Friday, September 16, 2022

God's Own Dream

Never heard of him, but Pieper quotes the 18th century German philosopher Christian Wolff:

The truth that is called "transcendental" and is conceived as inherent in reality as such... is the ordered structure governing all existing things.

The transcendent Order from which immanent order flows is in contrast to the dream, which involves "inconsistency in the transformation of things. The truth implies order, the dream disorder."

Freud famously imagined he had discovered the implicit order, or deep structure, of dreams, and for awhile there I myself believed it. For the cult of psychoanalysis is exactly that: a cult, featuring a prophet, revelation, dogma, disciples, apostolic succession, sacraments, rites, purity tests, and of course, plenty of cash. 

Still, Freud's racket was better than what we have today in psychology, which isn't even a fairy tale. Speaking of which, if we ignore those transcendental principles referenced above -- should they 

ever disappear from the universe of all existing things, then the real world would dissolve into a fairy tale (mundus fabulosis), the equivalent of a dream (Wolff).

Obviously, we are there: western civilization has exchanged the order of truth for the disorder of the dream. But is it really a disorder, full stop? Just because Freud got it wrong, it doesn't necessarily mean that the dream has no order. Clearly, dreaming has some kind of order, or it would be a literal chaos with no narrative structure, characters, dialogue, scenes, themes, etc.

Thinking back on when I used to interpret dreams, I never did so in an "orthodox" manner that reduced them to some preconceived structure. Rather, I would approach them as one would a work of art -- a film or novel -- and try to discern the intent of the Dreamer, i.e., the underlying theme.

And as a matter of fact, I didn't come to post-graduate work in psychology in the usual way. Rather, my undergraduate degree was in film, of all things, more the artistic than technical side.

There has never been any conscious plan, but once I made the impulsive decision to veer into psychology, I couldn't help but see human life as a bad movie -- or a movie that is going badly -- and unhappy patients as being trapped in a plot unwittingly written by themselves: just like a horror movie, except the calls are coming from inside the head.

It was also during this time that -- unlucky for you -- I discovered Joyce, and more particularly, Finnegans Wake, which is what exactly? You could say it is the most complicated dream ever dreamt, which is to say, all of human history packed into one crazy dream in a single night of one individual, who is human nature writ large, AKA Here Comes Everybody. 

No one has ever come close to fully understanding the book, and no one ever will. However, the very idea of it drew me in like a moth to the flame. It didn't take much of a leap to regard it as literal, in the sense that history is indeed a nightmare from which we cannot awaken, and the more one studies history, the more evidence one finds for this endless nightmare. To study history is to float over a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat, a sewer called human nature.

I know, I know, there's plenty of good stuff down there, but it is clearly the exception, and it is always fragile and surrounded on all sides by the things one naturally finds in a sewer. Like today, for example. How insentient does one have to be in order to not smell it? 

Time out for some aphoristic back-up:

Civilizations are the summer buzzing of insects between two winters.

I'm an optimist. I say it's late autumn. 

History is a succession of nights and days. Of short days and long nights.

And the nights are, of course, when the most intense dreaming takes place, like REM sleep.

Our civilization is a baroque palace invaded by a disheveled mob.

Led by a dementia patient. 

What we call the "news" is really the Dream Police: it defines the parameters of the dream and marginalizes or punishes those who stray from it. For example, today's dream is that sending illegals to wealthy Democrat playgrounds that claim to welcome Diversity is a "political stunt." Okay dreamer.

Pulling out for a moment from this civilizational nosedive, it occurs to me that to become a Christian is to plug into God's own dream, so to speak. Thus, for example,

The Church’s function is not to adapt Christianity to the world, nor even to adapt the world to Christianity; her function is to maintain a counterworld in the world.

Or, you could call it a counter-dream to the nightmare of history. It resembles the transcendent order referenced above, except the latter is philosophical, or accessible to natural reason, whereas we can know nothing of God's dream unless he reveals it to us.

But like most dreams, it's definitely a strange one -- so strange that upon hearing it, many of his disciples said, This is a pretty weird dream. Who can accept it? But this is part of the appeal, for

Christian doctrines have the implausibility of objects that we do not construct, but that we stumble across.

Morevoer,

Certain dogmas of Christianity seem so evident to me that it is not difficult for me to believe in those that are difficult to believe.

Now, we've had plenty of morons in the White House, but not since Wilson have we had a frankly demented one. What does this imply for the nightmare of history? 

It's difficult to say at this juncture whether this is a cause or consequence of where we are in the nightmare, but it certainly seems like we've lost any connecting thread, and that we are now like a planet with no star, and therefore spinning out of control. Say what you want about the nightmarish tenets of the left, at least it's a structure. But this is madness.

Even so, the Central Sun is always here, at least for the individual. To be a conservative is to say that there is a transcendental order in things; that this order is discovered and not invented; and for this reason ought to be conserved, precisely. The things that are not of this order shouldn't be tossed aside lightly, but rather, thrown with great force.

27 comments:

Gagdad Bob said...

I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious:

"What lies behind the Catholic proneness to superstition if not a feeling that there are two realms of being, a natural realm and a supernatural realm?

"Ordinary Catholics have always had the conviction that there is a higher, invisible order of being, and that this higher order could at any moment break through to our lower world...."

Gagdad Bob said...

Orwell's description of the dream police:

"We are the priests of power,’ he said... ‘We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation–anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature."

Gagdad Bob said...

The media is a bodyguard of liars to protect the lie.

Gagdad Bob said...

"There were so many lies that they lost track of the truth and instead of fooling the adversary, they fooled themselves."

Gagdad Bob said...

Exactly: "Watching groupthink grow is like watching a split screen, one showing the narrative, the other depicting what used to be called the news.... Gradually, the screen with the narrative grows bigger and the screen with the facts shrinks to a single pixel -- and winks out."

Gagdad Bob said...

Goodnight!

John Venlet said...

Groupthink may proceed as the above quote suggests, and I think the quote is rather accurate, but only those who reject The One and the possibility of rising vertically, will be reduced to the single pixel view. If one takes His hand, He will walk you into wonders you will have difficulty in conceiving because The Truth cannot be vanquished.

julie said...

Yes, just so.

Thinking back on when I used to interpret dreams, I never did so in an "orthodox" manner that reduced them to some preconceived structure. Rather, I would approach them as one would a work of art -- a film or novel -- and try to discern the intent of the Dreamer, i.e., the underlying theme.

Maybe it's just me, but most of my dreams are just regurgitations of things that have lodged in my brain for whatever reason in the course of the day. Sometimes they're problems being solved. But then on occasion, there are those others, in which case interpretation seems almost futile, you just have to experience them and maybe your understanding of reality shifts. Or maybe it doesn't, but if it doesn't that's probably on you.

Pulling out for a moment from this civilizational nosedive, it occurs to me that to become a Christian is to plug into God's own dream, so to speak.

Yes, exactly.

Gagdad Bob said...

You can always tell the Big Dreams from the routine ones -- like summer blockbusters. Or, it's like someone really wants to get your attention.

julie said...

Ha - yes. Those are the times when, if possible, it's good to take notes.

Gagdad Bob said...

Talk about c crazy dream:

"You know, some people call him 'DeSatan,' have you heard that?" Crist continued. "DeSatan vs. that [points to a campaign sign of his last name."

"Christ," a few in the audience responded.

"Oh, think about it," he said. "The choice is crystal clear. There's no question about it. It is crystal clear. He's bad. We're good."

Gagdad Bob said...

If the Incarnation is God jumping into the nightmare of history, the Crucifixion is man's response. Then the Resurrection is God's checkmate.

John Venlet said...

Then the Resurrection is God's checkmate.

Well, if it is a game, He, at least, is playing for keeps.

Gagdad Bob said...

I had a crazy dream that the Pillow Guy's phone was arrested by the FBI, and that he hired Alan Dershowitz to sue the FBI. Oh wait...

Gagdad Bob said...

Z Man on unplugging from the dream:

"There is also the appeal of disconnecting from the modern age. Consume the mass media for even a short time, and the appeal of off-grid living is obvious. Imagine a world where the liars have to hike into the forest in order to lie to you about something. You are fixing up you hut and some guy shows up to tell you about something called deniers....

"We are saturated in party messaging so if you have any presence on the grid, you will be infected by it. There is no where to hide in the grid from the lunatics and their lunacy."

***

Detachment from the nightmare is the "negative" method, but I like to supplement it with the positive method of plugging into the counter-dream. That way you can be in but not of the world.

julie said...

Bob,

Agreed; ultimately, I think that's the only way. Even living the dream - or fantasy, rather - of escaping to the wilderness is an illusion. I have plenty of relatives in the wilds of Alaska, but they still aren't out of reach of the conspiracy. There truly is nowhere left to hide, if hiding is all you're trying to accomplish.

A few years ago, people were compiling lists of corporations that give money to Planned Parenthood, and of course more recently there have been lists of woke corporations pushing the latest abominations on kids and families. I realized there is simply no possible way, in modern America or the West more generally, to go about your ordinary life no matter how carefully and not be either directly or indirectly contributing to those agendas, even down to the unborn child in its mother's womb. It clarified for me the reality of original sin. There is only one way out, and that is Grace.

julie said...

Re. Charlie Crist, clearly he hasn't heard what happened to the last Herod...

Gagdad Bob said...

I think one implication of original sin is the pervasiveness of the conspiracy and the impossibility of unplugging absent sanctifying grace... You can't really run from unless you're running to.

Gagdad Bob said...

Or, to paraphrase something Gandalf says, there is only the one endless story and our opportunity to do battle in it.

Gagdad Bob said...

For reasons unknown to us, providence has placed us in the Age of Orcs.

john said...

That's called paganism.

julie said...

It really has. Unfortunately, those are the times we best recognize the saints.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, there are cosmic compensations.

ted said...

This guy gets it through jazz! Using race as a weapon for victimization is so limiting. It's much more capacious if you keep the individual intact, and focus on the offering!

"The group who created it doesn't own it. It becomes a gift to the world".

Gagdad Bob said...

Economic Marxism is absurd, so they just moved on to race, gender, and sexual deviant Marxism. Which is even more absurd.

julie said...

How else can we get to the elevated state of frogself?

Nicolás said...

The sewers of history sometimes overflow, as in our time.

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