It seems like T minus F would be rather tedious, but boredom can only be conceived from the perspective of choice and possibility. My son sometimes asks if our dogs are bored, since they spend most of their time nodding off with glazed expressions. I don't think so. It's just that when affection, treats, walks, or danger from the UPS man aren't in the offing, the world must go kind of blank. Like how your computer goes to sleep if you don't give it something to do.
But man is a reflection of both absoluteness and infinitude, the former going to truth, strength, and virtue, the latter to possibility, novelty, and change.
For our purposes, possibility is another word for freedom (or, as they say, "no alternative, no problem"). However, mere possibility is no better than a dog's life, because that would revert to the essence of the diabolical: if everything is permitted and nothing is forbidden, then Dirty Harvey and his ilk become the ideal.
And don't think there aren't billions just like him. Indeed, the recent outing of so many Hollywood sleazebags and liberal newsfrauds proves the point. What motivates these men? If they simply have the power to actualize the freedom we all secretly desire, then to hell with freedom!
Real freedom -- the nondiabolical kind -- is always present in a much larger context. The moment it is severed from its telos, it becomes diabolical. Thus, to repeat an Aphorism from a few days ago, The proclamation of our autonomy is the founding act of Hell.
As such, The idea of “the free development of personality” seems admirable as long as one does not meet an individual whose personality has developed freely. If you meet such a person, run away! Certainly don't meet with him alone in a hotel room.
That reminds me. Yes, land of the free, but home of the brave; in other words, freedom + courage. And what is courage? It is the resolution to do the right thing in the face of adversity. I remember Bill Maher calling the 911 terrorists "courageous." Wrong. Like freedom, courage severed from its telos is an egocentric or indiscriminate rashness. If courage is evil, then to hell with it too.
Another aphorism to bear in mind in light of these beta predators such as Lauer, Conyers, and Rose: Poverty is the only barrier to the throng of vulgarities that whinny inside souls.
Anyone short of a saint has mind parasites of various types and dimensions (indeed, so too does the saint, except that he has transcended and mastered them). But many of these critters are latent, so to speak, unless infused with power. It is very much as if the power breathes life into them, in an inverse analogy to God in-breathing the human soul.
So, diabolical freedom is a kind of demonic in-spiration. The other day I saw a video of Jordan Peterson, who touched on this, albeit from a different angle. He adverted to studies showing that happiness is correlated with money up to a certain point, after which there is no correlation at all, and often an inverse one.
For example, if you are a cokehead and win the lottery, things are not going to end well. Likewise, if you are Michael Jackson, or Matt Lauer, or Keven Spacey, or all those prematurely dead rock stars: money and power simply breathe life into the mind parasites -- spiritual retroviruses -- that circumstances normally prevent from coming out to play.
But lets zoom out and consider this from a cosmic perspective: in the West, we enjoy a kind of affluence that was available to fewer than .01% of past human beings. To the extent that our ancestors appear more "virtuous" to us, we must remember that they had far fewer temptations, not to mention the fact you can only get into so much trouble if you are, one the one hand, performing backbreaking work from dawn to dusk, and on the other, always pregnant, with no cheap Mexican labor to cook and keep house.
Thus, if contemporary society is crazy and getting crazier, it is because of the in-breathing of diabolical freedom -- very much like those otherwise innocuous embers a few miles away from me, bursting into flames because of the Santa Ana winds.
This must be why the milloonnial generation -- or whatever you want to call it -- is the most fragile in the nation's history. For to say that your biggest problem is hurt feelings as a result of other people expressing an opinion with which you disagree, is to boast that you have no problems at all.
But obviously you have a big problem, because you are proclaiming to the world that you are unfit to endure freedom -- the nondiabolical kind. And your only solution is to place the rest of us in cages -- like the sheltered prince who would rather carpet the world than simply toughen his feet or wear shoes.
As mentioned last week, this book is too sprawling to wrap my mind around. Let's begin with some notes to myself in back (which may or may not be direct quotes) -- for example, "the power to do good can be as evil as the power to do bad, if it is power only." Boom. That is what you call a knockout blow.
The secular left is not only atheistic but anti-theistic, at least as it pertains to the real God. Therefore, it is literally the case that for them, truth reduces to power; or power shielded by the self-styled "good intentions" of the person wielding it.
Put conversely, for the left, there is nothing we can't accomplish with a combination of concentrated power, good intentions, and other people's money! For proof, just look at what Obama accomplished by creating more debt than all past administrations combined. Paradise!
Speaking of which, the left's hysteria since November 2016 is just a mirror image of the hysteria they exhibited through eight years of Obama. For them, Obama and Trump are just reverse caricatures of one another.
This will take us down another distracting rabbit hole, but the point is, leftists got exactly what their hearts were yearning for in 2008. So, heaven on earth, right? No, nothing changed, except for the worse. But do they have any insight into this? Of course not. Like any other mental patient in flight from personal responsibility -- AKA ordered freedom -- they simply want to resume that comforting dream.
Here is another note to myself, one that Schindler emphasizes throughout the book: that diabolical freedom is parasitic on the very reality it abolishes. Think, for example, of the redefinition of marriage. It is obviously parasitic on the real thing, i.e., natural marriage. The left used to be more explicit about the goal of weakening the family, but my guess is that the majority of leftists probably don't even realize that that is the real endgame.
Once again I find myself hovering around the subject of the book without fully diving in. We'll try harder. Next week.
A very thoughtful post on a fascinating topic. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI would like to introduce a new variable into the equation, which I will call "agency" or "agenda."
The newly minted human being arrives on earth, slipping out of the birth canal (or incision) with a body laden with pre-loaded programming. The body has obviously been well thought-out prior to its construction, and has all manner of time-stamped, pre-programmed cellular activities and milestones, and behavioural tactics like the suck reflex, etc. We all know this, nothing new.
The spiritual component, the soul, arrives as well. We sometime think of the soul as a "tabula rasa" as it comes to Earth. However, it stands to reason the soul is also laden, at birth, with pre-programmed goals and milestones it wants to achieve. These are probably punched into the soul's memory prior to birth.
Therefore, the view of people as being despoiled by freedom without telos, seems shaky. All souls have telos, and it is present at birth. There is probably a natural limitation to evil, as for plenty of souls evil just won't be on the "agenda." The soul will not waste time on things which are not on it's list of "things to do." For others, evil might very well be on the agenda. Therefore life will present a moral spectrum which seems to be environmentally induced. This conclusion may well be spurious.
My two cents, Das Philosoph, Pomona CA
For example, if you are a cokehead and win the lottery, things are not going to end well.
ReplyDeleteA family member dated a guy, many years back, who was a recovering heroin addict. She asked him what he would do if he ever won millions the lottery (herself dreaming of All the Things). Without hesitation, he said he'd give every penny of it away; he knew that if it was in his hands for more than a minute, he'd destroy himself with drugs. I gained a lot of respect for him for understanding that about himself; she was aghast that he wouldn't keep even a little bit.
They didn't date for very long.
"the power to do good can be as evil as the power to do bad, if it is power only." Boom. That is what you call a knockout blow.
ReplyDeleteTolkien wrote a whole series of stories about that.
Gandalf: "Don't tempt me, Frodo. I dare not take
it, not even to keep it safe.
Understand, Frodo...I would use this Ring
from a desire to do good...but through
me, it would wield a power too great and
terrible to imagine."
Last night I watched a cult classic from 1966 called Seconds, which is all about diabolical freedom. I'd never even heard of it before, but it is quite good. Strange and provocative -- similar vibe to The Swimmer.
ReplyDeleteThey have it on youtube, but with a slightly reduced screen. I would be curious to know what others think. It's like a sci fi version of the fall of man.
Looks like the youtube version is both cropped and sped up. We rented it on amazon.
ReplyDeleteSeconds sounds interesting. Will have to add to the watchlist.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Dirty Harvey and the outing of the sleazebags, it dawned on me yesterday that while current events aren't the Apocalypse, they are most definitely an apocalypse on a national level. Further, it elucidates something I don't think had ever occurred to me: that in a time of unveiling, all who have lived their lives in accordance with truth will seem essentially the same, both before and after, though perhaps some unrecognized saints will be revealed for who they are. Conversely, all who have been living according to the lie will also be revealed for what they are, and as we have seen the truth for many, and many who seemed "decent," will be very ugly.
In that light, it is really amazing to see current world events playing out: no matter how much the left tries to accuse others of their own crimes, the true are largely shown to be true while the false are being outed and taken out.
Interesting times...
Time and place are the divine platforms for human actions. Actions meaningful and meaningless, malignant or benign are the outcomes by which we are judged by the One that has placed nothing in this cosmos in vain. Life is a testing ground to see who go with the diabolic or the antagonistic forces of good, The crappy countries of the middle earth are the creation of those who have set the motion of our world in the wrong direction, the direction of the white man burden mission that launched its people in an intrusive motion of aggression through out, the earth as it is well known blundering killing and stealing all that under the false adage of civilizing the primitive world. I do not want to be oppressive in my assessment. Let us be honest with ourselves and not forget the teleological causality of this cosmos that leaves nothing without restraint in the due time. As all the prophets said, there is the permitted and the forbidden but they are not without limits even excess in the permitted has its limit and it will fire back when it reaches the limit. If you read Whitehead or R.M, Adams they say far worse things about the trajectory of the west than what I said despite I am one of those who tasted the oppression. Zooming across time it will show us clearly that the left we are decrying are the offspring of that tradition. Faith is the abode where the self focuses on itself before looking on the faults of others. There is no collective responsibility but only individual accountability. Religion is a statement of truth all rituals are supplementary if they do not pour in the river of truth they are useless. People of the west should stop working for themselves only but share their knowledge and abundance with others. I hope you saw the Jews of New york In their dissenting voice against Zionism and their refusal to the concept of non-coexistence the Zionists propagate. Do you thick, it is a wise strategy to build a high wall around the people you highly favored. Unconditional position run contrary to the dictate of the divine code that have asked the humans to bear witness for Him even against themselves or their closest relatives.
ReplyDeleteSaw Lady Bird last night. Such a joy of a film, and surprisingly positive Catholic themes done in an authentic way. Highly recommend!
ReplyDeleteRe. freedom from reality, a good observation here on the life of the average leftist. Deny it all they want, there are consequences.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly are you trying to telos? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteSee p. 265: A huge mythunderstanding. The word made fresh. Non-friction. Telos when it's over. Now. It is accomplished. Etc.
ReplyDelete