Sunday 19 April 2020

The fall of Western materialism by 'Plan X'...

Commenter Ingemar made an excellent and thought-provoking point in the recent post on how the One Ring was destroyed with the aid of divine providence, by a sequence of plans - each of which was worse than the previous one in terms of 'collateral damage'.

My understanding of Western history is that we embraced materialism (aka. positivism, reductionism, scientism)* as our underlying philosophy from the late 1700s particularly - and since then we have seen various Plans (B, C, D etc) offered to solve and destroy this way of thinking.

I call these Romanticism, which has come in waves - each of which failed by eschewing Christianity (and also being rejected by Christians) - instead dissipating into just-more-materialism: radical leftist politics and/or progressively extending the sexual revolution.


So, my assumption is that materialism - like the One Ring, which it so much resembles - needed to be destroyed...

Yet not by by reversion to an earlier phase, not by tradition (since history is linear); but by being superseded by further (and divinely forseen and ordained) development.

Plans were sequentially offered to The West by providence, which wove these into on-going creation - however, each successive Plan depended absolutely on human agency to acknowledge, accept, adopt - and consciously creatively participate-in - that Plan (or else it would not happen).


(This is a vital point: The early Plans could not and should not be 'imposed' on Men. All early Plans required Men to be consciously aware of them, required voluntary and active cooperation. This was desired by God, and also entailed by the nature of Man.) 


What happened was that the first phase of Romanticism (late 1700s, early 1800s) could be termed Plan A, and that was the best plan - which would supersede materialism with the greatest benefits and the least disadvantages.

Plan A was refused and distorted; and further Plans were offered over the next couple of centuries - but each with greater collateral damage than the previous one, because the best possibility had been refused and therefore damage and sin had accumulated - more and more as time went by.

Meanwhile, materialism continued to grow, with less and less opposition - into the modern form of anti-Christian, spirit-excluding, leftist bureaucracy. This consists of many national and specialised social systems (government, law, churches, education, science, health services, police, military etc) which are all linked into a single hierarchical and cross-linked System.

These 'functional' sub-systems (and The System as a whole) are vitally supported by a vast Public Relations and propaganda bureaucracy: the mass and social media.


And so we come to the recent totalitarian+ takeover by The System. 

We have now run-out of Plans, used-up all our good options; and providence is left with Plan X, the Plan of last resort - which is that The West be permitted to express all the contradictions and self-destructive aspects of materialism that have, until now, been moderated and restrained by providence.

The need to destroy the evil of The System is now so urgent and vital that it overwhelms any large scale Romanticism - and will proceed regardless of collateral damage.

With the corruption of all institutions, and their incorporation into The System henceforth, the true Christian spirit will be carried by individuals (and small loving groups of individuals) or not at all.


It turns-out that we had misunderstood the old prophecies as believing that God would impose pestilence, natural disasters, and wars as a punishment - whereas it is in fact our response to these phenomena that will destroy our civilisation by pulling it down on our own heads - and destroy it very completely.

Most of what is Good will perish with the evil; this being the unavoidable price of destroying the evil and generation after generation of rejecting better Plans. Instead, we and our ancestors have progressively embraced materialism more and more thoroughly - more and more rapidly and coercively; and The West are well advanced to imposing materialism upon the whole world.

We have therefore forced the hand of the Creator; who has allowed us to adopt Plan X; and will allow it to unfold by it own inexorable internal logic over the coming months.


But, unlike Plans A, B, C etc - Plan X is happening despite most men being unaware of it.

Plan X is, indeed, the direct consequence of our refusal to be aware of, or to cooperate with, divine providence; an outcome of our denial of both the reality and Goodness of God. Our wholesale inversion of true values.

As a civilization, we have chosen, cumulatively, to be passive and blind. Therefore our self-made fate will happen to us without our comprehension or consent.

And because it happens-to-us, we will lack that courage which derives from the active pursuit of Good. 


*+Note on materialism and totalitarianism. It might be asked whether these are necessarily evil? Might they simply be merely 'philosophy' and 'politics' - hence orthogonal (nothing necessarily to do with) Christianity? My answer is that The System is demonic (led by actual demon spirits, those willingly possessed by demons, and by the slaves of demons) therefore it is intrinsically evil in its objectives and motivations. Further, the dominant demonic evil of modernity is of the 'Ahrimanic' type: which works via materialism and totalitarianism - by bureaucracy and the mass media. Therefore, any totalitarian materialist takeover is in practice necessarily evil. 

21 comments:

Chent said...

Great post. I disagree with one point.

"As a civilization, we have chosen, cumulatively, to be passive and blind."

I think that, as a civilization, we have chosen, cumulatively, to be very active in the pursuit of the evil.

Bruce Charlton said...

@ Chent. Fair point. Although we are passive in our activity, since it is low risk expediency in obedience to officials and journalists.

Rich said...

Bruce, your insight surrounding the current situation has been tremendous.

I hesitate to even point this out, but you've been intuiting that things were coming to a point and practically predicting this outcome to a T, and yet not a word of gloating or I told you so's. A true gentleman and Christian. I wish I could say the same about more among us.

Thank you for your writings and sharing your thoughts.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

In keeping with the B-movie theme, couldn't we call it Plan 9 from Outer Space?

Bruce Charlton said...

@Rich - Thank you. I felt the coup coming some weeks in advance, although I expected that climate change would be the excuse (consequently, the takeover happened a bit sooner than I expected).

What has astonished me is the near zero awareness that it *has* happened! It's weird to explain to people that no elections, house arrest for the forseeable, elimination of civil society, elimination of the church, arbitrary invasive policing, control of consumption, abolition of cash etc etc *mean* exactly what they *are*...

INdeed, I still expect the birdemic explicitly to fuse with the climate change agenda since both the pseudo-problems have the same 'answer' - and indeed it is beginning to happen already.

I noticed St Greta was endorsing the multinational high-profile 'One World' ("Together at home") 'Global Citizen' You Tube concert yesterday - which was preparing ground among youth for the world government move I anticipate.

It is certainly already by far the biggest thing in my experience, and (since hardly anybody has noticed, and even fewer have objected) this is only the beginning.

Bruce Charlton said...

@WmJas - If there arises a need for a pseudonym, I'll bear that in mind.

BTW birdemic is not a 'B' - but more like a 'Z' - movie. Or maybe there aren't enough letters.

Matthew T said...

"We have now run-out of Plans, used-up all our good options; and providence is left with Plan X"

... unless we're on Plan Q.

;)

Andrew said...

Dr. Charlton, I still don’t understand what exactly has happened. As you said, it is obvious a totalitarian coup has happened - but as you said this is about damnation. I don’t understand what that means or how that goal succeeds if billions starve by destroying the modern technological infrastructure?

Bruce Charlton said...

@A If demonic powers have taken over nearly all the world System, yet very few people have noticed, then this is a major success for the side of evil in the spiritual war.

David Earle said...

But what does this mean for the average person?

I tell my family that these lockdowns aren't going away anytime soon and it has nothing to do with the virus. That's enough for them to think I'm gone nuts. So I typically stop there.

Yet everybody is convinced we will start to go back to something resembling normal soon and I heard some countries are starting to do that.

I feel like by the end of the summer there will be no "told you so" moment for the average person. They will just happily be following whatever is laid out for them. Will there be an obvious breaking point? A great awakening?

It's as if most people are convinced "we're all in this together and nothing really bad will happen. the government has our best interests in mind, they're doing their best to contain the spread of the virus"

I am really starting to see a divide between spiritual thinking and materialistic thinking amongst those close to me. I'm finding that it's a tough and near impossible thing to discuss with the average person even if it's your immediately family.

Bruce Charlton said...

@islanti - I suppose when things start to run-out and break-down, most people will become focused on day to day survival; and even keener for the authorities to look after and protect them.

Ingemar said...

In America, protests are springing up like mushrooms after a heavy rain. They are beginning to call the Establishment's bluff, or rather, have reached the rational understanding that these efforts to "save" us are worse than the disease they purport to prevent.

The media's (social and otherwise) response is to demonize and detract. The low level thralls in the social media are accusing the protestors of ruining other's lives (where were these denunciations during the Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter)?

Unfortunately I'd still say that these acts of rebellion in no way contradict your thesis. They're simply reversions to earlier states of error, as the common refrain is "let us work" or "let us enjoy ourselves". Though there's something to be said of not escalating violence past a point of no return (American civilians are the most heavily armed in the world, yet no shooting wars... Yet) the fact of the matter is that since the Establishment are fully aligned with Evil, rapprochement is neither possible nor desirable; you may as well ratify a treaty between cats and mice.

Personally the way I've been preparing for what is to come is to resolve to suffer everything the Establishment threatens to retaliate with, even unto poverty and death. The Truth is more important than physical existence and the reason why Modern man is so sick is because they believe the opposite.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Ingemar - Yes, it is too late and already impossible to fix what has been done - at the material level.

From now, the only valid and genuinely helpful protest is spiritual - and in each of our-selves; starting with (but not ending with) the discernment of truth and recognition of evil.

William Wildblood said...

They're probably quite pleased with these protests as the protestors can easily be branded as ignorant bigots thereby justifying the lockdown position even more.

Andrew said...

@William - You are correct. The governor of Michigan's first response was to say the protests would mean that lockdowns have to be extended (which, of course, was the plan...)

You can also, if interested, review the “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” by the Rockefeller Foundation from 2010. The paper game plans this exact scenario as "Lock Step" (get it?). The pretend scenario starts with a pandemic in China leading to locking down everything, economic upheaval, civil disobedience, global ID and tracking, etc.

So far it seems to be following the plan exactly.

"At first, the notion of a more controlled world gained wide acceptance and approval. Citizens willingly gave up some of their sovereignty — and their privacy — to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability. Citizens were more tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight, and national leaders had more latitude to impose order in the ways they saw fit."

We will see if they broke more than they realize and it unravels faster than expected soon enough I suppose... (the scenario seems to predict the first national-level revolution in Africa doesn't occur until 13 years after the pandemic starts).

Ingemar said...

@William,

The protests show that the lockdown is a farce as really all the government can do is ask politely (and gaslight, and threaten fines, and act like obstructive bureaucrats). In the case of Europe the southern countries are taking especial notice that their governments are restricting citizens yet allowing migrants to pour in unobstructed.

If you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, you might as well "do." That said, it still falls short of the necessary repentance needed to overcome evil. At best what I can see happening is that people will be awakened to the Evil around them, but the scope of their actions is far too limited.

@Matthew T,

I follow Q with a skeptical eye. The movement is exposing some bad actors, it is true, but lacking the fullness of Truth is still tantamount to a Lie. If you read between the lines, the Q movement promises more of the same that Establishment does, that is a secular earthly utopia that removes distinctions between race, sex, and religion (but with occasional Biblical references sprinkled in). In other words, it is still yet another reversion to an earlier form of error, or a promise to return to the previous heights of a slippery slope.

The most telling thing is that Q is telling followers of the movement to sit back and "enjoy the show", or put our faith in Donald Trump and the "white hats." Christians must stand up for themselves and must take up their crosses. There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

Cererean said...

"At best what I can see happening is that people will be awakened to the Evil around them."

It is enough. Even if people are to die in the flesh, they have the option at all times to live in the spirit. And who knows but that a great awakening may occur and yet change the course of history?

Matthew T said...

"I follow Q with a skeptical eye."

I know, I do too. I mean who doesn't?

I will just say this though, that Hope is one of the cardinal virtues, and I think the least understood, or the relative importance of it is under-emphasized. Faith and love get the limelight it seems.

Bruce Charlton said...

@MT "I mean who doesn't?"

?

Presumably those like me who regard Q (and Trump) as just politics-as-usual; a variant of mainstream secular leftism. Obviously!

Intrinsically not necessarily harmful; the Q game encourages a malign tendency to maintain intense focus on insider political minutiae. It is part of that 'victory just around the corner' school of pseudonymous, machismo, delusional optimism that characterises the secular 'right'.

Such people have utterly failed to notice the vast essence of what has recently happened; instead, in the face of a massive and successful coup by their opponents, they continue to suppose that - with a little twist, timed and applied just-so - events can be made to serve their own agenda.

Matthew T said...

I think we are misunderstanding each other. I meant, "Isn't everyone at least a bit skeptical about Q?"

Kirstie said...

A curious thing I am noticing is that the alternative media are suddenly not taking David Icke as a fool anymore. They are even talking in Biblical terms of the End Days without any belief in Christianity, religion or faith in God. I remember Bruce saying on many occasions about Romantic Christianity and Icke, that great people/minds seem to get to a point but can't make that next leap of faith towards Jesus Christ and assimilate or accommodate their belief system within the Christian framework. I also think there are fundamentalist Christians who cannot separate their belief system from politics. It may seem a simple observation to many on this blog, but for me, the clarity is quite striking.