A true tale of idealism and courage from occupied France under National Socialism - penned by the redoubtable John Fitzgerald:
http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/houses-of-holy.html
Saturday, 19 November 2016
Why does the mainstream modern culture indoctrinate us with materialism, denial of life beyond death and utilitarianism? To *control* us, of course!
1. Materialism.
Because if the material (five sense) reality is 'everything' - the only acknowledged reality; then if they control the material realm (which they potentially can do); then they control us - wholly.
(By contrast, when people acknowledge a non-material realm of reality as real and vital - then no absolute control of the population is possible.)
2. Only Mortality.
When our mortal life is the only recognised life - and when people believe that nothing of our soul survives death; then one who controls our mortal life thereby controls our entire possible reality, inescapably.
(By contrast, when a person knows that something of them survives bodily death, then he always has hope of escape from any earthly mortal situation - such hope makes Men harder to control, therefore it is better for them that Men despair.)
3. Utilitarianism.
Modern mainstream morality is utilitarian - that is, it aspires to provide the greatest level of gratification (maximum pleasure, minimum pain) for the greatest number or proportion of people.
(Or, more recently - since political correctness, the greatest gratification for the people who most greatly deserve it.)
Gratification concerns emotions, and emotions are, in principle, controllable; by controlling perceptual inputs.
For utilitarianism: Those who control emotions control morality. And can have their concept of The Good open-endedly re-directed, even to the point of inversion.
(By controlling perceptual inputs; e.g. getting everyone hooked on the mass media, by training them to ignore or deny the evidence of their senses and common sense, and putatively by modifying human perceptions via technology. And by manipulating psychological responses; e.g. with training, with drugs, or genetic engineering, and putatively with 'micro-chipping'.)
(By contrast, one who regards morality as objective and God-given, cannot have their morality grossly re-shaped or reversed.)
*
On the plus side; the above analysis implies that someone who recognises the spiritual realm, who has faith in life beyond biological death and who regards The Good as an aspect of God's creation can never wholly be controlled by any earthly power.
Because if the material (five sense) reality is 'everything' - the only acknowledged reality; then if they control the material realm (which they potentially can do); then they control us - wholly.
(By contrast, when people acknowledge a non-material realm of reality as real and vital - then no absolute control of the population is possible.)
2. Only Mortality.
When our mortal life is the only recognised life - and when people believe that nothing of our soul survives death; then one who controls our mortal life thereby controls our entire possible reality, inescapably.
(By contrast, when a person knows that something of them survives bodily death, then he always has hope of escape from any earthly mortal situation - such hope makes Men harder to control, therefore it is better for them that Men despair.)
3. Utilitarianism.
Modern mainstream morality is utilitarian - that is, it aspires to provide the greatest level of gratification (maximum pleasure, minimum pain) for the greatest number or proportion of people.
(Or, more recently - since political correctness, the greatest gratification for the people who most greatly deserve it.)
Gratification concerns emotions, and emotions are, in principle, controllable; by controlling perceptual inputs.
For utilitarianism: Those who control emotions control morality. And can have their concept of The Good open-endedly re-directed, even to the point of inversion.
(By controlling perceptual inputs; e.g. getting everyone hooked on the mass media, by training them to ignore or deny the evidence of their senses and common sense, and putatively by modifying human perceptions via technology. And by manipulating psychological responses; e.g. with training, with drugs, or genetic engineering, and putatively with 'micro-chipping'.)
(By contrast, one who regards morality as objective and God-given, cannot have their morality grossly re-shaped or reversed.)
*
On the plus side; the above analysis implies that someone who recognises the spiritual realm, who has faith in life beyond biological death and who regards The Good as an aspect of God's creation can never wholly be controlled by any earthly power.
Friday, 18 November 2016
"We're not worthy!" - is that really how our Heavenly father wants us to regard him?
Above clip is from Wayne's World (1992) - one of my favourite ever comedies - and the follow-up is equally good.
There is often, even perhaps usually, an emphasis on encouraging a belief in the 'unworthiness' of Men in most Christian churches...
Well, in the ultimate analysis, this is not only false, but an offensive attitude for Men to attribute to God, our creator; because for God Himself, His beloved children certainly are worthy!
Even normally-good parents would not want for their own children to regard themselves as 'unworthy' of parental love and care. That would be a monstrous thing for a parent to believe!
As William Arkle wrote:
Once upon a time there was a wonderful God sitting on his throne amidst a great light who's expression was of magnificent beauty, glory and power.
Around the throne were countless people enjoying his presence and worshipping him with songs and praise. But one of that number noticed that every now and again God gave him a wink.
At first he thought it must be an illusion but it happened again and again.
Finally, one day the crowd moved and drifted about in such a way that he came very close to God. Then again he saw the wink and the look straight at him, just him amongst all those others, and he heard a whisper: Hey, come round the back after that last show, if you can spare the time.
Well of course he did go. So after the last performance that night, round the back there was this God waiting.
Hallo, God said, come up here to my little hill overlooking the sea, I would like you to come and sit with me on my lawn and Daisy patch. We can have a cup of tea together and a pipe and look at the view.I love to take my costume off at the end of the day and relax.
Although I have all that worship and praise, there are times when I like to get away from it all and be quiet. I like to come here and look at the sea on a lovely day, with the mountains beyond and the feeling of this little garden up here on the hill. For although I have so many beautiful children to look after and enjoy, and although they say such nice things about me and serve me in every sort of way... I get so lonely...
You see, I don't have many friends. No one recognises me after the show when my make-up is off.
I have to be like you saw me, for they all expect it of me; but I am more delighted than you can imagine that you have come here with me so that we can sit together and I can show you this small garden and the view from my heart.
http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-final-words-of-geography-of.html
Christmas feelings from Steeleye Span
This electric folk version of a Robin Hood ballad is something which I always find very cheerful and Christmassy - reminding me in particular of Christmas 1975, just after Steeleye Span released the All Around My Hat (from which this comes) - a time when I was deeply 'into' electric folk music amd avidly learning the accordion - which I played in a duo with my then best friend Gareth Jones (yes, he was Welsh); who could sing well, act out a song, and play electric bass or flute with remarkable verve and facility.
Altogether a period of creativity and anticipation; and one I am pleased to be reminded-of.
It is a good first example of electric folk to play to your young children to get them keen on traditional music. It worked for me! Maybe they could be shown this version?
What should we do to defeat the Leftist Establishment? Unask the question.
The question is the bread and butter of online anti-Left discourse, and the theme of a million conversations and hundreds of books - what should we do to defeat the Left?... But the question is wrongly-framed, and can lead only to false, counter-productive answers.
What should 'we' do, what should we 'do', to 'defeat'... these words reveal a false world view underpinning the debate; they reveal - indeed - unresolved Leftism in those who purport to oppose the Left.
When the modern condition is understood; it is also understood that there is no 'we' in the same sense as there really is a 'them' - the asymmetry is the whole point at issue. The asymmetry is that the Left is doing one thing - which is strategically working for destruction of Good in all its manifestations - while the opponents of the Left are doing many things, according to their concept of The Good.
The Left is anti-Religion; but the anti-Left is - can only be - pro-Religion; however, there are many religions.
So while there is truly a 'them', an Establishment and those who serve them; there is no 'us'.
And because there is no 'us' then we cannot 'do' anything; and we cannot 'defeat' the Left.
Is this bad news, is it a counsel of despair? Well, not if you really are anti-Left; because then you will perceive the situation spiritually not politically; and you will regard the Left as a spiritual movement that is aiming at spiritual corruption then inversion.
(i.e. The Left is ultimately about damnation, not about politics, economics, psychology etc - all those are just a front.)
The very reason that we must reject the Left or face damnation and extinction is that by now the Left has very fully succeeded in its aims. The Leftist perspective is very pervasive among Western populations and it dominates all the major social institutions wherethey work, which regulate them, from where they get the continual information and entertainment infusions to which they are utterly addicted: in thrall.
In other words, The West really is spiritually rotten; we really are very corrupted and our value system is to an unprecedented extent inverted. This is a fact of here, and now.
Therefore - as things stand - there is not 'us' and 'them': we are almost-all 'them' to a greater or lesser extent; which means that 'we' cannot - and I mean cannot, not merely that it is difficult - make any kind of quasi-political alliance to defeat 'them'; again because there is no 'we'.
From where we are here-and-now, with the populations we actually have; any group assembled with the intention of opposing Leftism is itself going to be substantially Leftist - and fighting for aspects of what were historically aspects of Leftism.
(This seems very obvious to me! Nationalism, pro-racism, prosperity, liberty, constitutionalism and rule of law... these are Old Left ideas, that Old Left which was powerless to resist New Left takeover.)
The implication is clear - which is that no constructive change is possible until after there is an 'us', as well as a 'them'. We first need to undo the corruption of spirit which pervades almost everybody in The West. We need to make an 'us'.
We don't need to undo Leftism in everyone all at once (which is anyway impossible) - but there does need to be a start made; there needs to be a substantial number and proportion of people, a cohesive group, who actually have repented and reformed themselves sufficiently; who have identified their own key errors and sins, and repented them; there needs to be a group of (more or less) spiritually enlightened people.
At present, the situation is that There Just Isn't. There is nothing remotely approaching a group of anti-Left people who are themselves sufficiently free from the Leftist taint to do anything to 'defeat' Leftism: there just isn't!
This is why I keep banging-on about the absolute necessity for Spiritual Awakening - and that this must come first. I must come first because if it does not come, then we will just be having Left-versus-Left office politics, and Establishment infighting - jostling for power to impose various rival brands of Leftism.
Which is exactly (and only) what we so far have post-Brexit, post-Trump - indeed, how could it be otherwise?
If we want anything more and different, then we must turn to the spiritual side as a basis for it. And there is no arguing with must!
What should 'we' do, what should we 'do', to 'defeat'... these words reveal a false world view underpinning the debate; they reveal - indeed - unresolved Leftism in those who purport to oppose the Left.
When the modern condition is understood; it is also understood that there is no 'we' in the same sense as there really is a 'them' - the asymmetry is the whole point at issue. The asymmetry is that the Left is doing one thing - which is strategically working for destruction of Good in all its manifestations - while the opponents of the Left are doing many things, according to their concept of The Good.
The Left is anti-Religion; but the anti-Left is - can only be - pro-Religion; however, there are many religions.
So while there is truly a 'them', an Establishment and those who serve them; there is no 'us'.
And because there is no 'us' then we cannot 'do' anything; and we cannot 'defeat' the Left.
Is this bad news, is it a counsel of despair? Well, not if you really are anti-Left; because then you will perceive the situation spiritually not politically; and you will regard the Left as a spiritual movement that is aiming at spiritual corruption then inversion.
(i.e. The Left is ultimately about damnation, not about politics, economics, psychology etc - all those are just a front.)
The very reason that we must reject the Left or face damnation and extinction is that by now the Left has very fully succeeded in its aims. The Leftist perspective is very pervasive among Western populations and it dominates all the major social institutions wherethey work, which regulate them, from where they get the continual information and entertainment infusions to which they are utterly addicted: in thrall.
In other words, The West really is spiritually rotten; we really are very corrupted and our value system is to an unprecedented extent inverted. This is a fact of here, and now.
Therefore - as things stand - there is not 'us' and 'them': we are almost-all 'them' to a greater or lesser extent; which means that 'we' cannot - and I mean cannot, not merely that it is difficult - make any kind of quasi-political alliance to defeat 'them'; again because there is no 'we'.
From where we are here-and-now, with the populations we actually have; any group assembled with the intention of opposing Leftism is itself going to be substantially Leftist - and fighting for aspects of what were historically aspects of Leftism.
(This seems very obvious to me! Nationalism, pro-racism, prosperity, liberty, constitutionalism and rule of law... these are Old Left ideas, that Old Left which was powerless to resist New Left takeover.)
The implication is clear - which is that no constructive change is possible until after there is an 'us', as well as a 'them'. We first need to undo the corruption of spirit which pervades almost everybody in The West. We need to make an 'us'.
We don't need to undo Leftism in everyone all at once (which is anyway impossible) - but there does need to be a start made; there needs to be a substantial number and proportion of people, a cohesive group, who actually have repented and reformed themselves sufficiently; who have identified their own key errors and sins, and repented them; there needs to be a group of (more or less) spiritually enlightened people.
At present, the situation is that There Just Isn't. There is nothing remotely approaching a group of anti-Left people who are themselves sufficiently free from the Leftist taint to do anything to 'defeat' Leftism: there just isn't!
This is why I keep banging-on about the absolute necessity for Spiritual Awakening - and that this must come first. I must come first because if it does not come, then we will just be having Left-versus-Left office politics, and Establishment infighting - jostling for power to impose various rival brands of Leftism.
Which is exactly (and only) what we so far have post-Brexit, post-Trump - indeed, how could it be otherwise?
If we want anything more and different, then we must turn to the spiritual side as a basis for it. And there is no arguing with must!
Thursday, 17 November 2016
Establishment engineered and funded hate-mongering post-Brexit, post-Trump - this is spiritual warfare, not politics
The US seems to be getting a dose of that post-election Establishment engineered and funded hate-mongering which was also - but less successfully - tried in the UK after Brexit.
In other words the mainstream Leftist institutions of the state (politics, civil administration, police, law and the charities and NGOs) collude with the mass media to cause, organise, pay-for, misreport, mislabel, amplify and encourage civil disorder under the pretense it is a spontaneous popular uprising against what was actually a spontaneous popular expression of popular will.
Hatred among the defeated Establishment and their supporters and clients is being stoked-up and rationalised and excused; and the victims of this hatred are... well, the mass of ordinary people.
How should this be interpreted?
Well, my warning is that the 'political' level of understanding about this matter is mistaken and counter-productive.
The mainstream and secular Right seem to interpret this strategic mass hate-mongering as a political 'push-back' designed to reverse (or neutralise) Brexit/ the Trump Presidency.
But it isn't. It is much worse.
This is the attempt to provoke mutual hatred, fear, and resentment for its own sake, to poison the motivations of everybody; not to achieve some political end. The Establishment want a permanent state-of-hate in The West - regardless of the political consequences.
They want the Leftists, the politically correct, the social justice warriors, and their pandered victim groups (feminists, sexual revolutionaries, antiracists etc) to be in a constant state of hatred towards the ordinary people - and they want this feeling to be mutual.
The point is that for the global conspiracy; hatred is the goal - and they don't want either side to win!
They want to create in The West the same kind of situation they have so successfully created and perpetuated in The Middle East - that is a constant state of negative spiritual warfare, without resolution, with no winners but only losers and everyone a loser.
We need to get a better measure of the scale of evil we are up against - this is not politics-as-usual; this is demonic strategy with the gloves-off.
In other words the mainstream Leftist institutions of the state (politics, civil administration, police, law and the charities and NGOs) collude with the mass media to cause, organise, pay-for, misreport, mislabel, amplify and encourage civil disorder under the pretense it is a spontaneous popular uprising against what was actually a spontaneous popular expression of popular will.
Hatred among the defeated Establishment and their supporters and clients is being stoked-up and rationalised and excused; and the victims of this hatred are... well, the mass of ordinary people.
How should this be interpreted?
Well, my warning is that the 'political' level of understanding about this matter is mistaken and counter-productive.
The mainstream and secular Right seem to interpret this strategic mass hate-mongering as a political 'push-back' designed to reverse (or neutralise) Brexit/ the Trump Presidency.
But it isn't. It is much worse.
This is the attempt to provoke mutual hatred, fear, and resentment for its own sake, to poison the motivations of everybody; not to achieve some political end. The Establishment want a permanent state-of-hate in The West - regardless of the political consequences.
They want the Leftists, the politically correct, the social justice warriors, and their pandered victim groups (feminists, sexual revolutionaries, antiracists etc) to be in a constant state of hatred towards the ordinary people - and they want this feeling to be mutual.
The point is that for the global conspiracy; hatred is the goal - and they don't want either side to win!
They want to create in The West the same kind of situation they have so successfully created and perpetuated in The Middle East - that is a constant state of negative spiritual warfare, without resolution, with no winners but only losers and everyone a loser.
We need to get a better measure of the scale of evil we are up against - this is not politics-as-usual; this is demonic strategy with the gloves-off.
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Our attitude to The World ought to be be like our attitude to the people we love; assuming that we want to know our destiny and live well
I have summarised some of the most important teachings of William Arkle; derived from his most densely wise, and difficult, book: A Geography of Consciousness (1974):
http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/discovering-our-personal-destiny.html
http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/discovering-our-personal-destiny.html
Original Participation - the spiritual life of hunter gatherer Man (and ourselves as young chidlren)
Over the past couple of years I have fully engaged with the writings of Owen Barfield, and incorporated some of his key ideas and perspectives into my thinking; one of these is dividing human consciousness into three phases: Original Participation, the Consciousness Soul and Final Participation.
This sequence is primarily concerned with human society, or civilisation through hunter gatherer, agrarian and industrial phases and pointing at the destined future - but also corresponds to the development of Man from birth to mature adulthood.
Thus the consciousness of Original Participation can be seen both in the 'childhood of Man' (the earliest, simplest and most spontaneous society: the hunter gatherer life), and also in each Man's childhood.
*
I became extremely engaged with understanding the hunter gatherer mind some twenty years ago - by immersion in all sorts of books on the subject; both by leading twentieth century academics (mostly anthropologists) who lived among such people (or among those who had recently been hunter gatherers) and also by looking at some examples of 'first contact' literature from previous centuries when a variety of people - e.g. explorers, missionaries - described their encounters with hunter gatherers.
My interest was then focused on spontaneous animism; or the way in which hunter gatherers - and young children - interpreted the world 'anthopomorphically', or socially; in terms of being a collection of person-like agents. So large animals (such as the bear) or environmental objects both living (such as a tree) and 'non-living' (such as a mountain) would be understood as persons, each with a character, motivations, desires and intentions.
Thus, for the hunter gatherer the whole world was social; a web of relationships. And if we can remember and introspect about our own early childhoods, we can perceive that it was the same situation for each of us; we used to see the world as social, as full of living and conscious entities.
(This may also re-emerge in altered states of cosnciousness - such as the 'paranoid' delusions of self-reference in psychotic illnesses, or in some types of brain pathology, or some types of drug intoxication. The social perspective seems to be something of a default.)
*
The perspective of Barfield brings a further aspect to this subject; which is to notice that for the hunter gatherer the Self was much less developed and distinct than it is for us (living at an advanced stage of the Consciousness Soul); the individual hunter-gatherer is not, therefore, very aware of himself as an individual - does not perceive a line of demarcation separating himself and 'the world' (when 'the world' includes both the society of other people, and the society of significant entities in the environment - bear, tree, mountain etc.).
The hunter gatherer participates in the world because he perceives no separation between himself and the world; and much the same applies to young children even nowadays. But as civilisation developed, grew, became specialised... each Man separated from the world, and perceived life as himself one one side of a line, and everything else on the other side - losing the sense of participating in the world, and feeling more-and-more like a detached observer.
Indeed, matters have reached such a point, that we even feel detached from our own thoughts - that is, the thought in our minds are not regarded as the same thing as our-selves.
The disadvantages of the modern condition are obvious enough - alienation from life, and despair. But the advantages were also perceived by Barfield, drawing from the early work of his master Rudolf Steiner. The key word is freedom. By separating our perceived self from the world, the self becomes free.
The hunter gatherer is hardly free, because he hardly feels himself separate from the flow of the human and other environment in which he lives; and much the same applies to the young child. Modern Man in the Consciousness Soul phase is, by contrast, in a position in which he may becomes free, may be able to stand apart from the influences on his life; and consciously, deliberately, in full self-awareness exercise his divine creativity as a source of original thought, and potentially other actions as well as thought (although Steiner clearly described that it was in Thinking that Man primarily was free).
The equivalent phase to the Consciousness Soul for the developing Man is adolescence; when a man becomes conscious of himself (self-conscious) apart from other people - and this becomes 'a problem'.
As for growing-up into Final Participation; Barfield (and Steiner) would say that this seldom happens in the way that it should - it happens to few people (and only partly and intermittently) and has not yet happened to any human society. Final Participation would be a state of consciousness which retains the autonomy and freedom of The Self (which emerged during the consciousness soul) but returns to a felt-participation-in The World; but a participation of a new type.
*
The way I envisage Final Participation is that we participate in The World through loving relationships; in the sense that only an autonomous self, distinct from other selves, can love. And this means that in order to participate we must (again) recognise the world as wholly alive and conscious - just as was the case when we were young children, or as did hunter gatherers.
So, we have much to learn from hunter gatherers, and from young children - but not so as we can go back to that form of consciousness, but so that we personally - and also our modern societies - can go forward to Final Participation in which we would have 'the best of both worlds': both and simultaneously the felt-and-lived engagement with the world typical of hunter gatherers and children, and also the freedom and distinct individuality of the Consciousness Soul.
Final Participation, I would therefore regard as the destiny of each Man, and of Mankind as a whole - if we choose to accept it.
This sequence is primarily concerned with human society, or civilisation through hunter gatherer, agrarian and industrial phases and pointing at the destined future - but also corresponds to the development of Man from birth to mature adulthood.
Thus the consciousness of Original Participation can be seen both in the 'childhood of Man' (the earliest, simplest and most spontaneous society: the hunter gatherer life), and also in each Man's childhood.
*
I became extremely engaged with understanding the hunter gatherer mind some twenty years ago - by immersion in all sorts of books on the subject; both by leading twentieth century academics (mostly anthropologists) who lived among such people (or among those who had recently been hunter gatherers) and also by looking at some examples of 'first contact' literature from previous centuries when a variety of people - e.g. explorers, missionaries - described their encounters with hunter gatherers.
My interest was then focused on spontaneous animism; or the way in which hunter gatherers - and young children - interpreted the world 'anthopomorphically', or socially; in terms of being a collection of person-like agents. So large animals (such as the bear) or environmental objects both living (such as a tree) and 'non-living' (such as a mountain) would be understood as persons, each with a character, motivations, desires and intentions.
Thus, for the hunter gatherer the whole world was social; a web of relationships. And if we can remember and introspect about our own early childhoods, we can perceive that it was the same situation for each of us; we used to see the world as social, as full of living and conscious entities.
(This may also re-emerge in altered states of cosnciousness - such as the 'paranoid' delusions of self-reference in psychotic illnesses, or in some types of brain pathology, or some types of drug intoxication. The social perspective seems to be something of a default.)
*
The perspective of Barfield brings a further aspect to this subject; which is to notice that for the hunter gatherer the Self was much less developed and distinct than it is for us (living at an advanced stage of the Consciousness Soul); the individual hunter-gatherer is not, therefore, very aware of himself as an individual - does not perceive a line of demarcation separating himself and 'the world' (when 'the world' includes both the society of other people, and the society of significant entities in the environment - bear, tree, mountain etc.).
The hunter gatherer participates in the world because he perceives no separation between himself and the world; and much the same applies to young children even nowadays. But as civilisation developed, grew, became specialised... each Man separated from the world, and perceived life as himself one one side of a line, and everything else on the other side - losing the sense of participating in the world, and feeling more-and-more like a detached observer.
Indeed, matters have reached such a point, that we even feel detached from our own thoughts - that is, the thought in our minds are not regarded as the same thing as our-selves.
The disadvantages of the modern condition are obvious enough - alienation from life, and despair. But the advantages were also perceived by Barfield, drawing from the early work of his master Rudolf Steiner. The key word is freedom. By separating our perceived self from the world, the self becomes free.
The hunter gatherer is hardly free, because he hardly feels himself separate from the flow of the human and other environment in which he lives; and much the same applies to the young child. Modern Man in the Consciousness Soul phase is, by contrast, in a position in which he may becomes free, may be able to stand apart from the influences on his life; and consciously, deliberately, in full self-awareness exercise his divine creativity as a source of original thought, and potentially other actions as well as thought (although Steiner clearly described that it was in Thinking that Man primarily was free).
The equivalent phase to the Consciousness Soul for the developing Man is adolescence; when a man becomes conscious of himself (self-conscious) apart from other people - and this becomes 'a problem'.
As for growing-up into Final Participation; Barfield (and Steiner) would say that this seldom happens in the way that it should - it happens to few people (and only partly and intermittently) and has not yet happened to any human society. Final Participation would be a state of consciousness which retains the autonomy and freedom of The Self (which emerged during the consciousness soul) but returns to a felt-participation-in The World; but a participation of a new type.
*
The way I envisage Final Participation is that we participate in The World through loving relationships; in the sense that only an autonomous self, distinct from other selves, can love. And this means that in order to participate we must (again) recognise the world as wholly alive and conscious - just as was the case when we were young children, or as did hunter gatherers.
So, we have much to learn from hunter gatherers, and from young children - but not so as we can go back to that form of consciousness, but so that we personally - and also our modern societies - can go forward to Final Participation in which we would have 'the best of both worlds': both and simultaneously the felt-and-lived engagement with the world typical of hunter gatherers and children, and also the freedom and distinct individuality of the Consciousness Soul.
Final Participation, I would therefore regard as the destiny of each Man, and of Mankind as a whole - if we choose to accept it.
Tuesday, 15 November 2016
The lunar perigee
The real point about the lunar perigee (as about all phenomena) is consciousness and communication.
More at: http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-lunar-perigee.html
Signs of spiritual revival - what to look for
Of course there are negative signs - such as a withdrawal from the consumerism and materialism of modern life (reduced economic activity, failure of new fashions in clothes and goods, a retail slump, fewer Christmas cards and less expensive presents!).
But positive signs too: an obvious increase of appreciation of real beauty, including landscape, skies, traditional arts.
Simple labelling of deliberate ugliness and the subversion and marring of beauty as such.
A wave of truth-telling and insistence on honesty (refusal to sign, refusal to vote, refusal to participate in lying and misleading - done at the cost of personal disadvantage).
Most vitally repentance; by which I mean an explicit admission that 'I' was wrong, 'I personally' propagated falsehoods.
Use of the morality of transcendental motivation and aims in an eternal perspective (beyond death and human perception or memory).
Explicit rejection of a morality of comparative human behaviour.
Explicit rejection of the modern notion of hypocrisy i.e. failing to live up to ideals - as the ultimate sin; and instead an insistence in the correctness of ideals as the primary necessity for morality (because free speech, tolerance etc are all subordinate and relative to the primary ideals).
(Better to have an flawed person aiming at the proper ideals; than a well-behaved, intelligent, charismatic, intelligent, beautiful person engaged in the subversion and inversion of Goodness.)
Increased public, explicit, referencing and discussing of the non-material world; that beyond the five senses and the measurable - acknowledgement and celebration of the fact that the world is a larger place than that...
Baby steps indeed - but necessary; and a radical reversal of the trend of many decades.
But positive signs too: an obvious increase of appreciation of real beauty, including landscape, skies, traditional arts.
Simple labelling of deliberate ugliness and the subversion and marring of beauty as such.
A wave of truth-telling and insistence on honesty (refusal to sign, refusal to vote, refusal to participate in lying and misleading - done at the cost of personal disadvantage).
Most vitally repentance; by which I mean an explicit admission that 'I' was wrong, 'I personally' propagated falsehoods.
Use of the morality of transcendental motivation and aims in an eternal perspective (beyond death and human perception or memory).
Explicit rejection of a morality of comparative human behaviour.
Explicit rejection of the modern notion of hypocrisy i.e. failing to live up to ideals - as the ultimate sin; and instead an insistence in the correctness of ideals as the primary necessity for morality (because free speech, tolerance etc are all subordinate and relative to the primary ideals).
(Better to have an flawed person aiming at the proper ideals; than a well-behaved, intelligent, charismatic, intelligent, beautiful person engaged in the subversion and inversion of Goodness.)
Increased public, explicit, referencing and discussing of the non-material world; that beyond the five senses and the measurable - acknowledgement and celebration of the fact that the world is a larger place than that...
Baby steps indeed - but necessary; and a radical reversal of the trend of many decades.
Monday, 14 November 2016
The Matrix undiscovered and unexplained: Christian churches don't teach conspiracy theory - conspiracy theorists don't understand that the Establishment want our damnation
Hardly anybody participating in public discourse seems objectively to understand our present condition in an explicit fashion. By why I mean a mere handful of persons that I have encountered.
The Christian churches, even leaving-out 'Liberals' and focusing only on those who are serious Christians, have near zero comprehension of the fact that modern people live in a false reality like the Matrix movie: that public discourse in politics, business, and all large organisations takes place inside a world defined by the mass media and an interlinked bureaucracy ruled by a global conspiracy of wealth and power.
Consequently, the churches themselves, and the mass of individual Christian people in particular, are grossly and dangerously naive (stupid) about the fact that they are living-out their lives inside a system of evil manipulative falsehood; but are believing it, and praying about it...
(A lot of modern Christian time and spiritual energy is spent praying-for-the-success-of, and raising-money-for, strategically anti-Christian people, institutions, plans and projects.)
In a nutshell - modern Christians do not realise that The Establishment is primarily demonic - and that therefore the rich, powerful and high status people of this world are of evil intent and effect; they are The Problem not the solution, that they are among the worst of humans, and their agenda is one of damnation.
(This includes many/ most of most self-identified Christian church leaders and functionaries - and not just politicians, financier, journalists and media celebs - but top scientists, artists, poets and writers and musicians, lawyers, the military and police; and the vast worlds of medicine and education and so on. The Whole Lot. There are a few exceptions - but as a strong generalisation: The Whole Lot.)
Modern Christians are therefore trying to live a Christian life while believing demonic lies, in an Bizarro demonic world where truth, beauty and virtue are inverted!
*
Meanwhile, the conspiracy theorists who accurately understand the extent and thoroughness and success of that programme of deception and manipulation inside which we live; are hopelessly wrong about the aim of the Matrix.
Conspiracy theorists are nearly always atheistic, anti-Christian (especially anti-church); and are either materialists or only vaguely spiritual; such that they reject (as pure manipulation) any narrative of salvation and damnation. Therefore, the morality of conspiracy theorists is utilitarian and based on the promotion of mortal human happiness and avoidance of suffering.
So conspiracy theorists see the evilness of the global Establishment conspiracy as being the desire to create suffering and cause death. They focus on the destructiveness of wars and health scandals, infliction of poverty, enslavement, starvation, disease, mass poisoning and so forth...
Yet the basic fact of life under the evil Establishment over the past half century has been a massive increase in world population, and hugely-improved life expectancy and standard of living. Te basic facts refute the conspiracy theorists IF evil is seem in terms of human suffering and death.
But Christians know that evil does not ultimately aim at suffering and death - these are merely things that evil likes. The goal of evil is the damnation of souls - and the global conspiracy is not to torment and kill people but instead it is a conspiracy to damn souls - that is, to stop people accepting Christ's gift of salvation.
The only sure way to damnation, is for each Man to seek his own damnation; for each to want to be damned in preference to salvation.
That is why we live in a Bizarro world where - increasingly - all values are inverted; and in public, professional, official, legal, as well as media discourse such inversions are already 'normal' and increasingly mandatory - indeed inversion is now being imposed even among friends and within the family; since individuals being 'denounced' for private non-politically correct comments has for the past generation been widely encouraged and celebrated.
*
So the basic situation is that modern Man (including nearly-all Christians) inhabit:
1. A fundamentally dishonest and manipulation Matrix simulation; that is
2. Operated by demonic intelligences and their slaves, servants and dupes;
3. Whose ultimate aim is the damnation of as many people as possible.
Since this is reality - it can be seen that both Christians and conspiracy theorists are nearly-always seriously wrong about Life, and that only a combination of the two perspectives can capture the essence of the basic situation.
(Further reading: http://thoughtprison-pc.blogspot.co.uk ; http://addictedtodistraction.blogspot.co.uk )
The Christian churches, even leaving-out 'Liberals' and focusing only on those who are serious Christians, have near zero comprehension of the fact that modern people live in a false reality like the Matrix movie: that public discourse in politics, business, and all large organisations takes place inside a world defined by the mass media and an interlinked bureaucracy ruled by a global conspiracy of wealth and power.
Consequently, the churches themselves, and the mass of individual Christian people in particular, are grossly and dangerously naive (stupid) about the fact that they are living-out their lives inside a system of evil manipulative falsehood; but are believing it, and praying about it...
(A lot of modern Christian time and spiritual energy is spent praying-for-the-success-of, and raising-money-for, strategically anti-Christian people, institutions, plans and projects.)
In a nutshell - modern Christians do not realise that The Establishment is primarily demonic - and that therefore the rich, powerful and high status people of this world are of evil intent and effect; they are The Problem not the solution, that they are among the worst of humans, and their agenda is one of damnation.
(This includes many/ most of most self-identified Christian church leaders and functionaries - and not just politicians, financier, journalists and media celebs - but top scientists, artists, poets and writers and musicians, lawyers, the military and police; and the vast worlds of medicine and education and so on. The Whole Lot. There are a few exceptions - but as a strong generalisation: The Whole Lot.)
Modern Christians are therefore trying to live a Christian life while believing demonic lies, in an Bizarro demonic world where truth, beauty and virtue are inverted!
*
Meanwhile, the conspiracy theorists who accurately understand the extent and thoroughness and success of that programme of deception and manipulation inside which we live; are hopelessly wrong about the aim of the Matrix.
Conspiracy theorists are nearly always atheistic, anti-Christian (especially anti-church); and are either materialists or only vaguely spiritual; such that they reject (as pure manipulation) any narrative of salvation and damnation. Therefore, the morality of conspiracy theorists is utilitarian and based on the promotion of mortal human happiness and avoidance of suffering.
So conspiracy theorists see the evilness of the global Establishment conspiracy as being the desire to create suffering and cause death. They focus on the destructiveness of wars and health scandals, infliction of poverty, enslavement, starvation, disease, mass poisoning and so forth...
Yet the basic fact of life under the evil Establishment over the past half century has been a massive increase in world population, and hugely-improved life expectancy and standard of living. Te basic facts refute the conspiracy theorists IF evil is seem in terms of human suffering and death.
But Christians know that evil does not ultimately aim at suffering and death - these are merely things that evil likes. The goal of evil is the damnation of souls - and the global conspiracy is not to torment and kill people but instead it is a conspiracy to damn souls - that is, to stop people accepting Christ's gift of salvation.
The only sure way to damnation, is for each Man to seek his own damnation; for each to want to be damned in preference to salvation.
That is why we live in a Bizarro world where - increasingly - all values are inverted; and in public, professional, official, legal, as well as media discourse such inversions are already 'normal' and increasingly mandatory - indeed inversion is now being imposed even among friends and within the family; since individuals being 'denounced' for private non-politically correct comments has for the past generation been widely encouraged and celebrated.
*
So the basic situation is that modern Man (including nearly-all Christians) inhabit:
1. A fundamentally dishonest and manipulation Matrix simulation; that is
2. Operated by demonic intelligences and their slaves, servants and dupes;
3. Whose ultimate aim is the damnation of as many people as possible.
Since this is reality - it can be seen that both Christians and conspiracy theorists are nearly-always seriously wrong about Life, and that only a combination of the two perspectives can capture the essence of the basic situation.
(Further reading: http://thoughtprison-pc.blogspot.co.uk ; http://addictedtodistraction.blogspot.co.uk )
Sunday, 13 November 2016
Doctor Strange movie review
Excellent movie - emanating from the mostly worthwhile Disney-Marvel superhero series!
I was delighted to discover that the main theme is the spiritual awakening of a modern, Western, materialistic man (the extreme of this typical type) to discover reality beyond the five senses. Which is almost the most important and relevant topic it possibly could have.
As well as its unusually deep core; the movie is very varied, with plenty of humour, some very appealing screen pictures, and impressive fight and action scenes - also a few touching episodes, one of which drew a tear.
The principals (Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton) are both impressive - as these actors usually are.
In sum - go see it, if you like that kind of thing.
Note added - I saw Doctor Strange with my wife and three kids between 14 and 17; and we all thoroughly appreciated it. I should also clarify that this is not a Christian movie - obviously not (being a mainstream Hollywood production) - but at core it does the things most needful for spiritual awakening. Somehow, this message was smuggled-out... thanks to whoever did it.
I was delighted to discover that the main theme is the spiritual awakening of a modern, Western, materialistic man (the extreme of this typical type) to discover reality beyond the five senses. Which is almost the most important and relevant topic it possibly could have.
As well as its unusually deep core; the movie is very varied, with plenty of humour, some very appealing screen pictures, and impressive fight and action scenes - also a few touching episodes, one of which drew a tear.
The principals (Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton) are both impressive - as these actors usually are.
In sum - go see it, if you like that kind of thing.
Note added - I saw Doctor Strange with my wife and three kids between 14 and 17; and we all thoroughly appreciated it. I should also clarify that this is not a Christian movie - obviously not (being a mainstream Hollywood production) - but at core it does the things most needful for spiritual awakening. Somehow, this message was smuggled-out... thanks to whoever did it.
The impact of Avebury on a returning Englishman
At Albion Awakening, William Wildblood describes how the Neolithic religious complex focused on Avebury, affected him as a young man returning to England after five years in India:
http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-old-country.html
http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-old-country.html
Brainwashing is something we each do to ourselves - It is our own fault, and the answer lies in our own hands
Although we are immersed in a system of brainwashing, and in a sense we passively absorb it via the mass media and the social institutions such as propaganda from politics, government, law, education and so forth... this is not the ultimate truth of the situation.
Ultimately brainwashing is something we do to ourselves.
Yes, we are manipulated; but we seek-out and surrender to the manipulation; and so we personally, individually, are to blame for it.
We hear of problems (hear about them not usually from our own experience, but from media propaganda) and them give our own power away in clamouring for 'them' to 'do something about it' - put a stop to it, or make it happen.
In our attitude to Life in general (for example the mass media) we seek-out those who influence us; we surrender our self to manipulation. We encourage the other to create emotion in us, to shape our emotions, to implant motivations into us...
We deliberately connect with sources that we want to tell us what is important, what is most worth thinking about, how to feel about things - what we should aim for and how to lead our lives - how to spend our money and use our time - who to admire and who to despise...
We allow, no we actively encourage Them to fill our minds with negative emotions such as fear, greed, envy, hate, resentment and lust.
We go to immense lengths to enable this surrender of of self to shaping by others whose motivations we know are Not Good.
(Seriously... We seek-out and submit-to the mass media! Of all people, of all institutions! - the Mass Media. Really?)
We are manipulated; but we have created our own manipulation.
We. Are. To. Blame. Each one of us is to blame; the answer lies in our own hands.
(See also: http://addictedtodistraction.blogspot.co.uk )
Ultimately brainwashing is something we do to ourselves.
Yes, we are manipulated; but we seek-out and surrender to the manipulation; and so we personally, individually, are to blame for it.
We hear of problems (hear about them not usually from our own experience, but from media propaganda) and them give our own power away in clamouring for 'them' to 'do something about it' - put a stop to it, or make it happen.
In our attitude to Life in general (for example the mass media) we seek-out those who influence us; we surrender our self to manipulation. We encourage the other to create emotion in us, to shape our emotions, to implant motivations into us...
We deliberately connect with sources that we want to tell us what is important, what is most worth thinking about, how to feel about things - what we should aim for and how to lead our lives - how to spend our money and use our time - who to admire and who to despise...
We allow, no we actively encourage Them to fill our minds with negative emotions such as fear, greed, envy, hate, resentment and lust.
We go to immense lengths to enable this surrender of of self to shaping by others whose motivations we know are Not Good.
(Seriously... We seek-out and submit-to the mass media! Of all people, of all institutions! - the Mass Media. Really?)
We are manipulated; but we have created our own manipulation.
We. Are. To. Blame. Each one of us is to blame; the answer lies in our own hands.
(See also: http://addictedtodistraction.blogspot.co.uk )
Saturday, 12 November 2016
Magical thinking - but does that mean it's untrue?
The kite flyers - by William Arkle
It's funny, but in my mind I often label secular Leftist arguments as 'magical thinking' - yet on this blog I often advocate... magical thinking. In other words, recognition of the world beyond the five senses (and scientific measurements).
So, is magical thinking good or bad? The answer is magical thinking is bad (incoherent) if it is based on a metaphysics that rejects the validity of magic; but merely rational if the metaphysical foundations include 'supernatural' realities.
So, what is wrong with the 'magical thinking' of the Left is that they have chosen to accept only a materialist universe of whirling atoms making partly deterministic, partly random patterns (which are only patterns in the mind of a beholder, not objectively); in which death is extinction, and life has no objective purpose or meaning... A life with no base or basis; and yet they speak of, and are attached to, magic hopes.
Of course, this is a good thing from the point of view of their possible salvation - since they continue to recognise what is necessary; even as, with another part of the mind, they reject its reality. At some point they may become aware of their cognitive dissonance, and do something effectual about it.
But for someone like me it would be dishonest not to practise and advocate magical thinking! Indeed, it is a habit I need to cultivate - and perhaps this need is primary.
Magical not in terms of 'ritual magic', which is a quasi-scientific attempt to control the world (in practise, nearly always for personal gain); but in terms of recognising and trying to understand the wide world of causes and entities, outwith the bounds recognised by modern consciousness.
Friday, 11 November 2016
Christ brings a sword, and the City of God
John Fitzgerald meditates on the atmosphere of the city of York, dominated by its great Gothic cathedral:
http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/civitas-dei_9.html
And William Wildblood make the topical, and eternal, point that unity is sometimes prohibited by truth:
http://meetingthemasters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/unity-and-division.html
http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/civitas-dei_9.html
And William Wildblood make the topical, and eternal, point that unity is sometimes prohibited by truth:
http://meetingthemasters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/unity-and-division.html
How to do Intuitive Thinking (True Imagination, or Necessary Thinking)
Thinking is potentially the way in which we overcome the alienation and division of modernity; it is the mode in which we are complete, integrated and in communication with the divine.
In other words, nothing is more important than Thinking - or than Thinking could be: Necessary Thinking (or what Coleridge called Imagination).
But Necessary Thinking is not the one we currently have in The West - neither is it how things used to be; it is something new.
However, although the necessary Thinking is new, it is not obscure, weird or unfamiliar in its form; it does not require a changed state of consciousness (like a trance); rather it is alert, purposive and simply a complete, inclusive form of the Thinking we already have.
*
What is wrong with current Thinking - as it is trained into us, made habit, and reinforced by public discourse - is that it is both horribly narrow and also fragmented.
Firstly, current Thinking excludes as invalid all thought that do not originate in sensory perceptions (including scientific and quantitative measurements).
What happens is that current Thinking labels each incoming thought as either valid or non-valid on the basis of its provenance (i.e. where it comes-from); and non-valid thoughts include 'the imaginary', memories, arts and literature, music, fantasies and anything of unknown (to the senses) origin.
I can illustrate how this works from my own experience. I was deeply influenced by the works of Tolkien from the age of 13; but my thoughts derived from Tolkien were pre-labelled as 'fiction' or 'fantasy' and kept apart from the Thinking concerned with public discourse - things I talked with others about, stuff for examination, aspects of my work etc.
The Tolkien-derived thoughts were relegated to a thread of 'fantasy' which I was allowed to visit for pleasurable distraction, but which was prevented from interacting with 'serious' matters.
As another example; when my Mother died I was intuitively convinced that she was not extinct but in some way remained; however, I still a few years from being a Christian; and therefore this knowledge was labelled something like 'wishful thinking' - best kept to myself; or at most 'symbolism' - meaning it was not literally true that my Mother remained alive, but this was an interpretation (maybe of genetics) that was useful in my leading a fulfilling life. However, there was no place for this knowledge in the serious and publicly-shared Thinking about my life, work, and the world.
*
This is what modern people do. They have all kinds of spontaneous thoughts on all kinds of subjects - but the great majority of these thoughts are pre-labelled non-valid (for one reason or another) and excluded from public discourse.
Public discourse is therefore made from the processing of a tiny 'assumed-valid' sub-sample of our spontaneous thoughts.
This is meagre basis for Thinking is bad enough - but matters are made worse by the way in which assumed-valid thoughts are treated as discrete.
Because each thought needs to be evaluated separately, our Thinking is broken-up into thoughts in order that we can pre-evaluate each thought; and most thoughts are rejected as non-valid.
We then find that we cannot recombine even that small proportio of our validated thoughts - cannot join them into a fluid and integrated stream of Thinking.
Our modern Thinking is therefore impaired - not just by expulsion of most thoughts, but also by the fact that each assumed-valid thought must retain its autonomy - such that we are trying (but failing) to build a fluid stream of Thinking from something like solid spheres...
Instead of an integrated stream of Think-ing; we simply have a sequence of thoughts; thoughts lined-up but each detached from each other; in an order which seems arbitrary, and having no meaning greater than each individual thought.
*
Modern Thinking is segmented and censored - and I think this is imposed and learned from early childhood (in my case, from about five years old onwards) until the point it becomes ingrained, habitual, taken-for-granted and invisible. We are it.
From this maimed Thinking modern Man cannot derive any meaning, neither can we derive any purpose or direction. Tis is the modern condition of alienation.
(And Religion makes little difference; because our Thinking about religion is simply a part of this maimed Thinking. We have individual thoughts about religion; but the religious mode of Thinking is modern, hence alienated; and we do not feel meaning or purpose - we merely have belifs-about meaning and purpose.)
We are absolutely stuck; unless we can change our mode of Thinking.
*
Necessary Thinking (or true Imagination) is a mode in which everything which comes to mind is included a part of the stream of thinking.
So that Necessary Thinking includes all those thoughts which modern Man regards as imaginary, fantasy, memories; it includes 'random' thoughts, 'errors', 'misunderstandings'... it is open to all sources and kinds of thoughts; and these are allowed to flow, combine, coalesce, extend - or rather they are never broken-up into discrete 'thought' in the first place, but Thinking is allowed to be a truly fluid stream of consciousness.
But Necessary Thinking is not passive - it is always alert, conscious, purposive.
Nor does True Imagination simply accept everything which comes out of it; rather everything is evaluated - but it is not individual 'thoughts' which are evaluated, but instead we evaluate the product of fluid, open, spontaneous, inclusive Think-ing.
And this True Imagination (or Necessary Thinking) is, ultimately, what we mortal incarnate Men Live-In - it is where our Selves are located.
And this is how grown-up men and women are meant to Be.
(Note: Imagination/ Necessary Thinking is also the state that Owen Barfield called Final Participation.)
In other words, nothing is more important than Thinking - or than Thinking could be: Necessary Thinking (or what Coleridge called Imagination).
But Necessary Thinking is not the one we currently have in The West - neither is it how things used to be; it is something new.
However, although the necessary Thinking is new, it is not obscure, weird or unfamiliar in its form; it does not require a changed state of consciousness (like a trance); rather it is alert, purposive and simply a complete, inclusive form of the Thinking we already have.
*
What is wrong with current Thinking - as it is trained into us, made habit, and reinforced by public discourse - is that it is both horribly narrow and also fragmented.
Firstly, current Thinking excludes as invalid all thought that do not originate in sensory perceptions (including scientific and quantitative measurements).
What happens is that current Thinking labels each incoming thought as either valid or non-valid on the basis of its provenance (i.e. where it comes-from); and non-valid thoughts include 'the imaginary', memories, arts and literature, music, fantasies and anything of unknown (to the senses) origin.
I can illustrate how this works from my own experience. I was deeply influenced by the works of Tolkien from the age of 13; but my thoughts derived from Tolkien were pre-labelled as 'fiction' or 'fantasy' and kept apart from the Thinking concerned with public discourse - things I talked with others about, stuff for examination, aspects of my work etc.
The Tolkien-derived thoughts were relegated to a thread of 'fantasy' which I was allowed to visit for pleasurable distraction, but which was prevented from interacting with 'serious' matters.
As another example; when my Mother died I was intuitively convinced that she was not extinct but in some way remained; however, I still a few years from being a Christian; and therefore this knowledge was labelled something like 'wishful thinking' - best kept to myself; or at most 'symbolism' - meaning it was not literally true that my Mother remained alive, but this was an interpretation (maybe of genetics) that was useful in my leading a fulfilling life. However, there was no place for this knowledge in the serious and publicly-shared Thinking about my life, work, and the world.
*
This is what modern people do. They have all kinds of spontaneous thoughts on all kinds of subjects - but the great majority of these thoughts are pre-labelled non-valid (for one reason or another) and excluded from public discourse.
Public discourse is therefore made from the processing of a tiny 'assumed-valid' sub-sample of our spontaneous thoughts.
This is meagre basis for Thinking is bad enough - but matters are made worse by the way in which assumed-valid thoughts are treated as discrete.
Because each thought needs to be evaluated separately, our Thinking is broken-up into thoughts in order that we can pre-evaluate each thought; and most thoughts are rejected as non-valid.
We then find that we cannot recombine even that small proportio of our validated thoughts - cannot join them into a fluid and integrated stream of Thinking.
Our modern Thinking is therefore impaired - not just by expulsion of most thoughts, but also by the fact that each assumed-valid thought must retain its autonomy - such that we are trying (but failing) to build a fluid stream of Thinking from something like solid spheres...
Instead of an integrated stream of Think-ing; we simply have a sequence of thoughts; thoughts lined-up but each detached from each other; in an order which seems arbitrary, and having no meaning greater than each individual thought.
*
Modern Thinking is segmented and censored - and I think this is imposed and learned from early childhood (in my case, from about five years old onwards) until the point it becomes ingrained, habitual, taken-for-granted and invisible. We are it.
From this maimed Thinking modern Man cannot derive any meaning, neither can we derive any purpose or direction. Tis is the modern condition of alienation.
(And Religion makes little difference; because our Thinking about religion is simply a part of this maimed Thinking. We have individual thoughts about religion; but the religious mode of Thinking is modern, hence alienated; and we do not feel meaning or purpose - we merely have belifs-about meaning and purpose.)
We are absolutely stuck; unless we can change our mode of Thinking.
*
Necessary Thinking (or true Imagination) is a mode in which everything which comes to mind is included a part of the stream of thinking.
So that Necessary Thinking includes all those thoughts which modern Man regards as imaginary, fantasy, memories; it includes 'random' thoughts, 'errors', 'misunderstandings'... it is open to all sources and kinds of thoughts; and these are allowed to flow, combine, coalesce, extend - or rather they are never broken-up into discrete 'thought' in the first place, but Thinking is allowed to be a truly fluid stream of consciousness.
But Necessary Thinking is not passive - it is always alert, conscious, purposive.
Nor does True Imagination simply accept everything which comes out of it; rather everything is evaluated - but it is not individual 'thoughts' which are evaluated, but instead we evaluate the product of fluid, open, spontaneous, inclusive Think-ing.
And this True Imagination (or Necessary Thinking) is, ultimately, what we mortal incarnate Men Live-In - it is where our Selves are located.
And this is how grown-up men and women are meant to Be.
(Note: Imagination/ Necessary Thinking is also the state that Owen Barfield called Final Participation.)
Addicted to distraction: psychological consequences of the mass media - by Bruce G Charlton, 2014
Addicted to Distraction (2014) was the follow-up to Thought Prison (2011) my analysis of political correctness. Addicted to Distraction focuses on the mass media; which it regards not as primarily a means of passing on content; but as itself - in its structure and operations - a form of communication that is intrinsically secular, Leftist and nihilistic.
The book also sees the social system of the mass media as being the single most important system in the modern West; but a social system with properties like no other.
The book is now freely available online - it is in my punchy aphorism style, and runs at about 26,000 words.
Endorsements:
In this groundbreaking study, Bruce Charlton sheds brilliant light on fundamental features of our current situation. He develops Marshall McLuhan's insight that "the medium is the message" into a deeply illuminating account of the mass media as a self-sustaining techno-cultural system that absorbs the whole of human life into a virtual world of willfulness and unreality. Like Plato in his Myth of the Cave, he calls for each of us to turn away from flickering images and toward realities. We need to heed that call.
James Kalb: author of The Tyranny of Liberalism and Against Inclusiveness
*
Addicted to Distraction by Bruce G Charlton is a brilliant, pithy, and incisive analysis and condemnation of the modern mass media and its semipurposeful agenda of permanent revolution, permanent hysteria, and permanent chaos. His comments are as cutting as the scalpel of a surgeon performing an autopsy, and his insights a bright and clear as the merciless lights in an operating theater. Can a fish drown? Can it even notice the waters in which it lives and moves? No more than can we notice the totalitarian relativism of the modern mass media. The Mass Media is a roaring, grinding attention-grabbing machine which operates with no set purpose; except the purpose to subvert, uncreate, mock and destroy. It does not matter what the media destroys. Pointless subversion is the point of the media, and the medium is the message. By all means read and understand this book ... and then go out by yourself into the calm and silent wilderness for a year.
John C Wright, author and Nebula Award finalist
The book also sees the social system of the mass media as being the single most important system in the modern West; but a social system with properties like no other.
The book is now freely available online - it is in my punchy aphorism style, and runs at about 26,000 words.
Endorsements:
In this groundbreaking study, Bruce Charlton sheds brilliant light on fundamental features of our current situation. He develops Marshall McLuhan's insight that "the medium is the message" into a deeply illuminating account of the mass media as a self-sustaining techno-cultural system that absorbs the whole of human life into a virtual world of willfulness and unreality. Like Plato in his Myth of the Cave, he calls for each of us to turn away from flickering images and toward realities. We need to heed that call.
James Kalb: author of The Tyranny of Liberalism and Against Inclusiveness
*
Addicted to Distraction by Bruce G Charlton is a brilliant, pithy, and incisive analysis and condemnation of the modern mass media and its semipurposeful agenda of permanent revolution, permanent hysteria, and permanent chaos. His comments are as cutting as the scalpel of a surgeon performing an autopsy, and his insights a bright and clear as the merciless lights in an operating theater. Can a fish drown? Can it even notice the waters in which it lives and moves? No more than can we notice the totalitarian relativism of the modern mass media. The Mass Media is a roaring, grinding attention-grabbing machine which operates with no set purpose; except the purpose to subvert, uncreate, mock and destroy. It does not matter what the media destroys. Pointless subversion is the point of the media, and the medium is the message. By all means read and understand this book ... and then go out by yourself into the calm and silent wilderness for a year.
John C Wright, author and Nebula Award finalist
Three million page views... blog perfomance update
This blog has just passed three million page views. Going from two to three million views took 18 months.
According to page views, the blog's 'popularity' has increased somewhat over recent months - having plateaued at c 50K views per month, it now runs at c. 60K and more than 2000 views on most days (Saturdays have always been quiet); of which each individual recent post is on average being logged at about 3-400 views (my understanding is that this counter misses some of the views - some posts get more); and presumably the rest of the views being people looking at various of the 4K already-existing blog posts.
None of this makes me feel smug! - but it does at least seem as if the blog is not now dying; which seemed to be the case a year or so back.
Of course, I do have some other blogs (see sidebar for a few - click on my name at the top of the sidebar for a complete list; albeit most are just single post archives) - of which Albion Awakening is latest and the most active; with William Arkle and Tolkien's Notion Club Papers fairly often being added-to.
According to page views, the blog's 'popularity' has increased somewhat over recent months - having plateaued at c 50K views per month, it now runs at c. 60K and more than 2000 views on most days (Saturdays have always been quiet); of which each individual recent post is on average being logged at about 3-400 views (my understanding is that this counter misses some of the views - some posts get more); and presumably the rest of the views being people looking at various of the 4K already-existing blog posts.
None of this makes me feel smug! - but it does at least seem as if the blog is not now dying; which seemed to be the case a year or so back.
Of course, I do have some other blogs (see sidebar for a few - click on my name at the top of the sidebar for a complete list; albeit most are just single post archives) - of which Albion Awakening is latest and the most active; with William Arkle and Tolkien's Notion Club Papers fairly often being added-to.
Thursday, 10 November 2016
Models of political change towards spiritual awakening
If a reversal of generations of secular Leftism is required - what are the possible models for positive change and what is the prospect of each being able to generate the desired spiritual awakening?
1. Established routes of change: Political parties, old and new; Voting, Organization, Lobbying...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. The System is the problem, not the solution.
2. Corruption: bribery, intimidation, trading favours, cheating...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. This model is only for the rich and powerful: again the problem not the solution.
3. Direct action: strikes, riots, civil disobedience...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. These methods only work when the Establishment is covertly on the side of change and therefore fight with one hand only (e.g. the British in India, the US government versus Civil Rights movement or 1960s student revolutionaries). The full force of State repression will rapidly and very-completely snuff-out such movements if/ when the State wishes.
4. Supersensible influence: a change in the Spirit of the Age (Zeitgeist); external influences of an undetectable kind - such as putative frequencies or vibrations that affect the human mind; intervention of divine or divinely-inspired personages such as gods, angels, prophets, spiritual leaders; the one-ness of all things, such that everything is linked, such that all positive change anywhere has effects everywhere - leading to incalculable and non-linear beneficial effects.
*Possibility of positive change - Our Best and Only Hope (assuming that such factors are regarded as real).
1. Established routes of change: Political parties, old and new; Voting, Organization, Lobbying...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. The System is the problem, not the solution.
2. Corruption: bribery, intimidation, trading favours, cheating...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. This model is only for the rich and powerful: again the problem not the solution.
3. Direct action: strikes, riots, civil disobedience...
*Possibility of positive change - Zero. These methods only work when the Establishment is covertly on the side of change and therefore fight with one hand only (e.g. the British in India, the US government versus Civil Rights movement or 1960s student revolutionaries). The full force of State repression will rapidly and very-completely snuff-out such movements if/ when the State wishes.
4. Supersensible influence: a change in the Spirit of the Age (Zeitgeist); external influences of an undetectable kind - such as putative frequencies or vibrations that affect the human mind; intervention of divine or divinely-inspired personages such as gods, angels, prophets, spiritual leaders; the one-ness of all things, such that everything is linked, such that all positive change anywhere has effects everywhere - leading to incalculable and non-linear beneficial effects.
*Possibility of positive change - Our Best and Only Hope (assuming that such factors are regarded as real).
That unfulfilled promise - What happened to Wikileaks/ Anonymous's promises? (Residual Leftism?)
Going back over the events of the US election, one aspect was that Wikileaks (and Anonymous - if such a group really exists in any coherent fashion - about which I am unsure) lost credibility by making very specific predictions and claims (at the level of information, time, place and person) which were not delivered in a timely fashion:
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-battle-of-conspiracy-theorists-alt.html
This was clearly an error - although it is not at all clear at present where the error lay. For example, Hillary Clinton was neither charged nor arrested. Thus the Alternative Media in general, and Wikileaks in particular has lost some of its hard-won reputation for accurate information and delivering on promises.
Why such errors?
1. I think one reason is a kind of naiveté - the false assumption that people will get what they deserve according to civilized standards.
The media (whether Mainstream or Alternative) can (potentially) accurately state whether somebody ought to be arrested or charged with a crime - but they cannot predict whether this will in fact happen.
There are too many other factors at work. In particular, those whose job is to act; may for many reasons choose not to act, or somehow be prevented from acting.
2. Secondly, the Alt Media were very foolish indeed in stating I some detail what they intended to do; because that enabled powerful people to stop it from happening.
It looks to me as if there was some combination of sabotage, bribery and intimidation which meant that what were probably sincere intentions were not fulfilled.
The lesson is surely that it is stupid to behave like a Marvel villain engaging in a gloating monologue, describing all the terrible things you are Going-To Do.
IF you really intend to do something, for Heavens sake get on with it.
Don't warn them: Just Do It!
3. I regard it as significant that these Alternative organisations are all of the Left - they all see themselves as idealistic and uncorrupted Leftists, fighting a fake and corrupt Establishment which they fail to recognise as also Leftist in history, aims and methods, and basic world-view (ie. the global conspiracy and their puppet Establishment are precisely 'the pragmatic Left').
Being Leftist inevitably means that the Alternative Media world view is significantly distorted compared with true reality.
Most of the idealistic Left get a free pass for misbehaviour from the pragmatic, most of the time - indeed they are encouraged in misbehaviour by hidden hands and funding agencies (e.g. the recent Establishment organised race riots and current Astroturf anti-Trump riots). Thus Wikileaks used to be a darling of The Establishment.
But during this election the Establishment were very afraid; and the Alt-Left were for a while being treated like The Right gets treated all the time. The kid gloves were off. The slander, dirty tricks, bribery, corruption and sabotage were all wheeled out against them.
This just is what the Left does - and why not? They are Godless materialist hedonists! What's to stop them doing whatever is expedient?
The Alternative Media need to reflect on their encouraging yet also chastening experiences over the past days, weeks and months; and learn from their own systematic weaknesses and distortions.
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-battle-of-conspiracy-theorists-alt.html
This was clearly an error - although it is not at all clear at present where the error lay. For example, Hillary Clinton was neither charged nor arrested. Thus the Alternative Media in general, and Wikileaks in particular has lost some of its hard-won reputation for accurate information and delivering on promises.
Why such errors?
1. I think one reason is a kind of naiveté - the false assumption that people will get what they deserve according to civilized standards.
The media (whether Mainstream or Alternative) can (potentially) accurately state whether somebody ought to be arrested or charged with a crime - but they cannot predict whether this will in fact happen.
There are too many other factors at work. In particular, those whose job is to act; may for many reasons choose not to act, or somehow be prevented from acting.
2. Secondly, the Alt Media were very foolish indeed in stating I some detail what they intended to do; because that enabled powerful people to stop it from happening.
It looks to me as if there was some combination of sabotage, bribery and intimidation which meant that what were probably sincere intentions were not fulfilled.
The lesson is surely that it is stupid to behave like a Marvel villain engaging in a gloating monologue, describing all the terrible things you are Going-To Do.
IF you really intend to do something, for Heavens sake get on with it.
Don't warn them: Just Do It!
3. I regard it as significant that these Alternative organisations are all of the Left - they all see themselves as idealistic and uncorrupted Leftists, fighting a fake and corrupt Establishment which they fail to recognise as also Leftist in history, aims and methods, and basic world-view (ie. the global conspiracy and their puppet Establishment are precisely 'the pragmatic Left').
Being Leftist inevitably means that the Alternative Media world view is significantly distorted compared with true reality.
Most of the idealistic Left get a free pass for misbehaviour from the pragmatic, most of the time - indeed they are encouraged in misbehaviour by hidden hands and funding agencies (e.g. the recent Establishment organised race riots and current Astroturf anti-Trump riots). Thus Wikileaks used to be a darling of The Establishment.
But during this election the Establishment were very afraid; and the Alt-Left were for a while being treated like The Right gets treated all the time. The kid gloves were off. The slander, dirty tricks, bribery, corruption and sabotage were all wheeled out against them.
This just is what the Left does - and why not? They are Godless materialist hedonists! What's to stop them doing whatever is expedient?
The Alternative Media need to reflect on their encouraging yet also chastening experiences over the past days, weeks and months; and learn from their own systematic weaknesses and distortions.
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