Thursday 3 November 2022

Metaphysical divergence - when conversations don't interact

This calendar year; I have become more aware of the increasing divergence of society between those who take the side of God and divine creation, and those who join the mainstream Establishment in opposition. 

What I find striking, is that the divergence is much deeper than a difference of opinion over whatever happen to be the Litmus Test Issues of the current news cycle. The litmus tests remain a highly valid quick check on a person's orientation; but they are the tip of a whole iceberg of difference.

There are two different icebergs, and only two; and these are being driven ever further apart.  


When one has a conversation, there is usually an attempt to keep the discussion light, neutral; which means avoiding subject matter that is likely to reveal the gulf in assumptions. 

But the System now encompasses everything in the generic social domain, which means that it is more and more difficult to avoid serious clashes of perspective. 

British people uses to chat about the weather - but the weather is now politicized down to the micro-level; with the evil nonsense of CO2 Climate Change an explicit, or heavily underlined implicit, factor lurking behind all weather reports, and interpersonal gossip. 

The only relatively safe areas are 'hobbies' - but, of course, these tend to be distinctive, minority activities. And, of course, hobbies are ever-more infiltrated with leftist concerns: officially; cricket is nowadays mostly about 'racism' and the birdemic. 

This is what totalitarianism does, by intent: sooner or later every-thing is drawn into The System, and The System is enforced as a mutually-supporting network of lies. 


What I find happens, is that almost every conversation - as it continues - leads me towards a creeping awareness that the other participant is living in a different and alien world - which has an utterly different scale of values; in which The Most Important and urgent things in their world are falsehoods and moral-inversions.

Whereas real threats and disasters - either incipient, already-happened, actually-happening or highly probable - are either completely left-out of consciousness; or swiftly explained away as not-really-important, or of concern only to fools and those of wicked intent.

There is a sense of danger i conversation, as well; in that there are so many potential 'triggers'

Whenever the conversation begins, even potentially, to approach one of these 'denial-zones', there is a triggering, an instantaneous shift - a sudden flash of suspicion, a hardening of the facial expression, a closing down of mental (and conversational) shutters. 

The sensation is that one has been tested - and found wanting - and excluded.


From my perspective, there is now a conviction of living in a world of aliens; of individuals who look like people, and superficially act like them; but whose consciousness is qualitatively different.  

Observing the conversations of others who dwell inside the alien bubble; there seems to be a determination to seek and maintain as pleasant-as-possible a diet of distractions  - to recycle and reinforce the necessary assumptions behind the mainstream of public discourse. 

This happens mainly by reducing all 'issues' to the inter-personal; and to assuming that the inter-personal is inevitably as-it-is. 

Thus all problems are, ultimately, regarded as a matter of 'personnel management'. Problems are to be managed, not solved. 


For me, there is no real contact with the majority who have made this choice - only rarely a few sparks and glimmers, that have little apparent significance. 

At some level I yearn to be able to get-behind the protective façade, to reveal and discuss those fundamentals that structure all the trivialities; but the task seems more hopeless, more counter-productive, the more one tries.

There is no way-in: they are pre-immunized against everything I might say to describe and advocate another way of thinking.


In a nutshell, I have no hope that I personally can affect such a situation by my conversation. 

In terms of material interaction; I can either make no difference, or I can (easily!) make things worse; but I can't make things better!  

The basis of my genuine hope is restricted to those I really love (not those who I am supposed to love, nor persons/ groups who I merely want to love); restricted to those I 'love already' as it were -- and these I believe I can help in the invisible and immaterial realm of the spirit - by means of the mutuality of real love. 


But mostly I have the conviction that - from where most people seem to be - people can only help themselves and cannot be helped by any external and material changes; self-helped beginning with taking ultimate responsibility each for his own mortal life on earth. 


13 comments:

William Wildblood said...

"there is now a conviction of living in a world of aliens; of individuals who look like people, and superficially act like them; but whose consciousness is qualitatively different. " I have felt this for some time but it is definitely becoming worse. Most people seem to be living in complete unreality because they have a comfortable lifestyle and can put off facing important questions but the more they do this the more they become absorbed by the creeping evil of spiritual dissolution. You have to actively choose the good now at every moment or you will be sucked into the evil. In the past this wasn't the case. You could be neutral to a degree. No longer.

Bruce Charlton said...

@William "it is definitely becoming worse"

Strange but true.

2 years ago people could talk about nothing but the birdemic, a year ago it was the peck - but now, for much of the time, it is almost as if it never happened.

To say people have learned nothing seems grossly inadequate to describe the situation.

Whatever the cause; people are spiritually badly-damaged, refused to acknowledge it, and insist on remaining that way. It is literally painful to observe.

Jacob Gittes said...

This is so timely.
I experienced it last evening, when a thrice jabbed friend invited me to hang out.
It was eerie.
No talk of anything that happened in the last year, but a strange evasiveness.
No talk of his worsening tinnitus and health with each jab.
I can't say it was enjoyable, though he obviously wanted to reach out. But the feeling that there are so many things one cannot mention is not very easy to enjoy.

The Anti-Gnostic said...

people are spiritually badly-damaged, refused to acknowledge it, and insist on remaining that way.

People like remaining comfy. They actually get incredibly angry when people or circumstances reveal that their comfiness hangs by a very fine thread. Lots of ideological conservatives' heads exploded with the election of Trump; he's an Apocalyptic harbinger (i.e., revealing). He exposed a very harsh reality that comfy conservatives want to ignore: politics are not ideological, they are territorial. Immigration really is a Great Replacement; the medical bureaucrats really are stupid and evil, not just mistaken.

Here in the US, you can identify people who got out of their comfort zone i.e. "swallowed the red pill": Naomi Wolf, Tulsi Gabbard, Lara Logan, J.D. Vance, Victor Davis Hanson, Michelle Malkin. Their former colleagues and even friends now denounce them in vicious terms for threatening their comfort zones. I'm sure you can relate some British examples.

ben said...

I wonder how many people are struggling (including spiritually) with injuries. It'll be interesting to see how many take the 4th, which they will if they're still evil-pursuing, evil-pursuit being the basic reason for taking it.

They surely know it's harmful from personal experience. In fact, this self-injury is a major motivator and the series of procedures is a series exactly so there can be a series of self-harm evil rituals. But on the other hand, this provides an opportunity for rejection and repentance.

Nicholas Fulford said...

"But mostly I have the conviction that - from where most people seem to be - people can only help themselves and cannot be helped by any external and material changes; self-helped beginning with taking ultimate responsibility each for his own mortal life on earth."

Being human is a challenge, and everyone has to figure their way through it as best they can.

Lots of disappointments, small and large betrayals, the occasional eureka moment, some experiences of extreme beauty and joy - made even better when shared with loved ones -, and the sadnesses also. It's a bit of a 'drunkard's walk', and absolutely worth the price of admission. I'll drink my life's bottle down to the vapours.

Bruce Charlton said...

@NF "I'll drink my life's bottle down to the vapours"

That sounds worryingly similar to clinging to life. On the other hand, if we can have faith in God and hope in the resurrected life to come - we can then live and learn-from this mortal life, and what it brings; and also be ready (and willing) to leave it when the time has come for the next phase.

Nathanael said...

Well said Bruce.

I share your conclusion that by trying to help I found myself making matters worse. like poking a wasps nest really.

I like to think this is also a valuable lesson for us. (who can see through these particular lies) it has been extremely humbling to experience the inability to actually have a mature conversation with close friends and family about true things.
To be mocked and falsely accused of intending this or that — being called a mad man and a murderer. It's shown me even more our reliance on God.

I see now the best thing to do is focus on our own walk with God, expose the nonsense and keep sharing the good (but uncomfortable to most) news.

Matias F. said...

Thank you Bruce for writing this, I have felt the same. Some fifteen years ago Istudied the matter and became convinced that democracy is evil. For some years I tried to present my arguments on this and other wrongthink (climate change, central banking, shroud of Turin etc.) to other people, but no effort (discussions, peer-reviewed articles, blogging) made any difference. Nobody was convinced and I was mocked.
For ten years I have mostly hidden my convictions, otherwise it would have been impossible to have a career as a lawyer. But now I find it almost impossible to discuss anything of relevance without touching a topic on which there is such a chasm between different sides that the other would appear crazy to the other.
At least this has made it easier to speak truth. There are now so many lies in the official discourse that it is impossible to keep up if you do it just for the sake of appearance.

Bardsey said...

Over the past 2-3 months I've lightly referenced subject matter to close loved ones who have embraced the evils. My husband and I freely discuss all these issues, and I think it's important to not take the "He Who Shall Not Be Named" approach to affairs.

One female recoiled at the mere naming of "Trump," shivered. She was once an exceptionally bright woman willing to be eccentric, who took a loving interest in her neighbors despite the vast difference in their aesthetic sensibilities. She has retreated, content with PBS Newshour and NPR for companionship.

Another female made a joke about Trump voters being poor and eating only fast food, and when met with polite refusal to embrace such classism hardened immediately, eyes glazed over, detached for the rest of the meal.

Another female (mostly females!) hardened so frighteningly, her voice so contemptuous, at the mere idea Dr. Fauci was not a saint and his critics evil fascists that I was taken aback and worried about her.

A male who bragged about slamming doors when a co-worker criticized his favorite liberal Supreme Court justice. I may as well not have even been there, so engrossed was he in re-enacting the situation.

All of these people exhibited similar behaviors: hardened eyes, recoiling, flinching, hard voice, oozing contempt, eliciting a sensation of coldness.

Walked down many strange paths in life, but the uniformity of these reactions from people I once knew to be able to reach out to others and talk - it seems demonic.

All jabbed and boosted of course.

Bruce Charlton said...

@B - Very interesting.

I'm not sure whether people on the side of God are getting better or just holding-ground; but those who have committed to the adversary are certainly getting worse - hence the divergence.

DH said...

Can you please elaborate on the shroud of Turin?

Bruce Charlton said...

@DH - Sorry, I don't have anything to say about it. It's not important to me.