Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

It is simply hard-headed realism to recognise The Problem as spiritual in origin. It is just a fact that the Global (Leftist) Establishment has spiritual goals - by which I mean that they seek the damnation of mankind - not its torment or extinction, nor its enslavement. 

The Global (Leftist) Establishment care about the state of Men's souls; even when those Men deny that they have a soul, or regard it as a matter of little importance compared with worldly priorities. 

What this implies is that a majority of the self-styled (often self-deceived) opponents of the Global Establishment are their covert agents, doing the work of advancing the agenda of mass damnation. They do this simply by propagating a materialist, reductionist, soul-denying agenda in the form of analysis of problems and proposed policies.

Most of the (so-called) Right are materialists - they focus on economics, saying that things are bad because of poverty, or decline in science, or decline in the status of men, or of European races, or of Western culture or population or power. Or that there is a decline in health, of arts and sciences. That intelligence is declining, genetics is declining, people are feeling sadder, more afraid etc.

Things are analysed in such terms - and solutions to these problems are suggested, There is debate, discourse, action...

And indeed all of these are partially true - which is what gives them rhetorical force; but if any or all becomes the focus and aim of discourse, and claims to be the reason for organising society; then all such perspectives cause more of the problems they claim to solve.

(This is indeed obvious to those who can detect the tone, rather than the content, of discourse. When the tone is selfish-materialist - when the emotions stirred in us are fear, resentment and despair - we know the enemy is at work.)

In some instances this is clearly the intention. Clearly, there are cultural commentators and authors who are fifth columnists for those they purport to oppose - this applies to many of the secular Right. They simply advocate the same soul destruction as the mainstream Left, but by different means. Their vision is one of materialism; feelings (pleasure/ avoidance of suffering) are their highest value.

But these are foolish, incompetent or dishonest. The truth is that the enemy seeks our damnation, and therefore the fight against them must be understood and coordinated at the level of spiritual warfare: the first step in effective defence is to acknowledge the aim of one's attackers - and this must be done in a situation where disinformation quantitatively overwhelms truth, and spies and traitors are everywhere. 

The truth is also that materialist motivations are weak, feeble, contingent, labile... and doomed to defeat when confronted by an enemy that is spiritually or religiously motivated - as are our supernatural foes.

The materialists of The Right affect to be tough-minded; yet they evade the basic reality of the situation and spin deceptive, enfeebling fantasies of earthly pleasure and ease, or gratified resentment.

Of course there must be material action; successful defence and ultimate victory will not come from purely mental attitudes. There is physical risk and probable hardship in store. But right action must be rooted in valid perception that this war is spiritual in its essence and each side organised for spiritual goals.

The principle is simple: Christian analysis, Demonic enemy, Christian strategy.