 'people' who have taken-over the world?
My answer would be to break the answer down into two levels: the (probable) specific human agents, and the demonic masters whose plan this truly is (and who fully intend to sacrifice the human agents, when they have performed their function).
The ultimate aim of the demonic powers is mass spiritual damnation, which is one that benefits only the (immortal, spirit) demons - and this is where secular analyses fall-down, since they always try to explain everything in terms of worldly self-interest.
To understand what I mean, CS Lewis's The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast helped me to understand the demonic perspective.
Lewis's book The Great Divorce was helpful in understanding why so many people choose Hell when they might choose Heaven; and thereby what are the strategies of the demons.
The ultimate aim of the demonic powers is mass spiritual damnation, which is one that benefits only the (immortal, spirit) demons - and this is where secular analyses fall-down, since they always try to explain everything in terms of worldly self-interest.
To understand what I mean, CS Lewis's The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast helped me to understand the demonic perspective.
Lewis's book The Great Divorce was helpful in understanding why so many people choose Hell when they might choose Heaven; and thereby what are the strategies of the demons.
Discernment of motivation (and character) is the key
In navigating through this world - which, as we know, is full of dishonesty and outright lies; manipulation and propaganda; therefore discernment is a vital skill.
Vital in the sense that our lives (especially our eternal lives) depend on it.
And the most important matter to discern is the character and motivation of other-people - the people who are telling us information and what to do.
For obvious reasons; we would wish to be guided only by those who are honest, competent and have our best interests at heart; and Not by those who are dishonest, incompetent, and have malign intentions towards us.
Such discernment is not all that difficult (most of the time), if we have multiple personal interactions with someone over a reasonable period of time - but that is exactly what we do not have.
Lacking multiple personal interactions over a reasonable period of time; our innate capacities tell us we should not trust someone.
Even worse; we have abstract impersonal entities: institutions, corporations and organisations (the government, the something church, the world health organisation, the national health service, the scientists...) - and it is these that are giving us advice and information.
They are composed of a turnover of unknown/ unknowable employees, each acting under orders (i.e. not personally responsible for what they say or do). Hence; bureaucratic institutional abstractions cannot be moral entities, cannot have good character and intention: ought never to be trusted.
Leave aside questions of competence: because we know for sure that competence is a low priority in all major institutions in the world today, and for the past several decades. But even if they were optimally technically competent; our instincts tell us that such vague, changing abstractions as bureaucracies have no responsibility and cannot be trusted.
So, we find ourselves in a world where we should not trust any of the 'people' whom we are expected to trust - and indeed required (on pain of punishment) - to believe and obey. Even worse; we often know for sure that these persons and insitutions are dishonest, incompetent; and either care nothing for us or actively mean us harm.
This is a plain spiritual fact about the modern condition; but barely appreciated and widely denied.
As is usual in spiritual life; the first step - and perhaps the only possible step - is an honest and valid understanding and acknowledgment of our actual situation - and this is our situation.
Vital in the sense that our lives (especially our eternal lives) depend on it.
And the most important matter to discern is the character and motivation of other-people - the people who are telling us information and what to do.
For obvious reasons; we would wish to be guided only by those who are honest, competent and have our best interests at heart; and Not by those who are dishonest, incompetent, and have malign intentions towards us.
Such discernment is not all that difficult (most of the time), if we have multiple personal interactions with someone over a reasonable period of time - but that is exactly what we do not have.
Lacking multiple personal interactions over a reasonable period of time; our innate capacities tell us we should not trust someone.
Even worse; we have abstract impersonal entities: institutions, corporations and organisations (the government, the something church, the world health organisation, the national health service, the scientists...) - and it is these that are giving us advice and information.
They are composed of a turnover of unknown/ unknowable employees, each acting under orders (i.e. not personally responsible for what they say or do). Hence; bureaucratic institutional abstractions cannot be moral entities, cannot have good character and intention: ought never to be trusted.
Leave aside questions of competence: because we know for sure that competence is a low priority in all major institutions in the world today, and for the past several decades. But even if they were optimally technically competent; our instincts tell us that such vague, changing abstractions as bureaucracies have no responsibility and cannot be trusted.
So, we find ourselves in a world where we should not trust any of the 'people' whom we are expected to trust - and indeed required (on pain of punishment) - to believe and obey. Even worse; we often know for sure that these persons and insitutions are dishonest, incompetent; and either care nothing for us or actively mean us harm.
This is a plain spiritual fact about the modern condition; but barely appreciated and widely denied.
As is usual in spiritual life; the first step - and perhaps the only possible step - is an honest and valid understanding and acknowledgment of our actual situation - and this is our situation.
Saturday, 21 March 2020
Terry Boardman in 2014 prediciting the 'unmissable global event' that heralds the impending advent of 'Ahriman' as Antichrist
Terry Boardman is always worth watching and reading - for me, he is perhaps the premier Big Picture intellectual in Britain today.
Here he has some very interesting material on the nature of Rudolf Steiner's concept of Ahriman (who he expected to be incarnated and born close to the millennium), and the prophesied global revolution of materialism.
I am skeptical about the literal truth about these predictions and the reasoning behind them (based on numerology and a claimed understanding of the future course of human evolution stretching 1000s of years ahead) - I always read Steiner and his followers through a Romantic Christian filter; however, Steiner was undoubtedly in some ways very gifted at sensing 'what was coming' - and he might well be correct in a general sense, and for different reasons than those explicitly posited.
Thus, here you will find idea that the demon Satan/ Ahriman would be incarnated as a human born near the year 2000. It may be that - taken in a 'soft and flexible' fashion, in terms of the role a person (even if not literall A Demon) plays in the spiritual war or the world - this may turn-out to be broadly correct.
Anyway, we will soon know if a single Antichrist figure emerges as the focus for what is going on - and there is one very obvious candidate millennial baby who is being groomed, and might well be placed in the world leadership position very soon; someone born on 03/01/03.
I would watch the whole video if I were you - indeed I bought the DVD from which this is excerpted; but for a flavour drop in at 15:00.
The Antichrist agenda
The Antichrist agenda is working for a wrong overall purpose; a situation in which people’s genuinely-good motivations are being directed towards an evil agenda.
In order to avoid being fooled by Antichrist into supporting the agenda of evil; we need a basic understanding of our situation; which may come from greater discernment: from shaking-off propaganda and programming, and (esepcially) recognising the true identity and motivations of Antichrist, beneath his many pseudo-Good, fake-altrusitic disguises.
(The isn't difficult - although people seldom achieve it. The Holy Ghost offers guidance, as well as our true self. But it only works so long as our assumptions are accurate; which include the assumption that in these times extremely few people in authority - and maybe none at all - should be regarded as honest and well-motivated.)
Or else discernment may come from personal experience and observation of here-and-now actuality by simple people or children; people who are unable to explain-away the obvious by embedding it calulatedly misleading abtract rhetoric.
But the vast majority of people lie in the middle - not discerning enough, and not simple enough. These are they who join the crusade of Antichrist; whereby all their good qualities are harnessed to the sevice of an evil agenda.
Points to consider:
The basic situation is that God is the creator and is also our loving father; regarding each of us as a growing child. The 'unit' of God's creation is therefore the individual Being: i.e. each individual human being. We need to share this divine perspective if we wish to understand our condition and purpose.
Because of the above; each person has what he needs for salvation and to learn from his actual, current experience.
Life is thus an advanture, and an adventure for every person and every day (including this one); and an adventure which God has set-up so we can each 'win'.
...So long as winning is correctly understood in an eternal timeframe. The situation is set up with an orientation towards following Jesus to resurrected life in Heaven. Things don't make sense when explained in other ways. Things can't make sense if we wrongly assume life has some other purpose.
Think eternally; learn temporally; understand in context of the big picture.
And if you don't yet have a big picture of the nature of reality - now is the time to get one.
In order to avoid being fooled by Antichrist into supporting the agenda of evil; we need a basic understanding of our situation; which may come from greater discernment: from shaking-off propaganda and programming, and (esepcially) recognising the true identity and motivations of Antichrist, beneath his many pseudo-Good, fake-altrusitic disguises.
(The isn't difficult - although people seldom achieve it. The Holy Ghost offers guidance, as well as our true self. But it only works so long as our assumptions are accurate; which include the assumption that in these times extremely few people in authority - and maybe none at all - should be regarded as honest and well-motivated.)
Or else discernment may come from personal experience and observation of here-and-now actuality by simple people or children; people who are unable to explain-away the obvious by embedding it calulatedly misleading abtract rhetoric.
But the vast majority of people lie in the middle - not discerning enough, and not simple enough. These are they who join the crusade of Antichrist; whereby all their good qualities are harnessed to the sevice of an evil agenda.
Points to consider:
The basic situation is that God is the creator and is also our loving father; regarding each of us as a growing child. The 'unit' of God's creation is therefore the individual Being: i.e. each individual human being. We need to share this divine perspective if we wish to understand our condition and purpose.
Because of the above; each person has what he needs for salvation and to learn from his actual, current experience.
Life is thus an advanture, and an adventure for every person and every day (including this one); and an adventure which God has set-up so we can each 'win'.
...So long as winning is correctly understood in an eternal timeframe. The situation is set up with an orientation towards following Jesus to resurrected life in Heaven. Things don't make sense when explained in other ways. Things can't make sense if we wrongly assume life has some other purpose.
Think eternally; learn temporally; understand in context of the big picture.
And if you don't yet have a big picture of the nature of reality - now is the time to get one.
'Proof' that free will is a delusion... (?)
One of Brief Outlines nice little cartoons - 2 minutes only, to reveal the paradox of neuroscientific 'proofs' that there is no free will!
Friday, 20 March 2020
Coping with this world's suffering - The Platonic Perspective
This latest video by John Butler is a clear phenomenological description of what could be termed the Platonic Perspective as it occurs in the Western spiritual traditions - including having a strong influence on the mystical types of Christianity; and perhaps especially Eastern Orthodoxy (which was once dominant in my part of The West - in the form of Celtic Christianity).
JB draws a contrast between, on the one hand: the deep peace attainable during meditation; when he inhabits what feels-like a timeless, spaceless and unchanging world - understood as the world of the divine. And which I also recognise as Plato's 'world of forms'.
And on the other hand: the noise and bustle; fear, decline and degradation; and the physical restrictions of this mortal earthly life: a life of always-temporary and -partial joys; but also of inevitable loss, decay and death.
Regarded from the abstractly-divine, infinite and static world of Platonic 'reality' - this mortal world and earthly life appear (as JB says here) like a tiny theatre; infinitestimal in the immeasurable vastness of space and time - a playhouse putting on bitter-sweet dramas with flesh-and-blood actors, that seem serious while they are being enacted; but from-which we shall awaken as bodiless spirits into the changeless bliss of Nirvana.
It seems to me that this Nirvana is very close to the idea of Heaven as it has been (and is) imagined or anticipated by many Christians - albeit that Christians must acknowledge that (eventually) they will (like Jesus) be resurrected with solid and human-shaped bodies...
However, the physicality of the resurrection body has often been defined and (I would say) dissipated into something more spiritual than material: something superficially looking like a mortal body but actually functionally pretty-much identical with spirit...
Anyway; I can certainly appreciate the appeal of this Platonic (or Hindu, or Buddhist) Perspective - and indeed held some such view myself not so long ago (as can be seen in several blog entries dating up to about 2012).
But now I have rejected it in favour of an understanding of Christianity that is, I think, much more in-line with the actuality and neccessity of Jesus Christ; and in which Time is a universal reality - I mean linear, sequential and irreversible Time - albeit a Time which we know runs at very different speeds in different places...
Time is perspectival: analogous to the descriptions of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. We experience the relativity differences in Deep Sleep - in which we are hardly aware, and from where time runs so slowly compared to awakeness that no time seems to pass despite hours having passed 'by the clock'. Or in Dreaming Sleep in which we are aware, and where we can cram the events of many hours into a single minute (as measured in awake 'clock time').
Using this as a model; I can quite simply explain-away the experiences of John Butler's meditation; in that the apparent absence of time and space is an illusion produced by the cessation of awareness - much as happens in Deep Sleep. And, exactly like our experience of deep and dream-less sleep - JB's type of meditation creates a state of mind in which there is no suffering and no worries.
But that is not because unawareness is more-real than awareness: Deep Sleep (and its analogues) is necessary and valuable - but it is not realer-than being awake. Unawareness is simply a different state of consciousness.
And I infer that God wants us to spend most of our life in a state of awareness since that is how all men naturally spend most of their lives: i.e. awake.
Going further; I see in the development of each Man from child to adult, and the development of Mankind from animist, through religious, to romantic; our divine destiny is to become more aware - because awareness is more free, more creative; and capable of chosen love.
God is self-aware: increased awareness is part-of an increase in divinity.
Living in a lunatic asylum - being moved into the acute ward
I've felt for quite a while - since before I wrote Thought Prison, for sure - that I was living in an asylum for the chronically deluded; but more recently it's as if I have been moved into the locked ward for severe emergency admissions.
I am used-to chronic, low-grade, delusional systems (materialism, New Leftism, Climate Emergency, the trans- agenda etc). But now the world is gripped by unreasoning, abject, unconstrained terror of a trivial birdemic.
Even more weirdly; there truly is a real and lethal physical crisis upon us (by far the worst for three generations), which will (if present trends continue to escalate) fairly quickly kill billions - which is the global totalitarian takeover, shut-down and isolation. The deliberate stepwise collapse of the world system of production and distribution.
But in this inverted world; the true danger is one that the masses are begging to have more of, faster, more severely...
The fact that this time (the time of Antichrist - as a concept if not as a person) is long-planned by the powers of evil also means it has long been anticipated by God. This further means that (for Christians, followers of Jesus) there is a path-through whatever will happen to each of us - and treading this path we can each learn much that will be valuable and helpful for our eternal life to come.
It is inaccurate to regard our mortal life as a 'test'; life is best understood as a series of experiences from-which we ought-to learn.
Not that there is a single, planned path through a predetermined unfolding of The World, which we passively must follow - not at all. This is a world that Men co-create with God, by our agency.
But if we are alert and aware to the guidance of the Holy Ghost (that is: the spirit of the risen Jesus Christ) we will always be able to know what to do, here-and-now, at the time when it ought-to-be done.
Of course this is the case! We are living in God's creation, and God is always present in his creation. However, because we are free beings; we each need to intitiate, recognise and consciously accept divine contact in order to receive this guidance.
All of this absolutely requires that we (each one of us) are living our lives in light of the love of God (his creation, its purposes, the values of his creation); and our choice to follow The Good Shepherd through death to resurrected Life Everlasting in Heaven.
But if a person is Not living in such faith - if he is Not living with the expectation (hope) of such an eternal outcome as Heaven... If a person is Not living such that love is his priority... If a person is not repenting and repudiating other sinful motivators such as fear, resentment and despair whenever they arise (and they do arise)...
In brief: if a person does not believe, want and embrace that which Christ offers, then clearly he shall not be aiming in the right direction to get this; he will not even want to tread the path to salvation and theosis provided by God.
In sum, such a not-Christian person will not be wanting what God has provided and made possible for us. Therefore he will not get it.
This, at least, I am finding - day by day. Although I am prone to wobbles - lapses and decompensations; so long as these are recognised, repented and repudiated; I find that I am experiencing an incrementally increasing clarity about what I personally need to do (in my exact, moment-by-moment situation) and how to do it.
As the insanity and evil increases acceleratingly all around me; the contrast with, and distinction from, goodness and reality becomes easier and easier to discern. It gets simpler to recognise and reject the prevalent lies and delusions.
This bad and worsening experience has therefore led (despite several zag-zags and nasty lapses) to a stronger and deeper faith; as God has ensured will be possible, for all who want what God is offering.
I am used-to chronic, low-grade, delusional systems (materialism, New Leftism, Climate Emergency, the trans- agenda etc). But now the world is gripped by unreasoning, abject, unconstrained terror of a trivial birdemic.
Even more weirdly; there truly is a real and lethal physical crisis upon us (by far the worst for three generations), which will (if present trends continue to escalate) fairly quickly kill billions - which is the global totalitarian takeover, shut-down and isolation. The deliberate stepwise collapse of the world system of production and distribution.
But in this inverted world; the true danger is one that the masses are begging to have more of, faster, more severely...
The fact that this time (the time of Antichrist - as a concept if not as a person) is long-planned by the powers of evil also means it has long been anticipated by God. This further means that (for Christians, followers of Jesus) there is a path-through whatever will happen to each of us - and treading this path we can each learn much that will be valuable and helpful for our eternal life to come.
It is inaccurate to regard our mortal life as a 'test'; life is best understood as a series of experiences from-which we ought-to learn.
Not that there is a single, planned path through a predetermined unfolding of The World, which we passively must follow - not at all. This is a world that Men co-create with God, by our agency.
But if we are alert and aware to the guidance of the Holy Ghost (that is: the spirit of the risen Jesus Christ) we will always be able to know what to do, here-and-now, at the time when it ought-to-be done.
Of course this is the case! We are living in God's creation, and God is always present in his creation. However, because we are free beings; we each need to intitiate, recognise and consciously accept divine contact in order to receive this guidance.
All of this absolutely requires that we (each one of us) are living our lives in light of the love of God (his creation, its purposes, the values of his creation); and our choice to follow The Good Shepherd through death to resurrected Life Everlasting in Heaven.
But if a person is Not living in such faith - if he is Not living with the expectation (hope) of such an eternal outcome as Heaven... If a person is Not living such that love is his priority... If a person is not repenting and repudiating other sinful motivators such as fear, resentment and despair whenever they arise (and they do arise)...
In brief: if a person does not believe, want and embrace that which Christ offers, then clearly he shall not be aiming in the right direction to get this; he will not even want to tread the path to salvation and theosis provided by God.
In sum, such a not-Christian person will not be wanting what God has provided and made possible for us. Therefore he will not get it.
This, at least, I am finding - day by day. Although I am prone to wobbles - lapses and decompensations; so long as these are recognised, repented and repudiated; I find that I am experiencing an incrementally increasing clarity about what I personally need to do (in my exact, moment-by-moment situation) and how to do it.
As the insanity and evil increases acceleratingly all around me; the contrast with, and distinction from, goodness and reality becomes easier and easier to discern. It gets simpler to recognise and reject the prevalent lies and delusions.
This bad and worsening experience has therefore led (despite several zag-zags and nasty lapses) to a stronger and deeper faith; as God has ensured will be possible, for all who want what God is offering.
Thursday, 19 March 2020
Romantic Christianity in practice
The idea of Romantic Christianity includes that each individual is the true and proper unit of Christian faith (all else - churches, scripture, traditions, theology - is secondary, ancillary) and our faith should derive from individual and direct knowledge.
Knowledge of what? Of Jesus Christ, for a start - whom we used to know personally in our pre-mortal lives, and whom we can know at any moment as the Holy Ghost. For another, we can know the reality of God - can know God is the creator - and that God is a person who loves us as children.
Direct knowing means that we simply-know such things, without mediation, for our-selves - by 'intuition' if you like. 'Without mediation' means without being told, or reading; without seeing visions or hearing voices - since all such perceptions require to be interpreted and may be misunderstood, and all perception is inevitablyambiguous, incomplete and biased.
But direct knowing is simply there in our minds, in our thinking - limited by our capacity, but nothing else. We are then free to decide what to do about it.
What is required for this to happen? Well, knowledge that this is so.
Then the insight that for what is so to become real to and for each of us requires conscious motivation - necessary because only conscious intent is free.
By contrast, if we were made to know against our will, and/or unconsciously; if we were acted-upon by influences - then we would be mere automata.
God wants his children to love, and love is ultimately chosen. If we want love, we must be prepared consciously to choose love. We must participate in love.
Knowledge of what? Of Jesus Christ, for a start - whom we used to know personally in our pre-mortal lives, and whom we can know at any moment as the Holy Ghost. For another, we can know the reality of God - can know God is the creator - and that God is a person who loves us as children.
Direct knowing means that we simply-know such things, without mediation, for our-selves - by 'intuition' if you like. 'Without mediation' means without being told, or reading; without seeing visions or hearing voices - since all such perceptions require to be interpreted and may be misunderstood, and all perception is inevitablyambiguous, incomplete and biased.
But direct knowing is simply there in our minds, in our thinking - limited by our capacity, but nothing else. We are then free to decide what to do about it.
What is required for this to happen? Well, knowledge that this is so.
Then the insight that for what is so to become real to and for each of us requires conscious motivation - necessary because only conscious intent is free.
By contrast, if we were made to know against our will, and/or unconsciously; if we were acted-upon by influences - then we would be mere automata.
God wants his children to love, and love is ultimately chosen. If we want love, we must be prepared consciously to choose love. We must participate in love.