@Th- I agree that self-annihilation captures the nuance better - but it involves inventing a new category, whereas there have been some mass suicide cults, where there was apparently a non-spontaneous,non-desparate but instead long-term planned group suicide.
24 May 2015 at 05:46
JP said...
Suicide says "spontaneous and desperate."
Outside observers often don't see it coming, but suicide is rarely spontaneous. It involves a lot of thought and planning, and often several failed attempts before it succeeds.
Individual suicides can come from hopelessness or desperation. But they can also be intended to send a message - "notice me!" or "I hope you're sorry now!"
Ideologically driven mass suicides are not spontaneous and desperate. They are carefully planned and organized, and there is always a political message or purpose (which may or may not seem "rational" to outsiders).
In the case of the modern Left, in addition to the desire for destruction for its own sake, I get a strong sense of petulance; the message is, "we hate you, and we would rather kill everyone, including ourselves, than admit we were wrong and let you win."
@JP "suicide is rarely spontaneous. It involves a lot of thought and planning, and often several failed attempts before it succeeds."
Yes, successful suicides are often planned. Doctors do not usually have failed attempts - but certainly two medical suicides I have known were planned.
One drove hundreds of miles to an isolated spot to ensure no interruptions; another cancelled professional journals and engagements weeks ahead of the act.
Because most Christians simply will not resort to violence then they are left with the war of words. And if in conducting this war of words, they still speak and write from the liberal frame then the consequence is self-evident. The enemy is a self-annihilator. Abortion is FIRST an act of self-annihilation. Homo-sexual, properly defined, IS self-annihilation. The mechanisms of this self annihilation are tolerance (the embrace of pain) and nondiscrimination (being indiscriminate). Suicide does not capture the essence of the phenomenon because the annihilation of the self occurs over time starting with the spirit to the intellect and only finally to the physical.
24 May 2015 at 20:47
JP said...
"Suicide does not capture the essence of the phenomenon because the annihilation of the self occurs over time starting with the spirit to the intellect and only finally to the physical."
Suicide follows that same progression. As does any sin. You are simply defining suicide as only the final physical act.
I didn't define "suicide." I implied that word does not get much attention from the masses because it doesn't actually capture what either side "sees." We ALL AGREE that the primary mechanisms of being are tolerance and nondiscrimination.in our liberates society. The only difference is of coherent perception. The progression is liberated self CREATING new self which becomes a particular self then necessitating the annihilation of the old, hated self. The deception in the mass delusion that creation is primary to liberation when, in fact, it is in the annihilation of the old, hated, particular self that proves one's radical autonomy which is axiomatically perpetually changing. "We" are seeing a self-annihilation emanating from identity crisis. Some say Christianity is not helping to solve the problem. That Christianity itself is self-annihilating? Suicide is a word that makes sure no one will pay attention because it is not ideological or procedural enough. It can best be said to serve as a LIBERAL euphemism, at worst, a "conservative" deception.
@Th - I think you make reasonable points - in the end it a matter of nomenclature; and I suspect that self-annihilation will not be understood at all, while suicide cult is attention-grabbing and might induce some people to go further. But I really don't know for sure - and perhaps a sentence can capture a lot more than a word: self-hating, self-annihilating and ultimately suicidal...
Note: I do fear/ suspect that there will *soon* be a kind of epidemic of suicide among ageing Western baby boomers who are unhappy and despairing.
26 May 2015 at 16:21
Leo said...
Bruce,
I have elsewhere suggested "infertility cult."
Would the term "stealth genocide" fit?
26 May 2015 at 18:54
Anonymous said...
"...[an] epidemic of suicide among ageing Western baby boomers who are unhappy and despairing."
It will depend on what individuals despair of. Deep personal problems such as loneliness, poverty, and illness certainly push quite a few over the edge. But those whose fears run to political, social, and ecological catastrophes and who then seriously consider ending their lives might find a cure in focusing only on things that directly and immediately affect them rather than on difficulties over which they (okay, we) can have no control. "The horror and neglect of the obvious" as Screwtape called it.
In the meantime, the following link might have been more appropriate for a comment on your "Screwtape wants a comfortable, middle-aged world" posting, but all this talk of suicide made me think of it: It's an O.K. Life (3-min animated short) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VfXYNn7gnY
27 May 2015 at 04:13
*
In response to my post arguing against labeling New Leftism (or modern Liberalism or Progressivism) as a religion:
Suicide cult seems a reasonable, two-word, working definition of what Christians are up-against - encapsulating the standard, view among all mainstream and powerful leaders such as politicians, officials, educators and the mass media.
So let us proceed on that basis: that what we are dealing with in the modern Liberal, Progressive Left is a type of suicide cult; and plan accordingly.
*
Evidence that the Left has, over the decades, evolved (or mutated) into a suicide cult is abundant - the Left has lost its utopian aims, and has become almost entirely oppositional and destructive, Activism is about hunting down and destroying dissent - no matter how small scale, nobody is exempted, and there is no sense of proportion.
Actual advocacy of death is currently focused on the extremes of life childhood and old age - with encouragement of contraception, abortion, sterility or the smallest-possible families (in a context of media, official and educational-institutional encouragement to frequent and unconstrained sexual activity).
At the other end of life there is a long-running and unrelenting campaign for the elderly, and terminally- or incurably-ill people who are experiencing (or expect to experience) low quality of life to 'have the right' to be humanely murdered in order to shorten, minimize or avoid suffering.
In sum, the modern Left does not offer any basis for living the examined life among the intellectuals, and is experienced among non-intellectuals as in violation of common sense and direct personal experience. It survives on the basis of bribery and distraction, and gets its motivations by inculcating guilt (among the elite), resentment (among the masses) and open-ended entitlement among a coalition privileged 'victim' groups.
*
As the triumph of the Left becomes more complete two things will happen:
1. The gross inadequacy of its world model as a basis for human life will become harder to conceal.
2. By its continual encouragement of destructive resentment and entitlements and paralysing guilt; the Left will destroy its own basis to provide the resources necessary to bribe, distract and cocoon the population.
If this happens gradually and linearly, then the dependent majority can be sustained for a considerable period by concealed inflation and borrowing and ever-increasing expropriation of an ever diminishing productive minority. By the time the real situation is apparent, modern society will be hollowed-out and cannot recover - and Christians will be reduced to a tiny, crushed and exploited minority.
But if the situation gets worse suddenly and exponentially, then awareness of the situation may dawn before destruction is fully advanced, and there may be a window for mass repentance and Christian revival: a Great Awakening.
*
The real Christians need to be ready for this, if it happens - every Western Christian will need to become a missionary to the best of his or her ability. The situation will be made difficult by the rising of Antichrist figures - fake Christians, who are perhaps 90 percent Christian but the missing 10 percent is the essence - lacking which the do more harm than good (as is their intent).
But the flip-side is that real Christians may be 90 percent non-Christian - but the 10 percent of Christianity that they do have is precisely the needful!
Having said this, missionaries can only help with the consent of those they are trying to help; and the biggest obstacle is (what seems to be) the corrupt and depraved state of the mass of the modern population - their moral inversion; their rejection of virtue, beauty and honesty; their embrace of wickedness, ugliness and lies.
*
In the end, and whatever the society he dwells-in, each individual is responsible for his or her own salvation (salvation cannot be forced-upon him); and God will sooner or later bring each and every Man to a point of realizing this as a fact, and one which requires a choice: yea or nay.
But Christians can help influence this choice, at this point of decision; by planting seeds of good doctrine, good behaviour, and the example of soft, open, and warm hearts. Our love will be communicated to those who need and would most benefit from it, by invisible and unknown means.
Each soul, as it hovers on the crux of decision, will be able to take this Christian work into the balance.
So the answer to the question - What should Christians do, confronted by the vast power of a majority suicide cult? - is simply to do the right things, as ever, and as much as you can, and in whatever situation you find yourself...
And derive hope from the faith that all good is noted and used, nothing goes for nothing, under God's all-seeing eye.
"Since Social Justice/ Political Correctness/ New Leftism is essentially a suicide cult (not a religion) - what next?"
11 Comments -
Suicide is the wrong word... Self-annihilation highlights the procedural and thus ideological nature of the phenomenon.
Toleration plus nondiscrimination equals the surest path to self-annihilation.
Suicide says "spontaneous and desperate." This is not what is going down.
23 May 2015 at 21:24
@ST - way off topic, sounds monomaniacal...
24 May 2015 at 05:39
@Th- I agree that self-annihilation captures the nuance better - but it involves inventing a new category, whereas there have been some mass suicide cults, where there was apparently a non-spontaneous,non-desparate but instead long-term planned group suicide.
24 May 2015 at 05:46
Suicide says "spontaneous and desperate."
Outside observers often don't see it coming, but suicide is rarely spontaneous. It involves a lot of thought and planning, and often several failed attempts before it succeeds.
Individual suicides can come from hopelessness or desperation. But they can also be intended to send a message - "notice me!" or "I hope you're sorry now!"
Ideologically driven mass suicides are not spontaneous and desperate. They are carefully planned and organized, and there is always a political message or purpose (which may or may not seem "rational" to outsiders).
In the case of the modern Left, in addition to the desire for destruction for its own sake, I get a strong sense of petulance; the message is, "we hate you, and we would rather kill everyone, including ourselves, than admit we were wrong and let you win."
24 May 2015 at 16:50
@JP "suicide is rarely spontaneous. It involves a lot of thought and planning, and often several failed attempts before it succeeds."
Yes, successful suicides are often planned. Doctors do not usually have failed attempts - but certainly two medical suicides I have known were planned.
One drove hundreds of miles to an isolated spot to ensure no interruptions; another cancelled professional journals and engagements weeks ahead of the act.
24 May 2015 at 18:18
Because most Christians simply will not resort to violence then they are left with the war of words. And if in conducting this war of words, they still speak and write from the liberal frame then the consequence is self-evident. The enemy is a self-annihilator. Abortion is FIRST an act of self-annihilation. Homo-sexual, properly defined, IS self-annihilation. The mechanisms of this self annihilation are tolerance (the embrace of pain) and nondiscrimination (being indiscriminate). Suicide does not capture the essence of the phenomenon because the annihilation of the self occurs over time starting with the spirit to the intellect and only finally to the physical.
24 May 2015 at 20:47
"Suicide does not capture the essence of the phenomenon because the annihilation of the self occurs over time starting with the spirit to the intellect and only finally to the physical."
Suicide follows that same progression. As does any sin. You are simply defining suicide as only the final physical act.
24 May 2015 at 22:42
JP....
I didn't define "suicide." I implied that word does not get much attention from the masses because it doesn't actually capture what either side "sees." We ALL AGREE that the primary mechanisms of being are tolerance and nondiscrimination.in our liberates society. The only difference is of coherent perception. The progression is liberated self CREATING new self which becomes a particular self then necessitating the annihilation of the old, hated self. The deception in the mass delusion that creation is primary to liberation when, in fact, it is in the annihilation of the old, hated, particular self that proves one's radical autonomy which is axiomatically perpetually changing. "We" are seeing a self-annihilation emanating from identity crisis. Some say Christianity is not helping to solve the problem. That Christianity itself is self-annihilating? Suicide is a word that makes sure no one will pay attention because it is not ideological or procedural enough. It can best be said to serve as a LIBERAL euphemism, at worst, a "conservative" deception.
26 May 2015 at 07:42
@Th - I think you make reasonable points - in the end it a matter of nomenclature; and I suspect that self-annihilation will not be understood at all, while suicide cult is attention-grabbing and might induce some people to go further. But I really don't know for sure - and perhaps a sentence can capture a lot more than a word: self-hating, self-annihilating and ultimately suicidal...
Note: I do fear/ suspect that there will *soon* be a kind of epidemic of suicide among ageing Western baby boomers who are unhappy and despairing.
26 May 2015 at 16:21
Bruce,
I have elsewhere suggested "infertility cult."
Would the term "stealth genocide" fit?
26 May 2015 at 18:54
"...[an] epidemic of suicide among ageing Western baby boomers who are unhappy and despairing."
It will depend on what individuals despair of. Deep personal problems such as loneliness, poverty, and illness certainly push quite a few over the edge. But those whose fears run to political, social, and ecological catastrophes and who then seriously consider ending their lives might find a cure in focusing only on things that directly and immediately affect them rather than on difficulties over which they (okay, we) can have no control. "The horror and neglect of the obvious" as Screwtape called it.
In the meantime, the following link might have been more appropriate for a comment on your "Screwtape wants a comfortable, middle-aged world" posting, but all this talk of suicide made me think of it:
It's an O.K. Life (3-min animated short)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VfXYNn7gnY
27 May 2015 at 04:13