These days certainly remind me more of C.S. Lewis' "That Hideous Strength" than "Atlas Shrugged."
But I don't believe the passive Let the Angels Fix It solution which ended Lewis' book is our way out. Nor do I think the solution is all that esoteric.
It could be a little bit esoteric, in the sense of reviving High Church ceremony and meditative practices for those who crave such things. I, for one, cannot be Christian and attend modern Praise and Worship style services at the same time.
But the real spiritual practice needed to push back the demons is much more mundane: it is DOING good works and seriously attempting to live a righteous life even when your swinging neighbor is having hot tub orgies next door.
During the 20th Century western Christians have outsourced our spirituality. We have turned over most of the tasks of charity to government and organizations with large endowment funds. And merely writing a check to a charity has not the same spiritual impact as helping wayward church members get their lives back in order.
When we slack off, the Tempter -- aka the Tester -- is granted permission to create more insistent tests. Outsource the instruction of your children to the state? How about we throw out phonics and teach your kids to "read" as if text was hieroglyphs. Still outsourcing? How about we have the state schools teach self hate (if you are white)? Or how about some Drag Queen Story Hour?
Outsourcing higher education to the state and foundations? Not keeping a sharp eye on the remaining Christian schools and letting them teach Lite Christianity? Let's have those schools trash Western Civilization. Not bad enough? How about some full on mind warping, with a garnish of genocide.
Outsourcing the task of taking care of the needy sick? Have some ObamaCare or National Health Service. Not bad enough? How about sex change operations for your kids?
Nov 30, 2022·edited Nov 30, 2022Liked by Tree of Woe
I hesitantly offer what may be a plausible, simple explanation that even materialists can accept.
Petersen writes about an “intellectual attractor” (not using that term) where people who are struggling say, “the problem is outside of me”, and see themselves as judges fit to judge all of reality. Often this leads to a sense of duty to rebel against being itself.
I had this exprience personally, before reading him. My life was a mess. I was spending a lot of time high, and trying to understand life. At one point I found myself so obsessed with the evil and suffering in the world that I wondered, whether it would be better to just destroy it all. Fortunately for me, one fact I could never deny was that I knew my mother loved me, and I loved her. Something fierce in me said, whoever it is in here (my mind) that says by accepting the world as is, I accept all of the crimes ever - fine, I accept. I love my mother. If that makes me to blame for the holocaust, then so be it. I will shove those children into the ovens myself if it is necessary to defend the existence of the world I know against the possibility of it’s total negation.
I now believe this was Satan, aka “the adversary”, aka, the aspect of my own mind that is necessary for questioning the accuracy of my own beliefs, come to ask me, what is my relationship with the truth?
I think we can understand occult forces simply as the result of people whose fundamental attitude to the truth is, “I could do better.” This is a very easy attitude to fall into, and a hard one to get back out of.
I think morality is nothing more, and nothing less, than total love for the truth. The opposite - hatred for the truth - is much more stable of a mentality than ambivalence. Hence I think there are two fundamental psychological attractors - love of the truth, and with it respect for and admiration of being, and all that entails, or hatred of the truth, and a subsequent desire to uproot, to break, to defile.
I am sadly, more familiar than most with the personal cost of this madness. Having lost the Love of my Life to it. And I would agree- There is no hope in 'Humanity' for two main reasons- 1.) Our nature, already has an affinity for the Chaos. We are from Birth, predisposed for it. 2.) The forces OF Chaos are greater than Humanity. Stronger, Smarter, with vastly more experience, wisdom & knowledge both corporately & personally.
To say that these forces can be fought, of our own volition, under our own power, is like a 5-year-old insisting he can fight a Navy Seal. The concept is absurd on the face of it.
Our only hope is and always has been, One greater yet. The Ancient of Days, the Living God for whom Thought and Power are synonymous & whose Goodness & Holiness is so Great it can't help but strike Terror into our dark little hearts.
There was a pastor of the Old School, Henry Alford, who in a more modern parlance could be called a 'Downer' or perhaps a 'Wet Blanket' by his professing Christian peers, as he often spoke of such things. One of his best responses to those complaining of his 'negativity' I reproduce in honor-
"If it be said that this is a somewhat dark view to take of the
prospects of mankind, we may answer, FIRST, that we are not speculating
on the phenomena of the world, but we are interpreting God's word;
SECONDLY that we believe in One in whose hands all evil is working for
good, — with whom there are no accidents or failures, — who is
bringing out of all this struggle, which shall mould and measure the
history of the world, the ultimate good of man and the glorification of
His boundless love in Christ; and THIRDLY, that no prospect is dark for
those who believe in Him. For them all things are working together for
good; and in the midst of the struggle itself, they know that every
event is their gain; every apparent defeat, real success; and even the
last dread conflict [is] the herald of that victory, in which all who
have striven on God's part shall have a glorious and everlasting share".
Nov 30, 2022·edited Nov 30, 2022Liked by Tree of Woe
It took a Century of Humiliation (the Opium Wars, the Taiping rebellion, the Sino-Japanese war), the Boxer Rebellion, the Warlord era (with its fragmenting of wider Chinese society), the Second Sino-Japanese war & a bloody conclusion to a civil war FOLLOWED by decades of starvation, regrouping, consolidation and tenacity for even the Chinese (who on par with the Indians are one of the oldest civilization-states on the planet) to "Come Back".
If anything, I have no doubt that likewise the descendants of the West will likewise "Come Back". But it wont be in its current form, nor will it pursue the failed ideals which have brought about this temporary victory of the Shayateen. In fact, the pathway is clear:
>> Al-Miqdam ibn al-Aswad reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No house of brick, nor fur, will remain upon the face of the earth but that Allah will cause the message of Islam to enter it, by which the honorable will be honored and the disgraceful will be disgraced.”
Source: Musnad Aḥmad 23814 <<
As the birth rate falls off the cliff, baseline morality (modesty in women, chivalry in men, respect in kids) declines and a Boxer rebellion "8-nation alliance" style Humiliating Existential Invasion (likely over the Arctic), Conquest, Subjugation and Genocide of North America and Continental Europe looms and draws ever closer... the natural tendency will be to move toward the "strong horse".
When the Mongols fractured and the Tatar yoke was shattered by Muscovy and other descendants of Kievan Rus, Genghis khan's descendants (now discriminated against and slaughtered due to being "oppressors and conquerors") gladly joined the Winning Team in droves. Even though it was their forefathers who merely 50 or so years after the great Khan's conquests had murdered millions in Baghdad and sacked the city irreparably.
The West's descendants will do the same; even though their forefathers levelled Fallujah (i.e. the "City of Mosques") to the ground with depleted Uranium shells. Alex Jones (prior to his demise and inevitable meeting with The Creator) may even be those who join wholeheartedly.
If Geert Wilders's party member Joram van Klaveren (who openly strove in Dutch parliamentary sessions to ban everything Islamic) can join the Winning Team because Allah Most High softened his heart to it, Alex Jones can likewise be impacted the same way as well; it is all in Allah Most High's Hands!
The whisperings of the Shayateen and Djinn which are used by individuals and human societies since antiquity (i.e. the "Occult" if you will) are only a minor 'victory' which can never amount to anything, because the following holds True now and always:
>>That Allah guide one man through you is better for you than the entire world and whatever it contains.
Az Zuhd War Raqaiq of Imam ‘Abdullah ibn Al Mubarak, Hadith: 1375<<
So despair not!
Because only with the Total Annihilation, Subjugation, etc of the West by the Sino-Russian coalition will its descendants come to what Ibrahim ibn Adham (may Allah be pleased with him) the great ascetic and Sufi saint realized with regard to worldly suffering and poverty:
>> Ibn Asakir reported: Ibrahim ibn Adham, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “If the kings and their sons knew what we experience of spiritual pleasure and happiness, they would fight us for it with their swords.”
My father has often said “Christians need seek no central, coordinating organisation behind the evil in the world: evil IS coordinated. The seeming intelligence of corruption as it seeks out new weaknesses is true intelligence.”
The occult view of the action of corruption in this respect comports entirely with the Christian one.
It would also explain why social and political movements so often generate and turn loose on the world the exact monsters and spirits they claim to fear.
These days certainly remind me more of C.S. Lewis' "That Hideous Strength" than "Atlas Shrugged."
But I don't believe the passive Let the Angels Fix It solution which ended Lewis' book is our way out. Nor do I think the solution is all that esoteric.
It could be a little bit esoteric, in the sense of reviving High Church ceremony and meditative practices for those who crave such things. I, for one, cannot be Christian and attend modern Praise and Worship style services at the same time.
But the real spiritual practice needed to push back the demons is much more mundane: it is DOING good works and seriously attempting to live a righteous life even when your swinging neighbor is having hot tub orgies next door.
During the 20th Century western Christians have outsourced our spirituality. We have turned over most of the tasks of charity to government and organizations with large endowment funds. And merely writing a check to a charity has not the same spiritual impact as helping wayward church members get their lives back in order.
When we slack off, the Tempter -- aka the Tester -- is granted permission to create more insistent tests. Outsource the instruction of your children to the state? How about we throw out phonics and teach your kids to "read" as if text was hieroglyphs. Still outsourcing? How about we have the state schools teach self hate (if you are white)? Or how about some Drag Queen Story Hour?
Outsourcing higher education to the state and foundations? Not keeping a sharp eye on the remaining Christian schools and letting them teach Lite Christianity? Let's have those schools trash Western Civilization. Not bad enough? How about some full on mind warping, with a garnish of genocide.
Outsourcing the task of taking care of the needy sick? Have some ObamaCare or National Health Service. Not bad enough? How about sex change operations for your kids?
I hesitantly offer what may be a plausible, simple explanation that even materialists can accept.
Petersen writes about an “intellectual attractor” (not using that term) where people who are struggling say, “the problem is outside of me”, and see themselves as judges fit to judge all of reality. Often this leads to a sense of duty to rebel against being itself.
I had this exprience personally, before reading him. My life was a mess. I was spending a lot of time high, and trying to understand life. At one point I found myself so obsessed with the evil and suffering in the world that I wondered, whether it would be better to just destroy it all. Fortunately for me, one fact I could never deny was that I knew my mother loved me, and I loved her. Something fierce in me said, whoever it is in here (my mind) that says by accepting the world as is, I accept all of the crimes ever - fine, I accept. I love my mother. If that makes me to blame for the holocaust, then so be it. I will shove those children into the ovens myself if it is necessary to defend the existence of the world I know against the possibility of it’s total negation.
I now believe this was Satan, aka “the adversary”, aka, the aspect of my own mind that is necessary for questioning the accuracy of my own beliefs, come to ask me, what is my relationship with the truth?
I think we can understand occult forces simply as the result of people whose fundamental attitude to the truth is, “I could do better.” This is a very easy attitude to fall into, and a hard one to get back out of.
I think morality is nothing more, and nothing less, than total love for the truth. The opposite - hatred for the truth - is much more stable of a mentality than ambivalence. Hence I think there are two fundamental psychological attractors - love of the truth, and with it respect for and admiration of being, and all that entails, or hatred of the truth, and a subsequent desire to uproot, to break, to defile.
I am sadly, more familiar than most with the personal cost of this madness. Having lost the Love of my Life to it. And I would agree- There is no hope in 'Humanity' for two main reasons- 1.) Our nature, already has an affinity for the Chaos. We are from Birth, predisposed for it. 2.) The forces OF Chaos are greater than Humanity. Stronger, Smarter, with vastly more experience, wisdom & knowledge both corporately & personally.
To say that these forces can be fought, of our own volition, under our own power, is like a 5-year-old insisting he can fight a Navy Seal. The concept is absurd on the face of it.
Our only hope is and always has been, One greater yet. The Ancient of Days, the Living God for whom Thought and Power are synonymous & whose Goodness & Holiness is so Great it can't help but strike Terror into our dark little hearts.
There was a pastor of the Old School, Henry Alford, who in a more modern parlance could be called a 'Downer' or perhaps a 'Wet Blanket' by his professing Christian peers, as he often spoke of such things. One of his best responses to those complaining of his 'negativity' I reproduce in honor-
"If it be said that this is a somewhat dark view to take of the
prospects of mankind, we may answer, FIRST, that we are not speculating
on the phenomena of the world, but we are interpreting God's word;
SECONDLY that we believe in One in whose hands all evil is working for
good, — with whom there are no accidents or failures, — who is
bringing out of all this struggle, which shall mould and measure the
history of the world, the ultimate good of man and the glorification of
His boundless love in Christ; and THIRDLY, that no prospect is dark for
those who believe in Him. For them all things are working together for
good; and in the midst of the struggle itself, they know that every
event is their gain; every apparent defeat, real success; and even the
last dread conflict [is] the herald of that victory, in which all who
have striven on God's part shall have a glorious and everlasting share".
— Henry Alford
It took a Century of Humiliation (the Opium Wars, the Taiping rebellion, the Sino-Japanese war), the Boxer Rebellion, the Warlord era (with its fragmenting of wider Chinese society), the Second Sino-Japanese war & a bloody conclusion to a civil war FOLLOWED by decades of starvation, regrouping, consolidation and tenacity for even the Chinese (who on par with the Indians are one of the oldest civilization-states on the planet) to "Come Back".
If anything, I have no doubt that likewise the descendants of the West will likewise "Come Back". But it wont be in its current form, nor will it pursue the failed ideals which have brought about this temporary victory of the Shayateen. In fact, the pathway is clear:
>> Al-Miqdam ibn al-Aswad reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No house of brick, nor fur, will remain upon the face of the earth but that Allah will cause the message of Islam to enter it, by which the honorable will be honored and the disgraceful will be disgraced.”
Source: Musnad Aḥmad 23814 <<
As the birth rate falls off the cliff, baseline morality (modesty in women, chivalry in men, respect in kids) declines and a Boxer rebellion "8-nation alliance" style Humiliating Existential Invasion (likely over the Arctic), Conquest, Subjugation and Genocide of North America and Continental Europe looms and draws ever closer... the natural tendency will be to move toward the "strong horse".
When the Mongols fractured and the Tatar yoke was shattered by Muscovy and other descendants of Kievan Rus, Genghis khan's descendants (now discriminated against and slaughtered due to being "oppressors and conquerors") gladly joined the Winning Team in droves. Even though it was their forefathers who merely 50 or so years after the great Khan's conquests had murdered millions in Baghdad and sacked the city irreparably.
The West's descendants will do the same; even though their forefathers levelled Fallujah (i.e. the "City of Mosques") to the ground with depleted Uranium shells. Alex Jones (prior to his demise and inevitable meeting with The Creator) may even be those who join wholeheartedly.
If Geert Wilders's party member Joram van Klaveren (who openly strove in Dutch parliamentary sessions to ban everything Islamic) can join the Winning Team because Allah Most High softened his heart to it, Alex Jones can likewise be impacted the same way as well; it is all in Allah Most High's Hands!
The whisperings of the Shayateen and Djinn which are used by individuals and human societies since antiquity (i.e. the "Occult" if you will) are only a minor 'victory' which can never amount to anything, because the following holds True now and always:
>>That Allah guide one man through you is better for you than the entire world and whatever it contains.
Az Zuhd War Raqaiq of Imam ‘Abdullah ibn Al Mubarak, Hadith: 1375<<
So despair not!
Because only with the Total Annihilation, Subjugation, etc of the West by the Sino-Russian coalition will its descendants come to what Ibrahim ibn Adham (may Allah be pleased with him) the great ascetic and Sufi saint realized with regard to worldly suffering and poverty:
>> Ibn Asakir reported: Ibrahim ibn Adham, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “If the kings and their sons knew what we experience of spiritual pleasure and happiness, they would fight us for it with their swords.”
Source: Tārīkh Dimashq 4475 <<
My father has often said “Christians need seek no central, coordinating organisation behind the evil in the world: evil IS coordinated. The seeming intelligence of corruption as it seeks out new weaknesses is true intelligence.”
The occult view of the action of corruption in this respect comports entirely with the Christian one.
It would also explain why social and political movements so often generate and turn loose on the world the exact monsters and spirits they claim to fear.