"An inflexion-point in the collapse of The West" - My review of Amazon's "Rings of Power"

Galadriel - a face you would never tire of slapping...

I have watched the first three episodes of Amazon's Rings of Power pseudo-Tolkien series; and - although it is indeed very bad, as everyone with a capacity for valid judgment realizes - I think the fundamental quality of its badness has been somewhat misrepresented by the reviews I have seen. 

My personal context is that the show is so completely un-Tolkienian (in all but a few names) that it is actually much less painful to watch than I have feared it would be... at least much less painful in that way. 

I feared some kind of cunning and parodic subversion, which would tend to exploit and twist Tolkien, intending subtly to reshape and poison ones memories and concepts - and to program the expectations of new Tolkien readers with a false and evil frame. 

But Rings of Power comes across as something else altogether - something rather more like the TV series of Sword of Shannara (but, in effect, much worse). Sure - RoP grossly misrepresents Tolkien - but so grossly that it ceases to be Tolkien altogether. 

Therefore, I could not help but watch RoP in its own terms; forgetting my lifelong love of Tolkien's work and judging the show purely as if it was an original fantasy series. 

And it is that that level where lies The Problem - or rather the lethal combination of problems. 

Rings of Power is very badly done in its conception, plotting, script and editing. 

It also strikes me as badly cast, acted and directed (in particular there is an absence of 'star quality' - the mysterious and unfakeable capacity of some actors to hold attention and impress). 

However, these are not The Problem; because when the problems of a show are so fundamental - appropriate casting and good acting, with well-directed 'stars' in the major roles, could not make a qualitative difference to the effectiveness.  

The key word for Rings of Power is "inept". 

Despite, or more likely because of, its expensiveness; RoP fails to reach even the minimum acceptable standards of conception, plotting, script and editing. 

In watching TV; one just comes to take these for granted, even in shows one dislikes, even in shows that fail overall... One takes for granted that a show knows what it is trying to do, contains comprehensible storylines, with characters whose basic motivations and intentions are expressed in dialogue and action. 

And one expects that the editing of a show (its construction from the various plotlines, moving between the characters) is at least clear and unobtrusive...

One expects to understand what is going on, and to have an implicit sense of the kind of show one is watching (even when one dislikes this), and the kind of place it is aiming-at (even when the destination is somewhere nasty or dull). 

But it is in providing these fundamentals that Rings of Power fails most egregiously. 

For instance; there are (already) scores of 'characters' in dozens of settings - so none of them can possibly be knowable, and hardly any can be, or become, memorable. 

After being introduced-to an incomprehensible array of named characters in many civilizations in the first two parts; the third episode added yet another: "Numenor".

This showered us with even more new characters (Queen, Elendil, Isildur, Isildur's sister, some blacksmith bloke and his redshirt pals); each provided with an ultra-rapidly-sketched, supposedly defining- and motivating- backstory. 

During which Galadriel's shipwreck companion is 'developed' as yet another utterly unsympathetic 'major character' - by showing how just selfish, lying and gratuitously vicious he is; yet with the impression that he is intended to be a charming and brilliant rogue in the Han Solo mode.   

But surely it is basic 'film school' stuff to keep the number of characters, themes, and settings down to a manageable number? 

It is difficult enough to manage the plot with even six major characters, but it is certainly impossible-cubed to write a good script with as many "characters" as in Rings of Power; where every change of scene and episode piles more and yet more upon us. 

Certainly I don't care about any of the characters (and am actively bored or irritated by most); and the fact that the script is a gross, serial offender against the writers' workshop dictum "show, don't tell" is another problem. We are continually being told things about the races and characters, that are immediately and comprehensively contradicted by what we are shown. 

For instance the pseudo-hobbit 'Harfoots' keep telling each other, and singing, (both in a nauseatingly sentimental fashion), about how they have 'big hearts', and help each other - and that this is the basis of 'who we are'... But we are shown that they spend all their time bickering and confronting each other (and lying and stealing) - exactly like a cheap and nasty TV soap. 

When one old chap suffers a painful twisted ankle that persists such that he can't pull his handcart when the Harfoots are about to migrate - the near-universal expectation among the tribe is that he and his family will simply be left behind to die! 

This contradiction is compounded by an extraordinarily overlong and tedious scene; in which the Harfoots are shown reading a list of those previously left behind, with a cod-religious chorus intoning that 'we will wait for them' - i.e. exactly what they did not. 

There is one memorable character, called Galadriel - who we are told is an heroic leader; but who is shown as a sour-faced, over-promoted middle-manager; an entitled "Karen" - who happens to have ridiculously incredible super-powers (such as being able to swim - apparently - across thousands of miles of ocean). 

But her greatest super-power is certainly her egotistic selfishness. If she is pulled from the freezing sea, or is starving and gets handed food; she does not say thank you, nor indicate gratitude in any shape or form. Instead, whenever Galadriel is helped, she simply demands that her rescuers will instantly provide whatever resources and assistance her current whim dictates. 

Even this might be dramatically excusable for the major character if she had charm, charisma, allure... but there we are up-against the problem of miscasting compounded by bad direction (in which the actress is required to adopt the same peevish, gimlet-eyed, sour-mouthed facial expression through thick and thin - albeit admittedly her face is already well-suited to this). 

And Galadriel is supposed to function as a unifying thread through this sprawling mess? 

 

The editing is terrible - beyond bad. Some scenes are so rapid that we have little or no idea what has happened. This applies particularly to some of the fights - which are very badly paced, and lack key elements that let the audience understand what is going-on. 

Many other scenes are uneventful and inconclusive interactions without narrative relevance ('plot loops') drawn-out with numbing tedium. 

The pacing between scenes is astonishingly poorly done. Indeed, I have never experienced any editing quite so narratively disruptive on professional TV. 

The action cuts back and forth between the innumerable characters and locations, but the time flows with widely differing speeds. In the whole second episode; some scenes showed that days were passing and quite a lot happening... during which an Elf spent the entire period trudging along a short tunnel. 

 

In sum - I was expecting the Rings of Power At Least to achieve the level of a mainstream, clichéd, stereotyped, emotionally-manipulative and sometimes-exciting show (like Sword of Shannara) - but it does not reach even such modest heights.  

I am genuinely fascinated that such an inept, amateurish, ineffectual and ultra-expensive mess as RoP could have happened at all: I keep watching because I can hardly believe what I am seeing... 

In this regard, I think Rings of Power is a genuinely significant inflexion-point in the ongoing collapse of civilizational efficiency and effectiveness - akin to the UK Millennium Dome ("expensive, ugly, boring, unpopular and late"). Incompetence of this degree is no accident - but is instead diagnostic. 

Never in the history of light entertainment were so many resources expended to so little effect to benefit so few. 

From bad to worst... Patience needed

In the space of a few days; England has gone from a bad Prime Minister and Monarch to another that is considerably worse - indeed, the new PM may be the worst ever.

This, in a context in which it seems clear that another (and worse) societal collapse is being planned and implemented upon a population that is blinkered, hedonic, incapable of learning, uninterested in reality and spiritually anaesthetised.

All that is good and encouraging is being purposively corrupted and degraded on the feeblest of grounds; and with the masses either utterly insensible or actively manufacturing excuses that deny evil intent.

I cannot point to any material grounds for hope, and this is no accident. Realistic hope is confined to the spiritual realm, and this is The Lesson - the tough-teaching of these times. We must choose the spiritual - choose the person of Jesus Christ... Or perish.

Yet even that sure hope demands of us true motivation, awareness, and patience. We will be saved for certain and all our needs satisfied, but in God's time; because it takes time to assemble the workings of providence.

Therefore we need patience, which is itself a test of our faith and courage. 

Or maybe not a 'test'... Rather it is that we will be given what we desire and choose. And if we do not trouble to discern and choose, then we will have matters taken out of our hands by those who claim to speak on our behalf.

Aiming at direct knowing, conscious understanding, freedom

My impression is that those who resist the demonic agendas of either totalitarianism or chaos, are nearly all engaged in negative, defensive firefighting on ever more fronts... But in defense of a status quo that was already very evil.

This is an inevitable consequence of trying to operate in a socio-political and institutional sphere that has long since been captured and converged.

We are being compelled to operate in the spiritual sphere, or else be enlisted into one or another faction of purposive evil.

What, then, is the Good we ought to seek? Here and now?

First, knowledge of reality; which we seek directly, by direct knowing, by heart-thinking. 

We need to understand this, in terms of the spiritual war of this mortal life.

And our task is to become conscious of all this, which is the basis of freedom. God wants us to be free, in order to chose Him and creation, and life eternal... To choose salvation... 

To choose to work with God as co-creators of reality.

That is our positive program, by which we oppose the agenda of evil. Simple and attainable.

Primal oneness... Yes, and No

There is a common metaphysical assumption (and described mystical or intuitive experience) of an original state of oneness. 

I would distinguish between the subjective experience of being immersed in one sea of consciousness, each mind essentially passive; with minds open to one another to make a single pooled mind... The only agency being (to various degrees) an awareness that this is the situation...

And on the other hand that this unity of "will" is only that of passivity and incapacity, and does Not result from individuals sharing in God's creative purposes.

Because each mind is part (and "always" has been) part of an individual being. This being has some potential to develop individual agency, but this entails becoming cut off from passive immersion in the group mind... becoming Free. Such freedom is necessary if an individual being is to contribute something from-himself, original, new... to ongoing divine creation.

Thus here we are!

There was indeed a primal oneness of subjective experience, but there was and is a primal multiplicity of beings - thus multiplicity of 'interests', goals, selfishnesses...

God's"problem " was/ is to develop the creative agency of the many beings. 

It would be futile to return to primal passivity, therefore Men must choose to *enlist" in God's creative-project... To bring each his own creative free agency to the expansion of creation.

Therefore we do not seek oneness, but harmonious multiplicity.

Intuitive Magic: the 'magic' of Final Participation (post 'ritual magic')

The only good magic is Christian magic - i.e. rooted in Christianity and arising from it; but I have often said that traditional 'ritual' or 'ceremonial' magic is inappropriate and ineffective for these times; because it depended on a passive, immersive Original Participation type of consciousness, that has (all-but) disappeared (at least in The West, among adults). 

We are now in an era when Final Participation is the proper way for us to engage creatively with the world - and Final Participation is a consciously chosen, individual activity - done in the realm of 'primary thinking' (a.k.a. heart-thinking).

Yet thinking may be aided by particular activities, and this is where the 'magic' (broadly conceived) comes-in. 

Ritual magic was done using formal ceremonies, words and artifacts; usually by groups; after training; and according to pre-arranged timetables. 

But now, magic ought to have a different form (I would say is destined to have a different form): a very different form, that I propose to call Intuitive Magic.

Intuitive magic depends on intuition, which is individual (not groupish); and cannot be ordered nor elicited on-demand; therefore it must occur spontaneously, in response to the arrangements of divine providence. 

It is a matter of the individual being aware of possible situations emerging (such as synchronicities and unexpectedly striking stimuli), alert to such clues and implications; and being correctly orientated, from a basis in Christianity.  

To amplify; I personally am not able to attain intuitions of the form "What should I do?", but will only receive answers to questions of a dichotomous form, such as: "Is this right (or wrong)?" or "Should I do this (or not)?" or "Should I proceed with my plan (or not?)".

Therefore, when an intuition arises, it must be cast into a Yes/No form; and the second test or check, is to seek guidance on the validity of this specific formulation. 

When a clear and self-validating answer comes, the process is complete; although it may be repeated as often as seems necessary to generate sureness.  

When an answer to this intuitive check is not clear despite genuine commitment to seeking it - or is not forthcoming at all - this is because the question has been incorrectly formulated; being insufficiently precise or rooted in false assumptions. More 'work' is needed. 

Thus, if intuitive Christian magic is regarded as things we might do - material things such as words, actions, meditation, or anything else - to attain goals compatible with the divine will; then a major pre-requisite is patience.  

Ritual magic is done to a timetable; but intuitive magic takes as long as it takes for the individual to be in the right frame of values and mind, awaiting correct intuition, and for providence to arrange circumstances to make it possible. 

Patience, in turn, requires trust; trust in God's personal loving concern for us our-selves, eternally; and trust in God's creative power - that in a world of beings with free agency and whatever the operations of evil: sooner or later the situation will be made to arise in which intuitive magic can be done. 

What then, is this 'intuitive magic'? 

Subjectively and temporarily, it is experienced as a positive change in consciousness. 

But objectively and eternally; it is the operation of our personal creativity in this mortal life, adding to God's creativity: it adds our own creative contribution to the ongoing divine: is an instance of co-creation. 

A metaphysics of creation is not a middle way between Christian monism and chaos - it is the only way that makes sense of what most needs to be explained

The history of philosophy from the Ancient Greeks until now has mostly been an oscillation between - or attempt to find a middle-way, a compromise, between - two extremes; which have various labels but any choice of these two extremes always runs into the same problems. 

One is that this is (or was) a single and unified reality (monism); which has either apparently split into a multiplicity - or else people have the illusion that it has split. Unity is ultimate, variety is merely temporary, or an illusion. One God created everything from nothing, The principle of the universe is order - chaos is contained within order, order will prevail. We Men are pieces of God, seeds, droplets from a divine ocean - but everything we are is Of God. Everything In Total is Good - and evil is temporary, a transitory kind of imbalance. God is omniscient and omnipotent. This mortal life is - by comparison with divine unity - utterly insignificant, and cannot affect anything that is eternal. 

The other extreme is that which supposedly derives from Heraclitus: everything flows, everything changes, order and stasis are temporary and illusory; ultimately chaos rules. All 'understanding' is temporary, contingent, or merely delusional. There is no purpose or meaning to reality - it Just Is. There is no God. This apparent mortal life is everything - but it is nothing, really... a succession of subjective impressions merely. The are no real values: no truth, beauty or virtue - neither good nor evil.  

By my understanding, neither of the above traditional extremes offer any meaning or purpose for this mortal life; nor do they provide a solid basis for our individual freedom or creativity, nor for the reality of both good and evil.

I regard Christianity as having become trapped by the metaphysical assumptions of monism, in opposition to the chaos which it regards as the only alternative. As a result, Christianity - as taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ, and described especially in the Fourth Gospel - has been distorted into a pre-existing monist framework which really does not make sense. Although by complexification and mystification - and by the false dichotomy with chaos (regarded as the only alternative) - an illusion of sense can be made and sustained by diktat, threats and authority.  

Yet there is at least one metaphysical alternative to the above two, and that is the metaphysics to which I have adhered for about the last decade. This begins with the existence of beings in the midst of chaos, and has God as the creator, and creation as the making of a world of harmony between beings, aiming at greater freedom, hence greater consciousness; and always increasing creativity.  

This harmony of beings is love - analogous to the love within an ideal family; and it can be understood as shared creative purposes and the mutual accommodation and help which is the consequence of love. 

Therefore is the two classic and traditional views are monism and chaos; then this third view is rooted in creation. We began with chaos as a background, but with innumerable beings already existing. Creation began with God, and it was God who made possible the cooperation (harmony) between beings that began to change the universe. 

Reality is neither and ultimate order, nor is it disorganized randomness; but reality changes, evolves, develops through time - and towards increasing love, harmony, purpose, meaning. This changes happens by the development of beings, under the influence of God. Initially being can passively be raised towards greater consciousness, by adding to their equipment  

The advantages I find, up-front, are that it explains the origins of evil in chaos, the nature of evil in opposition to the Good; the nature of Good in God's creation - and the movement through time from evil towards Good: as God began with a chaotic universe and then made Heaven, and (since the work of Jesus Christ) began to people heaven with those beings who chose to subscribe to the project of Good. Thus it also explains the work of Jesus Christ, and accounts for his essential role in the divine project.

It accounts for the reality of freedom in our independent eternal origin as beings; the spiritual war whereby beings (such as ourselves) choose either the side of God and divine creation; or else to oppose that. It makes sense of the possibility of beings such as ourselves becoming genuine co-creators (ie, bringing something new, additional to God) in the creation that God began. 

It provides a model for the meaning and purpose of this mortal life - its meaning in love which is working with the divine harmony, and acts of co-creation (even in this mortal life, but more so in resurrected eternal life); and as a time for learning and preparation for immortality to come.  

So far, this metaphysics of creation has proved itself absolutely solid in response to the tests and critiques of my interrogations and life-experiences. 

But this third metaphysics seems not to be understood by the adherents of Christian monism, or chaos; and the reasons is that they do not follow the implications of their metaphysics to their conclusions; but instead introduce 'unprincipled exceptions' or 'auxiliary hypotheses' so as to provide a pseudo-rationalization for (in particular) the meaning of mortal life and the reality of freedom. 

These incoherent elements serve to take away the demand for something different; yet they fail to solve the incoherences that have been evidence for thousands of years, and are so obvious to adherents of the opposite views. I mean, the incoherence of traditional Christian metaphysics is obvious to evil-atheist-'materialists', and vice-versa. 

The metaphysics of creation is only seldom held explicitly and consciously; yet I regard it as essentially the simple, instinctive, innate metaphysics of childhood (and, probably, ancestral hunter gatherers) that has been raised to a higher level of conscious awareness.  

It is the metaphysics of the Fourth Gospel ('John') - and implicitly what Jesus lived and taught - and completed by his opening of Heaven to Men. 

In the post 2020, inverted-world: the means justify the ends...

It used to be a common moral fallacy that the end justifies the means; in other words, that which is (allegedly) aimed-at, justifies evil acts that are necessary to its attainment. 

Soviet communism - including its many upper class admirers in The West - was a vast instance of this kind of thinking. The systematic torture and killing of the masses was justified by the supposed utopia which they were supposedly making possible. 

But for Christians; that which is good and right is only attainable by doing the good and right - every step of the way. 

But the left has evolved over the past century; and has now set aside its utopias. 

The 2022 justifications are oppositional merely - it is being against climate change/ the birdemic, racism-prejudice-exclusion/ the family/ the Fire Nation/ or people who are men/ white/ native - that is now an entirely sufficient justification for the systemic infliction of vast suffering. 

What is boils-down-to is that 'Our' suffering is what morally-justifies Their policies and strategies. It is the doing of specific evil acts that proves how good They are...

The fact that They are prepared and indeed eager to destroy the economy, food production, energy supplies, transport... science, arts, education, law, the police and military... to destroy peace and to promote war...  indeed to destroy anything and everything that performs a useful function or is an actual source of Good - is what justifies any specific act of destruction. 

We no longer even require 'a good world' in the future as our justification for doing present evil. Instead, in an inverted and perverse fashion; it is the actions of bold, unashamed, destruction of Good itself, that provides an action with moral seriousness. 

Such it is to live in a world of value-inversion where purposive evil is in-charge, and the masses generally support it... 

The old communists are still excused their colossal inflictions and murders by their utopian intentions; but their modern successors in the Globalist Establishment simply point at their depredations as evidence of a their 'moral' right to rule.  

Why is this mortal life inevitably and intrinsically unsatisfactory?

Although it was obvious to Men of the past; it is not always (or usually) at all clear to modern Man just exactly why this mortal life is necessarily unsatisfactory. 

Because this is not understood; there have been a couple of hundred years of social and political theorizing and activity based on false (and unconscious) premises - with socio-politics being conceived as the single most important issue in the world - more important than religion, functionality, life and death. 

As of 2022; this view is propagandized and enforced by global government and mass media; and shared by All major/ large/ powerful/ wealthy social institutions, churches, corporations, and organizations - all systematically regard leftist politics as primary and mandatory - and all other aims, morality and functions as secondary, subordinate; ultimately optional.   

Even after the unprecedented and unmatched catastrophes of the utopian atheist left-ideologies of the twentieth century (communism and fascism in Russia, Germany, China, Cambodia etc); even after the collapse of Western leftism into dys-topian, incoherent yet insatiable opposition to all that is Good... 

Nonetheless all of modern Man's hopes are wholly focused on this life. 

Yet, the universal consensus of pre-modern Man, and all Men who have experienced, learned-from, and thought-through life to its foundations, is that biological death is Not 'the end' - but some existence of some sort continues beyond. 

1. The proper understanding is that mortal life is a prelude to... something else, which lasts much longer

2. And therefore the proper question is what happens after death? What is that 'something else?' - What are the possibilities? 

3. But it is not proper to ask 'whether' anything-at-all happens after death. It is illegitimate to assume that a mortal life ending with annihilation can ever, under any imaginable circumstances, be satisfactory.  

The nature of Grey (neither Black nor White) Magic according to Dion Fortune - and a peril of asking God for 'blessings' etc.

From Applied Magic, by Dion Fortune 

One cannot divide magic into white and black by a clear-cut dividing line; there is what may be described as grey magic, which people embark upon out of ignorance or love of sensation. 

One must therefore recognize the grey variety, of which there is a great deal more in the world than either the white or the black; but we must also say this of it; that while white is white, it is only a question of degree for grey to shade into black. 

There is one acid test which can be applied to every variety of operation— in white magic the operation is always designed and carried out with due regard to cosmic law; any operation which takes no account of cosmic law but goes its own way regardless of what the spiritual principles of the matter may be, can be classified as grey; and any operation which deliberately defies cosmic law can be classified as black. 

Let us make this clear by examples. Some people, finding the mental diet of modem life deficient in spiritual vitamins, turn to the inspiration of the ancient pagan gods. This is not [necessarily] black magic...  It is, in fact, a very useful corrective medicine for the modem mind. It is one, moreover, that we take in constant small doses without knowing it, because so much of art and poetry draws its inspiration from the classics...

On the other hand, indiscriminate dabbling in seances, fortune-telling psychism, and suchlike is classified as grey under our definition, because it takes no account of anything save personal desires, and never asks itself what may be the spiritual quality of what it is doing. 

No obvious evil being immediately forthcoming, and in fact a plentiful amount of specious piousness being very much in evidence - a form of piousness wherein God is called upon to bless what is being done, but is never asked whether it is according to His will. 

It is taken for granted that what is afoot is a harmless entertainment, or even actively edifying as tending to raise the mind above materialism, thus reinforcing faith; the after-effects are far-reaching and though they may not necessarily involve moral deterioration in persons of naturally wholesome character... they do cause a marked deterioration in the quality of the mind, and especially of the capacity for logic and judgment. 

Any form of promiscuous psychic or supernormal dabbling is definitely undesirable, in my opinion, and unfits the person who indulges in it for serious work.

**

Comment: The above strike me as wise words, from an often-wise (and always good hearted) esoteric Christian of the early 20th century. 

The principle of 'grey' activity can be applied beyond her theme of formal or ritual 'magic' (which has, anyway, become much less effective and essentially obsolete by now, as a path of Christian living). 

In particular; I was struck by her distinction between the pseudo-spirituality of asking God to bless what one has already-decided to do; in contrast with asking God whether or not it should be done in the first place. 

This could be extended very generally, in terms of prayer. In my experience of intercessory prayers at church, where the congregation is asked to pray for something or another (usually relief of suffering, or cessation of some conflict - typically an item drawn from mass media sources, and interpretations).

Yet the choice of subject often prejudges that such an outcome would (in that particular instance) be in accordance with God's will - when that may well not be the case. 

And - in retrospect - the same also applies to many of my own private prayers. 

Something well worth thinking-about.

Christianity is easy, but... Three reasons why there are so few Christians

Since anybody can become a Christian in an instant, nothing he does can ever sabotage irretreivably that decision, and cannot be compelled to abandon this choice - how come there are so few Christians?

 

One reasons is that non-Christians, including self-identified 'Christians', fail to repent their sins. The devil can usually make us sin, but cannot stop us from repenting - we must do that to ourselves. In any case, everyone sins - so that sin does not matter of itself (Christ came to save sinners). 

Anyone who repents his sins is immune to Satan! But anyway people fail to repent; even though they always could and nothing could stop them. 

They usually fail because they fail to identify sin as sin; and instead regard their sin as either irrelevant or as virtue. Repentance entails recognition - and it is this recognition that is typically lost. 

This is value-inversion, and is dominant in the world today as never before; because top-down, official, propagandized and enforced. 

Anyone determined to follow Jesus Christ to resurrected eternal life in Heaven - and put that as his first priority - cannot be prevented from attaining this by any power on earth, or Hell. 

So what goes wrong so often?  

Typically, that the individual Does Not Want resurrected eternal life in Heaven; but wants something else instead. 

Even among self-identified Christians, it is evident that many do not want what Jesus offered - but either some modification or something else altogether. 

Satan cannot prevent someone who wants resurrection from achieving it, but he may be able to persuade people not to want it - and he does. 

Another reason is the so-called Christian Churches; and the idea that one can only be a Christian if some or another of the Churches gives you the green light (and the idea that if you leave, or break the rules of, that Church - then you are no longer a Christian). 

Yet, as of 2020, the leadership of the major Christian Churches has joined the side of Satan - and most Church members are willing to go along with this. In the spiritual war of this mortal life, the Churches have taken the side against God. 

How come? Partly by decades of cumulative corruption of the concept of 'what it is to be a Christian', such that now the primary and essential requirements include to support strategies of sin...

And partly by pretending to fight the spiritual (and now also material) war for one or another peripherally or partially Christian-compatible reason; when in truth the war is organized against Christ himself. 

This being the 'Antichrist' mode of operation.

 

In sum; Jesus arranged things so that it is easy to become and to remain a Christian - and no earthly power can prevent this. 

But earthly powers can - if you let them - convince you not to want to be a Christian, and/or can persuade you that being-a-Christian is something other than what it is.

The choice is yours.

The Sooty Show and the metaphysics of Being

I recently posted a link to an episode of Pipkins in which the anti-hero Hartley Hare uses a Mr Punch-like glove-puppet called Mike in order to 'be naughty' with impunity - hoping, thereby, to 'get away with' the consequences of his actions by blaming them on the puppet. 

WmJas Tychonievich has since exposed the deep, indeed metaphysical, implications of this drama; when it is considered that a glove puppet called Michael, controlled by a glove puppet called Hartley, is controlled by an actor called Nigel, who is controlled by a director called Michael (after whom the Punch puppet has been named!) - so that one Michael is actually responsible for the other - and in conclusion Hartley is innocent (as he always claimed)! 

Even deeper metaphysical waters are explored by an episode of The Sooty Show. 

This explores what it is that makes an entity alive and 'real'; and does this by means of subtext beneath subtext. There is the primary narrative, and beneath that the awareness of a fictive distinction (the story itself having been written by the puppeteer and participating-actor 'Matthew') between glove puppets accepted as 'real' versus battery-powered automata regarded as 'toys'...

And beneath that already-dizzying multi-layering; lurks a (mostly subliminal and implicit) awareness of the unsatisfactory and inadequate nature of the empirical distinctions that are supposed (in the narrative) to differentiate 'real' from 'toy' (i.e. in the song "This little friend is real" which concludes this episode). 

In the end, the viewer is driven to an almost-opposite conclusion than the explicit 'moral of the story'; which conclusion is that 'everything is alive' (and there are no toys) - because, in regarding existence in every aspect, there is always a being somewhere - always at least one consciousness that lies behind all knowledge, purpose, and even the most mechanical-seeming entity and action. 

Destroy evil By Doing Good: So long as The System survives (i.e. does not collapse) things will keep getting more-evil

The nature of our situation is that The System - which, albeit with ever-decreasing effectiveness - keeps alive the unprecedented world population of about eight billion - is now un-reformably evil. 

All of the major functional sub-systems are orientated towards evil (including major Christian churches), and these subsystems maintain each other in the evil purpose. 

Thus The System acts as a powerful, multi-pronged and continuous means of corruption of 'the masses' of individual men and women.

The System is also purposively self-destructing, overall - again by many means. 

Therefore The System is certainly going to collapse. 

Yet, at the same time - because it is "a system", and this is what systems do and are - The System has an intrinsic tendency to sustain itself, and to grow. 

Thus The System is continually trying to extend into the interstices of all aspects of society (e.g. to bring the family and voluntary relationships into The System), and to extend its penetration into less-systematized nations of the world. 

Also, The System acts to crush dissent and resistance to itself: again both within nations, and also by setting core-System nations to invade (physically and ideologically) the less-systematized nations  (e.g. in the many recent revolutions and wars, initiated and sustained by the Western powers). 

So, the situation is that The System is irredeemably evil; and the longer it continues to exist, the more evil The System will inflict-upon the all-too-easily corruptible (because materialistic, God-rejecting, Christ-rejecting) masses. 

And The System is destroying itself - so that this situation cannot continue indefinitely. 

From which I infer that the longer The System lasts, the worse this will be for the souls of Men. 

This would seem to imply a need actively to destroy The System - and there is some truth in this; so long as the motivation for destruction is Good: i.e. on the side of God and divine creation. 

But the end does not justify the means; so that System destruction can only do good when its methods are good. 

Therefore we need to destroy the system by-means-of doing Good - every step of the way. 

Destroy evil By Doing Good in all our actions. 

That is the ideal. That is how Christians  must proceed. 

It's obvious once stated!

Explicit and chosen belief in Jesus is vital now, in a way that was not the case in ancient times

By my understanding, God has not withdrawn his presence from Modern Man - but Modern Man's minds is now closed from spontaneous and unconscious knowledge of God - in a way that was not the case in ancient times - nor in our own early childhood. 

In other words - as a typical Modern Man reaches adolescence. he enters a state where his consciousness is cut-off from that spontaneous and unconscious knowledge of God (the state of Original Participation, as Owen Barfield termed it); which is what gave ancient people (and still gives children) underlying confidence in the reality and goodness of creation, and hope for their own future beyond death. 

This confidence and hope transcended the official contents of their religions - even when (for example) those religions branded mortal life as suffering merely, and denied life beyond mortal life. 

Yet Modern Man is bereft of those natural supports of the past; and therefore is prone to regard life as futile and despair as realistic. 

The only alternative to such nihilism is that Modern Man makes a conscious choice from his situation of cut-off-ness: the choice to regard Jesus Christ as truly divine, his promise of resurrected Heavenly life eternal as desired, and to 'believe-on' and 'follow' Jesus to this goal. 

Modern Man is on-his-own as never before, because of the nature of his walled-off consciousness; but God is still there - just a choice away; within the soul and all around; ready to commence contact instantly, as soon as our free consciousness wipes the window, opens the door. 

But even a wholly-Good God, and the knowledge that we are members of God's family, does not suffice to justify this mortal life unless it is also understood as a preparation for Heaven. 

Because in this mortal world; entropy rules, all that is Good changes and corrupts with time, and death is the inevitable terminus. 

If the mortal life were everything - in a context of eternity even the 'best' mortal life would be a futile waste of time...

Confidence in a benign creator God is vitally necessary but not enough for Modern Man, in his alienation and isolation. Therefore, unless we are to be drawn to the embrace death, nothingness and hope-less-ness - we must also choose Jesus.  

Beware of developing and following your conscious 'will power', except when you have chosen to align it with divine creation

The development of human consciousness means that strategies that once were (overall) directed towards Good, have now become net-harmful. Will power is one of them. 

This is because (to a nearly complete degree) modern Man's will power is cut-off from the creative purposes of God; and cut-off also from his former immersion in the unconscious mind of other-Men. 

In the past, an individual Man's will arose from a context of other Men and from at least some degree of spontaneous sharing of divine purpose - for example, from some degree of 'automatic' harmony with the natural world. 

But nowadays a Man's free will lacks these former (unconscious, spontaneous, automatic) elements of coherence and direction. 

Therefore any strengthening of will power, of focused concentration upon an inner purpose, will - unless deliberately directed into harmony with divine creation - be directed against God and fellow Men. And nowadays this maldirection does not tend to be corrected 'automatically' by unconscious inner feedback impulses. 

In effect; there is only one Good direction for will to be harmonious with God; and an 'infinite' number of bad/ wrong/ evil directions - in pursuit of which will power is dissonant, disruptive - and ultimately destructive of creative harmony.  

Thus we moderns are more free in our will and thinking than ever before; consequently for us to will in harmony with divine creation is a conscious choice; whereas to will in conformity to divine creation used to be, to some extent - albeit an extent dwindling through recorded history - natural and spontaneous.

Yet nowadays we are confronted with a vast array of options and alternatives among which we must and do choose. 

Given this range of choice; most Men choose to conform by (what they regard as) expediency: i.e. they make their choices for their own best advantage... And, in practice, this usually means they will choose whatever is most powerfully imposed upon them. 

In the modern world; this means that Men typically choose whatever is imposed by saturation (by marination) in the outputs of mass media, state and corporate bureaucracies; and by propaganda from all these plus from (what used to be called) churches, law, science, schools and colleges etc. 

And since 2020; it has been obvious that all these are 'converged' onto a single global program: so (in those matters of core importance to the 'world government', the passive individual experiences a unified external will.

What is the nature and direction of this external pressure that is imposed? It is demonic, purposively-evil; it is a will unified in opposition to God, divine creation and The Good. 

Thus passivity is evil; and the scope of such evil is unbounded - including even nonsensical incoherence and the gross inversion of Good - since modern Man's will power can now 'make' whatever 'reality' it chooses. 

 

But this is not inevitable - it is always a choice. 

In effect, it is often a choice made by the cut-off will power to deny choice. 

It is simply choosing passively to yield to external pressure.  

Yet, all the time, the divine harmony and purpose of God's creation is still there - (as it were); in the background; waiting to be noticed and waiting to be chosen: waiting to have will power directed at it. 

Any Man is free make this choice, but it must be a conscious choice.

 

How can a Man know where this choice lies? 

By the possibility of directly knowing God-within each Man, through directing our attention to our real-divine Self; and by directing our will power to make such choices. 

And from 'externally'; through knowing in our hearts the personal presence of the Holy Ghost; which is the spirit of the ascended Jesus Christ... 

This through love-of, and faith-in, that same Jesus Christ - by making the choice to follow the Good Shepherd to eternal resurrected life.  

A History of White Magic by Gareth Knight (1978)

The prolific author Gareth Knight (a pen name of Basil Wilby) died recently at the age of 91; and this was one of his earlier books. I found it very enjoyable, and spiritually stimulating. 

Knight was himself a Christian ritual magician (initiated in The Society of Inner Light - which was founded by Dion Fortune; and his Christianity is foundational to the argument of this book. It takes a very broad view of 'magic' to include imagination generally, the development of human consciousness; and is indeed a history of these matters from a Romantic perspective. 

Structurally, the book is woven around summaries of a very large number of authors and religious/ spiritual movements across a span of history from the ancient Hebrews and Greeks; through the transformative coming of Christianity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the 18th and 19th centuries; right up to some significant books of the middle 1970s such as Robert M Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. 

Throughout, and particularly in the closing chapters, Knight makes thoughtful analyses and commentaries, in pursuit of a thesis concerning the proper and desirable nature of Good/ White/ Christian magic - and the pitfalls of other kinds. 

In this respect, AHOWM reminded me of Colin Wilson's Outsider series, and his books on the Occult/ Mysteries theme. Anyone who likes Wilson's style of writing philosophy, will probably enjoy this in a similar fashion.  

As I have said elsewhere, reflecting on Knight's and other accounts, I think that ritual magic had been a valid mode of Christian life from the late 19th century and up to the middle of the 20th - but that from around the 1980s it began to cease to 'work'; in a fashion that parallels (and ultimately has the same causes as) the decline in all forms of positive and desirable groups and institutions (including the churches). 

I mean that the rituals of White Magic seemed to lose objective efficacy, and became instead essentially psychological (therapeutic, or creative-stimulating) in nature - and often explicitly so. The ability of magicians to work formally, and reliably, in institutional groups, and by organizational rules, began to dwindle considerably. 

In his later life, it seems that Knight's 'magical' practice became something ever-more individual, improvisatory, and like meditation - when compared with the formal rituals of his early training. 

As such, this history of magic is a fascinating instance of the 'evolution of consciousness', the innate development of Man's thinking and relationship with the divine - as described by Owen Barfield - who gets a single mention here for Saving the Appearances. 

Indeed, Gareth Knight's The History of White Magic could be regarded as one man's account of the genealogy of Romantic Christianity. 

Note: Later Knight came to know Barfield personally, and wrote insightfully about his ideas in The Magical World of the Inklings (1990, 2010.) 

Irrelevance, lies, fearmongering; and multi-pronged self-destruction: the Daily 'News'

Some people were woken-up and started to learn by means of the events of 2020 - but mostly not. 

For most people, life continues as before, dominated by the issues of today as dictated by the mass media and the state-corporate bureaucracy. 

Whatever actually happened in 2020 and after - which now seems only vaguely recalled - disappeared like a stone plopping into a moving stream; its ripples soon dispersed and swept-away by the daily input of 'news'. 

I surveyed today's news; and all the main stories were at best irrelevant - deliberate distractions and misleading framing; but mostly lies and fear-propagation strategically designed to facilitate mass manipulation by The System...

There is no consistency between the stories, no attempt at consistency - because evil is united only by what it opposes; and so long as things are situated in opposition to God, divine creation or Jesus Christ; against the beautiful, true or virtuous - then all is readily accepted. 

The dominant global mainstream Leftism is merely the alliance of those who oppose one or another of the aspects of Good; and most people are readily persuaded that their own favourite sin is actually an essential and positive aspects of this secular ideology. 

Leftism in 2022 is the expedient pursuit of one's personal sin/s, under the banner of Sinners United. 

Yet a lot of the news, and the most significant aspects; constitutes evidence that System self-destruction is becoming ever more blatant; and the covering veneer of justification for this destruction, ever thinner and patchier. 

Of course, since the events and responses of 2020; it hardly matters how nonsensical and incoherent are the justifications; because the mass of people are locked-into a self-sustaining state of addictive-gullibility such that anything is taken to justify anything - so long as it emanates from the mainstream.

But since 2020, the balance has tipped decisively from System control towards System self-destruction. 

The recent 'sanctions' campaign against the Fire Nation is the clearest possible example. Never in human history has there been such blatantly-inverted nonsense as the idea of 'fighting' a (fake) enemy by means of a vast and sustained program of self-crippling. 

This self-crippling is multi-pronged and must become lethal; because it encompasses the simultaneous destruction of trade, finance, military effectiveness, energy, transportation; and the mandatory choosing of incompetent and anti-functional human beings - at all levels from the national leadership and that of large corporations; down through middle management to the 'coal face' personnel who are supposed to do the actual work of the world.       

 

In the end, it is the systemic self-destruction by inverse personnel selection, employment and promotion (the diversity/ inclusivity/ equality programme - the deliberate choosing of the most-evilly-motivated leaders) that will cause the deepest damage. 

Yet, Christians should be grateful that a System with such extremely evil priorities and aligned against all that is Good; is indeed committing suicide. 

Presumably Christians will mostly go down with The System; but then, as Christians, we must look beyond this mortal life; and recognize that there are much more important things than 'survival'... 

It is very sad to see so much that it good (beautiful, true and virtuous) go down with the evil that is dominant in our world; and very sad to see so many people holding-fast to their choice against God and Heavenly life eternal. So Many actively desiring their own misery, enslavement to demons, or annihilation - often merely in order to hold-onto their favourite sin for a little while longer... 

Yet, in the final analysis, we are witnessing evil destroying itself with an ideology of (slightly-) disguised self-hatred and suicide; led and followed by those who have chosen self-damnation and whose reward will be Hellish: ever sooner in its timing, and ever worse in its consequences...

While those who have chosen salvation, and are willing and eager to learn spiritual lessons from their mortal experiences, are - except temporarily - unaffected.

Two icons were actually One: "Course-you-can" Malcolm, was Hartley Hare!

It is a dislocating experience to discover that two 1970s British Legends were actually The Same! 

The eponymous character in the Vic Sinex advert who gave the nation a catch-phrase that entered common usage for many years - as a generic reassurance for any doubt; was actually The Same as the naughty and nightmare-inducing mammal from popular children's TV show Pipkins... 

(...a show that - for those who experienced it in youth, became the very definition of the term Low Budget). 

 

I admit that Malcolm and Hartley do not look very alike, at least superficially; but recall that we are here dealing with a master of disguise. 

Yet on reflection and fundamentally; the two are clearly one and the same whiny, seedy, camp layabout that so fascinated (and, no doubt, corrupted) Britons young and old - a mere fifty years ago. 

What is the larger and vital issue, of which the "Mandela effect" is supposedly an instance?

I have heard of the Mandela Effect several times; but until yesterday I did not really get what was being proposed - in its full and astonishing scope. 

Vox Day describes the ME as 'supernatural gaslighting' - meaning a demonic activity. In this particular instance the assertion is that everybody who is informed and competent knows that the Bible talks of the Lion laying down with the Lamb - but when somebody nowadays looks-up this reference in a Bible, he finds that it is the Wolf which lays down with the Lamb. 

The basic idea is that supernatural evil has operated to change the Bibles of the world (this happening at a certain point in recent history), has changed what is written in them; so that now our memory conflicts with the 'evidence'. 

And this was done as a Satanic PSYOP; in order to have a disorientating psychological effect - so that people will no longer trust their memories, or their own judgment, and will easily be manipulated by The System (which is itself controlled by the devil). 

(Aside: This proposed mechanism - of a spirit literally re-writing history - reminds me of an ability of the evil god Ruin in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy. Ruin can affect any writing, unless it is inscribed on certain types of metal.) 

The Mandela Effect is therefore is a specific (asserted) instance of a large and vital issue of these times about which I have blogged many times recently; which is whether to believe our inner memories or 'external evidence', to believe our own experience or external authority, to believe what we have worked-out for ourselves or to accept the interpretations of 'experts' - And, for Christians, whether to build our fundamental faith on The Church; or from our personal knowledge-of and relationship-with God and Jesus Christ. 

The difficulty I have with the Mandela Effect is that I am not very sure of my own memory in any of the famously-cited instances. 

For example - the example which gave the name was that apparently many people remember being told that Nelson Mandela died in jail - before he was released and became President; but I don't have any such memory of him dying in jail. 

So, for me to accept that this was an instance of memory conflicting with 'evidence' - would, in fact, merely be an instance of my preferring one form of external evidence over another. 

And, although I certainly agree that everything I have ever heard was about the Lion laying down with the Lion, and never about a Wolf - I do not have any specific memory of words in the Bible where this was supposedly written in the past; because I think I got all the remembered Lion and Lamb examples secondhand.

One aspect of some instances of the Mandela Effect is that it attributes to the demonic power the ability to affect-remotely and to re-write already existing books from a certain time-point - and indeed ancient manuscripts. But this is something that I do not accept: I do not believe that Satan can physically tamper-with all the Bibles of the world. 

But I do believe that Satan can do something of this kind with electronic media and communications; i.e. that demonic spirits can (in some sense) inhabit and interact with these and with computers; and I believe that fact this lies behind the push to put everything online, and to induce us to live virtually via the internet. 

So much so; that nowadays rewriting electronic media would appear almost exactly the same as having re-written all the Bibles of the world. 

As small instances; e-books I have in the past purchased through Kindle have periodically been changed - without informing me or asking permission; simply via my reading device being connected to the internet. 

And it is easy to make a program to search for and change specific words, so that when one views the page of an online newspaper, the text has already been modified as instructed.  

All that is needed is to imagine scaling-up this kind of intervention by intelligent spirits with evil purpose that dwelt within the electronic media. 

...Although, if so, then there would almost certainly also be some good spirits, angels, that were able to do something similar but with opposite intent to the demons. 

Yet it may be that (as Rudolf Steiner intuited) the world of electricity is in a profound sense a demonically-created medium or sub-nature; that may therefore be more conducive to evil than good. 

If so, unless I was myself physically to check an old Bible, and communicate my findings verbally and face to face, or by snail mail; then any electronic communication could (in principle) be intercepted and changed. Everything we found on the internet might (theoretically) have been thus tampered-with. 

This would look exactly as-if all the Bibles in the world had been re-written. 

In conclusion, I accept that the Mandela Effect may, in this modified sense, be a Real Thing; and that it represents yet another challenge for spiritual discernment; in which - to pass the test - we need to believe and live-by that which comes from within and from direct knowledge of the divine; instead of being credulously manipulated by external public media - which nowadays includes everything recently-produced, and anything accessed via the internet, computers, or other electronic phenomena. 

As global Armageddon looms - we are left with only one option

There is no alternative. 

Common sense is flouted, rational argument is ignored, all the normal channels have failed. 

The time has come: 

We must reverse the polarity of the neutron flow...

Academic life - the niche that was, but is no longer

I was brought-up from my latter childhood in an academic environment; and through the teens of my schooldays I was strongly drawn to the idea of being a university teacher and/or researcher. 

I could easily imagine myself in such an environment - and the subject matter was somewhat secondary. 

But at the time I was applying for college and leaving school, I was instead going through a phase in which my idea was to become a clinical doctor - probably a general practitioner - half time, and spend the rest of the day growing my own food, and maybe keeping a few animals on a smallholding. 

Mostly I was drawn to the biological side of science, but I was also interested in economics and politics (from a left wing and 'environmentalist angle). In fact - as I recall - when I had done my pre-university A-level exams, I thought I had somewhat messed-up (objectively so, in a Chemistry practical) and would maybe fail to get-into medical school; which had, at the time, the most competitive entry requirements. 

If I failed; I then had a serious idea to change direction altogether, and to study economics and politics, applying a year later*. I can remember a conversation with a good friend in which I said exactly this. In retrospect it can be seen that I was more drawn to the university life generally, than to any specific subject.  

(In the event, I had done extremely well in my A-levels, and could probably have got in to any university to study anything for which the A-levels were appropriate. I never was able to predict my examination results - five years later I was seriously worried - on what seemed like rational grounds - that I had failed my final exams at medical school - yet again I had done extremely well). 

In a nutshell; I implicitly saw university as a kind of 'ecological niche' in which I might find a suitable environment; and later this implicit understanding became explicit as I realized that I was an unusual kind of person, with unusual motivations in life. I had a sense of 'destiny' but no clear idea of where it led - only that I could tell when I was off the path, and found such a situation intolerable. 

Within two weeks of starting work as a qualified doctor doing clinical practice; I knew I would not be able to function in that environment - and the only question was how best to extract myself from this path and return to my older idea of being an academic. Lack of courage, combined with unclarity of my own objectives, meant this process took two further years. 

I began doctoral research in medical bioscience; and it was rapidly obvious that academia was right for me. I felt at-home, confident; and I knew inwardly and by instinct what was right and wrong in that world. 

I used to say that - compared with medicine - I did a half-time job for half the salary - which 'bargain' provided the 'broad margin' to life that was essential to me. 

But the primary subject matter in which I should 'make a living' was still unclear; because my serious interests still straddled several subjects. 

I began to gravitate towards philosophy (which I had been reading for several years, and doing some evening classes), and got as far as being offered a place to do an accelerated degree in two (instead of the usual three) years at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

But then, as the possibility became concrete; I realized that this was not the right path - for several reasons; and that English Literature was closer to what I wanted or needed. In the end, after finishing my doctorate, I did an MA by research at Durham - which felt very helpful and positive, although did not answer any deep questions. 

By this time, I felt that my unusual combination of interests and abilities made me able to contribute something distinctive to academia. 

I was not doing any genuinely original and creative work - but the combination from my background made my contribution at least novel - and I thought that would suffice, for the time being, anyway... 

In retrospect, unconsciously, I think I was waiting. Waiting partly to mature (which took longer than for most people), and partly to find 'my subject' - a field in which I had aptitude, and that would mobilize my spontaneous and deep motivations; a subject into which I could pour my best mental efforts.  

And while I waited, I worked as an academic; teaching and doing research (and avoiding administration) - and pursuing other interests including journalism. I did not pursue an academic 'career' - because I kept moving 'sideways' and changing subjects; and I would not do more than the minimum necessary administration.

I was seeking a suitable niche rather than climbing a ladder. 

And when I eventually found my subject - and then further subjects; and began to do serious creative work, this academic niche enabled me to do so. 

I did not know of any other job that would have enabled it. 

It is a sadness that the niche which made possible my proper work no longer exists, nor has it been replaced by an alternative. Seriously-motivated and creative work can now only be done unpaid, as an amateur - which means unintegrated with whatever material means of support enables it. 

And the 'community' for which such work is done, has likewise been driven from all professions and exists only among voluntary affiliations of 'friends', rather than among professionals. 

For myself, I am pleased that the niche lasted long enough to enable my period of innerly-driven and intense scientific engagement - which ran from 1994 to 2016. 

By the time I retired, the job of being an academic had only a very superficial resemblance to forty years before, a job that went back in its essence to the Middle Ages. 

By 2019 - in depth and in nature, in its essence - the academic bureaucracy had become integrated into the global establishment with its core ideology of materialism-leftism and its ethic of value-inversion. The job of an academic had been transformed into that of a bureaucratic functionary. 

And, like all traditional institutions, the situation is irrevocable. Real universities and real academics are dead and gone; they cannot be revived, and the attempt should not be made. 

Whatever that is good and possible must start - here-and-now - from the personal and voluntary work of idealistically-dedicated individuals; outside of institutions.  

As for 2022 niches for people like I used-to-be?... well that is their problem, not mine; since my primary interests have changed. 

If someone is serious about his work, and insofar as that work is aligned with divine creation, it will be made possible.

One-off niches will be created for long-enough to enable what needs to be done. 

*I had no idea that university economics had (unfortunately for all of us) become highly mathematical by that time; which would in reality have ruled-out the subject for me; both in terms of aptitude and interest.  

The major test of these times is Fear - the temptation is Safety

We are tested every day by the sin of fear. And the temptation - offering a delusory escape from fear - is safety. 

If we compare our post 2020 world with life a few decades ago; it is clear that we are now controlled primarily by the negative sin of fear (with a side-order of spiteful resentment: the stock-in-trade of socialism, feminism, antiracism and the other leftisms). These are negative sins because they are directed-against. 

By contrast to the fear-dominated present, in the past other, and more 'positive' sins - desires-for-something rather than resistance-to-something - were often more dominant: sins such as power/ conquest, (capitalist) greed and (sexual) lust.

 

It is pretty obvious that nowadays the world is 'managed' primarily by the inculcation of fears; and by attempting to trigger those in fear, to 'escape' by means of fake-solutions that promote the totalitarian-demonic agenda.  

Major examples are the birdemic fear - with totalitarian lockdown/ masking/ social-distancing and the (unnecessary, ineffective, harmful) peck offering pseudo-safety. And global warming as the fear - with world economic destruction with totalitarian control (aka. the 'sustainable' Green Economy) as fake-escape. 

(Non-coincidentally; 'economic suicide' is also the major policy-answer to fear of the recent Fire Nation/ Earth Nation.)  

Fear is also the stock-in-trade of the 'secular Right': fear of mass immigration, violent social breakdown, starvation, civil war, mass poisoning and other health threats... 

The temptations, the fake solutions, on the secular Right include personal survivalism (prepping), a type of rigorous healthism/ body-building, organized aggressive political resistance, a Strong Man leader restoring militaristic patriarchy...

The difference between the left and the non-religious Right; is that secular Right fears are based on broadly realistic threats and potentially effective answers; while the mainstream Left fears are manufactured from very little - or nothing at all; and the proffered 'escapes' from fear make matters worse. 

Also, in general, among those who are living in fear and strategizing to escape; the typical leftist advocates passive and Establishment-obedient responses; while the secular Rightist is more likely to respond to his own fear with (at least verbal) aggression and (at least threats of) defiance. 

Yet, discourse concerning the reality or fakery of the fear, and the effectiveness or counter-productiveness of proposed escapes, are themselves part of the problem. 

Because fear is a sin in and of itself, it compounds the sin to try and escape fear by attempting to eliminate that which is feared. 

In a practical sense; it will not work - because yielding to any fear creates vulnerability to other fears; so that all escapes lead into a positive-feedback loop of fear generating fear. 

Since, on the one hand, the supply of fears is unlimited; whereas, on the other hand, mounting any potentially-effective response to even a single fear is time-, effort- and resource-consuming; constrained by multiple personal, societal and technical factors. 

But in a spiritual sense, matters are simple - fear is a sin and must be identified as such; then repented, then itself defeated. 

The one-and-only appropriate and effective response to any and all fears - and a response that has unbounded scope - is to trust in the power and love of God; and to frame the fears of this mortal life in the context of eternal Heaven. 

The proper spiritual response to fear is to eliminate fear - the sinful delusion is to address the supposed cause of the fear. 

(Whether or not we, personally, should engage in an active or passive attempt to remove the specific source of any specific fear; is a secondary, contingent, pragmatic matter - and thus always contentious.) 

This, therefore, is the nature of the test of these times. On a daily basis we will be assaulted by fears, and probably these assaults will have some effect - and we will experience fear. 

We therefore need to identify 'the latest fear' as always an evil - whether it is real or fake. 

And instead of immediately seeking for 'safety' and escape-from-the-fear in some physical activity (regardless of whether that activity is potentially-effective, or not)...

The proper response is that we need to repent fear (any fear) and bring to mind that God is our loving parent and the ongoing-creator of this world - and that those who desire it, may follow Jesus Christ to everlasting resurrection after this mortal life. 

Fear is the recurring test, and love of God is the proper response. 

Only after fear has been thus conquered, may we attempt to address its supposed cause.  

As such; then testing-times may become learning-times; and every repeated and novel demonic assault and delusion, may be converted to an increase in the strength of our Christian orientation.