tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post1770517969911894883..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Clarification: it is not about good versus evil people - it is about which side you are onBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-52597947221143102502013-08-20T20:54:50.657+01:002013-08-20T20:54:50.657+01:00I believe what is stated in this article to basica...I believe what is stated in this article to basically be the most important question put to our free will. In a deterministic world, it may be difficult to pinpoint exactly where our will alters the course of events or where it is just one event in an inevitable sequence, brought about by circumstance / the will of the Lord. <br /><br />This question of sides, a question of where your internal compass points to, is the most potent manifestation of free will, in my opinion. It decides the course of your life from the most mundane matters to the most important decisions. This choice, at least, is unambiguously ours, and everyone gets to make it.Luqmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-45874735615987938332013-08-20T07:50:56.256+01:002013-08-20T07:50:56.256+01:00tgj said... "The culture war is vanishing smo...tgj said... "The culture war is vanishing smoke, like the world. What matters is whether an individual chooses to follow God or not. God is on everyone's side, but he will judge everyone according to the things that they individually do, no matter which side they think they are on."<br /><br />Not according to common sense or the Bible. God has his holy people, and he fights like a wild ox for his people. Others are not his holy people, and may be smitten with unnatural violence, as in the plagues inflicted on Egypt, where there is no suggestion of individual fault. If you're an Amalekite, God's holy law decrees your slaughter, whether you are man or maid, child or infant.<br /><br />It's about which side you're on. It always was.Titus Didius Tacitusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-48636921231354581282013-08-20T03:31:53.506+01:002013-08-20T03:31:53.506+01:00The advancing philosophy of life is that belief an...The advancing philosophy of life is that belief and intention creates reality. Magical thinking by children who are refusing to grow up.<br /><br />Google's motto is "Don't be evil." Invented by Google employees. Essentially meaningless. There is only one person who is really good. The rest of us are all more or less evil.<br /><br />Nike's motto, "Just do it," is an ad agency's slight reworking of the last words of a murderer, executed by firing squad at his own request. But he still has to face the good one, as we all do.<br /><br />The culture war is vanishing smoke, like the world. What matters is whether an individual chooses to follow God or not. God is on everyone's side, but he will judge everyone according to the things that they individually do, no matter which side they think they are on.<br /><br />Be evil. Just don't do it. But you will, so repent.tgjnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-83550722254724960932013-08-19T19:03:23.806+01:002013-08-19T19:03:23.806+01:00Luqman: "Can this be diluted into; there are ...Luqman: "Can this be diluted into; there are only good and evil acts?"<br /><br />We spend a lot of time in life waiting for opportunities, or semi-passively absorbing information with an (often unconscious) preference for that which would help us do some sorts of things but not others. Hunting is mostly watchful waiting.<br /><br />All the time, we have a side, or number of sides, depending on the context. This is the framework that leads to what we are waiting for and what we (perhaps unconsciously) intend to do about it, from where we stand and for whom (or against whom) we intend to act.Titus Didius Tacitusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41630175591668381692013-08-19T18:20:44.362+01:002013-08-19T18:20:44.362+01:00@CoOp - "(There are certainly some generous s...@CoOp - "(There are certainly some generous souls who try to stay in the middle, for the sake of the cause.) I have a visceral reaction to them, a gag reflex, such that I just want to avoid them."<br /><br />Same here. In some ways I'd like to be one of those generous souls, but that would be someone else - with a different calling altogether. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54298483212697135592013-08-19T17:44:58.694+01:002013-08-19T17:44:58.694+01:00As a confession, I have been tempted to try to acc...As a confession, I have been tempted to try to accommodate other rightists who are not Christians, in some kind of "alliance" to promote our interests and fight the regime.<br /><br />I am rescued from this temptation not by my strength of will or by great wisdom, but by the rude, obnoxious, and often vicious behavior of many of these people. (There are certainly some generous souls who try to stay in the middle, for the sake of the cause.) I have a visceral reaction to them, a gag reflex, such that I just want to avoid them.<br />The Continental Opnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70406190344786391842013-08-19T17:34:01.563+01:002013-08-19T17:34:01.563+01:00E.Michael Jones's "Degenerate Moderns&quo...E.Michael Jones's "Degenerate Moderns" describes the moderns as the kind of people who find that a standard of goodness (such as from God) clashes with their behavior. What to do? Reaffirm the standard and submit to it, and admit and deal with their own failures? A man on our side would do that. Or change/subvert the standard to conform to their behaviors? A man on the evil side would do that.<br /><br />Such people say, "good is evil, and evil is good."<br /> <br />That is evil, and woe to them.<br />The Continental Opnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-78169581568435089732013-08-19T15:54:39.157+01:002013-08-19T15:54:39.157+01:00@L - "Can this be diluted into; there are onl...@L - "Can this be diluted into; there are only good and evil acts?"<br /><br />I don't think so, because the goodness or evil of each 'act' depends on the context.<br /><br />I think it is easier to think in terms of sides - Acts on the side of God, and what God wants - versus acts against God, and against what God values. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-64630630500366345102013-08-19T14:28:37.194+01:002013-08-19T14:28:37.194+01:00Can this be diluted into; there are only good and ...Can this be diluted into; there are only good and evil acts?Luqmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-65279844322415026302013-08-19T14:20:16.474+01:002013-08-19T14:20:16.474+01:00When a felon's not engaged in his employment o...When a felon's not engaged in his employment or maturing his felonious little plans, his capacity for innocent enjoyment is just as great as any honest man's. When constabulary duty's to be done, a policeman's lot is not a happy one!Karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06030980000235824571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-19087077582626860662013-08-19T08:14:03.330+01:002013-08-19T08:14:03.330+01:00@ADA - Good versus nice - indeed.
A recent examp...@ADA - Good versus nice - indeed. <br /><br />A recent example I used before is Snape in Harry Potter who is on the side of good, but is not-nice. <br /><br />As for the nice people on the side of evil - there are many millions of examples - that is normal. For example the many nice women who work for the public sector bureaucracies and NGOs and charities that are on the front-line in the destructive war on good and coercive imposition of evil. <br /><br />But I wanted to clarify that in an ultimate sense there are no 'good people' but only the good side.<br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-71130879513233260882013-08-19T07:29:22.091+01:002013-08-19T07:29:22.091+01:001) As comic book fans have pointed out in discussi...1) As comic book fans have pointed out in discussions of Batman, "good" and "nice" are not the same things. In our Pathos-driven, democratized, mass-media society, these are (intentionally) conflated, so that the worst of sins is to be a big meanie. Thus the obsession with "racism" and "hate", and the general leftist obsession with intention over results. We can never allow ourselves to be so soft as to conflate goodness with niceness ourselves.<br /><br />2) Good will never win through democracy. The masses - especially the televised masses - too easily confuse goodness with niceness, or even worse, with pleasure. They either do not know the difference between or they willfully mistake the Kingdom of Heaven for Cockaigne. So they vote for Cockaigne - and as long as 51% of them do so, no one can stop them. This will not get better. As Plato noted twenty-five centuries ago, the forces of democracy pull ever towards more degeneracy and more bankruptcy. He also told us how that invariably ends.Anti-Democracy Activisthttp://antidem.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com