It is still possible, although not easy, to find Goodness (that is truth, beauty and moral virtue) in the products of modern mainstream culture; but it is ever-more obvious that it is being used merely as a bait - and with obviously evil intent behind it.
To survey the bulk of the news of the day, advertising, official public relations and propaganda, mass entertainments and (not divisible from these) the supposedly 'high culture' of the arts, literature, sciences, philosophy etc... is to be subjected to a world of increasingly explicit evil.
Since the successful global totalitarian coup of early 2020; new culture has become homogenous with respect to its message; whether explicit or - blatantly - implied. And this message is in service to the agenda of purposive supernatural evil.
It has therefore become something of a trial for anyone with spiritual discernment to expose oneself to modern mainstream culture - and I do so only relatively briefly, infrequently, selectively and with 'filters' in place.
This selectivity is not difficult, since the quality of our culture has become so poor. But it is dismaying to perceive the way that skill and effort are so misplaced in service of value-inversion. I am not talking of real high culture - but stylish production values, clever and well-paced writing, impressive visuals, emotionally powerful music and the like.
I have noticed that any-thing spontaneously appealing and also widely-available - for example in a news story, advert, magazine, movie, sit com, sports event... is now being very deliberately used as bait on an ideological hook for pushing the Establishment line on the usual Litmus Test issues such as the birdemic-peck, climate emergency, antiracism or the latest and nastiest development of the sexual revolution.
For example, what was once my favourite leisure activity of watching cricket on TV has become bait for in-your-face ideological propaganda - such that I watch it less, and when I do with the sound turned-off and recorded - so that I can skip the lectures, 'woke' advertisements, and orchestrated and scripted displays of virtue signaling from players and commenters.
Any limited enjoyableness allowed and on offer in the mainstream media is apparently intended mainly to get us to lower our guards and open our minds to the poison.
Thus the double whammy suicide of Western culture. On the one hand, the dominant atheist, materialist Satanic West is actively destroying itself in line with the demonic strategy; and on the other hand, the West has become a thing that abundantly needs and deserves to die - from a Christian perspective - as an agent of evil.
Still, there remain yet some-things to enjoy, appreciate and be learned from our dwindling culture - but only if the doses are taken with due care and attention. It is asking for trouble to let down our guards.
These days, in a more interpersonal context, goodness gets seen as a weakness.
ReplyDelete"...spiritual discernment o expose oneself..." Should instead read: "spiritual discernment to expose oneself". Hope this helps.
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ReplyDeleteAs someone who loved cricket in his youth, I just wanted to add that I too find the coverage now more or less unbearable. In particular, the virtue-signalling by Messrs. Atherton and Holding on Sky and in The Times. Endless and relentless. It is very nauseating to be lectured on morality by two multi-millionaire ex-sportsmen, especially when one learns Holding lives tax-free in the Camen Islands.
@:Karl - There is nothing to choose between the commenters in terms of their servility to evil; but I agree there is something especially galling about the likes of celebrity 'victims' such as Michael "Suffering? I'll show you suffering!" Holding.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Quinton de Koch (South Africa's best batsman and wicketkeeper) very bravely refused to 'take the knee' and was omitted from the South African side a few days ago - but has now been 'persuaded' to reconsider and has returned to the side full of groveling apologies.
Goodness knows with what They threatened him and his family - the SA authorities are not known for their subtlety. Now a broken man to be paraded as an example... An outcome uniformly celebrated by the professional cricket commenters/ demonic-mouthpieces no doubt.
But if cricket goes woke then goes broke (see today's post); and ceases (as it did for some months in 2020), They would be delighted to have destroyed a cause of human skill and enjoyment - so for Them it's win-win.
ReplyDeleteSadly, cricket with its endless T20 and IPL, is also degrading and going downhill.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Michael Vaughan had the guts to write an article defending de Kock in the Telegraph yesterday.
@K - I'm pleased to hear of someone defending QdK - but when the person you have defended almost immediately apologize, admit they did wrong, and vow never to do it again... well, it does rather cut the ground from under your feet.
ReplyDeleteThis has happened to me in the past; when I defended victims of politically correct witch hunts. You tell the world they were correct and brave - then they 'admit' they were not and grovel!
The difficulty is that most of the academics who got into this kind of trouble were themselves leftists - albeit of a different stripe.
Also, the victims tend to be dismayed if defended by a Christian (or anyone further to the right than themselves); and want nothing more than to be 'forgiven' (of course, they almost never are forgiven) and return to the comforting fold of leftism.