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.
Mr. Charlton,
ReplyDeleteMy experience of the coronavirus has not been as Satanically bleak as you suggest, and I do not think that it is unique. I live in California, a state in "lockdown," but it doesn't feel like much of a lockdown. This morning I went running at a local trail. There were lots of people there; not any less than usual. My family went for a walk in the park on Saturday. I've noticed an increase in neighborly friendliness. I've spoken with neighbors now that I've never spoken with before. There is a sense in which everyone is in this together, and it has helped to bring greater solidarity. The fact that families are spending more time at home means that they are having to connect with one another in ways that they haven't in awhile. The bureaucratic managerial class may have meant this for evil, but God has meant it for good.
Respectfully,
Drew
@Drew - We need to be able to separate our own subjective response to the situation today, from an objective understanding of where the situation is planned to go by those who have created it. If you read this blog, you will see that I try to keep these distinct.
ReplyDeleteBruce,
ReplyDeleteIf this crisis doesn't result in the mass of general humanity abandoning the mainstream and social medias, we really deserve what's coming to us next.
I also live in California and my sense is different than Drew's. Yes, people are being friendlier than usual, but once this "lockdown" is extended longer I think the mood may change.
ReplyDeleteToday the "health officers" working with the "county superintendents" extended the school closures to May 1 for 7 counties of the San Francisco Bay Area where I live. Businesses deemed "non-essential" (such as salons, for instance) will likely be closed for that length of time too. Who gave the "health officers" such power to make these decisions?
Unemployment claims in California since March 13 have reached 1 million. How long can people not work, and live off little to no savings, without triggering an economic depression, not to mention actual depression?
Parking lots of many parks have been closed by government officials due to too many people congregating in parks and beaches. Churches are closed. If my own kids and family are going a bit stir-crazy, I can only imagine what this will do overall to people's mental health.
What will government do if people decide they've had enough, and just start opening their businesses? How are governments going to stop them? Mass arrests of thousands? Issue fines which can be ignored or challenged in court?
Some people are beginning to question why government employees and politicians are earning salaries while small businesses are laying people off and living off meager savings. Others may go bankrupt.
Evil disguised as altruism. "We need to destroy people's livelihood to save people from this virus. If you don't agree, you must want to kill people!"
KatM
Very well put,and quite uncanny; I made this very connection myself only 24 hours ago - almost word for word.
ReplyDeleteI will be very interested to see how it turns out for Mexico and Brazil or any other country whose leaders are saying this is media hype and to continue life almost as normal. I certainly hope we get some leading minds who never give up analyzing this event for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteRespectfully, Drew that's awfully shortsighted.
ReplyDeleteBruce, this is exactly what I been feeling but could not express. My wife is wondering why I'm so negative and depressed by all this - she thinks the politicians are doing the right thing. I guess I see a bigger picture. Even if this passes it will be so easy for them to do it again for 'righteous' reasons and we the sheeple will just go along.
@Ingemar
ReplyDeleteAt the very least as punishment for chronic bad taste.
Ingemar, there's no chance of that at all. People will be glued to the news to keep up with the latest developments in the birdemic story, and social media will be almost the only "social" option for those under house arrest.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I find particularly sinister is the supposed self-sacrifice, supposed pro-lifeness of it all. Meanwhile the fertility rate will be further driven into the ground, sacrificing those with the most life and potential to the fake idea of saving the lives of those with the least. We are now told to believe in their self-sacrifice of freedom for the lives of others, oh how noble they are! They are not acting out of fear! They say.
ReplyDeleteThe incredible hypocrisy and virtue-signaling are still so amazing to me.
@Lucinda - I have been writing for several years that this is the most cowardly society in history (this deriving from my - futile - involvement over twenty-some years in 'activism' against bureaucracy and corruption in medicine and universities. But even I have been surprised (and embarrassed) by the degree and prevalence of cowardice on public display at present; made the worse by preening self-righteousness. Too cowardly to admit cowardice, in fact. By such means, as so often, Modern Man closes off even the possibility of repentance.
ReplyDeleteWm Jas Tychonievich:
ReplyDeleteOf course not. The Plan all along was to get people atomized, afraid, and wholly dependent on the Father of Lies for "truth." Even now, though I am still working, I am doing so under house arrest and am compelled to spend half an hour a day discussing the Birdemic.
My, our, only hope is that Almighty God shall show His enemies the strength of His arm. Whether today or some unspecified moment in the future.