Motivation is vital - but what is it?

I've been harping-on about the vital importance of "motivation" since I began daily blogging in 2010 - and repeating that this, our age is characterized by extremely (historically) low levels of motivation. So it's maybe about time I clarified what I mean, and what I do not mean, by "motivation"...

Motivation needs to be distinguished from power; indeed motivation is revealed when power is lacking; when there are stresses and adversity working against it; and over the course of time. when weak motivations inevitably fail.

Motivation is long-term; and continues despite lack of external encouragement or reward - and in the face of active dis-couragement and negative sanctions. 

Be clear that high motivation is not sufficient to good: it depends on what that motivation aims at, and someone might be highly-motivated towards evil. 

However, motivation is necessary to good; because without motivation, people merely conform to external incentives and pressures. 

Therefore motivation underpins long-term courage; and motivation is an aspect of "freedom" or "agency". 

Motivation is inner, ultimately; therefore needs to be distinguished from what people actually do in their lives; because actions are subject to external control. In an extreme case, a slave's actions may be almost wholly controlled (on pain of death), yet that slave can be motivated to good. 

Or, more commonly, a person may be prevented from "actioning" his motivations by many adversities such as inborn deficits or damage, sickness or accident, or a character that is weak-willed. 

Because will-power is not motivation. indeed, most people with exceptionally high levels of will-power - I have known several - use this to pursue socially-valued behaviours. Their will is thus subject to somebody-else's externally-supplied motivation. Such a life-strategy does not need real (i.e. inner) motivation. 

But a highly motivated person might we thwarted by his own deficiencies from achieving anything significant, or observable - and these deficiencies may include lack of "will power".  Such an individual's "aim is true", but his ability to action that aim is feeble.  

 

A highly-motivated person is one who sticks to his inner goal, his destiny (as he has chosen it); even when he is unfitted, or for any reason unable, to achieve that destiny - even when he acknowledges that he has failed.

High motivation is therefore indomitable: it cannot be beaten in this mortal life. 

And when motivation is aligned with God and divine creation, when motivation seeks salvation by following Jesus Christ - then we get the needful Christian combination. 

We get someone who will achieve resurrection to eternal life whatever happens or does not happen in the external world. 

And that is the vital importance of motivation. 

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Note: The next question is perhaps: How then do I become a highly-motivated, indomitable Christian? That is a task in its own right; and one that involves meeting one's own innate and most-intuitive aims with a long-term and solid apprehension of the Goodness and love of God the Creator. Second-hand information and advice do not suffice. External influences and pressures are more likely to be deceptive than helpful. It is a personal quest. But one who recognizes the absolute need for inner Christian motivation, is guaranteed timely success - exactly because God is the Creator, is good, and loves us each individually.   

The motivational (non-systematic) basis of real science

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Science is a mystery - it happened by accident, unplanned, as a by-product of other cultural changes - and no sooner had people developed a recognition of what had happened, and devised some ideas obout how science worked - than it stopped working and transformed into just-another dishonest, self-serving futile bureaucracy.

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But what was the basis of science?

The key was motivation, individual motivation - specifically the motivation to discover more of the truth of things in order to be able to do something.

Only when science is underpinned by the proper motivation of individual 'scientists' will it work.

(Obviously there will always be 'rotten apples' in science; but there cannot be too many nor at too high a proportion, else science will stop being science.)

There is only one proper motivation for science (i.e. truth-seeking), and an infinite number of wrong motivations, which point-off in every other direction than the proper one.

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Specifically, each scientist will be motivated by a sub-goal (not to discover the truth about everything, of course; but a particular thing).

The specific motivation would be something like trying to discover something; to invent something like a theory or a device; to solve a problem - e.g. in measuring, predicting, performing some function; to do something like cure a disease, navigate, carry a load.

Something like that.

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How much specialization should there be in science?

The answer is determined by motivation - by what each scientist is motivated to do.

There should be as much specialization as is judged to be helpful in doing that thing.

Social aspects of science also flow from motivation.

If the motivational goal can be achieved by a single person them obviously there is no reason for science to be a social activity; but a mutuality of interest may lead to cooperation, which would essentially be informal (based on mutual benefit). This will lead to the proper degree of the right kind of cooperation.

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The rewards of science come initially from the intrinsic motivation and secondarily, when there are groups, from the status within the group and from the status of the group.

So that, although there is a pecking order within the group, which is a zero sum game; there is also a sense in which any group bound by mutual interest will award itself status, compared with those people who are not thus interested.

This means that all members of a group bound together by individual motivation may get psychological rewards from the group membership, based on them all making a contribution to that groups motivational goals - so even the lowliest member can feel a reward.

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Science as a social process therefore happens when a task (coming from individual motivation) is too great for a single person to accomplish alone using available resources: for example when the making of a new kind of weapon requires the making of a new kind of material - the weapon maker and the material maker may cooperate to achieve this goal, which neither could do alone.

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But if motivation is applied via a formal system, then scientists will (firstly) have their motivations re-shaped in order to satisfy system criteria; then (next) the actual selection of 'scientists' will cease to be on the basis of motivation and will instead be on the basis of system criteria - and it will stop being a science.

Because system demands are always partial and biased, and the fastest, easiest and most direct route to satisfying system demands will never be identical to personal motivations, and can be unconstrainedly different.

There is therefore no limit to how non-scientific real science can evolve-to-become, once personal motivation has been abandoned and replaced as the foundation.

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Once motivation has been abandoned as the core of science and the principle behind its 'organization', the only thing standing in the path of complete corruption is inertia due to the overlap of generations.

So, all attempts to make science person-proof and independent of individual motivation will destroy real science - although typically the destruction will only become gradually obvious, as earlier generations of individually-motivated scientists lose influence, retire and die-off.

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As usual, the benefits of impersonal systematization are immediate and short-term; while the harm is delayed and long-term.

Thus science becomes yet another victim of its own success.

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Why is motivation primary?

Motivation is primary because life is 'dynamic'; all is alive and conscious, ultimate (metaphysical) reality is of beings and their relationships.

This is The Spiritual - and materialism is wrong and evil because it denies this primacy.

Reality is thus dynamic - and also participative.


It is the fact of our participation in the creation of reality that makes motivation primary; because when we are participating in creating reality it is our motivation that shapes the nature of that reality.

(I mean this literally - it is not our subjective impression of reality that is shaped by motivation; but objective reality iself.)

A person of good motivation (aligned with God and divine creation) will make the world in harmony with good.


By contrast, a person of evil motivation (aligned with the personal powers of evil, and their intent to subvert, destroy, invert good, reducing creation to chaos) will pursue an anti-creative way of existence.

An evil-motivated person will - in his existence and overall in outcomes - be net-undoing creation, in effect working-against good. 


Motivation describes which way we are pointing in our living...

We each are pointing either towards contributing to the harmonious development of on-going creation... or Not.

In all our doings, we are each aligned-with God's creative purposes, or Not.


It is not each individual action or type-of-action (as if these could truly detached from the stream of time...) that is crucial, rather it is the dynamic 'process' of creat-ing (in time; time is intrinsic to the dynamic).

To use different words; the actuality of participation is a weaving-in of our personal creating (through time) with God's creating (through time) - this harmonious weaving depends on aiming in the same direction, at the same goal.


Motivation therefore describes the direction of our intent.

Only when our direction is shared with God's, is our motivation the correct direction. Only then will our living be joined-with creation.

In sum: morality is dependent on our motivation; and motivation is our direction-of-pointing; and direction is our choice of 'alignment' in the spiritual warfare of mortal life.


Note added: It is interesting to consider why (and this goes back some decades) people-in-general absolutely refuse to consider the question of motivation - despite that without knowing (i.e. inferring, because it can never be 'known') motivation, most actions cannot be evaluated. 

We know this from 'real life' - plus good fiction: it makes all the difference whether Gandalf says something, or if Saruman speaks the same words. 

This refusal to discern and judge motivation is so pervasive, and goes so strongly against self-interest, that I regard it as pathological. In other words, it is part of a widespread/ all-but-universal 'mental illness'. 

Which illness is the mainstream materialism/ secularism/ atheism... Once one has assumed that we life in a random-determined, purposeless and meaningless universe; then it seems peoples' motivations dwindle inexorably, and only the here-and-now behavioural-stimulus has any traction (and that not much). 

Powerful and robust motivation seems essential to a good (mortal) life; yet many effective motivations are delusional or evil

The question of motivation is one that has occupied me since before I began blogging; because I regard the modern West as a profoundly demotivated society. And without powerful and robust motivation - we are easily externally manipulated, and indeed come to desire and depend-upon external motivations. 

This much was recognized more than a century ago by CG Jung, whose therapy and philosophy was mainly about encouraging people to discover their own strong motivations - usually searching in our unconscious memories and emotions, and trying to strengthen and make conscious what we find. 

This either foreshadowed or led-to a while branch of mainstream and popular therapy and spirituality that (in various words) suggests that people discover what they really want to do: and then do it!

Thus far - the advice would be that we each, and individuals, need to discover that which motivates us powerfully and robustly. 

But, on its own, such advice implicitly assumes that all strong and enduring personal motivations are necessarily A Good Thing - or, if not good in any general of societal sense; then at least things necessary and inevitable for our personal development and happiness. 

Clearly, this is not the case. 

In the first place; some people are powerfully and enduringly motivated by selfish, exploitative, spiteful of destructive intentions towards other people, or other entities. 

And secondly; some people are motivated by falsehoods - including the psychotic delusions of the overtly insane (which can be overpowering motivators). Such strong delusions can immiserate and even destroy the life of the person who holds them.  

The conclusion seems clear: powerful and robust motivation is a very effective way of subjectively-improving the experience this mortal life - of providing direction and meaning. not enough - at least from a bigger perspective. 

Unfortunately; this works almost regardless of the nature of motivation. Religious-, political-, artistic-, lifestyle-, cult-motivations of opposite and incompatible kinds, have provided similarly life-enhancing for different people. 

And actually delusional (even self damaging) false beliefs and desires can motivate people towards (what apparently feels like, and perhaps is) a better everyday life overall.  

Motivation Is Not Enough!

As an example from my own life: From 1994 (and I know the exact day and circumstance!) and for about 20 years I was very highly motivated as a scientist. 

After a decade of working as a scientist - doing research and teaching - I "found my problem"; which was evolutionary theory as (mostly) as applied to humans, and (mostly) psychology. This strong and (relatively) lasting motivation enhanced my experience of life; and greatly enhanced my "achievement" as a scientist, albeit not my career as an academic.   

However; the enhancement was partial, and was initially harmfully-distorting to my world-view; as I increasingly tended to regard my "subject" as The most fundamental description of reality. The motivation introduced a major and damaging incoherence to my "life" (in the largest sense of life). 

Such harmful distortion is almost inevitable given the partial, and inevitably evil-tainted, nature of nearly-all actual specific motivations in this world. 

Furthermore, after a couple of decades - which is actually a long time to be a dedicated and active scientist, not many people manage as long or longer - this motivation, and indeed all forms of motivation, faded significantly, and I was no longer self-propelled with directional vitality. 

Finding my motivation was therefore substantially helpful, but contained the seeds of its own demise; and was anyway radically-insufficient in an ultimate sense.  

It is because our motivations have such a foundational role in the good experiences of life, that they are so tenaciously held - and that which provides the motivation may be absurd, mistaken, or evil makes surprisingly little difference, or no difference at all. 

What this adds-up-to; is that it is potentially very helpful to our enjoyment of our life, if we can discover what it is that "works for us" as a strong and lasting motivation...

But even if that is effective, and even if we succeed in the Jungian project of finding-out and following our personal "bliss";  this is an essentially subjective and idiosyncratic phenomenon; so the subject of motivation is pretty much arbitrary, may be grossly false; and may be evil (evil, even including as judged by our own evaluations). 

My interpretation is that the problem of "me" having the most-satisfying and most-gratifying mortal life on earth that I can manage (albeit temporarily); is essentially separate from the ultimate problems of goodness - of truth, beauty, and virtue. 

Because that which motivates effectively may be (and perhaps always is, to some significant extent) bad: false, wicked, and/or ugly. 

It is therefore fortunate that the salvation of Jesus Christ does not depend upon us having found a life-enhancing motivation! 

Indeed; the motivation for a person to accept, desire, work-towards resurrected eternal life in Heaven through following Jesus might well be a personal failure to discover what works for himself as a powerful and robust motivator. 

Indeed; it is evident that there are many people who - by their nature or from circumstances or pathologies - are only weakly motivated; and experience their mortal lives as purposeless and meaningless.

And these relatively-unmotivated people may be more inclined to embrace the salvation of Jesus; than are those seemingly-fortunate people of greater health and vitality, whose busy and successful mortal lives are shaped and directed by some strong motivator!

The fallacy of fixing things (more on motivation, and its lack, and its absolute necessity)

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Almost all of public life nowadays focuses around the business of fixing things; and virtually no fixing actually gets done.

It is certainly a thing which draws you in: diagnosing what is wrong, coming-up with schemes to fix it...

But it is wearying because the most sensible (simple, effective) schemes don't ever get adopted - and instead there are stubborn attempts to 'implement' ineffective, complex schemes, which are only tangentially related to what needs fixing - or else completely unrelated but simply 'sold' on the basis of lies and misrepresentation. Once introduced these useless, expensive, intrusive schemes are virtually impossible to dislodge.

But none of this stops the bandwagon rolling. Every day new fixes, critique of fixes, defences of fixes...

Things don't get fixed because at a very fundamental level people don't want them fixed. Failed pseudo-fixes persist because people benefit from the failures.

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Motivation, motivation, motivation! The key to humans is motivation. Real motivations - and not asserted motivations.

In Britain all sorts of agencies and organizations are always claiming to be 'passionate' about some or other issue - but that is the point: they are not passionate, they are not motivated - they merely use the word.

Being passionate, being powerfully motivated, is not about rhetoric, nor is it about making passionate faces or noises: it is seen in actions.

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The level of lying in public life, in organization life, in any of the bureaucracies - is so vast that it is really better not to listen to the words or look at the pictures; but just look at what people do, and what they do not do.

Less information is more knowledge. Less training is more understanding.

And nothing can or will be done without motivation - motivated leaders; yes - but motivated leaders only come in a context of motivated followers; otherwise there are just fake-motivated leaders (and a pretty feeble fake it is too).

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There is really very little point in the vast exercises in information gathering and analysis, in strategies and plans and regulations, when there is near zero motivation. To say we are living in a house of cards is to understate the situation.

If or when any group emerges that is genuinely motivated they will simply walk-in and seize power; nobody will be sufficiently motivated to stop them; and they will attract support simply because they are motivated.

Such motivation cannot be manufactured; there is no formula or trick - it must tap-into some reality of human nature. This doesn't at all mean that anything which motivates is good; but it does mean that anything which fails to motivate is bad.

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And our general societal state of demotivation is bad: it is completely unacceptable.

We should not tolerate it, we should not try and get used to it or adjust to it; we should regard it as a matter of extreme urgency to find what it takes to motivate us.

I do not mean motivation at any cost; but I do mean that we must reject anything which does not motivate.

I do not mean superficial motivation, a motivation for an hour or a day or a fortnight (these are over-provided a thousandfold) - I mean deep, slow-burning, sinewy, rugged, tenacious, stubborn, resistant motivation - that drives-us, drags-us, fuels-us, and inspires-us to trudge onward through the headwinds and bogs and despite our handicaps and hunger.

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Motivation cannot be faked; and if we have it, then we know it.

We do not have it, as a culture; but it is there to be had.

It is absolutely necessary; and we should be satisfied with nothing less.

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What are conspiracy theories and why are they suddenly being suppressed?

Some years ago I wrote a fair bit about the nature of delusions; especially the kind of 'rational delusions' seen in an unusual condition called Delusional Disorder.

I realised that these delusions were just part of the spectrum of normal thinking; and I also realised that when we are engaged in trying to understand social phenomena ('other people') the most important and first step is to decide upon their 'motivations' (more exactly their 'Dispositions, Motivations and Intentions' - DMI; but I shall shorten this to motivations).

Specific, individual human actions have no meaning unless they can be understood as expressions of motivation. If we deny that a person, or organisation, has any motivation; then we cannot make sense of what they do. If we get the motivation wrong, we will misunderstand what they do. And there is no 'objective' way of knowing motivation, because it is in the 'mind' of another.


So, here we have an absolutely vital matter; yet one about which a decision can, in practice, be impossible to agree-upon; because any differences in imputed motivation change the meaning of any particular behaviour - to make a self-validating circularity.

(e.g. Once we have decided a person is hostile, their actions will be interpreted as hostile; and vice versa. Exactly the same action can be seen as hostile or benign, according to imputed motivation. In particular, nothing a person can ever do is a decisive refutation of our already-existing imputed motivation.)

One would have to be insensible not to notice the current massive increase in accusations that somebody or some-organisation is a 'conspiracy theorist' - and this is because a 'conspiracy theorist' is someone who claims that there is an evil motivation behind the behaviour of the powerful global elites. It seems that the assumption of a real and evil global elite is becoming sufficiently common that it needs to be dealt-with.

By contrast, there is (in the mass media, government, and legal system) the inbuilt assumption that either there is no global elite, hence no motivation at all (and world affairs are not directed). Or else it is regarded as evidentially-true that insist that the motivations of the global elite are benign. So, anyone who assumes both that the global elite is 1. a real thing and 2. of evil intent; is regarded as 'a conspiracy theorist', because they are 'factually wrong'; hence either incompetent, insane or evil (or more than one of these).

Conspiracy theorists used to be tolerated but systematically mocked; however in the last year or so, they are also being deplatformed and defunded - on the excuse that they propagate 'false' information. However, as described above, the truth or falsity of information is always secondary to motivation. Facts, as such, cannot be either true or false - there cannot even be 'a fact' nor could one be recognised without a prior conceptual scheme explaining what is and how to recognise a fact. And therefore, it is precisely motivation, and not facts, that is at issue.

My primary point is that this matter cannot be decided by 'evidence' because evidence is precisely dictated by assumptions. the notion that conspiracy theorists are punished for propagating false facts is not true. What is really going-on?  In a nutshell; conspiracy theorists are being deplatormed and defunded on the justification that they are evil; and the specific evil of which conspiracy theorists are accused is that they assert the reality of a global elite, and that they further assert this global elite is of evil motivation, overall.


The reality, the existence, of a global elite can neither be proved nor disproved by evidence; the intention of such a group can neither be proved nor disproved by evidence - and either state of affairs is possible.

Yet, for a Christian, our entire understanding of what is happening in public affairs depends upon the basic decision of whether to believe or disbelieve in a global elite of rulers; and - if we do believe in their reality, whether to regard their motivations as essentially aligned with God's wishes, or else against God's motivations.

(For a Christian there are no other possibilities - one is either pro- or contra-God, although there are degrees of both.)   

And it is absolutely arbitrary (hence illegitimate) to prejudge this issue by claiming that we ought-to (for example) always assume 'cock-up rather than conspiracy' (always assume that apparent coherence is a delusional misinterpretation of randomness) - since both deliberate conspiracy and unorganised chaos are possible and common in human affairs; there is no good reason to pre-assume one state rather than the other; especially when that assumption will dictate the interpretation and understanding of all  subsequent evidence.

As so often, the first and most important move is to clarify the issue, and acknowledge that here is an unavoidable judgement and choice to be made.

Is there a global elite? If not then there can be no understanding of global affairs. If so, is teh conspiracy net-Good or net-evil?

Because the understanding of evidence concerning a global elite is utterly shaped by this prior decision regarding motivation - and yet no understanding at all is possible until after the assumption has been made.


Note: The identity and motivation of a global elite conspiracy is also disputed. Materialist atheist conspiracy theorists regard the global elite as human, and working towards human goals such as wealth, power, sex and the sadistic infliction of suffering. But Christian conspiracy theorists may regard the ultimate and strategic evil elite as supernatural, that is demonic; and their goals as being mainly about causing human damnation. 

A personal God: God who is a person

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It seems our great need (here and now) is for a personal God - impersonal deity does not answer to our needs: it just doesn't.

A God who is a person, and who has a personal relationship with us as persons... anything less and we dissolve into meaninglessness.

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It is not that it is an error to conceptualize deity in impersonal terms - as bliss, consciousness, physical force, tendencies, cycles, directions... It is not so much an error but a radically partial truth.

It is mostly that if even 100% accepted and assimilated - it doesn't do us any real good: it doesn't do us the good that most needs doing and without which improvements are futile.

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To envisage our mortal life on earth as an attempt to dissolve our selves back into deity - to lose person-hood - is to regard life on earth and our selves as some kind of mistake.

Why do we exist as mortal incarnates living on this planet, merely in order to reverse the situation - to dismantle the essence of mortal life? We are conscious only to have the task of destroying consciousness? What for?

No - to aim at obliterating the ego into impersonal deity is an analgesic only - a tranquillizer - a way of numbing the pain of existence: it cannot, intrinsically cannot, provide a purpose for earthly mortality because it denies the basic validity of this state of earthly mortality.

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A personal God: a God who is a person... this is a stumbling block for moderns who consider this kind of God to be a naive and childish psychological 'projection' - 'anthropomorphism' - thereby unwittingly accepting a Freudian psychological process which has, of itself, zero validity, to explain-away, dismiss, dissolve the most fundamental and vital basis for motivation.

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Motivation is modern man's most lethal deficit: lacking motivation all else follows.

Motivation depends on meaning.

An arbitrary motivation, a contingent motivation, a temporary motivation, a manufactured motivation, a motivation we 'see though - these are not motivations at all across the span of a life - or the scope of a civilization).

Motivation depends on meaning, and meaning depends on personal relations; and personal relations must be underpinned by a personal relation with God else they will destroy motivation rather than sustain it - because we know that we and everybody else will die; and sans God that dissolves everything.

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We cannot wriggle off this hook - from where-we-are the choice is stark. We must have a relationship with a God who is a person; or we face nihilism.

This is the situation into which we have been engineered by purposive evil triumphant: we must have a personal God - yet a personal God strikes us as made-up nonsense.

And many people cannot shake-off this sense of made-up-ness: some of them seek refuge in abstract deities of an impersonal type - but such gods do not, indeed cannot, do the job we ask of them - the job that must be done.

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So here we are. This is what we must do, or die inside (die inside as individuals and as a society): experience nothingness of motivation, relation, purpose, meaning.

We must believe in, live by, the reality of a God who is a person and with whom we personally can have a relationship.

That's it in a nutshell - no escaping it.

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Seeking motivation - what kind of thing are we looking for?

I have often said that motivation is what is decisively lacking in modern (post-Christian, post-religious, post-spiritual, materialistic) Men; and (e.g. this morning) I inferred that the search for motivation is therefore one of the most urgent of all imperatives. 

But people often have the wrong idea about what it would be like to discover a strong and deep motivation appropriate to these times. They tend to seek an overpowering motivation - that is, they test the authenticity of a motivation by the evaluation that it is irresistible. 

I regard this as a mistake; because for Men to want this is (I infer) a covert wish to have motivation taken-from them. They want Not to have to think-about motivation, not to have to make a conscious choice. 

In other words, to seek to be overpowered is to seek the avoidance of responsibility ("I can't help myself, it is irresistible!").   

What is instead needed is a motivation that we recognize and can affirm (de profundis - from the depths) to be primary, core to our highest aspirations, and the bottom-line for how we ought to be. 

Thus we would not be overpowered; but we would acknowledge that this motivation is real/ true/ beautiful - and in general Good - and feel this as deeply and solidly as we know. 

Such a motivation need not be observed (not necessarily read, heard or seen) it may simply "come to us" or "strike us" as a thing directly-known, Just Known. 

And then consciously chosen. 

I hope this may be helpful in knowing what to look-for - and when you have found it. 

Imagination, purpose and motivation

It is most valuable for us to learn to exercise our imaginative capability in order to muse upon the possibilities of purpose beyond any we have, as yet, been able to grasp.

For we can notice that in human nature we can withstand almost any difficulties except the loss of a sense of purpose.

We can make do without happiness, comfort and love, if we feel that the reason for doing so is some great purpose.

This will lead us to expect the same principle to apply to all other beings in any other level or classroom in the university. Consequently, if we can deepen, widen and clarify our sense of purpose, it will have a very far reaching effect.

William Arkle - Equations of Being: notes on the nature of love

http://www.billarkle.co.uk/prose/equations/chap07.html

I have often remarked that the number one problem in the modern West is Motivation! Motivation! Motivation! That is we are nihilists; and therefore lack any basis for powerful and sustained motivation - which renders us feeble, cowardly, alienated, and ultimately suicidal.

And it could be argued that our chronic feebleness of motivation is itself a consequence of lack of purpose - because purpose is what potentially generates motivation.

Modern man tends to suppose that purposes are interchangeable, malleable - that we can pick up and put down purposes, direct and then redirect our motivations. But that is not what it looks-like. What it looks like is that we are much better at destroying purpose and weakening motivation than we are at discovering or creating purposes capable of eliciting motivation.

We have done a great job of demolishing serious religion, traditional morality, long-termism in public life.

Government Officials and the managers of institutions and corporations are tremendously adept at eroding professionalism, long termism, inner motivation, honesty - but they can only replace them with sticks and carrots, working to rules and checklists, and a sense of purpose no higher than the latest 'targets' - narrowly and literally interpreted, pursued in a manner that is not-provably-dishonest instead of truthful.

In such a world, where might purpose and motivation emerge from except imagination? And what better function could imagination have than to restore to us that sense of purpose which enables us to withstand almost any difficulties?

I do not regard this as an optional extra - but a core task for modern Man. And within Christianity - we simply must have a Christianity that motivates us and restores purpose, builds-in resilience, sustains courage - else our faith will be so feeble as to become rapidly swamped.

Thus we need more than simply to know, to assent, to learn - we need imaginatively to appropriate our faith: to grasp it with the imagination - and where necessary to seek a Christian explanatory system, practice and community that we can, personally, so grasp and appropriate.

Motivation in the modern world

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Perhaps the deepest problem in the modern world is lack of motivation.

It is lack of motivation which can be argued to lie behind the more obvious short-termist hedonism and expedient cowardice which dominates modern public life.

It is the lack of motivation which leads all of the developed world to choose sub-replacement fertility; we lack even the motivation necessary to reproduce ourselves.

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What is needed is a motivation which is less short-termist and pleasure orientated - which is prepared to suffer and strive for Goodness.

But motivation is a means, not an end; one cannot be 'motivated' in a vacuum or without an object - and modern culture is a vacuum.

One can only be motivated towards some-thing or -things - and the object of motivation must seem worthwhile in order to overcome the distractions, short-termist pleasures, and expedient pressures of modern life.

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The average answer to this need for motivation - for most people most of the time - is religion (including, but not necessarily, Christianity); and it is the absence of religion that is demotivating the developed world.

It is the lack of religion which renders us demotivated into sub-fertility; and devout, traditional religion is the only known antidote to sub-fertility in modern societies.

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So how does motivation work to overcome the short-termist, hedonistic, expedient?

Well, the wrong answer is that it allows people to 'defer satisfactions'.

Not True. False.

In reality the only thing which enables us to overcome a passion is a stronger passion; the only way to overcome a pleasurable temptation is the even-greater happiness to be gained by living in accordance with longer term goals of extreme happiness.

Thus religious passion trumps worldly passions, and the here-and-now deeply-joyous hope of eternal happiness beats-back the relatively feeble temptations of pleasurable distractions.

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So, potentially, long termism is ultimately not a state of worldly self-denial, sacrificing here-and-now happiness in pursuit of remote-happiness in a hoped-for life to come; rather long-termism is a consequence of the greater here-and-now and currently-experienced happiness, consequent upon living a strategic worldly life in anticipation of the joyous life to come.

It is a greater short-term pleasure of living a religiously motivated life which renders controllable the lesser short-termist pleasures of a life devoted merely to avoiding suffering and passing the time as pleasantly as possible.

It is the current satisfaction of working strategically towards a truly satisfying goal that leads to happiness; while chasing after instant pleasure, detached from any valued objective, is a recipe for jadedness, aggressive pursuit of ever feebler satisfactions, and self-disgust.

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Nothing to work with... The problem of motivation

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People often advocate this or that socio-political change in opposition to the Leftist and secular domination of modern societies - but such plans and hopes get nowhere because there is (next to-) nothing to work with in the functional systems of modernity.

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So, for example, there might be (there are) many sensible proposals for reforming and revitalizing the Church of England (as a whole) in a conservative direction - but the organization is so corrupted by Leftism that there is nothing to work with. As a whole, there is no motivation for change. Indeed, as a whole, the motivation is for more of the bad stuff!

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(So where does one start? Only one possibility. Forget the whole. Start with those parts (no matter how small) where there is something to work with, some motivation. Build-on-them.)

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Or, universities, or health service provision, or the law, or public administration or the media... Easy to see what's wrong, easy to make plans to put them right - but when it comes to action, there is nothing to work on, and no overall desire to do anything constructive - the process doesn't even get started.

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Or a nation and nationalism - anyone can perceive the long-term impossibility of trying to run a country when there is n control of borders, no deportation, active subsidy of invaders and law-breakers, an active denigration and exploitation of natives at the expense of non-natives, of producers at the expense of consumers, of workers at the expense of the economically inactive and so on. This is a no-brainer.

But what when the natives/ producers/ workers are indifferent to patriotism, national interest, their own culture, the medium-term future as of course they are - or else the current situation would not have arisen and could not be hidden?

Then there is nothing to work with, and no motivation to work.

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The underlying problem is demotivation - the constraint is that hardly anybody, any group, any institution, any nation or super-national body is motivated to do the right and necessary things.

(If they were, we could not be where we are.)

The modern world is suffering a generalized paralysis of the insane: we are not just demotivated (which is passive), but we have an insane positive motivation for that which is destroying us.

Therefore, there is no point at all in hatching general plans and schemes for change which depend on non-existent motivations.

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Indeed, we should be doing exactly the opposite: start-from motivation, and start-with the motivated.

We should root our hopes and plans and dreams in those who want Good things; those who are thinking, talking, acting, and working courageously to attain Good things.

Then we would have something to work with and motivation to work.

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But then, of course, this means that we don't get to daydream about bringing the rest of the world into line with a check-list of our own preferences; but instead have to accept some external and already existing source of motivation.

We must join, not lead.  

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Reality and the absolute necessity of Motivation

Way back in the olden days when this blog began, I used to harp on the subject of motivation, and that this was something very lacking among the great mass of people in this era of modern atheistic materialism. 

So many (nearly all) of the plans and schemes for the betterment of individuals or mankind fall-down because of the feebleness of motivation that drives them. 

Of course, motivation of some kind can be manufactured - either from-within or (more often) imposed externally - especially by the mass media and corporations. Or else people would not do anything, would not get up in the mornings, would wither and die. 

But there is a world of difference between someone who has a strong innate, robust, and long-lasting  motivation - and someone (most modern Men) who are just temporarily reactive to short-term and socially-acceptable incentives - motivated just so long as this does not require too much immediate effort or sacrifice. 

By my evaluation, the problem of deficient motivation undercuts and renders destined-to-fail all sorts of ideas for social and personal betterment - from vast schemes of political and economic reform or reaction, down to plans for spiritual and religious renewal or awakening. 

It seems like a plain fact that we cannot conjure strong and lasting motivation "on demand" - no matter how much we may want to, or how "right" we thing that motivation is. 

This implies Christians are confronted by a stark choice between living as a manipulated pawn in the hands of the most powerful social engineers - in which case they are not Christians... Or else discovering what are the actually-operative (or potentially effective) profound motivators in our-selves; and from among these latent motivators, trying to identify and build-upon those which are Good: those which are harmonious with God's creation and Jesus's offer of salvation.

Discovering, selecting, and putting our best efforts behind our profound Christian motivations is an inner quest and maybe the most necessary quest of all, since upon it depends all possible other action. 

And (like most real-life quests) there is no recipe for success; beyond sustained honest effort.

Indeed; the first step has to be a Christian motivation to discover one's own strong and lasting Christian motivations... Which sounds paradoxical, and would actually be paradoxical - except that this is exactly the kind of where a faithful Christian should confidently expect God to step-in, and help us (personally) directly with guidance and reinforcement, whenever that is necessary*.

*Bearing in mind that this-world-now seems clearly to be set-up in accordance with God wanting us to do as much  as is possible of this seeking and discovering for-ourselves - by trial-error-repentance and then trying-again. Presumably because this process is the best, and sometimes the only, way to learn. 

APICHATID - A Priori It Cannot Happen And Therefore It Didn't

It is inferred motivation that organises our experience. The motivation we impute is what takes individual 'facts' or observations, and makes sense of them.

If we do not conceive an organising motivation, then there is no rhyme or reason to what-happens: our life is intrinsically experienced as chaos - just one damned thing after another.


And 'damned' is appropriate - because this is a hellish way of living: hellish in terms of how it feels, and hellish because it is one of the strategies of hell to try and convince people that there is no shape nor story to their lives.

Without motivation, life is always and everywhere chaos. And when a wrong motivation is imputed; this distorts experience in a way that can seldom be corrected by further experience; because whatever happens is simply fitted-into the pre-existing (wrong) explanatory framework. 

The lesson is that we need to be more careful about choosing our explanatory framework, because it is the explanatory framework which chooses which 'facts' we will believe (not least because the explanatory framework decides what counts as a fact). 


This can be illustrated by the common device of APICHATID - which stands for A Priori It Cannot Happen, And Therefore It Didn't*.

APICHATID is most commonly seen in relation to 'supernatural' phenomena, such as miracles. Most mainstream modern people have the 'a priori' assumption that miracles cannot happen; therefore when asked to evaluate any specific claimed-miracle, the facts are irrelevant; because they will inevitably conclude that it was Not a miracle - but had some other explanation. 'Evidence' has no bearing on this outcome.

We see APICHATID in relation to the 'recent changes' of 2020. Most mainstream modern people have adopted the Official explanatory framework that everything/ anything which happens is due to a deadly plague.

No other explanation of motivation is considered respectable - anything else is either a 'conspiracy theory' and therefore By Definition untrue, and/or supernatural, woo-woo nonsense.

Therefore it does not matter when diametrically opposed claims are made from one week to the next. It does not matter when the Establishment (including media, by whom people get their official info) are caught lying again and again. It does not matter that the official-narrative is incoherent - at both micro- and macro-levels...


If I am, let us suppose, correct that the true motivation behind 'recent events' is really-and-truly supernatural and demonically-evil; then naturally the great mass of people are not going to understand it at even the most basic level of comprehension.

Because I am saying that the truth is recent events make a narrative, a story - and they are strategically aimed at human damnation; whereas for the mass majority this motivation is a case of APACHITID - and for them there is no narrative, story, strategy or meaning to whatever has-happened or will-happen.

Indeed, the concept of APACHITID applies (with modified words) to the here-and-now. On a daiy basis people are in the grip of something like: a priori this cannot be-happening, and therefore it isn't. As they live their lives, experience events, observe phenomena - none of it matters, the Official Account remains true: because this cannot be happening... 

Whatever 'this' is', it is all-and-always just a response to a natural disaster; and all possible (as well as actuall) dishonesty, incoherence, contradiction must-be merely down to individual human incompetence or greed - or the lies of our own eyes, our lives, our memories.

Hence the ultra-weird reverse psychosis of these times. Whereas the normal psychotic believes his own deluded experience and ignores everybody else's; we are living in an era when normal people believe the delusions of 'everybody else' (ie. government and the media), and ignore their own experience.  


The moral is clear: You need to be-damned-sure that your inferred motivations are correct, or you will surely-be-damned.


*APICHATID is slightly-adapted from an idea by Stanley Messenger. 
 

Magic - good and evil

There are two wrong attitudes to magic - currently prevalent. The obvious one is a fascination with magic, used as a means of personal (usually sexual, but sometimes power related) gratification. This was the version that corrupted (and consolidated the corruption of) Charles Williams as it has, and does, so many others who propagate it.

But it is also wrong to shun-as-evil all forms of magic, and reference to magic - which is the path adopted by too many Christians; who render their religion merely materialistic, legalistic - and who render the supernatural incomprehensible, arbitrary; a thing to be submitted-to and obeyed merely; and in practice a mask for worldly structures of totalitarian authority.

As nearly-always with Christianity; the path of goodness resembles a middle path found by discernment - or rather, it is in actuality the path of love. Love naturally refuses to be captured or  constrained by simple rules regarding means and methods.

The problem is with magic-rejectors is that Christianity is an objectively magical religion - with Jesus Christ known (by disciples and enemies alike) as a doer of all sorts of supernatural feats, including raising a dead man - which, to one who did not regard Jesus as the Son of God, is simple necromancy: the worst kind of black magic.

So, the only reasonable stance a Christian can have towards magic is to support good, and oppose evil, magic; and the Gospels tell us that the difference is in whether the supernatural serves God's will and destiny, or is done with the aid of, and ultimately in service to, demons.

So, it is a matter of motivation. And I mean real motivation - what a person's motivation really is; not what they tell other people, nor even what they tell-themselves - but what their motivation really is.

How can we know motivation? Well, on the one hand, we can't know another person's motivation for sure in any way that can compel agreement of others (there cannot be compelling, undeniable, evidence); although we may know it for ourselves with certainly - due to intuition.

On the other hand, we must judge the motivation of others, as best we can. Yet this judgement is - like all true discernments - a thing which cannot be done by the mere algorithmic application of a flow chart. We are back to intuition - the bottom line of all judgement.

Thus is life. Because motivation is the most important aspect of Life; the most important matters are ones that are least amenable to 'proof' and procedure.

And we should embrace the fact, not try to avoid the truth, and distort it, by arbitrary application of simplistic schemes.

Magic is real: some is Good, some is evil; and we need to/ must decide for ourselves which is which... Taking-into-account what seems to be relevant evidence and what we (intuitively) regard as authoritative opinion...

But in the end making an explicitly intuitive discernment.

Demotivation, Demotivation, Demotivation!

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The biggest and most obvious problem in modern human psychology is the near total lack of steady, long-term, positive motivation. En masse, modern Western Man has no idea what his life is for, what he is trying to do overall, and lacks any strong reason to do anything in particular. Secularism has made everything a matter of unaligned, subjective, personal convictions or uncertainties.

The characteristic modern demand is that "Something Should Be Done!" Ask why that particular something is a good idea, or ought to be done, and there are plenty of superficially-plausible answers- indeed there are literally millions of such answers for millions of mutually-antagonistic things all of which "should" be done.

But ask who exactly is going to do them, who is motivated to do them - despite that whoever does it will immediately suffer personal disadvantages, and you get a blank.

Hence the pattern of bureaucratic democracy. The requirement  that 'THEY should do something about it", combined with complete uncertainty about who THEY are and why we should suppose that THEY would be motivated really to solve problems; rather than, for instance, merely taking the money then utterly failing to solve - or worsening - the problems; which officials term 'addressing the issues'.

Until people, in their own lives, actually have and will live by steady, long-term and positive motivations; then nothing significantly constructive will be done - nothing at all. And unless these personal motivations are aligned, then these motivations will merely sabotage one another- unless these motivations have a common basis, and therefore an intrinsic alignment.

I think it is impossible, even in theory, for a motivational system to be applied top-down to this mutually-destructive chaos of complex, conflicting and ever-changing demands. People who lack common motivation cannot be controlled except negatively - they can be dispersed, or briefly stampeded - but they cannot be made to work together in long-term projects that must overcome short term hardships.  

It therefore seems that the first requirement is for individuals to find genuine, visceral, effective motivation; and then - by reflection on what actually works in their own lives, felt-motivation - to discover ways of scaling-up enough of this subjective motivation to a societal level such that there is overall coherence between enough individuals.

Perhaps this is the primary task for Modern Man - to acknowledge and reflect upon his own personal deficiency of motivation; to stop supposing that the major problems can, will and should be solved by THEM; to refuse to accept their own state of alienation and negativity and to seek-out and find that which genuinely motivates in the way that makes a positive society at least possible. 

To find motivation Modern Man, as a first step, needs to give-up those secular, nihilistic, god-denying assumptions which guarantee (100 percent, lifetime, copper bottomed) that he personally will be demotivated: that whatever he wants or hopes or needs to do, will be undercut and destroyed by his own lack of motivation.

After this, answers will not be so hard to find.

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The motivation deficit in modernity - and how to overcome it

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Modern man needs motivation in a way that did not apply to pre-modern societies where the majority of the population were negatively-motivated by the Malthusian lash of starvation, disease and violence; and where the small minority who were not, were either desperately trying to keep themselves above this maelstrom, or who were clinging to power against multiple rivals who would kill them if successful.

So modern man needs motivation - and that motivation must be strong enough and complex enough and long-termist enough to structure his life; and that is exactly what the secular Leftism which now dominates the developed world some completely and utterly fails to provide.

There are weak, simple and short-termist motivations provided by secular Leftism, of course; for example, envy, hatred, hedonism and sex. These are amplified and channelled into political 'movements' by the mass media, state propaganda, laws and regulations. But clearly they are on the one hand socially destructive, and on the other hand clearly inadequate.

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My initial interest in Christianity came from a consideration of motivations; and a recognition that the empirical evidence showed that when Christianity was removed from society as an effective source of primary motivation, nothing remotely adequate had replaced it.

And this had led to the characteristic malaise of this late modern period, increasingly evident since the mid-1960s - the collapse into sub-fertility in developed nations combined with staggering growth levels in some undeveloped countries, the active embrace of population replacement by Western elites, and endemic, compulsory dishonesty not only in public discourse (the mass media and all bureaucracies) - but also in science and medicine (those areas I best know from the inside)

The utter helplessness of the developed world stems from demotivation.

This helplessness is willed; it is not just a failure to tackle problems, but a demotivation so profound that it deliberately, systematically, mandatorily avoids even noticing the problems.

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More than sufficient empirical data is available to show that Man must have a religion or else he will despair, give-up and eventually seek his own extinction (including the extinction of his society).

More than sufficient empirical data is available to show that secularism cannot provide motivation; so the viable choice is a choice between religions. Secular religions (like nationalism, communism, fascism, neo-paganism, New Age spirituality... so many have been thoroughly tried - and they have failed to provide a sustainable alternative - they are negative, demotivating, self-destructive and destructive of good.

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It seems clear that religion is built-into Man in some sense; and if Man deletes religion then he deletes his motivation.

Does this prove that religion is true? Not exactly prove; but it is more compatible with the truth of religion (at some level, in some way) than it is compatible with the prevalent idea that religion is a pure delusion.

Because a delusion is (almost by definition) dysfunctional - that is how we know it is a delusion - and it is the absence of religion which is demotivating, which is clearly dysfunctional.

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Of course it is facile for modern people to disbelieve the obvious and commonsensical, and to suppose that there will be some as-yet-undiscovered and non-obvious way of 'fixing' modernity that does not involve religion.

However, the both the present and future lies with religion.

The first decision is therefore whether to try and discover or make a new religion, or adopt an existing religion. It is easy to make a new religion, but very, very difficult to make a motivating new religion. Unless a religion can prove itself motivating enough to stop or reverse destructive trends under real world, modern conditions, then it is probably just a life-style option, rather than a real religion.

Having decided that viable options are restricted to actually existing religions; the next thing is to discover which religion is true, or rather which is true-est since all have considerable elements of truth.

Then it is a question of determining whether we can join, or at least actively support, that religion which we believe to be true/ true-est. In a world where all large institutions are strongly affected by secular Leftism, then this applies to religions and their adherents to some extent - and many or most religions are indeed utterly in-thrall to secular Leftism.

Nonetheless, Man must have a religion; therefore, in some way or another everyone needs to make a choice of religion to support and sustain; and then work-out how that support is t be implemented; in whatever way and to whatever extent they can manage, and which is most effective for them: effectiveness being measured (partly, but necessarily) in terms of motivation.

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Embrace the simple-clear positive; eschew the complex double-negative

Christians do themselves, as well their cause, long-term harm by their habitual (addictive?) use of double-negative theology. Indeed there is a very influential branch of theology and Christian practice that has elaborated this into a vast systematic edifice (the negative path, or via negativa) - plus, this is the basis of much 'eastern' religious philosophy in Buddhism, Hinduism (and Sufism).  

I think we can see the collapse of double-negative thinking in the 21st century; because its lack of simplicity and clarity render it incapable of dealing with the protean and pervasive challenges to faith of this era, as emanating from globalist totalitarianism with its linked-bureaucracies of governance and mass media. 

Negative motivations are counter-productive, because when all is illusion then individuals are (in practice) rendered passively obedient to that which is dominant. And, anyway, the number and strength - and fluidity - of deceptions are now too great to be individually discerned, diagnosed and rejected. 

In a world where (for many or most people) it is a case of me-against-the-world: - my Christianity against a world of demonic- materialist ideology - it seems we must be clear in our own minds; if we are not to be confused and bamboozled, and simply worn-down to impotent exhaustion by the relentless and increasing weight of error and evil.

For us, it is a case of motivation, motivation, motivation! 

Thus, we cannot anymore be motivated by such double-negatives as the avoidance of sin - most Christians who imagine this is possible are simply denying their own vast scale of sinning in domains such as dishonesty, resentment, and fear. Avoidance of sin is now effective (hence valid) only when there is a primary positive impulse towards Good. 

But most people's idea of The Good is some notion of altruism/ unselfishness/ helping-others - which is another negative value. In a world based on utilitarian hedonism, where 'other people' live materialistically - 'altruism' reduces to me trying to 'make' people happy, which is impossible; so it ends-up with the negative goal of diminishing suffering. 

(In practice, altruism at the political level entails a small class of super-powerful/ super-privileged/ super-rich individuals pretending to administer the world on behalf of the 'oppressed' by monopolizing and confiscating all resources - supposedly because this globalist-establishment are the 'agents' of 'social justice.)   

We cannot (if ever Men could) be motivated by a desire for 'freedom' - because freedom is a negative value that only gains motivating-power for Good, when there is some existing positive motivation towards Good that is being thwarted. 

We cannot, if we intend to accomplish Good, be motivated primarily by obedience to any external authority or institution; because all such are so corrupted that in practice Goodness can only be discerned and practiced by the independent thinking of individual persons, and their autonomy of thinking. 

And that returns us to the primary of personal motivation. 

In other words; it is now imperative for Christian Good both that individuals are motivated to think for themselves and do-so, and that they operate from baseline assumptions that are positively-motivating - which means simple and clear enough to be effective. 

In practice; each must discover these for himself. They are not available off-the-peg and will not be the values that get-inculcated-into the passively obedient or non-conscious, routine-thinker. 

Since the problem is insufficient motivation, we need to begin from whatever positive and good motivations we already have; and follow these motivations through, with honesty and diligence to... wherever they will lead. 

The Big Problem is that so few people seem to have the motivation even to recognize a problem with The World Now. 

This could - in theory - be because the world is now so pervasively and persuasively evil that Modern men are helpless against its temptations... But that would be to assume God has failed to give Men a reasonable chance of salvation...

Alternatively, it may be that Modern men are of innately poorer quality than Men of the past; that a mass of Men (especially in The West) are innately more dominated by evil, more prone to evil - and feebler in their strength of Good motivations than before. 

I regard this 'worse Men' as the most probable explanation for a world full of Men who do not even want to be Good; but who instead legislate and enforce inverted-true values, such that great evil is now called great good - and praised, rewarded and accorded the highest status. 

In other words: I assume that God is as Good as ever, as powerful a creator as ever; but the 'quality' of pre-mortal souls available for incarnation into this mortal life is lower than in the past. A lot of incarnated souls nowadays are less naturally-good/ more heavily disposed-towards evil, compared with the past. 

And therefore (here-and-now) all the major (large/ powerful/ wealthy/ high-status) human institutions of The Hegemonic West (including churches) are net-corrupted; are overall affiliated to the side of evil in the spiritual war of this world. 

Quite likely - you and I are similarly misaligned and enfeebled compared with Men of the past - although I would not be writing, you would not be reading, this - unless there we had at least some motivation to be motivated for Good... 

However... What worked for our ancestors may not work for us: since we are worse, and so is The World. 

We need things to be simpler, clearer and easier than They did; if we are to be able to develop and strengthen our embryonic Good-motivations into something positive by-which we can navigate our path against the current of a hostile evil-world of apparently overwhelming strength and scope. 

 

In search of courage/ motivation

Ever since I began regularly blogging some 15 years ago; I have cycled around this distinctively modern problem of demotivation. Modern Western people are strikingly lacking in powerful motivators, compared with earlier generations - and this is the reason why we are so lacking in courage, so cowardly. 

The deep reason is obvious enough - our atheism, materialism, our systematically built-in cultural assumption that there is neither purpose nor meaning to life.

In a word: our nihilism. 

In seeking to escape such nihilism, some people turn to ideologies - but (lacking a personal and loving God) these always turn out to be rooted in negative values - hence incoherent; and incoherence cannot provide us with strong and lasting motivations. 

This is why people just go long with (what they perceive - as manipulated by the mass media) to be "the flow". 

Lacking inner motivation, they seek to conform to externally structured and short-termist goals relating to personal gratifications. Lacking inner motivation and ultimate purpose, they have no reason to be courageous. 

The answer is, of course, Christianity - but exactly what this implies is unclear. 

All of the major Christian churches are, and nearly all of Christian discourse is, nowadays so overwhelmingly corrupt and distorted in emphasis; that to become "a Christian" is only a very small start down the path of discovering a strong, valid and good motivation for life. 

One problem is that Christians are told to seek the truth in "a church" (i.e. to discover and obey a/the "true" church) - yet Christianity is replete with discourses placed at a level of "idealization" and detached abstraction; such that whatever was resolved by such procedures could never motivate a flea - and doesn't! 

This applies to the vast structure of logic and legalism, complex doctrines and dogmas, wranglings over language and translation, ancient history and context; and endless bitter disputes over the valid structures of hierarchy and authority.  

Consequently, lacking strong motivators, the actual motivations of Christians are just "whatever is socially and personally expedient": whatever is most rewarding, least risky, and in-general easiest in their particular societal niche. 

The would-be Christian falls into such mire because he is told always to seek truth (and motivation) in some external and objective - yet always and necessarily human at the interface - persons and institutions. 

In other words, there is an assumption built-in (from the history of religion and culture) that truth is a thing-out-there, and that truth ought to impose upon us - our job being merely to let this happen.

This assumption talks as if human experience, consciousness, awareness, intuition and insight - had not existence except as distractions. 

Actual people (particular human individuals) are edited out from it, except as a source of interference. 

The picture it accepts is one of a human passivity that excludes the essential "presence" in the description of our distinctive existence as living beings. 

What people don't realize is that this not how things are, but it is a theory of knowledge and behaviour and life and spirit. As long as we allow ourselves to assume such a theory, then we will always be alienated (because we are not actively participating in the process), can never know truth (because it is out there), and shall never be strongly motivated of our-selves - but only secondarily following some external source of guidance. 

Even when someone escapes (for a while) from the deadly assumptions of our civilization, and recognizes that the world is not out-there but participative; and that motivation must derive from our primary involvement in the creation of reality - then the actual daily/ hourly business of being motivated to Good remains a present problem...

But at least it is a real problem, in which we are primarily and personally concerned; and a problem that involves both us and the world; both us and God...

And, after all, this mortal life is a transitional phases - not a thing to be solved. 

What we should seek is the courage and commitment to keep engaged and keep learning; guided both from within and by our real and creative participation in divine creation. 

Ultimately, there is no possible division between inner and outer, subjective and external - reality is inconceivable without a basis that includes both. Yet at the same time we are not immersed in unity, but distinct beings. Our picture of reality should explain how this works. 

And like the knowledge itself, this is something that is learned by inner participation and engagement in creation. 

Learning this is not possible when the self is self-expunged; it is not something learned-from any conceivable external source.  

Our selves must be engaged and participate in the reality outside ourselves. 

Such knowledge is motivating because we personally and actively know it, and such motivation gives courage. 

Note added: Motivation/ Courage are therefore a by-product of solid (Christian) conviction - and not something that can be sought directly. If sought directly, then all that will result is "psychological courage" - which is a product of external causes interacting with internal disposition - and will only be as strong or lasting as the stability and strength of those external causes and internal disposition. The way to get motivated (and have a reason for courage) is to discover meaning and purpose in a way that is underpinned by personal conviction of personal destiny. 

A world of micro-motivations

I have often repeated my belief that demotivation is perhaps the biggest negative reality in the world today. Its causes are obvious enough - in that 'religion' has been Man's primary motivation throughout human history; and a world without God defaults to much lower-level motivations of a selfish nature, which mutually conflict - and invariably weaken due to repetition, habituation and boredom. 

Finally the nihilism of Godlessness leads to the ultimate demotivated state (and self-damning sin) of incurable despair. 

For a few generations after religion was discarded but before it lost its cultural and psychological effect; there was a partially successful attempt to replace religion with nationalism and/or socialism - which initially had positive goals that could provide some social coherence and meaning. But these motivators always weakened as the implications of no God, no spirit, no afterlife began to become fully accepted and assimilated. 

We now find ourselves in a world with no positive purposes and instead only a range of futile, incoherent, negative oppositional projects - e.g. trying to 'eliminate' the birdemic, sexism, racism, climate change, and the various *'phobias'.

Or, for a minority; opposing these oppositional projects - by protesting in favour of 'double-negative' goals eg. against censorship, cancel-culture or other recent negative restrictions. Others are against mass immigration; against the destructive and mutilating 'trans- agenda, against the closure of churches... All valid values; yet multiple double-negative motivations cannot replace an over-arching positive one. 

As for positive motivations; there are now only a sequence of micro-motivations, to be taken-up and set-aside in a open-ended series and going nowhere in particular. 

Little things like hoping to go abroad, visit some particular person; and in lots of little ways return to (semi-) 'normal' life by eating-out, sitting in cafes, going to a bar, driving a car, attending the cinema or a lecture, resuming a sexual life... whatever. 

Even the known-to-be-unsatisfactory delusional life goals of the past few decades - like a 'rewarding career' - are now destroyed as genuine possibilities; although people still pretend to be interested by them. Perhaps the only currently-valid long-term job option is to join the growing hierarchy of the secret police, or rise to seniority among the burgeoning concentration camp guard bureaucracy. 

But this is a downward spiral leading to civilizational collapse, and the better that people 'cope with' the new totalitarian world by pursuing ever-more-micro gratifications - the faster it will spiral down towards destruction. 

Because without strong motivation there is no courage - as can be seen in the world leadership in all the different institutions: government, politics, the media, the churches, law, medicine, science, education, the police and military etc. They are all unprincipled cowards because none have a strong and primary religious motivation. 

Without motivation, no courage; without courage only expediency - and in the totalitarian world expediency leads (by various but converging routes) to the Satanic agenda against God, divine creation and all that is Good.  

The only escape is to find motivation in the divine - and the only realistic motivations must be rooted out-with the Global System - which means rooted in the life beyond life. 

Courage needs hope, and hope needs faith - which must become our first priority. 

If faith is not first, it is nothing. The first commandment for a Christian is to love God - and God is our Father, the creator. 

The only escape from the self-destroying System is to follow Jesus Christ, and he leads us through death to resurrected life eternal. 

If we are to have the hope that provides motivation and courage to do anything Good; resurrected heavenly-life eternal must be the destination. It should be the source of all strong motivation.  

Because Christianity is about personal (and private) motivation, it is intrinsically unsuited to be operationalized as the organizational basis of society

Christianity is about motivation; and motivation is about what we want, and why. 

Motivation is an inner state; and what matters to Christian salvation is our motivation at the time of choice: at the time when we decide whether to follow Jesus to resurrected eternal life. 

So long as he wants to follow Jesus, and so long as his reasons for following Jesus are good - then anybody can follow Jesus. It is essentially a matter of personal choice; and if that choice is for salvation, there will be no difficulty about doing what is necessary to make this choice possible. 

Therefore Christianity Just Is a very personal and inward matter and directed to ends "not of this world". So; while inferences can and must be made for practical purposes about the motivation of other people; such inferences do Not map-onto spiritual realities. 

Historic Christianity was often (usually) contaminated by the demand to make it the basis of social organization: the demand to make supposedly "Christian" institutions and laws as the framework for a "better world": as, indeed, the framework for personal salvation. 

Yet, the Fourth Gospel especially, but also the Synoptic Gospels, seem to be pretty clear overall that following Jesus to resurrected eternal life was about a personal relationship and personal choice in relation to Jesus himself. 

Therefore, being a Christian is Not primarily a matter of obeying a religious institution, nor of requiring adherence to the dictates of a particular supposedly-Christian social structure (neither of which existed during Jesus's life). 

Indeed (as the IV Gospel informs us) Jesus's main arrangement for the guidance of his disciples post-mortally was the Holy Ghost; which Jesus said was directly available to each individual and sufficient to provide all necessary knowledge and direction for those who wanted to follow Him. 

In other words; Christianity is not about making a better world. At best, a better world might be an unplanned consequence of personal commitments to follow Jesus. 

Instead; Christianity ought primarily to be orientated towards life beyond death.

And Christianity's implications for this mortal life should follow (secondarily) from our motivation and expectation personally (as Sons of God) to participate in the creative life of the post-mortal resurrected heavenly world.