"And then suddenly death looms, and we realise that have wasted our lives discussing The Enemy's agenda... Just exactly as They wanted us to..."
I came to this realization a few months ago when I decided against writing the kinds of posts you describe here. You once referred to the kinds of abstractions that inspire 'reactive' posts as "baited traps", which is the correct way to think about them.
Posts arguing against some topical subject like climate change are easy to write. In other words, railing against whatever the topical outrage of the day happens to be is not difficult. It requires little in the way of actual thinking. My outrage posts more or less wrote themselves, which made me pause and reflect about the manipulative nature of the topical abstractions that had inspired my reactive pieces in the first place.
Also, I believe you are correct in your assertion that things are "coming to a point." Evil is out in plain sight - you don't really need blog posts to recognize it and understand it, let alone convince you. If you do, well . . .
@Francis. What I personally find it difficult to comprehend, is the extent to which people want evil; and go to great lengths to defend it. Ultimately, I cannot believe this is only a matter of being hoodwinked by propaganda - because past people could not have been so easily hoodwinked as the masses are today.
In sum, I think that many or most people - at least in England - want what they are getting. Which means they are actually seeking (in a non-conscious, not-thinking way, being all-but unconscious of everything and loathing consecutive thinking) their own spiritual annihilation.
There is a sort of deep fatigue, hopelessness, wanting an end of things - which is perfectly understandable given the prevalent materialism, atheism etc.
In such a context, only those who - at some level - *want* to be saved (want the Heavenly resurrected Life eternal Jesus made possible; a life based on 'love of neighbour'), *can* be saved; and these people are not well-served by a diet of negative critique of evil - instead they need transcendental hope and courage.
Probably they can be reached only at a personal level, face-to-face or by individual communication (or via the unacknowledged realm of universal reality in thinking) - but I find it very hard to speak about such things in real life. I don't even sound convincing to myself! It is that possibility I continue to seek in my writing.
I agree with what you say about "needing hope and courage" instead of a constant negative critique of evil. As I mentioned in my previous comment, I find negative critiques of evil extremely easy to write while offering hope and courage is considerably more difficult.
Nevertheless, you are correct. That is what is needed and, yes, it is probably only effective at the personal level - a quality over quantity/subject over object process. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, let me just say that in the grand scheme of things you may be underestimating the influence and effectiveness of your blogging (and writing).
10 August 2019 at 11:20
Michael Dyer said...
Maybe a weird comment but here goes.
In fighting strategy, an idea I have heard is that you want your opponent reacting to you. As long as you’re feeding and he’s receiving you are in control. Even good counter punchers control the fight through feints and false openings, so even if they look like they’re on defense, they’re not but are in fact controlling the action.
We have our own fight to fight and the enemy’s actions are tangential to our primary aim. Not wholly unimportant but if we let them feed us we’re just going to lose eventually no matter how well we handle the attack.
11 August 2019 at 02:54
There is nothing the modern demon loves more than to ensnare people into discussing abstractions.
To trap one group of people inside an abstractions such as racism or climate change (two of the most successful) - and then to suck-in more people to analysing, reframing, by re-defining what racism and climate change Really are (or ought to be). The business goes on forever.
Now that the evil-abstraction-mongers control almost the entirety of the communications system - from the mass media, through publishing and retail; to schools universities and research institutions - intellectual Life seems to have become a continual 'defence' against being-trolled with ridiculous wicked nonsense (equality, diversity, feminism, white nationalism/ supremacy...) that 'cries out' for our immediate and personal clarification and correction...
Yet this never does any good, and the 'need' for it never ends...
And then suddenly death looms, and we realise that have wasted our lives discussing The Enemy's agenda...
Just exactly as They wanted us to...
Note: of course (as well as abstractions) there is A Lot of trolling with specific egregious concrete abuses against Christians (especially - and the not-sufficiently-Left more generally); and much of the anti-Left media do considerable harm (overall) by linking to these, and by thus maintaining a continuous, daily diet of Their agenda. There are some benefits from developing a critique of standard strategies of evil, by decoding and reframing news stories - for example. But overall - since This Never Stops - drawing continuous attention to abuses amounts to a (mostly-inadvertent) collusion with the agenda of the Enemy. Which is one reason why I try to avoid topical discussions here, especially of the "Look at this stupid/evil!" type.
Further
Note: A double-negative is different-from a positive; because only a positive
induces sustaining courage. We have a lot more double-negative propaganda than
is good for us; and it doesn't add-up to anything substantive - as can be
observed. Double-negative thinking, at best, induces fear-driven desperation -
not courage. But sustained fear is susceptible to habituation (the same dose
loses effect), and paralyses rather than energizes. That is why only 'religion'
can save us; because Men are innately religious creatures. Without
religion we are fatally and incurably maimed - but any saving religion simply
must be believed. To plan an 'expedient' religion, 'designed' to save
civilization, will fail with 100% certainty; will, indeed, make matters worse
quicker.
"Trolling us with abstractions; tempting us to reframe and re-define..."
4 Comments -
"And then suddenly death looms, and we realise that have wasted our lives discussing The Enemy's agenda... Just exactly as They wanted us to..."
I came to this realization a few months ago when I decided against writing the kinds of posts you describe here. You once referred to the kinds of abstractions that inspire 'reactive' posts as "baited traps", which is the correct way to think about them.
Posts arguing against some topical subject like climate change are easy to write. In other words, railing against whatever the topical outrage of the day happens to be is not difficult. It requires little in the way of actual thinking. My outrage posts more or less wrote themselves, which made me pause and reflect about the manipulative nature of the topical abstractions that had inspired my reactive pieces in the first place.
Also, I believe you are correct in your assertion that things are "coming to a point." Evil is out in plain sight - you don't really need blog posts to recognize it and understand it, let alone convince you. If you do, well . . .
10 August 2019 at 09:19
@Francis. What I personally find it difficult to comprehend, is the extent to which people want evil; and go to great lengths to defend it. Ultimately, I cannot believe this is only a matter of being hoodwinked by propaganda - because past people could not have been so easily hoodwinked as the masses are today.
In sum, I think that many or most people - at least in England - want what they are getting. Which means they are actually seeking (in a non-conscious, not-thinking way, being all-but unconscious of everything and loathing consecutive thinking) their own spiritual annihilation.
There is a sort of deep fatigue, hopelessness, wanting an end of things - which is perfectly understandable given the prevalent materialism, atheism etc.
In such a context, only those who - at some level - *want* to be saved (want the Heavenly resurrected Life eternal Jesus made possible; a life based on 'love of neighbour'), *can* be saved; and these people are not well-served by a diet of negative critique of evil - instead they need transcendental hope and courage.
Probably they can be reached only at a personal level, face-to-face or by individual communication (or via the unacknowledged realm of universal reality in thinking) - but I find it very hard to speak about such things in real life. I don't even sound convincing to myself! It is that possibility I continue to seek in my writing.
10 August 2019 at 10:06
I agree with what you say about "needing hope and courage" instead of a constant negative critique of evil. As I mentioned in my previous comment, I find negative critiques of evil extremely easy to write while offering hope and courage is considerably more difficult.
Nevertheless, you are correct. That is what is needed and, yes, it is probably only effective at the personal level - a quality over quantity/subject over object process. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, let me just say that in the grand scheme of things you may be underestimating the influence and effectiveness of your blogging (and writing).
10 August 2019 at 11:20
Maybe a weird comment but here goes.
In fighting strategy, an idea I have heard is that you want your opponent reacting to you. As long as you’re feeding and he’s receiving you are in control. Even good counter punchers control the fight through feints and false openings, so even if they look like they’re on defense, they’re not but are in fact controlling the action.
We have our own fight to fight and the enemy’s actions are tangential to our primary aim. Not wholly unimportant but if we let them feed us we’re just going to lose eventually no matter how well we handle the attack.
11 August 2019 at 02:54