Interesting. This implies a relation between lying and murder, since they coexist in the same person, and this person has been with us since "the beginning," which could be the beginning of existence; of history; or of humanness.
But in reality, these three amount to the same thing, since we now know that humanness cannot be approached or understood outside the total context of a cosmic evolution that has been occurring, on the one hand, for 13.7 billion years, and on the other, can only occur in this very moment -- God's own endless moment -- which is a circular descent-ascent from eternity to time and back again. "Thus, and not otherwise," writes Lewis, "the creation of matter and the creation of mind meet one another and the circuit is closed."
Let's focus on that last image, if only because we usually don't. That is, to the extent that we think of it at all, we might imagine the human world being infected by Satan's influence back in Genesis 3, beyond the horizon of history. But this is a kind of linear and left-brained view, with a causal chain extending from our primordial parents down to us.
This needs to be supplemented by vertical understanding that sees the same thing happening now. For example, yesterday I was having a conversation with Gagboy touching on various themes, included the idea that there is nothing at all wrong with pleasure, but that no terrestrial pleasure will ultimately satisfy us. I pointed out that it is even possible -- or maybe inevitable -- to return to Eden, to inhabit Heaven on Earth.
For awhile, anyway. But it never lasts. Why? Gagboy blurted out Casino!, which we had just viewed a couple of weeks ago. (I've been tutoring him on how to appreciate film on a deeper level; turns out majoring in film wasn't a total waste.) Good call, Gagboy! Indeed, the film gives itself away with Ace's opening narration:
When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And, for a while... I believed that's the kind of love I had.
What happened? What went wrong? Later Ace says something similar about his career as an oddsmaker for the mob:
I was so good, that whenever I bet, I could change the odds for every bookmaker in the country. I'm serious. I had it down so cold that I was given paradise on earth. I was given one of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas to run, the Tangiers...
He was so good he was given paradise. So, what happened? What went wrong?
I wonder if the word "Tangiers" provides any clues? An etymology nerd relates it to "snake's tongue" and "to bite," which is too good to check any further.
Adam -- I mean Nicky -- tell us that this Eden
should'a been perfect. I mean, he [Ace] had me, Nicky Santoro, his best friend, watching his ass... and he had Ginger, the woman he loved, on his arm. But in the end we fucked it all up. It should'a been so sweet, too. But it turned out to be the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that fuckin' valuable again.
Genesis 3 all over again. Despite the fact that "For guys like me, Las Vegas washes away your sins."
Let's try to puzzle this out. I recently read another collection of material by CS Lewis, which has the following passage:
Pleasure, pushed to its extreme, shatters us like pain.... When natural things look most divine, the demoniac is just round the corner.
That's a promise. And a threat. For if we could successfully recreate paradise on earth, it
would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God.... Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns [or hotel-casinos], but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.
Some people are put off by my mixing religion and politics, but Lewis' observation goes precisely to where I draw the line: for I never pretend there are political solutions to spiritual problems, much less that politics can bring about heaven on earth.
However, these are central premises of the left (even if only implicit), so it is they who cannot help but drag religion into politics, every time. I'm just reacting to their false religion, which, like Old Scratch, is false from the beginning, and is responsible for more murder and mayhem than any other force in history.
Some additional passages, just to rub it in:
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in'; aim at earth and you will get neither.I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning [there's that word again] a part of Heaven itself.
What does Screwtape say?
So inveterate is their appetite for Heaven that our best method, at this stage, of attaching them to earth is to make them believe that earth can be turned into Heaven at some future date by politics or eugenics or 'science' or psychology, or what not.
Man comes factory equipped with a sense of the eternal, which politics exploits to its own ends by turning it upside-down and inside-out:
When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it. They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven, thus giving a sop to your sense of exile in earth as it is. Next, they'll tell you that this fortunate event is still a good way off in the future, thus giving a sop to your knowledge that the fatherland is not here and now.
Or rather, they disrupt the divine spiral mentioned above in paragraph three, and insert the state in place of God, in an ever tightening noose instead of an ever expanding nous. For in the real world, "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside" (Lewis).
Note too that adherence to a materialistic or scientistic cosmology is a consequence of political needs, not vice versa; in other words, in order for the left to succeed, people must be squeezed into a subhuman and anti-human cosmos fit only for animals.
8 comments:
in order words, in order for the left to succeed, people must be squeezed into a subhuman and anti-humam cosmos fit only for animals.
Or, as some would have it, humans must be squeezed out, except of course for the chosen few. Just this week there was some Canadian elitist cheering on the coronovirus because the quarantine of Wuhan means the city will reduce its carbon footprint.
We are currently reading through Daniel. The tale of Nebuchadnezzar's madness is fitting here; though he had been warned, the moment he proclaimed that the greatness of his empire was purely the work of his own hands, he lost his mind and lived like a wild animal for seven years. At least he was allowed to return and resume his place, finally being mindful that after all, it's still only earth and he isn't a god. The resulting humility made him even greater.
We're on a similar page these days. I was inspired to write these words today; (this is only a fourth of them, but they are very apt.)
Words when uttered have the semblance of truth
As cosmetics to fit an uncertain air;
That sounding they themselves may provide a proof
And not the work of a stage-hand's care;
Silence is truth, not because truth has been heard
But because no lie can be spoken
When no tongues may wag or hearts may be spurred
By promises made to be broken.
I emerged from a long isolation in the desert only to stumble on a veritable Sodom. Entering the outer precincts of this place I saw persons dramming liquor in direct violation of the Volstead Act. At the core of this settlement there was riotous gambling, loose women, and all manner of disorder. There was open smoking of Marihauna. People seemed like barbarians, pierced and tattooed frightfully.
There were many gleaming and improbably towers and immense magical fountains. Dominating all an eldritch black pyramid emitted a mighty light like the eye of Sauron. Know ye, citizens, this place exists in our Southwestern desert? It is like Mordor itself!
I must resupply and get back out to my sanctuary before Satan snares me; already I have been sorely tempted. Please, send the Godly to clean up this abomination.
-Desert Unicorn
Good evening crew.
From the post:
"in order words, in order for the left to succeed, people must be squeezed into a subhuman and anti-humam cosmos fit only for animals."
This statement is laden with minor errata. First, the left has already succeeded; leftist ideology informs all policy and has for some years. People have not been squeezed into an anti-human cosmos. Life is good and regular families multiply across generations in the time-honored fashion.
That being said, our culture requires a certain level of conformity which does box an individual in. One may not cross national borders freely, for example, and there are countless other limitations. One may not hunt the pigeons in the park, no matter how plump and tasty they appear. However, restrictions have been the norm since people started cooperating and questionably these have gotten more bearable over time.
Lastly, animals are spiritual beings and require a clean and ecologically sound environment in which to thrive. Yeah, like people do. An environment fit for animals would be a good thing for us.
So, the question is Dr Godwin, why do you parrot such inanities to begin with? There's the mystery. On the whole, your work is sound. But, it could stand some tightening up.
River, enjoyed your poem greatly; it had good meter and rhyme. The reflection on the sacred nature of silence is well taken.
Well, that's all I can squeeze out for now. I'll sit down again in the morning and see what else is in the pipeline.
Dung Artist OOO OOO
Some say that leftism is people working together to try and solve problems. Others say that leftism is problems working together to try and solve people.
But who cares what they think. We should only care what I think. And I think that we're doomed. But we must at least all agree to try and save Christianity in the process.
If it is indeed true that the wealth and power pathologicals (and/or sociopaths) have been allowed to take most of the worlds fertile ground, while in the opinion of many not caring one whit about the consequences for the rest of us, my worry is that when shit hits the fan, that Christianity will be the convenient scapegoat.
We cannot allow Christianity to be the convenient scapegoat. That would be bad. I'm not sure if God would strike them down with great vengeance and furious
anger, the ones poisoning and destroying our brothers, because we haven't been seeing any of that sort of thing for some time now.
Anonymous, quiet your mind. The only sh*t hitting a fan will be thrown by the Dung Artist. It is a useful technique.
Dry your eyes, put your fears to rest, lay your weary head on the lap of Jesus. All will be well.
Godwin's job is to present gloom and doom, and I feel you should take a break from reading that for a few days, until you feel better. It will be here when you are ready for more.
In the meantime, I forecast for you peace, tranquility, and joyous sex with your mate.
Ta Ta, from Wild Cherry.
".... "Thus, and not otherwise," writes Lewis, "the creation of matter and the creation of mind meet one another and the circuit is closed."..."
I was thinking a similar thought this morning, from a different direction, of beauty, sex & porn. The merging of matter with spirit, should be the most elevated of subjects, as indeed it is through the human form. But. It is so easily transformed into the most crude and degraded in thought and form. As the man said,
"...When natural things look most divine, the demoniac is just round the corner..."
Van, so true. I often feel very sorry for the younger generations, the kids who've been exposed to the most shocking hardcore porn, often since before they even hit puberty. Marriage, and sex within marriage, is in its truest form not simply a pleasureful act but a sacrament, a holy act joining two people that contains within it the possibility of creating a new and unique life. By its nature it is also intensely private and personal; as Bob has often noted, the reality can never be captured on a screen and shared with a million viewers.
How can you even begin to teach that idea to people who've been masturbating to visions of degrading and being degraded for pretty much all their lives, where people are used up and thrown aside for the next thrill? It's the ultimate satanic inversion. Even if you manage with your own kids, what's the likelihood they'll meet and marry someone who sees it anywhere close to the same way (without a little divine intervention, anyway)?
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