Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

I remain sure that we are walking a tightrope; vacillating on the cusp of WWIII... A situation quite deliberately contrived by the anonymous (but closely demon-allied - and spitefully-destructive) powers that deceptively control the Western leadership class - who are themselves (still) consumed with fantasies of a single, global, totalitarian System; that they imagine will be dedicated to their various Leftist goals (that they imagine will diminish human suffering and implement social justice and that stuff).The entirety of mainstream politics and public discourse in The West (including the pseudo-populists and pretend radicals) are merely office squabbles within the totalitarian bureaucracy. 
In terms of public life, the available choice is therefore between either shoring-up the crumbling Evil Empire; or working to accelerate the inevitable collapse of the Empire by encouraging socio-economic collapse (by starvation, disease, poisonings, induced mental illness etc). This, by making and sustaining international and civil wars - while personally exploiting the situation for temporary short-term hedonism (in a nutshell: looting the maelstrom). (A situation I have previously summarized as the choice between Ahrimanic and Sorathic evils.)
To engage in politics is therefore to join with one or other evil, and thereby to embark on the self-consuming, downslope towards self-chosen damnation and the inevitability of eternal misery. But if not, then what? If we disengage from public politics - what will then happen?Most people seem to feel that disengaging their core motivations and daily actions from the hamster wheel of opinions concerning politics, mass media, office infighting, and scheming for personal gratification - amounts to "quietism" at best but more likely to "defeatism" and a pathetic state of victimhood: surrender, submission and despair. And this would be true - so long as we were operating from the mainstream materialistic assumptions of our civilization and culture. 
Yet, if we decide instead to acknowledge the reality and primacy of the spiritual realm - a whole range of different possibilities emerge. Then the quest of our mortal existence is primarily spiritual, is rooted in the spiritual; and if the spiritual is recognized to include and be led by the realms of thinking; then we find-ourselves in a very different world and life.  If every day is regarded as the latest installment in a spiritual quest, then the trials and triumphs of life are taken away from the control of the material institutions of this world: the governments, bureaucracies, corporations etc. 
We instead enter and inhabit a world in which we personally have a significant role to play, a job to do; always things to learn; always new understandings to grapple-with. This is not a condition of bliss; but a world of extreme variety of challenges and difficulties. Analogously to the quest of a fairy tale; there are challenges and hazards; and times of rest and recuperation. There is the cruelty and deceptions of ogres and witches; but also there is help unforeseen from good wizards and kind old ladies. There are enemies all around us! But - also, the enemies are within as well as without; since we are all a mixture of good and evil motivations and loyalties. Although we may choose to take the side of good; we can never (in this mortal life) permanently escape the tendencies and temptations of evil, which will will weaken, subvert, and try to invert - our good intentions. Indeed, the less problem we have from external enemies, the more dominant become the internal. Even if we lived in an ideal society where we had no enemies but only helpful friends; we would still be faced by potentially spiritually-lethal hazards. (Even the greatest saints spend much time fighting inner demons - because, as saints, they were much more aware of them than most people - the saints did not "project" by blaming others, what actually were their own weaknesses and sins.)
The life of spiritual quest never ends - at least not until after death; and, although we can expect to win some of the battles, we cannot win any final victory during this mortal life. Therefore such a quest requires not just courage, but actual heroism. All the more so because we cannot (and should not) expect the traditional material rewards of a fairytale hero - the cheering crowds, parades to honour us, a great feast and the rewards of treasure and the hand in marriage of a beautiful princess...(In our world, such public rewards go to the most obedient and effective servants of Satan.) There are rewards, spiritual rewards - mostly small and temporary, but some larger and more lasting. Yet these rewards are invisible to most - or sometimes all - of the people around us; and it is part of the heroism that this reality be accepted.
In conclusion; a life of spiritual quest, taken with the ultimate (because eternal) seriousness it demands, is not an easy life option; but it is one that everybody can do (and should do) - whatever his circumstances, whatever his aptitudes. What I am trying to get across here, is that even in a public and material world of only bad alternatives, only choices between lesser-evils; a world ruled by affiliates of Satan and collapsing towards the celebration of sins...Even in such a world as this; our personal life can (if we personally choose to make it so, and if we do then nobody and nothing can prevent it) become one of positive personal action: every minute of every day. 
On a daily basis, hour by hour, moment by moment; we (that is, you and me) can be fighting the good fight while motivated by attainable goals. We can have the deep life satisfactions of working for positive (and potentially eternal) good - no matter what our situation may be; no matter what happens in the material world.And, because the spiritual is primary and the material is just a manifestation of the spiritual; we can confidently know that all spiritual benefit Will Have material consequences - whether or not we notice, know, or understand the exact workings of such outcomes.