tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4820416948429210112..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: When politicians and other leaders do evil Deliberately - How come people cannot even Comprehend it?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-58865355306038909872023-05-17T03:34:59.750+01:002023-05-17T03:34:59.750+01:00Being spiritually ready to die shouldn’t be too ha...Being spiritually ready to die shouldn’t be too hard, everyone is going to die some day. After that, it is up to us how we spend that time as free men and women or as slaves to lesser men (or demons).Jeffrey Cantrellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-65665275595873952082023-05-17T02:32:05.672+01:002023-05-17T02:32:05.672+01:00Highlighting the key phrase: 'because the buil...Highlighting the key phrase: 'because the built-in assumption is that all 'evil' just-is a kind of short-termist self-interest.'<br /><br />This ties into so many statements deflecting/ downplaying/ even siding with things occurring.<br />These are almost always acccompanied by softening words and phrases such as 'its just for profit' and 'it's only corporate strategy'. Of course it gets worse when it gets accompanied by phrases like 'thats how the economy/ capitalism works'. I dont really know what to do about it. The frames of reference lacking, that need to be built up from the ground almost to have an actual discussion about these topics are overwhelming, and no one has the attention span for it anymore apparently.leahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10461971772111225449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-20364224371410992042023-05-16T19:28:28.366+01:002023-05-16T19:28:28.366+01:00@AG " kill or be killed." It is probably...@AG " kill or be killed." It is probably worse than that! In that it will likely become a situation in which *vast* numbers will "be killed" (as a consequence of things already done and being done now) whether or not they themselves "kill". <br /><br />Being spiritually ready to die, is the main kind of 'prepping' that *everyone* needs to do.<br /><br />@JC - Yes. <br /><br />@MF - The mainstream media is now *wholly*-controlled (at least, in the UK) so there is no substantive discussion of anything important. Massive news events are simply blocked - or else so grossly misreported as to reverse their meaning. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-6841365518283925902023-05-16T19:20:17.807+01:002023-05-16T19:20:17.807+01:00Admitting that such a depraved level of evil exist...Admitting that such a depraved level of evil exists takes a lot of people out of their comfort zones. It means you're not voting or debating your way out of the mess. Indeed, you may literally have to kill or be killed.<br /><br />It's the same reason people on subways sit in paralyzed shock (i.e., normalcy bias) as a schizophrenic grabs a woman by the hair and makes her sit beside him. (You can look up the video on the New York Post website). When the thin veneer of civilization starts peeling away it's a systemic shock that lots of people will put mental blocks around rather than facing a horrible reality.The Anti-Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04386593803225823789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-57107441375005376852023-05-16T19:01:07.511+01:002023-05-16T19:01:07.511+01:00Excellent post and discussion. I am at the point w...Excellent post and discussion. I am at the point where I rarely engage in debates with others because they simply cannot understand the fundamental principles. It is like trying to debate how to build a radio with a primitive who, having never been taught about electricity, does not admit to the necessity of having to have a rubber insulation over the wires to keep them from shorting. What did Heinlein say? "Never Attempt To Teach a Pig To Sing; It Wastes Your Time and Annoys the Pig."Jeffrey Cantrellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70306411404037568772023-05-16T18:37:45.514+01:002023-05-16T18:37:45.514+01:00My impression is that after the financial crisis o...My impression is that after the financial crisis of 2008 there was a lot more discussion about the problems of Western societies (eg. Thilo Sarrazin) and a reasonably informed person could have almost via mainstream media come to the conclusion that the system is broken and we can't continue. The fact that the system continued should have made people realise that someone wants to bring us to the abyss and over the cliff.<br /><br />Those that analysed the problems have had the tendency to concentrate only on one topic so the overall situation has escaped them. I used to think this would change when people experience hardship but after these last years of litmus test issues. You are right that it is impossible to perceive something which has been deemed not to exist.Matias F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12018666354109074544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-62576394884052027022023-05-16T16:50:58.650+01:002023-05-16T16:50:58.650+01:00Mia - Very interesting comment. Mia - Very interesting comment. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-8003909509328529202023-05-16T15:29:05.827+01:002023-05-16T15:29:05.827+01:00Having had "the conversation" many times...Having had "the conversation" many times with "follow the money" types, it feels very similar to conversations about every political issue my whole life.<br /><br />There's clearly a piece that goes like this:<br />"Look at this brilliant argument against Litmus Test issue! It proves how measure A won't actually work to solve problem B!"<br />"What makes you think your opponent *wants* to solve problem B?"<br />>confusion and silence but clearly the actual answer is "Because that is all *I* care about, I only care about material non-suffering in this world." I see this with a lot of false Christians who value God's forgiveness to relieve their guilt and suffering in *this* world.<br /><br />Comes to mind also the "How to Win Friends and Influence People" attitude of never calling out evil actions because "it's a non-starter in persuasion." What are you aiming to persuade them to do? Seek life ever-lasting? No, inevitably you seek a short-term, materialist goal.<br /><br />Then there is the curious subset of atheist materialists I used to run with who had no problem calling out evil in a general sense, but who gave themselves countless excuses to either reclassify evil as good or to cave to it when opposition created material inconvenience (not even hardship, simply minor inconvenience!). And nearly everyone from that circle who did not ultimately cave is now a Christian and explicitly through revelation not that God is real but that the Devil is (and so you'd better hope there is a God and ally yourself with Him or we have no chance).<br /><br />The survivors from this group all put their hope in a "great bifurcation" of humanity, with Heaven/Hell serving that purpose for Christians and colonizing space or mass death or personal isolation serving for the stubborn atheists. At that point, the struggle I see is how does one lovingly want that? How can a loving God create Hell and a loving person accept anyone going there? And only the Christian bifurcation is based in love as primary, so if you reject that then you either opt for material bifurcation based in resentment or embrace false universal love that consciously chooses to love evil.<br /><br />The Original Sin concept, which I know you reject on grounds I concur with, used to mostly block all of these paths since it was so widely understood that we all "drift" toward evil due to our very nature, so the idea of freeing yourself from sin by denying the existence of sin was a non-starter. But it's all lost now. Many times as a young atheist I resented the Genesis account of the Fall, and since converting I've had a conversation with an atheist teen exactly like myself and it's like an inverse Mandela Effect- everyone believes Adam and Eve were tricked when *God told them to eat the fruit was to bring death upon themselves.* "No one would choose death!" Wrong, everyone chooses death. You can change your mind and choose life, but not if you deny the first choice. But now we live in a false world and "I had no choice!" is the most common refrain on any moral issue.<br /><br />Now interestingly as you point out it's now true, you don't have a choice anymore about materially supporting evil, and I think that is God's solution here. It's like "OK, fine, you didn't have a choice. Choose *now*." So we'll see!Mianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-66523250702394571872023-05-16T14:11:55.335+01:002023-05-16T14:11:55.335+01:00@William. I don't hold out much hope for peopl...@William. I don't hold out much hope for people identifying the real 'upstream' causes of problems that afflict them; especially when they apparently do not even recognize the *possibility* that bad outcomes now have been deliberately planned and built-in over many years. <br /><br />Such a failure to identify causes is probably necessary for suffering to lead to self-damnation rather than to turn to God for help, as often happened in the past. <br /><br />My best guess is that people will blame other people's (other groups) selfishness for their own sufferings, against whom they will develop resentment and hatred; and such sins will not be repented = damnation. Yet often these 'other people' (just as we ourselves) are being used as pawns in a demonic game. <br /><br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-51991085970000139862023-05-16T10:19:48.268+01:002023-05-16T10:19:48.268+01:00People don't recognise this because they haven...People don't recognise this because they haven't yet been personally affected though with inflation and interest rates going up, increased energy prices etc, they soon may. As long as we are comfortable and things appear to be continuing in the way they normally do most people will remain asleep. But when hardship really strikes it may be different though I have to say the majority of the populace are so unaware that even then they may be bought off with excuses as to how it is really someone else's fault or some unseen and unavoidable external factor.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.com