Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

One major strategy of purposive-evil - here and now, in The West and globally - is to oppress people with so much actual and prospective evil that people will give-up and yield, go crazy, or try to fight evil with evil. This decades-long strategic plan is one of crushing all that is good by sheer weight of evil discourse, has been made possible by the totalitarian takeover of The System - the web of linked-bureaucracies that control all major institutions including mass media, politics, public administration, law, religion, 'science', education, 'health' etc.  Spiritually; the strategy is to make us frame the world as (on the one hand) a vast, inexorable, objective, all-embracing organization that orders everything and does everything... And (on the other hand) you or me - standing alone and isolated, friendless and hated, worthless and expendable - stupidly and pathetically thinking-about resisting the inevitable. 
The idea is that we should surrender, fawn, and (in our hearts) beg The System for mercy.  In return; we shall eagerly believe/ think/ say/ do anything that They currently require of us, and enforce The System on our-selves and each-other... And, eventually - after getting ever less-and-less in return for ever more-and-more self-degradation and lying - that we should break, despair, lose hope; and seek permanent oblivion (death-as-annihilation) to escape such a spiritual wasteland and hell. 
A second level of the plan is to channel resistance to evil, such that it is either counter-productive or futile. There are several 'temptations'. One temptation is to withdraw from evil, to escape it. While this may be an important, or even, vital temporary tactic; the fact is that evil cannot be escaped in this world - where it is all-pervasive as never before. Further, the attempt to escape may open the mind to evil-inspired fantasies and to dreams.Furthermore, the desire to escape evil is a double-negative that is not itself good - and is, indeed, prone to being manipulated into evil. (To clarify: resistance-to-evil is not itself good. Good can be accomplished only by striving for 'positive' good.)   
The spirit we should instead cultivate is one in which we become aware of our own 'good heart' and rooted in a commitment to love - that is, we may become consciously connected-with, rooted-in, the divine within us which each person has as a consequence of being a son or daughter of God. This is quite simple, and experienced as obvious - once we ask the right questions of ourselves and the world; and correctly understand our situation and role. Naturally, the powers of evil has many tactics for undermining the confidence of someone who is rooted in a correct understanding of himself and his proper role. His attitudes may be undermined so he loses confidence; or else inflated so that his 'confidence' extends form its true and proper sphere towards prideful and false assertion of self-importance. 
It can be made to sound like an impossible balancing-act to steer between the dangers of inflation and submission - that is, itself, another demonic strategy - to make life seem impossibly difficult, so we may as well 'give-up - Now!'But - part of having the right attitude is to know that this is a false analogy - we are not steering a course through hazards; but are beings with a divine core self, who are living with the benefit of both inner and outer guidance (intuition and the Holy Ghost).And who have the inestimable advantage of being able to err and sin and then, as soon as we become aware of the fact, an unbounded capacity to repent and realign with God's creative will.  
To be perfectly accurate; we have nothing to worry about.  And if we aren't - deep down, and in our hearts - replete with care-free joy and supreme confidence - then we must be living in a state of error. The demons can increase the weight of oppression incrementally, piling problems on, and on - but we can never be crushed by it... unless we thus choose. 
We cannot win at this business of life; but it is a colossal error to suppose that we are supposed to win. We are supposed to learn-from living, not to win a prize for it. 
The prize (i.e. eternal, resurrected, Heavenly life) comes after this life and by following Jesus, and not as a consequence of any accomplishment during this life. But the magnitude and scope of this prize increases in value whenever we live by love; and whenever we think (or otherwise create) in harmony with divine creation. Such choices come-to-us, even if unsought - and we can always do/choose the right thing - so we should face life confidently - that is, with confidence in the primacy of the spirit and the indomitable triumph of the divine.