Author: Commenter Serhei; aka Arakawa
Bruce Charlton has often lamented how modern people seem to have 'lost' the ability to act as 'Christian slaves' i.e. to acquiesce in some policy (because 'forced') while repenting it inwardly. Physical-acquiescence is almost-always paired with subsequent utter spiritual submission.
A tongue-in-cheek thought came to me that we may be getting the causation entirely-backwards.
Supposing that consciousness has evolved to the extent that people are more-able to choose their state of being and unrelentingly translate their Desires into Reality... it would follow that nowadays a Christian-slave who genuinely does not wish to be a slave, who genuinely-Desires to be free... will almost-always find a way to act on that desire and smash his chains with the cooperation of other Beings that share his desire for freedom. This is unlike past eras where a Christian-slave may be stuck in this suboptimal state for a much longer time. Now, attaining freedom may not be a pleasant process -- but by undergoing moderate or intense hardship the Christian-slave proves that his desire is stronger than mere 'incentives'.
Those who are left-behind in chains are increasingly, not always, but ever-more, those who chose and continue to choose their chains, which makes it seem like physical- and spiritual-submission beget one another.
This seems, in some ways, like a cruel doctrine ("you are only oppressed because you chose to be").
In other ways, it seems like a sign of increased responsibility and power of choice in the modern era. Any coercive-tactic that meets with spiritual-rejection will fail, which is why the recent persecutions are remarkable for their 'voluntary' character, why there is so much emphasis on demanding gestures of obedience, apology, etc., and so much hatred when those gestures are not offered. Why the System feels so much more need for mind-control, and puts more emphasis on totalitarian (we dictate what you may think) rather than authoritarian (we dictate what you may do) ideologies. It is increasingly not possible to enforce measures on people who do not agree to them. Which is why the birdemic measures reversed so rapidly and every authority went looking for a new, not-yet-worn-out fear for people to enslave themselves to.
Perhaps that’s a reason why things have not yet collapsed to-the-extent that they 'ought' to? Plenty of people want to drown-in-destruction, but not enough; the public is still being sold on the idea. It occurs to me that even things like "weather-pattern-change" are sold primarily on the paradoxical idea that people ought to simultaneously hate and consciously wish-for and desire a "weather-pattern-catastrophe" to manifest itself to, I don't know, spite the hypocrisy of civilization or something...
Rather than judging how this may apply to others:
Makes me wonder what other forms of Ahrimanic obeisance I have been acquiescing to, am still acquiescing to, where there is no real consequence to defiance, where I could just stop...
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Note from Bruce G Charlton:
The above post strikes me as a very important and exciting insight - which is why I asked Serhei if I could publish it as a guest essay.
If you didn't catch the full impact at first shot; I recommend re-reading and pondering its implications.
