Triads. No, not the Chinese ones. Just as memory aids, Wendell Krossa
Repeated themes on this site:
Three bads (animal impulses)- tribal exclusion, domination of others, punitive destruction of others.
Three goods (human impulses)- full inclusion of all, equal freedom and rights of all, restorative treatment of failure.
Three major distortions of the true state of life- “lost original paradise, life declining toward apocalypse, redemption/salvation via instantaneous coercive purging of exaggerated threat…”
This site takes the primal meaning impulse of humanity seriously and is committed to responding with the best of insights from across history. Hence, the unapologetic embrace of the metaphysical element in human narratives (long dominant in human narratives as the embodiment of ultimate ideals, ultimate authority), along with a lot of physical evidence on the true state of life (rising, improving, not declining toward something worse). Inform narratives with insights from all areas of life.
A critical project for our time- Counter destructive myths like “apocalyptic millennialism” that endlessly re-erupt today, often in “secular ideological” versions, even scientific. Recognize the prominence of this mythology today in both religious and secular belief systems. Acknowledge the destructive outcomes of this mythology in salvation schemes like decarbonization. Then offer alternatives to shape entirely new narratives that affirm the better angels of our nature and promote better outcomes.
Create an exaggerated monster. Scare yourself silly. And then aflush with virtue, you can convince yourself that you must heroically engage a righteous war to “save the world”. Wendell Krossa
Michele Obama is “terrified”.
So also other Democrats are similarly terrified. Why? Well, they have created a grotesquely exaggerated monster, so irredeemably evil that he threatens “the end of democracy”.
When you have insistently defined your chief opponent as “Hitler… Nazi…. Fascist tyrant…. Racist… will cause the end of democracy”, there is then no further worse extreme element of threat that you can appeal to. You have reached for the worst.
Progressives also claim that their opponents further threaten the end of life itself due to their advocacy for continued use of fossil fuels that alarmist Progressives claim will cause a climate catastrophe that will be the end of the world.
Having defined and smeared all those who disagree with you with such claims and terms, you now cannot back away to a more rational and sane perspective on your opponents. You have painted yourself into a corner with those horrifically exaggerated threats.
It then takes some engagement of mature humanity to admit that you were wrong and few hysterians are ever willing to back away to re-engage that sanity. Along with the humiliation of admitting that you went lunatic fringe, you will invite smears for any “retreat” back to sanity. Illustration: When Gaia creator James Lovelock, late in his life, admitted that his alarmism over climate was wrong, his fellow alarmists, thoroughly pissed at his “betrayal”, smeared him as having gone senile.
“Terrified”. Such is the result of the demonization of differing others that has gone insanely extreme. The creation of monstrously exaggerated threats incites the survival impulse. Agitates it to extremist irrationality. So now you (in terms of your exaggerated narrative) must save the world by engaging a “righteous battle” against the evil monsters that you have created. You are “nobly, virtuously” obligated to purge the evil threat that you have propagandized and traumatized the public with, in order to save the world.
That is the lunacy of such exaggeration and demonization.
Consequence? We are now destroying societies with decarbonization in order to “save” them. Sri Lanka is another example of the apocalyptic exaggeration and consequent hysteria that go lunatic and destructive (i.e. the devastation of the agricultural sector as a policy response to climate alarmism, with similar proposals to devastate agriculture in Holland, Ireland, and Canada). Apocalyptic incites people to take extreme measures to “save the world” in response to the apocalyptic scenarios that they have terrified themselves with.
Daily, news media obsessively harangue the public with hysterical exaggerations over weather (the endless mantra of “worst on record… worst on record…”), trying to keep the insanity at fever pitch by presenting normal weather vagaries (normal “extreme weather” events) as signs of an imminent apocalypse.
What a pathological eruption of “madness of crowds” we are suffering through today. Where are the kids willing to blurt out and puncture the delusional mental bubble that so many adults are in, with- “Mommy, the emperor has no clothes”.
And Michelle… get a grip.
Another example of this panic-mongering lunacy… “He will disappear journalists and gays”.
A further example of the lunacy that drives the exaggerated demonization of opponents that is plain old slander that is then outright lying.
“More Lunatic Legal Coverage: Media reports say Donald Trump’s attorney claimed presidential immunity would ‘extend to political assassinations’. Here’s what he really said” Matt Taibbi, Jan. 12, 2024
https://www.racket.news/p/more-lunatic-legal-coverage?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Quotes:
“Reporters keep plunging to bizarre new lows in coverage of Donald Trump. The new jam: his lawyer argued presidents can assassinate rivals. Except he didn’t, at all….
“MSNBC, in an article by former New York County prosecutor Jordan Rubin, unsurprisingly panned the claim in, “Trump’s immunity argument highlights the absurdity of his position.” The relatively restrained Rubin wrote:
“Donald Trump didn’t have a strong chance of winning his immunity claim heading into oral arguments Tuesday in Washington, and the argument itself showed why… Judge Florence Pan pointed out that, under Trump’s theory, a president could order SEAL Team Six to murder the president’s political rivals and, so long as they’re not convicted in an impeachment trial, they’re off the hook….
“Even more incredible was a parade of reports appearing to claim Trump himself argued the “SEAL Team Six” idea. “Sen. Schatz warns of ‘new turn’ for Trump with ‘Seal Team 6 claim,” was the header for a Chris Hayes interview of Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz. Schatz said it was “one thing” when Trump was “essentially engaging in stochastic terrorism,” but here “the official position of Trump’s lawyers is going to be that he could order a murder of his political rivals using SEAL Team 6.”
(Insert: So also Newsweek, The Hill, Mediaite, The Bulwark, CNN all ran similar claims)…
“Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, gaining fast in the always-heated race for a rep as the dumbest current member of congress, fretted to fellow gentleman-scholar Wolf Blitzer on CNN:
“As a member of Congress, my first thought was, well, then if the president is going to order out for the assassination of his political rivals, and say there’s a narrow margin in the Senate of a two or three vote in the opposition party, what’s to keep him from murdering members of the Senate to make sure that he doesn’t get convicted there in order to deny a two-thirds majority?….
“Again, you can agree or disagree with the immunity argument, but just from a press perspective: the “SEAL Team Six” moment not only didn’t come from Trump’s team, it was never really argued at all. What actually happened was Pan spent a ton of time fishing for that sound bite….”
Once again- the apocalypse is nigh. Wendell Krossa (my posts to a discussion group)
The hysteria is again building to insane levels- Charlemagne Tha God calling Trump “the antichrist” and “the end of democracy… for sure this time”, Whoopi Goldberg saying that “(Trump) will disappear gays and journalists”, Michelle Obama claiming “she is terrified…. Democracy will disappear”.
I am confused. These people are the ones pushing censorship of any who disagree with them (60-plus percent of Democrats), in favor of banning political opponents from ballots (81 percent of Dems), and more that undermines democracy.
Ah, the derangement syndrome is reaching new heights of cognitive dissonance, projection, and outright lunacy… again.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6344718258112
This is a good survey of democracy around the world. Wendell Krossa
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/democracy-is-dying-around-the-globe
I am not in agreement with the author’s comments on Trump. While we all have cringe responses to Trump at times, even disgust at some personal things (i.e. his petty ‘eye for eye’ retaliation that often crosses into ad hominem attacks), he did two things that no “tyrant” does. He cut regulations (massively) and taxation. Both mechanisms that state bureaucrats and tyrants use to control populations. Tyrants take more of citizen’s money, believing that they know better how to spend it. That robs citizens of personal choice. And so also regulations are a direct intrusion into citizen’s lives, direct control by state bureaucrats/elites.
Again, few presidents have done more to eliminate these two mechanisms of elite control. So how can that mean “tyranny” by Trump?
And looking at what the Democrats have done- well, that is tyranny. The pervasive social media censorship exposed in the “Twitter files” revelations. The majority of Democrats who want more censorship. And the intelligence agencies propagandizing the population through mainstream media as Michael Shellenberger revealed in his reports on the “framing” projects of those agencies.
https://public.substack.com/p/signs-of-military-discipline-behind
And again- the recent poll showing 81% of Dems want Trump banned from ballots this year.
Now who really is your “tyrant” and “threat to end democracy”? Ah, projection, eh.
Added note:
Contrary to Nancy Pelosi’s repeated claim that Trump inherited Obama’s economy and that Trump tax cuts only benefitted the rich, official government stats showed that, while the richest also had income gains, the lowest quintile of the US population had the highest percentage gains in median income.
And while median income gains under 8 years of Obama’s economy were around $6,000, in only 3 years of Trump’s economy median income gains were over $6,000. Meaning, if you had 8 years of Trump’s economic policies (discounting the Covid pandemic) the median income gains would have been more than double those under Obama. C’mon Nancy, facts are facts.
Greg Gutfeld was right. With Trump you get a problematic personality but great policies. With Biden you get maybe a better personality but horrible policies. That is the choice, he said.
And…
I comment on the US situation is because it is so illustrative of the Woke Progressive totalitarianism that is ruining our societies (Elon Musk noting on Joe Rogan that it has spread worldwide). Just look at Justin Trudeau here in Canada. The man who stated that the country he admires most is the dictatorship of China because “They know how to get things done”. Well, his Dad was a fanboy of Castro and Mao.
This is an excellent presentation of climate issues by Harvard astrophysicist Willie Soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7IdLzxzINw
How to solve the endless cycles of eye for eye tribal violence? (a quickie summary for those just running by), Wendell Krossa
Critical to solving eye for eye tribal violence- Go to the root causal, contributing factors. Understand the foundational ideas in human narratives and the impulses that they incite and validate- notably, the inherited animal impulses as in the impulses to tribalism, domination, and destruction of differing others.
These are the issues this site tackles repeatedly.
And there is nothing more critical in the mix of contributing factors than the monster gods that we have inherited from the primitive mythology of our ancestors, gods viewed as the highest embodiment of ideals, and the ultimate authorities that incite, guide, and validate human behavior and lives.
The ideals projected onto the early deities- tribal, dominating, punitively destructive (a threesome that summarizes larger complexes of mythology)- were passed down through history to be embraced by the world religions, then further passed down into 19th Century Declinism ideology that has shaped the secular ideologies and belief systems of the modern world, notably Marxism, Nazism, and environmental alarmism. (See Arthur Herman’s “The Idea of Decline In Western History”. The idea of decline being “the most dominant and influential theme in the modern world”.)
The above belief systems have all embraced the same core basic themes of the “lost paradise/apocalypse/redemption” complex that incites the “evil triad” of impulses to tribalism, domination, and destruction of differing others. (My ‘triads’ are just to simplify for memory aids the larger complexes of themes.)
Problem-solving: The problem of endless and often intensifying eruptions of tribalism, Wendell Krossa
Many have voiced the concern that tribalism has intensified to a record severity in US society today, even surging dangerously out of control. Some speculate that it now poses a serious threat to US social peace and democracy. People wonder if we can pull back from the extreme nature of the divisiveness today, even suggesting that it portends civil violence. The tribal divisiveness is not just a US problem but is worldwide.
We have effective counters to this problem. As with any issue we need to first understand all the factors involved in creating and exacerbating the problem, the main root causal or contributing factors. As with any problem-solving project it is wise to go the real core of the problem, the most critical of contributing factors.
I would argue that, with divisiveness between groups in a society, you are looking, at a most fundamental level, at an inherited animal impulse and the affirming ideas that incite and validate the impulse. ‘Archetypes’ if you will.
The impulse of tribalism arises from our mammalian origins in animal reality- i.e. the millions of years of small-band existence, whether in families, extended clans, or small groups that struggled to survive against competitors and predators, the threats from other small bands.
Worsening the problem, W. Krossa
The eventual emergence of conscious minds in humanity was accompanied by the impulse for meaning. And that became our primary impulse. People then created ideas, narratives to explain and validate their lives- ideas that would then, in feedback loop fashion, incite, guide, and validate their impulses to such things as tribalism. This all became subconscious-level stuff, meaning deeply embedded in human psyches.
Most critical in regard to the exercise of the meaning impulse is that our ancestors projected their ideas onto what they viewed as the highest embodiment of ideals and authorities- their gods. They projected some of their basest features onto their deities. The result were gods as tribal deities that favored their followers and advocated destructive violence toward outsiders as “enemies”.
Add that early Gods were also defined as dominating lords validating the human response to dominate or lord over others. Also, Gods were punitively destructive, validating “justice” as the destruction of differing others, outsiders. All features (the “evil triad”) of what we understand as “monster Gods”.
Later, with the ongoing refining of God theories across history, with increasing sophistication of ideas, people added the myths of “cosmic dualism”- i.e. good Gods existing in eternal conflict with evil powers/spirits (Zoroastrian theology). That would further validate tribalism among groups on earth as people have always sought to model their lives and societies according to what they believe is the divine model or ideal (i.e. people basing their behavior on similar beliefs that affirm the behavior). Cosmic dualism mythology led people to believe that, by affiliating with a “true” religion, they could be on the side of good in the battle against evil. Such thinking validated their destruction of the “evil other or enemy” that was threatening them.
These primitive mythical themes deformed the hero’s quest by orienting people to view differing others as enemies and to forget that the true enemy of humanity was inside each person- i.e. their animal inheritance.
These mythical ideas continued to shape human narratives down into the world religions where they still dominate today- with themes of true believers versus unbelievers. And this tribalism infects everyone. It is evident even in non-religious people who view their primary identity in terms of a fundamental opposition to differing others, whether based on ideology, political party, ethnicity/race, or membership in a nation state.
We have all just seen the worst of a tribalism eruption in the Hamas/Israel conflict. And we see the same tribalism at lesser scales in all sorts of ugly separations between groups of differing people in our societies.
Tribalism continues to break forth in our contemporary world and has been endlessly re-enforced by people giving primary emphasis to peripheral identity markers, superficial differences (i.e. superficial on the human genome and other factors). Note this in the common affirmation of tribal identity in terms of skin color.
How to counter the tribalism impulse? W. Krossa
With the emergence of consciousness, and the accompanying meaning impulse in humanity, we were given a way to liberate ourselves from our base tribal impulse. But it has taken multiple millennia to discover the better alternatives to the ideas that our ancestors gave us.
We embrace our primary meaning impulse, and a historically developing sense of the humane, and use these to motivate us to seek alternative narratives, new ideas that counter tribalism and inspire our better impulses to include all as family.
Primarily, to counter the tribal impulse, we recognize and embrace the most critical and fundamental feature to our identity as humans- i.e. our shared human spirit and consciousness. This is the most fundamental element to being human. Human mind and spirit constitute the primary element in what makes us authentically human. We all share the same human spirit and consciousness, or mind, as the primary common denominator of every person in the one human family.
And then emphasize the fact of “fundamental oneness” in the human family as basic to our identity. Oneness as based, for example, on our shared origin from an East African Eve, i.e. “Mitochondrial Eve”. Every human being on Earth today has descended from that mother of us all. Meaning- the human family is one family of equals. One great tribe or race.
Then further add other facts that affirm oneness, facts like “quantum entanglement” that point to an even more fundamental oneness of all at the most basic level of reality (Ignore the dogmatic quantum purists who dismiss such conclusions as “Woowoo” stuff. Suck it up- its fundamental reality.).
Further include the Near-Death Experience insights that we are all united in an ultimate oneness in deity. This metaphysical oneness is also affirmed by other spiritual traditions. And it presents a new metaphysical basis for human equality.
This oneness factor is one of the most basic features related to human identity and it overturns the many other more peripheral factors that we elevate to deny and distort our common oneness and common humanity.
Additional comments:
Note, for example, the scientist who said that skin color is such a minor feature on the human genome that it amounts to nothing of any more importance than a “sunburn”. It’s the difference between active melanocytes and inactive melanocytes. We all have the same amount of melanocytes in our skin (the little cell thingies that release melanin to darken color in skin as protection against UV).
Depending on the past millennia of exposure to differing environments, some African descendants continued to live in high sunlight areas whereas others migrated to low sunlight areas. Hence, melanocyte activity adapted to these environmental differences over the millennia. In low sunlight areas such as northern Europe, human melanocytes became inactive. The result- “crackers”.
Yet, many still today grant skin color differences a dominant place in human identity. Such a nothingburger to divide and fight over, to validate tribalism. Active versus inactive melanocytes (“sunburn”) is not a biological basis for “race” as some fundamentally different species of human.
And then, most potent to fighting tribalism, embrace the one feature above all that identifies us as human- love. Not just love as in love of family and neighbor (the “easy-peasy” version of love, anyone can do that). But go for the highest reach of love- unconditional love as in “love of enemy”. Love of enemy eviscerates tribalism and urges us to treat all as family, intimate family, not outside “others” (the offensive- “You people” or “Those people”). This goes to the heart of the tribal enmity problem to offer a way of freedom from the animal and a route to heroic status in our story- to exhibit a universal love that enables us to tower in stature as maturely human. Like Nelson Mandela.
We reframe our narratives with such information and insight and that orients us to entirely new perspectives that enable us to recognize our more base impulses for what they really are- animal, not human. A new narrative, based on insights like human oneness, enables us to conquer our worst impulses and move toward the better future that we all want.
Another note:
As pointed out in a section below, we also see tribalism advocated in the simple-minded dualism of Marxist collectivism- where you are categorized as either a member of the oppressor class, or the oppressed class, victimizer class or victimized class. DEI takes up this same simple-minded tribalism.
Good reports from Shellenberger and others on the prominent ideological themes in the totalitarianism of today… notably DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)
“No Claudine Gay’s resignation from Harvard was not a result of a vast right-wing conspiracy: If media organizations don’t stop waving away genuine scandals as conspiracy theories, they will continue to lose legitimacy”, Michael Shellenberger, Jan. 4, 2024
And further on the DEI at the core of higher education today.
DEI is a notable element in the resurgence of destructive Marxist tribal dualism as in class struggle between oppressed/oppressors or victims/victimizers. DEI denies human diversity, individual uniqueness, and other values of liberal democracy or Classic Liberalism for a re-embraced emphasis on collectivist views of humanity, meaning that people are categorized as belonging either to the oppressed or oppressor group, based on identity markers like skin color or gender, etc. DEI has become the new Woke racism that is a denial of Martin Luther King’s dream that we should view one another not according to group skin color but according to individual character. The “colorblind” world.
Here is Bill Ackman’s take on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) which, he notes, embraces the tactics of McCarthyism and is the latest expression of Marxist oppressor/oppressed tribal dualism. His comment is helpful to understand this element in the new totalitarianism that has spread widely across our societies….
“Claudine Gay resignation was a good first stop, but more needs to be done to fix Harvard: Self-censorship, speech codes and cancel culture must be forever banished from campus”, Bill Ackman, Jan. 5, 2024
Another
“Class War Behind Harvard’s Embrace of DEI Race Pseudoscience: Plagiarism, the resignation of Claudine Gay, and the need for higher ed alternatives”, Michael Shellenberger, Alex Gutentag, Zaid Jilani, Jan. 2, 2024
https://public.substack.com/p/class-war-behind-harvards-embrace
Another
“Claudine Gay debacle highlights the perils of DEI: DEI’s debased standards and apathy for antisemitism permitted a marginal, ethically challenged scholar to become a university president”, Jonathan Tobin, Jan. 3, 2024
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/claudine-gay-debacle-highlights-the-perils-of-dei
Another
“Dehumanizing Anti-civilization Dogma Behind DEI’s Destruction of Universities: Its time to build the alternative”, Michael Shellenberger, Jan. 3, 2024
https://public.substack.com/p/dehumanizing-anti-civilization-dogma
And one more on DEI
And then…
“Ramaswamy goes off on reporter: ‘I’m not playing your silly game”, Fox News
Here is the Vivek Ramaswamy’s response to the Washington Post reporter’s question recently on White supremacy. His response is brilliantly worded and blunt on who is really responsible for pushing racism today- as in Woke racism. He explains who is really dividing the US today. Good one, only a few minutes and worth the watch…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1bEGzvCWU
Further on the Ramaswamy counter to the WaPo reporter:
Greg Gutfeld presents Biden’s new campaign ad that focuses on the purported threat of white supremacists (MAGA), a meme of Democrats and their mainstream media, and contrasts that with Vivek Ramaswamy’s recent pushback against that miniscule threat. Ramaswamy rightly states that the real threat is the divisiveness from the new racism of Wokeism that dominates mainstream media. And the Washington Post reporter did just as Ramaswamy predicted she would- she later claimed that “He refused to condemn white supremacy”. It’s beyond insane how this propaganda is pushed in public and has been for years- the real divisive force in society.
As one guest says, this is the insanity of our world today-”broken-brain nonsense”- where Ramaswamy is called a white supremacist, just as black candidate Larry Elder was also smeared as White supremacist, and Asians are “white supremacy adjacent’”, and on and on. Everything reduced to “racism”. Bill Ackman put it well- Any who disagree with Woke DEI are slandered as “racist”. To understand our world today, we need to probe the psychology behind all this, and many have done that.
“Gutfeld: Biden attacks MAGA in this new campaign ad”, Fox News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI9_LNWqLWE
And then the unavoidable responsibility to exercise “tough love” to make life safe as in the eradication of evil as necessary for a safe, peaceful world.
“Hamas needs outright eradication, not gentle diplomacy: Targeted measures, like Tuesday’s killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, are necessary for long-term peace”, Avi Benlolo, Jan. 5, 2024
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-hamas-needs-outright-eradication-not-gentle-diplomacy
Another good one from Vijay
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/06/coals-life-saving-role-ignored-by-climate-obsessed-media/
“Coal’s Life-Saving Role Ignored By Climate-Obsessed Media” By Vijay Jayaraj January 04, 2024
Quotes:
“Billions of people all over the world do not have access to secure sources of heat and electricity. For these, winter can be a death blow. A political war against fossil fuels is making matters worse for those unprotected from frigid temperatures.
“Snow is deadly and is not going away.
“The gravity of winter’s hazard has been overshadowed by the prevailing discourse on purported man-made climate change. We have been inundated with warnings about the perils of warming. But historically, it is the cold that has been disastrous …..
“Winter’s icy chill claims far more lives than scorching summer heat, according to global analyses of fatalities caused by various natural hazards. In fact, a 2023 health study conducted across 854 European cities reveals that an estimated annual excess of 203,620 deaths were due to cold while just 20,173 were attributed to heat. In comparative terms, only 1 in 10 excess deaths from extreme temperatures were attributable to heat while a majority were due to cold….
“Pseudoscience endangers people with impractical energy policies…
“When faced with below-freezing, snow-blanketed winter days, neither wind nor solar power can guarantee a steady energy supply….
“It is long past time for the western media to boldly report the critical role of fossil fuels in supporting human life during harsh winter conditions. Such fact-based reporting would put to rest the false narrative of a world doomed by warming.”
See also “Excess mortality attributed to heat and cold: a health impact assessment study in 854 cities in Europe” at this link….
https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanplh/PIIS2542-5196(23)00023-2.pdf
Further on cold killing more people than heat:
Bill Nye, the “anti-science guy” wants us to return to the devastating cold of the pre-industrial era. He said so on a Tucker Carlson interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5L2q6hfWo). Bill, how can you claim that it’s a bad thing that they can grow grapes in a warmer Britain today? That is the lunacy of alarmism, how apocalyptic makes fools of otherwise intelligent people. In our present world 10 times more people still die of cold every year than die from heat (Lancet study). Where are media on such facts?
This article below on the Little Ice Age from roughly the early 1600s to the early 1700s: “Europe’s Little Ice Age: All things which grew above the ground died and starved” by Sam White, Nov. 8, 2018. We still have not fully recovered from the descent into the cold of the Little Ice Age. We are still at the coldest period of our Holocene interglacial.
“On arrival in North America, Europeans’ hopes were dashed by the harsh winters — not because they were unprepared for the ice and snow, but because they were all too familiar with the deprivations of a cold climate. As Sam White writes in ‘A Cold Welcome’, colonists had left a continent roiled by what is now known as the Little Ice Age….
“During late 1606 and early 1607, while the first Englishmen sailed to Jamestown, the weather in Europe turned eerily warm and dry. In parts of Germany, the flowers bloomed in February. Coming after decades of cold, wet seasons, it seemed to some that this year there was “no winter” at all.
“That suddenly changed in late 1607, when the continent plunged back into some of the worst cold in generations. The winter of 1607-1608 has gone down in history as one of Europe’s “great winters,” bringing Arctic cold, snow, and ice. In the Netherlands, the freeze began in late December and continued with few interruptions into late March. Horses and sleighs travelled over the Zuiderzee from Haarlingen to Enkhuizen, and the extraordinary sight would inspire some of the most famous winter landscape paintings of the era.
“Even Spanish diplomats travelled by sleigh over the ice to broker their truce with Dutch rebels in early 1608. By late winter the rivers were solid and the ground lay under sheets of ice. Birds froze to death; livestock and wild animals starved; fruit trees perished of frost. “In short,” Dirk Velius observed from Hoorn, “it was a winter whose like was unheard of in human memory….”
“Even the Mediterranean did not escape. Spain faced bitter cold, frozen rivers, and snowfall as late as May 1608. Northern Italy suffered one of its coldest winters of the Little Ice Age. In Florence, continual rains during December turned to snow and ice throughout January and February; in Milan the ice and snow were supposedly so bad that people could barely go outdoors. In Rome, heavy rains brought frequent flooding of the Tiber. Lakes and rivers froze in Greece. In Anatolia, still ravaged by the Celali rebellion, extreme cold and drought induced widespread famine and reportedly cannibalism.”
And more on today’s totalitarianism
“Anthony Fauci’s Assault on Democracy: An interview with Jay Bhattacharya for our upcoming documentary”, Leighton Woodhouse, Jan. 7, 2024
https://public.substack.com/p/anthony-faucis-assault-on-democracy
Quotes:
“We tend to think of censorship as a violation of the rights of the censored. And it is that, of course. But censorship creates other victims we give less consideration to: the millions who are denied the chance to hear the perspectives of those who are silenced.
“In totalitarian societies, censors deny the public the opportunity to hear opinions that diverge from state orthodoxy. Suppressing dissent allows the government to exercise its power without constraint. Persuasion is no longer necessary; public opinion is shaped through government decree. Obedience follows.
“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans watched our political leaders stoop to these despotic measures. The Department of Homeland Security, the CDC, and the FBI pressured and colluded with the big tech platforms to cleanse social media of anyone who dared to object to the directives of the state. Questioning the efficacy of lockdowns, vaccine mandates and public masking rules was every bit as heretical as doubting dialectical materialism was in Soviet Russia.
“Jay Bhattacharya is an epidemiologist at Stanford University. Along with Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician at Harvard, and Sunetra Gupta, an Oxford epidemiologist, he wrote The Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the government’s lockdown measures and called for “focused protection” of vulnerable demographic groups while the rest of the population achieved herd immunity….
“NIAID chief Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, then head of the NIH, had maligned the three authors of the declaration as “fringe epidemiologists” and had committed to orchestrating a “devastating published takedown” of their views.
“Bhattacharya and his colleagues were vindicated on just about every one of their views, while Fauci’s arguments — when he didn’t contradict and obfuscate them as reality discredited the government’s strategy — were almost uniformly proved wrong.
“How many lockdown-induced deaths of despair could have been avoided, how many small businesses could have survived, how many children would have been spared from devastating learning loss had we been allowed a real debate over Covid policies?…
“This is part of the story we’re telling in our upcoming feature documentary, The Censorship Files. I conducted this interview with Bhattacharya as part of that production. It will eventually, in a different form, be a part of that film.
“We will inevitably have new national emergencies in the future — potentially even more pandemics. We cannot allow ourselves to forget what the government did to destroy democratic debate and consolidate its power as Covid-19 turned the world upside down. We must take steps now to dismantle the Censorship Industrial Complex so they can never do it again.”
Scattered comment on this and that…
The DEI in Woke Progressivism is a rehash of Marxist collectivism in that it categorizes people, not by individual character (Martin Luther King) but according to a group. Collectivism subordinates individuals to the collective, hence the denial of private property rights in the service of the collective ownership.
And DEI is a new racism (“Woke Racism”- John McWhorter) in that an entire group is categorized as defective and inferior according to skin color. “There is no version of being white that is good”. Robin DiAngelo admitted to Christiane Amanpour that she rejects individual difference for collectivist categories.
But probe further behind this simple-minded dualism of good group/bad group, oppressor/oppressed, or victim/victimizer and you uncover the base impulse of tribalism that is incited and validated by the primitive myth of cosmic dualism (Good locked in eternal battle against Evil).
And…
Who said the most dangerous people in society are those who believe that they know what is right for all others and will self-righteously use coercion to force others to embrace their ideas and policies.
Another on the irrational demonization of differing others…
The demonization of the differing others has been so exaggerated (notably from the liberal/Democratic or left side), and has become so hysterically distorting of reality, and people have created monsters so horrific that they purportedly threaten “the end of democracy”, even threaten the end of life itself (i.e. the climate alarm claim that people using fossil fuels will cause a life-ending catastrophe). With such grossly exaggerated demonization of differing others and their positions, many Democrats may not be able to pull themselves back to more moderate positions of sanity and rationality.
Having terrified themselves with their creations, Democrats now feel obligated to eliminate the threat to all life. Their very survival depends on it, life itself depends on it, and the saving of the world itself obligates them to engage a “righteous war against evil” in order to eliminate the threat to all life as in the monsters they have manufactured. Note, in regular media reporting, how they have framed their opponent Trump as “Hitler, Nazi, tyrant, destroyer of democracy”. Trump supporters are similarly categorized as intolerable evil, as “domestic terrorists” (i.e. those mothers wanting a say in their children’s education, not wanting young children indoctrinated with Critical Race Theory, etc.).
Democrats have now presented the 2024 election as a righteous war against an evil so horrific that anything goes to save civilization (i.e. the Democratic claim that Jan. 6 was worse than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor). Democracy be damned in this crusade to “save the world”. It calls for extreme measures, hence the anti-democratic censoring of differing others before on Twitter and other social media, and the “framing” projects by the intelligence agencies as noted by Shellenberger and colleagues (i.e. frame opponents as Russian agents, etc.).
We are watching the desperate anti-democratic measures today in efforts to take Trump off ballots, to ban him from running for president. Anything goes in their crusade to “save the world”. This is anti-democratic extremism uncaged.
Once again- “It’s the narrative, stupid”, Wendell Krossa
As a military guy said during the fight against ISIS years ago (the spread of the Caliphate in Syria), you can swat down these outbreaks with military force but that does not solve the problem of endless episodes of “eye for eye” violence between people. You have to go after the “ideology”, meaning the religious ideas that incite, guide, and validate such tribal madness.
Note the comment of this Hamas leader regarding the more recent eruption of religious violence in the Hamas attack on Israel.
“ISIS spokesman calls for global attacks on Jews: ‘Kill them wherever you find them’: Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari has called on ISIS supporters around the world to attack Jews and avenge the killing of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip”, Jewish News Syndicate…
The ISIS leader recognizes what this is really all about, stating:
“’The fight with Jews is a religious war, not a social or national battle,’ Al-Ansari said, according to a translation of the speech provided by The Messenger, stressing: ‘It is not a [war] centered around lands or borders’.”
In all else that you do to try to resolve such violence, as critically important as other options are, recognize that such measures are only temporary band-aids applied to stanch the ruptured arteries, and for the long-term they will not heal the social tear in human societies that is the tribal hatred, incited and validated by religious beliefs, that erupts in endless cycles of retaliatory violence.
This site lasers in on the narrative issue and the core themes of narratives that incite, guide, and validate bad behavior. I would urge readers to seriously consider one of the main causal roots of the human violence problem, notably the long ago embedding of psychopathology in deity theories that has functioned subsequently as a main causal factor driving human violence (inciting, guiding, validating).
I have repeatedly recommended, for example, the research of psychologists/theologians Harold Ellens and Zenon Lotufo (see again below) on this issue of “monster Gods/cruel God” that use violence to solve problems. That embodiment of human ideals in deity then sets the ultimate pattern for people to also resolve problems with violence because most people across history have viewed God as the ultimate ideal and authority to model human life after. (So also see the research of historians Richard Landes, Arthur Herman, Arthur Mendel, David Redles, and others)
These divine embodiments of human ideals have dominated human narratives from the beginning of our history.
The above research affirms my argument that to end violence and find our way to a more humane future we have to confront our God ideas as critical to the mix of causal factors behind violence. Its about good problem-solving for the long-term.
Once again, “It’s the narrative, stupid”, and nothing is more critical than going after the bad ideas in our deity theories that we have inherited, ideas now given secular expression also in contemporary “secular/ideological” belief systems, with contemporary gods like “vengeful Gaia, punitive Universe, angry Planet/Mother Earth, payback karma”, etc.
Once again, a summary of the work of Ellens and Lotufo:
“First, a reposting of comments from psychologist Harold Ellens and psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo regarding their work on the influence of bad religious ideas on human personality and society. Again, my point here is that the fundamental themes of primitive mythologies have not faded from human narratives and consciousness today but continue in the great world religions and have also been given new embodiment in so-called “secular/ideological” versions as in the climate alarmism crusade. The old themes still impact our consciousness, lives, and societies.
“Comments from psychotherapist/theologian Zenon Lotufo (quoting psychologist/theologian Harold Ellens) on how images/beliefs, notably images of ultimate reality and ideals, like deity, how such images influence human consciousness, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior in daily life. Both men affiliated with the Christian tradition. Ellens was a US Army chaplain. With these two, there is no throwing stones from without.
“Quotes from Lotufo’s book “Cruel God, Kind God”
“The Introduction states that, among others, “(Lotufo) explores the interface of psychology, religion, and spirituality at the operational level of daily human experience… (this is of the) highest urgency today when religious motivation seems to be playing an increasing role, constructively and destructively, in the arena of social ethics, national politics, and world affairs…”
“My insert (W. Krossa): The destructive outcomes of “religious motivation” are notable also in terms of the “profoundly religious” climate alarmism crusade and its destructive “salvation” scheme of Net Zero decarbonization (“save the world”), as evident in the spreading harm, from Net Zero and renewables zealotry, in societies like Germany, Britain, and California. Climate alarmism exhibits the same old themes and destructive outcomes of all past apocalyptic crusades.
“Lotufo then notes “the pathological nature of mainstream orthodox theology and popular religious ideation”.
“He says, “One type of religiosity is entirely built around the assumption or basic belief, and correspondent fear, that God is cruel or even sadistic… The associated metaphors to this image are ‘monarch’ and ‘judge’. Its distinctive doctrine is ‘penal satisfaction’. I call it ‘Cruel God Christianity’… Its consequences are fear, guilt, shame, and impoverished personalities. All these things are fully coherent with and dependent on a cruel and vengeful God image…
“Lotufo continues… “(This image results) in the inhibition of the full development of personality… The doctrine of penal satisfaction implies an image of God as wrathful and vengeful, resulting in exposing God’s followers to guilt, shame, and resentment… These ideas permeate Western culture and inevitably influence those who live in this culture…
““Beliefs do exert much more influence over our lives than simple ideas… ideas can also, in the psychological sphere, generate ‘dynamis’, or mobilize energy… (they) may result, for instance, in fanaticism and violence, or… may also produce anxiety and inhibitions that hinder the full manifestation of the capacities of a person…
““The image of God can be seen as a basic belief or scheme, and as such it is never questioned…
““Basic cultural beliefs are so important, especially in a dominant widespread culture, because they have the same properties as individual basic beliefs, that is, they are not perceived as questionable. The reader may object that “God”, considered a basic belief in our culture, is rejected or questioned by a large number of people today. Yet the fact is that the idea of God that those people reject is almost never questioned. In other words, their critique assumes there is no alternative way of conceiving God except the one that they perceive through the lens of their culture. So, taking into account the kind of image of God that prevails in Western culture- a ‘monster God’… such rejection is understandable…
““There is in Western culture a psychological archetype, a metaphor that has to do with the image of a violent and wrathful God (see Romans, Revelation). Crystallized in Anselm’s juridical atonement theory, this image represents God sufficiently disturbed by the sinfulness of humanity that God had only two options: destroy us or substitute a sacrifice to pay for our sins. He did the latter. He killed Christ.
““Ellens goes on by stating that the crucifixion, a hugely violent act of infanticide or child sacrifice, has been disguised by Christian conservative theologians as a ‘remarkable act of grace’. Such a metaphor of an angry God, who cannot forgive unless appeased by a bloody sacrifice, has been ‘right at the center of the Master Story of the Western world for the last 2,000 years. And the unavoidable consequence for the human mind is a strong tendency to use violence’.
““’With that kind of metaphor at our center, and associated with the essential behavior of God, how could we possibly hold, in the deep structure of our unconscious motivations, any other notion of ultimate solutions to ultimate questions or crises than violence- human solutions that are equivalent to God’s kind of violence’…
““Hence, in our culture we have a powerful element that impels us to violence, a Cruel God Image… that also contributes to guilt, shame, and the impoverishment of personality…”.
“As Harold Ellens says, “If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’”. (end of Lotufo/Ellens quotes)
“My conclusion to Ellens and Lotufo: Add also that the themes of (1) tribalism (true believers favored and “saved”, versus unbelievers who are rejected and destroyed), (2) domination (deity as dominating Lord, Ruler, King that validates human forms of domination- state leaders, priesthoods, fathers…), and (3) ultimate violent destruction of the differing others (apocalypse, hell)… such themes, sacralized in deity as ultimate ideals and authority, then serve to re-enforce the same features in the adherents of such belief systems.”
Continuing with “It’s the narrative, stupid”…
We have always become just like the God that we believe in. This is the outcome of the ancient impulse to base behavior on belief, ethics on theology. This relationship has always been vital to the human impulse to meaning. People have always tried to understand the nature of deity, to speculate on God, as essential to any explanation of- Why we exist? What is our purpose? How should we live to fulfill the purpose for which we have been created?
Further, to counter the too common dismissal of the critical role of theology in today’s belief systems and thought…
I mentioned below “The absurdity of nihilist atheism”, meaning that it has been intuitively obvious to most people across history that our material realm is a small part of a greater reality (also the conclusion of science today). Our material reality originates from a greater Source of all, a creating ultimate reality that is responsible for what exists as visible material reality.
And most people across history have intuitively understood that the greater reality is not just energy, quantum force-fields, or natural law, but it has something to do with Consciousness, Mind, Intelligence, Spirit, and hence logically, Self or Personhood.
The problem is what the ancients then projected out to explain the greater reality, features that were prominent in the primitive thinking of that time and existence, features that were more animal than human- i.e. gods as tribal deities (favoring followers, true believers, tribal or group insiders), gods as dominating lords, kings, rulers, and gods as violently destructive toward enemies with justice that was retributive/punitive. That primitive thinking resulted in the manufacture of “monster Gods”.
The crux of the issue is this- people from the beginning have based their behavior on related beliefs that incite, guide, and validate their behavior. And as psychologists have noted, belief in violent gods validates human violence. So solving the problem of violence for the long term future involves cleaning up and correcting all the wrong of the past that is still embedded in world religions as the untouchable sacred. That “sacred” has now been reframed in “secular ideological” terms and passed into our modern ideologies like the 19th Century Declinism that shapes most other contemporary ideological systems.
The more historically recent ideological versions of the old mythologies have embraced new versions of the same old gods in “vengeful Gaia, punitive Universe, angry planet/mother earth, payback karma, etc.” All this nonsense has to be recognized for what it really is- just the perpetuation of primitive psychopathology. And then it has to be cleaned up (removed, purged) because of its ongoing harmful influence on humanity- i.e. the “threat theology” that generates endless unnecessary fear, anxiety, despair, nihilism, and violence among people.
I remind readers of the graphic illustration of this in the recent Hamas attack on Israel. Those Hamas terrorists screaming “Allahu Akbar” as they raped, burned, and murdered innocent people. Nothing more needs to be said about what was shaping their thinking, emotions, motivations, and behavior.
People have always become just like the gods that they believe in. They have always used deity to validate their behavior as in basing behavior on beliefs in higher forces and realities as ultimate authorities.
In sorting this out- hold the basic recognition (the baby in the bathwater) that there is consciousness, mind, intelligence that is Ultimate Reality. And most critical- understand the entirely new framing of such deity with humane features that overturn the monstrous deities that have dominated past history and continue to dominate religious and “secular” theologies in the present.
This is about a transformation of our most fundamental beliefs, ideals, and authorities with the highest form of love- ultimate unconditional love or goodness. It is about revolutionizing the most critical features that influence human thought/outlook, feeling, motivations, and responses/behavior.
Get a grip on this stunning new theology, this revolutionary new framing of deity as “unconditional love”. Put this new theology at the center of a new narrative and it will radiate out to transform everything else in human thought, ideals emotion, motivation, and responses- i.e. pointing to justice as fair and restorative treatment of all as in Classic liberalism and its ideals, institutions, and practices- treating all humans as equals with protected individual rights and freedoms, freedom for self-determination of life, free from dominating elites, free from threat of punitive retribution.
The core ideal of no conditions love will liberate us from our animal inheritance and its deforming influence by overturning the features in our narratives that have long validated the animal impulses, notably the feature in deities as tribal, dominating, and punitively destroying.
And then the stunning new theology will help take us into a more human future. Freeing us from the impulse to tribalism that leads us to fight one another over differences, free from the impulse that seeks to dominate others and thereby dehumanize ourselves as we do so, and free from the dehumanizing impulse to punitively destroy offending others. No conditions love rescues us from that animal-like past and points us in the more humane direction of how to humanely treat imperfect and failing others.
This site has long argued that the breakthrough insight on this stunning new understanding of ultimate reality as no conditions love was made 2 millennia ago by historical Jesus, someone entirely opposite to Christian Jesus Christ.
Again, to repeat that insight of a stunningly humane behavior based on a stunning new theological belief:
“Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Everyone finds it easy to love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Everyone can do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Most will lend to others, expecting to be repaid in full.
“But do something more heroic, more humane. (Live on a higher plane of human experience). Do not retaliate against your offenders/enemies with ‘eye for eye’ justice. Instead, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will be just like God because God does not retaliate against God’s enemies. God does not mete out eye for eye justice. Instead, God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be unconditionally loving, just as your God is unconditionally loving”. (My paraphrase of Luke 6:32-36 or Matthew 5:38-48.)
This can be summarized in this single statement: “Love your enemy because God does”.
This is the stunning new theology of Jesus that God did not retaliate against enemies/unbelievers but loved all with a scandalous no conditions love. And the precept that followed from this strikingly new theology was to be just like this God and love enemies just as God did.
Paul immediately (within a generation) then buried that profound insight and distorted it with his highly conditional and retaliatory Christ myth. Paul’s Christ myth has buried the insight of Jesus for two millennia and that insight is still buried. Paul’s Christ myth is primarily responsible for keeping alive the most violent and destructive idea ever- i.e. apocalyptic. Paul’s Christ is mainly responsible for keeping this psychopathology alive in Western consciousness, a pathology that promotes endless fear and renders populations susceptible to irrational salvation schemes like decarbonization to save the world. Kept alive in both religious and secular ideological versions.
Paul’s Christianity continues to deform the insight of Jesus, burying the liberating truth that there is no threat of punishing apocalypse and destruction, there is no threatening deity, or any other threatening force.
The contradiction between Jesus and Paul’s Christ has resulted in a profound cognitive dissonance in Christianity, and hence in wider Western consciousness.
Corrective measures…
Start with the most foundational idea of all in human narratives- Embrace the insight that there is no tribal, dominating, retaliatory destroying God. That is going directly to one of the ultimate roots or causal factors in the problem of tribal violence among populations, meaning religious violence that is incited and validated by deformed versions of ultimate reality inherited from the past.
Insert aside: A contractor friend regularly reminded us of the “compounding” problem. If you don’t get things right at the foundational level then all subsequent construction will be off kilter in a worsening manner. So get the cement foundations as right as possible. Then the framing, and the rest will be better. Because foundational mistakes only compound as you build up from that.
These root contributing factors to human violence can be cleared up if we finally get the core idea of deity right as in reframing that source reality as an unconditionally loving God. That means, for example, there is no cosmic dualism and we are not tribally divided. Rather, we are all part of an ultimate oneness that is unconditional love. And unconditional love is our dominant ethic in the one human family. We should not therefore be involved in battles against each other as “enemies” defined by race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, ideology, or any other identity marker that buries our oneness with distorting tribalism.
An unconditional God should function as the new glue holding together entirely new complexes of more humane features that will shape new narratives that will function to support better outcomes among people (i.e. peace).
Put this unconditional feature at the core of your narrative. It is the best that we have come up with to define the ultimate reality, the ultimate ideal and authority. It should thereby influence and shape all else- i.e. human ethics, behavior, treatment of offenders/enemies, and the goal and meaning of human life.
Added note: Don’t dismiss, ignore or downplay the impulse for meaning, our primary impulse and the insistent reach of that into the invisible, out to greater reality to explain what exists. Greater reality is invisible to scientific methodology but is still critical to human meaning. You see this reach to ultimate invisible realities in religion/spiritual arenas but also in materialist science, even atheism, where people also appeal to invisible realities to explain what exists, whether in terms of “Self-Organizing Principle” or “Multi-verse”, or “Natural Selection” at cosmic scale.
We all, whether believers in the “spiritual” or materialists, reach out to speculate on ultimate invisible reality in order to understand and explain what exists in the physical realm. It is the natural appeal to what created this physical realm, to the Source of all, to what sustains the material. Its all part of the human quest to understand the big questions- Where did it all come from? For what purpose has it all been created? What does it all mean?
Note on the Jesus breakthrough insight:
Only one branch of human spirituality affirms the breakthrough insight of Historical Jesus, the Near-Death Experience movement. That central insight of the movement? That God is an unconditional reality. No religion has ever communicated this liberating insight to humanity. Religion, as an essentially conditional institution, distorts and buries any insight on unconditional reality (the Jefferson/Tolstoy conclusion).
Here is more evidence of the destructive salvation schemes (i.e. decarbonization) that result from widespread publishing and subsequent embrace of apocalyptic mythology- “the most violent and destructive idea in history” (Mendel in Vision and Violence). Note carefully the excess deaths every year from cold, tied to increasing “fuel poverty” among the poorest people.
Apocalyptic panic-mongering produces alarmed populations that become irrational with their survival impulse incited. They are then susceptible to embracing irrational salvation schemes (to save themselves, “save the world”) that “destroy the world to save it”. Sri Lanka was another recent example.
“New Report Highlights Green Failure in Europe and Warns America”, Rick Whitbeck, Jan. 4, 2024
“As one digests Rupert Darwall’s latest report for the RealClear Foundation, the well-known quote from Spanish philosopher George Santayana might ring through the mind: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it….”
“The analysis tells the story of Great Britain heeding the cries for decarbonization, starting when Parliament wrote an 80% decrease in emissions target into law in 2008. They raised it to 100% – or “net zero” – in 2019. The results have clearly been catastrophic.
“Since decarbonization efforts commenced, Britain’s economy has grown at half the rate as it did from 1990-2008. According to a research study from noted British economic historian Nicholas Crafts, that’s the second-worst period of British peacetime growth since 1780.
“In addition to the economic malaise, British energy prices have skyrocketed, and Britons are now concerned with how to survive the effect of those costs on their wallets, as they look to heat and power their homes and businesses, travel for work and pleasure and live life as best they can.
“The differences between British energy costs and those here in the U.S. are staggering: Britons paid an average of $228 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity generated from coal in 2022, whereas Americans paid an average of $27 per MWh. For natural gas, 2022 saw Britons paying $251 per MWh, versus American consumers averaging $61 per MWh for their power….
“The same arguments that have crippled Britain’s economy are now being used by the Biden Administration here at home, with zealots in Cabinet-level positions – including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and EPA Director Michael Regan – pushing the message from their bully pulpits….
“Despite the perils of ‘green’ energy dependence shown throughout Europe, the eco-left continues to double down on ridding America of traditional energy sources. Supporting those efforts are ideologue billionaires, who continue to fund net-zero initiatives.
“Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given well over $1 billion of his personal wealth to the Sierra Club to fund its “Beyond Coal” and “Beyond Carbon” campaigns. Designed to rid the U.S. of every coal-fired power plant by 2030, the Sierra Club/Bloomberg partnership has succeeded in shutting down nearly two-thirds of the plants to-date, with most of the remaining in rural locations, including my home state of Alaska, where alternatives to existing coal plants in the state’s interior don’t readily exist. Without coal, countless Alaskans would have their livelihoods – and very lives – threatened during our long, dark and sub-zero-temperature winters….
“Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at Rick@PowerTheFuture.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter).”
Insert on one of the best- Vivek Ramaswamy, a Classic Liberal. If not now, definitely a future president.
Ramaswamy understands the varied issues and threats to freedom today and he advocates Classic Liberalism as the antidote to the psychopathology of Woke Progressivism. We should all be clear on the distinctions between true liberalism and the collectivism that is resurging today, coming mainly through post-secondary educational institutions. Whether the collectivism of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)- i.e. as in the denial of individual character for group classification as either oppressor or oppressed, based on skin color (the new Woke Racism), gender, and similar identity markers that simple-mindedly categorize people as members of either classes of victims or classes of victimizers.
DEI also demands equity outcomes similar to all Marxism, as opposed to merit-based equality of opportunity. This ideology has tried to worm its way into the business world in a backdoor manner via ESG or more publicly through mainstream media obsessed with Woke Racism. Everything differing from this collectivist Progressivism today is smeared as “racist”.
See Ramaswamy’s brilliant response to a Washington Post reporter’s gotcha question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1bEGzvCWU
This good comment from businessman Kevin O’Leary– “O’Leary roasts Trudeau: ‘He is a horrible manager… It can’t get worse. Canada is the richest country on Earth run by idiots’, Shark Tank star said, dismissing Trudeau’s Liberals”. Mark Deniell, June 9, 2023, Toronto Sun.
“Kevin O’Leary has branded Justin Trudeau “perhaps the worst” prime minister Canada has ever had…
“’He has zero executional skills. He is a horrible manager. He perhaps is the worst manager Canada has ever been under. The absolute worst. It can’t get worse. Absolutely a negative 10…
“’Canada is the richest country on Earth run by idiots…”
“O’Leary maintained that he still likes the idea of putting a businessperson in charge if they have a successful track record running a company.
“’What matters more than just the leadership role and the orator role and who’s the president is: what’s the policy? At the end of the day, I invest in policy, so I’m looking for leadership that’s going to give me a package of policy. Under the Trump leadership, he was very controversial. There’s no question about it. But look at the policy for small business, where I operate, which is 68% of the economy. That policy, less regulation, more pro business, lower taxes, that’s the kind of stuff that makes an economy grow, and you’re seeing that benefit right now.’”
Add here:
Liberal/Democrat Van Jones of CNN cut off Jake Tapper once to state, “Look Jake, liberals get mad at me for saying this, and I have problems with the person (he cried the night of the 2016 election, bemoaning it as a “white-lash”), but we don’t give Trump enough credit for all the good that he has done, especially that benefits minority communities… criminal justice reform, opportunity zones, low unemployment, booming economy…”.
Yes, climate alarmism and its salvation scheme of decarbonization is a “profoundly religious” crusade, a righteous battle against evil.
https://risk-monger.com/2023/11/28/righteous-risks-introduction/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/04/righteous-risks-part-3-the-electric-vehicle-halo/
“Righteous Risks Part 3: The Electric Vehicle Halo
“From the Risk Monger David Zaruk Jan. 4, 2024
Definition of “Righteous Risks”:
“The threat of harm to societal well-being arising from a value-based policy approach that filters out facts and data within an ethical perspective. Decisions are influenced by what is perceived as ethical rather than what is rational or scientific.
“Righteous risks are common in affluent policy arenas driven more by moral idealism than pragmatic solutions. It is often found where activists and influential media groups have license to impose their dogma on others.
Quotes from linked article:
“Just imagine if, in the coming months, the following studies would be published in peer-reviewed journals:
“That battery technologies used in electric vehicles (EVs) have a much higher likelihood to spontaneously combust (and it is highly recommended that EVs be banned from underground or covered parking lots and container ships).
“EV lithium batteries emit more elevated electro-magnetic fields (EMFs) that, at exposure levels exceeding 15 minutes, can lead to miscarriages or damage to human DNA which could trigger responses increasing the risk of certain cancers.
“Studies in tire dust from automobile use show how they are the main cause of microplastics released into the sea (78% of all microplastics). As EVs are heavier, they emit much more tire dust.
“A comparative Life Cycle Assessment showed, from cradle to cradle, that EVs are less sustainable and emit more CO2 than diesel cars.
“An impact assessment revealed that present EV batteries cannot be sustainably recycled without a waste management energy and water demand far higher than that needed for recycling entire diesel vehicles.
“Would regulators in developed countries, in reading these studies, be able to stop the political juggernaut pushing to replace fossil-fuel based internal combustion engines (ICEs) with EVs? Would regulators be able to introduce limits on where EVs could be parked or publish advice on which vulnerable people should avoid using them? Would they even be able to slow the conversion to an all-EV mobility market within the next decade?
“Come on now, let’s be serious. Regulators are helpless in the face the righteous perception of electric vehicles. As it is a moral imperative to replace fossil fuels and the internal combustion power train technologies, these studies would be ignored. Facts have little power when regulators see themselves acting along the path of exuberant righteousness.
“Our leaders would be hard-pressed to reject the sleek, clean, quiet electric car of the future with yesterday’s noisy, belching, climate catastrophe on wheels. This is a good v evil decision and the facts have to be filtered likewise….
“Electric vehicles have been romanticised as the ethical solution to polluting, carbon-emitting transportation…
“The Big Three automakers, I was apprehensive about their ethical exuberance and the level of moral cleansing they thought EVs would bring them….
“Given the higher levels of resources and energy required in producing electric vehicles (from the minerals and rare earth processing to the electronics), a comparative LCI showed that EVs don’t start catching up to diesel vehicles on CO2 emissions until after 100,000 km….
“Given the divination of EVs, this point is not widely discussed among activists waging a Holy War against fossil fuels…..
“With the righteousness of electric vehicles safely held high on the altar of our green self-esteem, no reasonable discussion on their risks compared to internal combustion engines could be had….
“The EV transition is a long-term process where other technologies (e.g. hydrogen) may overtake present research. For activist campaigners a transition is an event (not a process) that marks the beginning of a revolution away from something deemed bad and towards what has been defined as good. An activist transition is laden with moral imperatives…. “.
Both sides an equal threat today? Wendell Krossa
As independent I try to balance with “bothsideism” at times as both sides do have their extremist elements. But today there is an undeniable dominant nature to the threat that is coming from the formerly “liberal” side of society, notably in the US. The US situation illustrates similar features of former liberalism now gone illiberal in other places like Canada. Meaning- extremist Woke Progressivism has taken over much of the liberal side in our societies.
This is true in higher education/universities, mainstream media, the story-telling forum of Hollywood, politics, and other social arenas.
Evidence of dominant threat coming from one side? Surveys show that most US Democrats/liberals want censorship and the banning of opposition candidates from elections. Nuf said. See for example… https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/81-of-democrats-want-trump-banned-from-ballot-poll/
Many US Democrats/liberals have rejected the basic principles of Classic Liberalism (i.e. protection of individual rights and freedoms) for an embrace of resurging Marxist collectivism. It is US Conservatives who are now largely defending and promoting Classic Liberal principles, such as free speech. But not entirely so. Conservatives have recently been calling for the censorship and banning of the free speech of pro-Palestinians. Again, bothsideism applies.
Collectivism in the US is being pushed via DEI and ESG beliefs that are promoted by the left. A new racism (Woke Racism) is coming from the left. Pro-war sentiment is also now coming largely from the left. Add here the support for the cancellation of opponents, and so on.
Overall, the threat of renewed totalitarianism is emerging mainly from the left today. Yet the Left, with grand cognitive dissonance, projects that threat to the other side.
The left, notably, leftist elites, need to come back to their senses again, as in regaining the common sense that most ordinary citizens on both sides possess. Societies benefit from the tug of war between opposing views on things, between differing ideas and policies. That tug of war safeguards against totalitarianism by challenging the dominance of one side. Meaning the US will benefit from a healthy but more moderate Democratic party in the political mix.
Where are the Democratic leaders willing to lead the pullback from extremist Woke Progressivism (i.e. DEI, ESG, Woke Racism, etc.) and take the Democratic party back to traditional support for Classic Liberalism? The right side should also heed the challenge to fully embrace Classic Liberalism on all issues (i.e. full women’s choice rights, gay rights, and other social issues.)
More on “Michelle is terrified”- The excessive demonization of disagreeing others is slander and lying, Wendell Krossa
Slander: “The utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation… a false and defamatory oral statement about a person”.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slander
The endless daily barrage of National Inquirer-type headlines dulls the sensitivities to the nature of what is obsessively being propagandized. It is slander so exaggerated that it often reduces to the distortion that is then outright lying.
And it appears to be an intentional distortion of the positions and statements of others. This is notable in the demonization of the differing other as some form of intolerable evil.
Example: Early in the presidency of Trump (2016ish) I watched him explain his policy positions in a relaxed post-signing event at the White House. He stated matter-of-factly and calmly his positions on things like Obamacare, affirming that, in his opinion, “It was a disaster”.
Following that, I turned to CNN for their analysis and they had Brian Stelter on to report on the signing. His face was red with anger, eyes aflame with indignant outrage as he spit out, “How can he be so cynical to call Obamacare a disaster?” Cynical? Brian, I just watched that same event and I did not detect cynicism, just a statement of policy positions. And calmly done at that. And I am no fan of Trump the man for his many obvious imperfections that we all cringe at.
But why such distortion and misreading the worst into motives/intentions? Brian, aren’t you supposed to be reporting?
And that illustrated the tenor of mainstream media reporting on the man over the following years. It became partisan political activism gone extreme and insane. No longer journalism. Often descending into slanderous distortion that then became outright lying.
And on “lying”- Who then really lied the most? They claim Trump’s lies were in the tens of thousands. But look at the greatest lie of all, pushed all day and all night on media for years- the “Russia Collusion” lie. That took the cake. It overwhelmed all other lying by magnitudes of order.
And those doing the slandering appear to feel no shame. Is this because people view themselves as engaged in “righteous battles against intolerable evil”, and that justifies the endless framing of differing others as purveyors of “dangerous disinformation, misinformation, mal-information, Russian agents, etc.”, and hence they need to be silenced, banned, eradicated.
We can understand this as coming from partisan zealotry in a “noble cause to save democracy or save the world” but the lying is so blatant and intentional that it is inexcusable. Example: The FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop in 2019 and many of the 50 other intelligence heads had to know that when they signed the false statement claiming that it was “likely Russian disinformation”. But they believed that they had to “save democracy” from the orange monster that they manufactured and terrified themselves with, the monster that was Trump.
And as to “saving democracy”…. In stating that, Democrats mean- The preserving of the domination of their worldview, policies, and power as right, true, and good for all.
Again, who said that the most dangerous people in society are those convinced that they alone know what is right and best for all others and are willing to use coercion to force all others to embrace their views and policies?
The consequent outcome of all this slanderous exaggeration of differing other opinion and speech as intolerable evil has been censorship of other’s opinions and speech, and the framing (smearing, vilification) of political opponents as “Russian disinformation agents, racists, fascists, Nazis, threats to democracy” and so on. Partisan lunacy gone insane.
In other words, intentional lying and slander in a “righteous cause”. The end justifies the corrupt anti-democratic means.
It has become so common and widespread that many of us feel numbed by the relentless daily flood of this propaganda in media.
The cost of repeated lying. Others have noted that the public’s loss of trust in media is related to being lied to so incessantly across past years… about Russia collusion, Covid origins and vaccine effectiveness, about the Hunter Biden laptop, and more….
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/american-trust-in-media-is-near-a-record-low-study-finds/
Father de Souza explains the outcome of repeated lying…
“The meaning of Justin Trudeau’s petty falsehoods: Lies when unnecessary are lethal to public confidence, as if lies are told simply out of habit”, Jan.14, 2024
And this from former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould…
“’I wish I had never met you’, Wilson-Raybould told Trudeau, she reveals in her new book: Wilson-Raybould says she’s mad at herself now for having once thought Trudeau is an ‘honest and good person, when, in truth, he would so casually lie to the public’,” Brian Platt, Sept.14, 2024
Now some more on “bad religious ideas”…
Hope for a new year (more on a new narrative that gets the true state of reality and life right, as in “more humane”)– Wendell Krossa
Historian of mythology Mircea Eliade in his “The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History” notes that societies across history have performed New Years rituals and sacrifices to ensure that the world would not revert to chaos but would continue its ordered existence. We know today that we don’t need to offer sacrifices to appease threatening forces or spirits. Or do we know that? Look at the many moderns giving the knee and kowtowing in obeisance to the demanded irrational salvation scheme of decarbonization to appease “Vengeful Gaia, punitive Universe, angry Planet/Mother Earth, and payback karma”. (Remember Nancy Pelosi’s 2020 call to embrace decarbonization in order to appease “angry Mother Earth” exhibiting punishing wrath through the California wildfires.)
We have the insights, accumulated knowledge, skills, and technological tools to do more than just ensure that the order of reality and our world continues. But continuing with what is, is a suboptimal goal. Better than just preserving what exists, each New Year we can contribute afresh to the ongoing progress of life, to continue this “best of all times in history” (Humanprogress.org) and make life even much better. We can pass on to our children the trajectory of a world on the rise toward a more bountiful and humane future.
Most critical, we have the ideals and behavioral responses to get to the much better future that we all want. Over our history we have discovered the best of inspiring/guiding ethics- i.e. the insight on unconditional as the highest, most humane form of love. Consequent to such discovery, we have the precepts to orient behavior to more humane responses to human failure- i.e. “love your enemy”, “restorative justice”.
We have the Classic Liberal institutions and systems of common law that get humanity to “the most good for the most people” (Milton Freidman). And we have amassed historical evidence on what system for organizing human societies produces the best outcomes- i.e. the Classic Liberal protection of individual rights and freedoms, versus collectivist systems that inevitably subvert and degrade such rights and freedoms with totalitarian centralization of power (bureaucratic rule).
Further, we know how to liberate ourselves from the cursed enslavement to our animal inheritance, the inheritance inside our brains that hinders us from entering the last great stage of human freedom- the freedom to become fully and truly human. This ultimate stage of liberation involves mental and emotional freedom from “threat theology” whether in religious or “secular/ideological” versions- i.e. vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother Earth, punitive Universe, or payback karma. Too many people in our liberal democracies walk around still enslaved to the worst forms of mental and emotional tyranny, even though exhibiting the outer appearance of physical freedom.
As noted above, the comment here is not an “attack on religion”. Its about understanding what went wrong at the deepest possible levels of human consciousness and subconscious, the deeply embedded archetypes that shape human mind, emotions, motivations, and response/behavior. And then in response, how to try and find a better way forward to make things right, to get to a better future.
And when you try to solve something at foundational causal levels, when you consider all the contributing factors, you inevitably end at the still prominent role of the beliefs of religion and mythology, you arrive at those primitive myths that we have inherited from the ancient human past that have long shaped human narratives and archetypes.
Mythical/religious beliefs arise from the earliest human efforts at meaning- the ancients trying to understand and explain reality and life. The conclusions of our ancestors, embodied in their mythical systems were eventually passed down to world religions and continue to shape human minds today and thereby continue to incite and validate our inherited impulses, including the worst of our animal passions.
In this argument I am pointing to the root of the peace problem just as some military guy stated back when we were fighting ISIS. He said, these episodes of violence will keep erupting and you can smack them down with military force, but that does not solve the problem. To solve such problems for the long-term future you have to go to the root “ideology” behind such movements, meaning the mythology, or religious beliefs that incite and validate such violence. And that means going to fundamental themes that are common to all world religions, the same basic themes that are now also embraced by so called secular ideological systems as in Marxism, Nazism, and Climatism.
And most central of all in the mix of causal or contributing factors are the deity theories that have always embodied humanity’s highest ideals. Early humans projected features onto creating Reality/deity and that reality became the highest authority as to what is right belief, right thought, right goals and purpose, and right ethics as the ultimate guide to right behavior. Deity is then the ultimate core issue to tackle in resolving violence thoroughly and for the long-term future.
To those identifying as “secular, materialist, even atheist”, the issues still apply. What kind of ideas do you hold as your ultimate reality and ideals? That is your God, whether you think of it as religious, “secular”, or even “scientific” (i.e. the new gods of science like “Self-Organizing Principle”). This issue of ultimate ideals is the foundational reality to deal with.
My point is that the ultimate and final liberation movement for humanity, the last stage to finding real liberation has to do with the bad ideas- deeply embedded as archetypes of our subconscious- that have always shaped bad behavior- inciting, guiding, and validating such behavior. This pertains to my argument that our greatest monster and enemy is these bad theological ideas (threat theology) that incite and validate our worst impulses.
So yes, when engaging contemporary problems and issues, go after the scientific evidence, the ideological and social issues- i.e. political, economic, and other, but don’t ignore what is ultimately behind it all, driving it, as in inciting, guiding, and validating. That has to do with fundamental beliefs/themes that are deeply felt by people, that meet deeply rooted human needs that we inherited from a mythical religious past that embodied such things- i.e. felt needs for tribal favor and inclusion, the impulse to domination of others, and the felt need to eliminate threats to survival.
Inherited felt human needs are very much about fear, deeply embedded fears.
Felt needs further include the impulse to make atonement for the deeply felt sense of human imperfection (original sin mythology), and hence the associated felt obligation to make a sacrifice or payment to satiate our guilt and the shame at our imperfection. We fear that we deserve the threat of punishment, even ultimate destruction (i.e. apocalypse, hell). We feel that we must pacify/appease the angry gods, or payback forces, that are behind the varied destructive elements of nature- as in the belief that gods that are punishing us through the darker side of the natural world (natural disasters, disease, accident, predatory cruelty of others). Fearing such retribution, we feel that we must find redemption and salvation in some utopia or heaven, to escape the suffering of this world.
Add to this mix the felt obligation to be subservient to some higher power, to Gods as kings, rulers, lords who demand worship and obedience. This derives from the primitive myth that humans “were created to serve the gods”. The pathology of anti-freedom subservience is to be mediated to common people through “divinely-appointed kings, state rulers as representatives of God, priesthoods, males as lords of household”, and so on. Beat these fallacies into populations for millennia and what do you think that produces?
The core of the bad ideas can be summarized in the complex of “lost paradise/apocalypse/redemption” myths, with apocalyptic as the most destructive theme of all. We see the destructive outcomes of apocalyptic manifesting once again today in climate alarmism and its salvation scheme of decarbonization. Destructive outcomes? Yes look, for example, at what just happened in Sri Lanka.
https://cornwallalliance.org/2022/07/sri-lanka-canary-in-the-environmentalist-coal-mine/
https://co2coalition.org/2023/09/21/why-the-ipcc-is-wrong-to-blame-co2-for-global-warming-issues/
First, you terrorize populations with apocalyptic scenarios of climate catastrophe and then, having rendered people susceptible to your irrational alarmist narrative, then you push your salvation scheme to “save the world” even if that means destroying life.
More on Origins and historical descent
To understand the origins of this myth-based madness, do some “reverse engineering”, tracing the origins of ideas back through history. Where does this “lost paradise/apocalypse/redemption” fallacy come from? Well, today’s apocalyptic descends from the 19th Century Declinism ideology that was “the secularization of primitive myth” for modern scientific era, giving ancient mythology contemporary ideological expression.
Declinism embraced notably Christian myths, particularly the myths of “lost paradise”, “apocalypse”, and the demand for “violent purging of purported threat” (noted by Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline in Western History”).
Then go back further to Zoroastrian, Sumerian, Akkadian Babylonian, and Egyptian mythologies- all sources of the basic themes that have always distorted life entirely, themes that shaped later world religions, that then shaped Declinism, that now shape our contemporary ideologies of Marxism, Woke Progressivism, and climate alarmism.
Apocalyptic, in particular, deforms and distorts the true state of life. The best of evidence affirms that life is not declining toward disastrous ending but has been improving across the millennia and centuries till we have now achieved the best time ever to be alive on this planet. Yet look at what media beat into our consciousness daily- a deranged narrative of decline, disaster, and looming imminent catastrophe. And you wonder why children are anxious, depressed, drug addicted, committing suicide, resigned, fatalist, and withdrawing from life? They believe this apocalyptic nonsense because it is irresponsibly beaten into them daily through their education systems, social media, movies, and other forms of storytelling.
We hesitate to go to the root of the problem that is bad religious ideas because we have been frightened over the millennia by religious elites condemning any doubt or questioning of their systems as the sin of “heresy, blasphemy” that deserves damnation. Religious authorities have long used such threats to defensively protect their ideas and maintain their power to dominate and control others, to keep true believers subjected to their systems of control, and to thereby keep the money flowing into the religious coffers. Just as in the ancient Sumerian system where all the harvest of the peasants had to first pass through the central temple where the priests then took the best of produce for themselves, just as controlling elites do in all collectivist systems.
You never solve the war and peace problem, until you go to the ultimate roots of validating systems of belief.
And critical here, in terms of metaphysical or “spiritual” ideas, is the single most profound insight ever that was offered by Historical Jesus, the insight that was buried by Paul and his Christ myth. The Jesus insight was that God was unconditional love, so love your enemies just as God does.
That insight alone goes right to the heart of the mess of bad ideas to overturn the millennia-old deity archetype that has always glued the entire complex of bad religious ideas together, the “lost paradise/apocalyptic/redemption” mess of themes.
But that insight of Jesus can’t work its potent liberation from threat theology, and all the damaging consequences of that, because religious systems create barriers to any skepticism of their mythology such as the threat of hell if we dare challenge or question the Christ myth that has buried the Jesus insight (i.e. the “diamond buried in dung” complaint of Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy). But such questioning and challenge is critical to the full liberation of the human spirit.
It remains true that no religion has ever communicated the true unconditional nature of God to humanity.
The “Evil Triad” (a memory tool), Wendell Krossa
A summary list for easier digestion and remembrance. My “triad of evil” is not a comprehensive list of all human wrongs but it lasers in on some of the more basic and prominent baddies at the root of so much inhumanity and consequent suffering. These three are prominent sources of problems among people and always have been. They comprise the animal inheritance in human brains that have been deeply embedded in archetypes, central themes that endlessly reappear in human narratives whether religious or “secular”- ideas/themes that incite and validate our worst impulses.
(1) The residual tribal mentality and impulse- excluding others that differ. The potent counter to this inherited impulse is to embrace an unconditional approach toward all people as equal members of the one human family (a fundamental oneness that even quantum mechanics affirms- Apologies to you “anti-Woo Wooers” that detest drawing such conclusions from physics. We draw helpful insight and inspiration from where we can.).
(2) And then the impulse to dominate others- the alpha male and female thing. Yes, Marija Gimbutas concluded from her research that, historically, female tribal leaders were as brutal as any patriarchs. And as for strong dominating women, we remember Golda Meir and Margie Thatcher, and many more. Rather than view the issue as the gentle ladies versus the violent males, it may be more accurate to understand the core issue as the fact that both genders share the animal inheritance as well as the human spirit, and that is the defining inner dualism that is shared by both sexes.
Primitive ideas of deities as dominating lords, kings, rulers have long validated this base impulse with “divine right of kings, priesthoods, political leaders as governing authorities”.
We counter the domination impulse with Classic Liberal protections of the freedom, rights, and equality of all people (systems of common law and institutions that offer equal protections to everyone alike, governing bureaucrats/leaders as “servants of the people”). Notably, the protection of the right of self-determination of every individual, to not be controlled by state authorities/elites who ceaselessly try to intervene in and manipulate the lives of citizens with excessive rules, protocols, taxation, etc. Bossy, busybody types.
Add here the comment of H. Jesus that true greatness was to serve others, not dominate them (persuasion versus coercion, control in human relating).
(3) And the impulse to punitive destruction of differing others. We counter this dehumanizing vengeance lust with restorative justice approaches that hold all responsible for behavior, meaning that we incarcerate those unwilling or unable to restrain their worst impulses to violence (just to poke at the horrifically bad policy of “de-carceration” that has been embraced in Progressive cities today). And we hold offenders responsible to make restitution to victims.
But then we are obligated to also treat offenders humanely as that is how we maintain our own humanity in the face of evil. Its not about our feelings toward offenders and offenses- as outrage is the natural and healthy human response to horrific offenses/evil. But then despite such feelings, we embrace the intention to treat offenders humanely, not with hurt for hurt, humiliation for humiliation, or pain for pain as in punitive justice systems.
This triad of evils and humane responses is just to offer some simplification for easier comprehension and remembrance. It goes directly to some of our worst problems and outcomes and how to respond in ways that resolve long-standing pathologies in human existence.
A full list of alternative themes to overturn archetypes and liberate from the triad and inspire toward a more human future- see Old Story Themes, New Story Alternatives…
The Akkadian Father’s advice to his son to “befriend your enemies”, and the later Historical Jesus’ version of “Love your enemies”, Wendell Krossa
Intro note: The religious precept- “love your enemy”- is perhaps best expressed today in Classic Liberal principles as in the protection of individual rights and freedoms (i.e. property rights, private contracts, free expression of views, speech, etc.), the equality and inclusion of all, and the affirmation of the self-determination of all (the importance of self-control to human wellbeing, free individual choice). Add the restorative, not punitive, treatment of offenders, military or criminal. Varied constitutions and human rights codes embody such principles and practises.
“Love your enemy” is the single most potent solution to hatred and the impulse to vengeance that drives retaliatory cycles of violence and war. In Matthew 5:38-48, “Love your enemy” is presented as the polar opposite response to the historically common “eye for eye” retaliation that most people have assumed to be fundamental to “justice”.
Eye for eye retaliation cycles, at personal and societal scales, have caused incalculable damage in ruining lives and societies for countless millennia now. We all know eye for eye in its variations as tit for tat, offense for offense, hurt for hurt, humiliation for humiliation, punishment for punishment, death for death, etc.
Punitive retaliation, as the opposite to love your enemy, is the worst of being human.
This quote from my essay “From Retaliation to Unconditional Love: The Narrative of Human Exodus from Animal Existence”:
“Retaliation is the one notable feature that brings the worst of animal existence into human life. Musonius Rufus (Roman philosopher, circa 30-100 AD) expressed the animal nature of retaliation well, “For to scheme to bite back the biter and to return evil for evil is the act not of a human being but of a wild beast” (http://unsafeharbour.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/ancient-quotations-returning-evil-with-good/). Retaliation is humanity behaving at its animal worst. Establishing retaliation as a feature of our animal past helps expose its bestial nature, its essential inhumanity.”
Retaliation dehumanizes us to the level of infantile pettiness, like immature children in a sandbox throwing sand back and forth, shouting at one another- “She/he started it”, far removed from the greatness of spirit that we should exhibit, like a Nelson Mandela.
“Love your enemy” is the single most effective counter to the base animal impulse to tribalism and retaliation. It is the single most effective ideal to stir and affirm the human impulses to forgive, to include, and to love unconditionally. Unconditional love of enemies liberates us to be our true selves as maturely human. Love your enemy takes us to the highest reach of our primary human ideal- love, the feature that most distinctly identifies us as human.
“Love your enemy”, more than any other single factor, is fundamental to a peaceful human society and future.
To qualify more- Love of enemy is not the advocacy for some utopian existence, some unrealistic perfection. It is not advocacy for pacifism (i.e. turn the other cheek) that does not work in our messy world riddled with pathologies like psychopathy.
Life will always be imperfect, messy, with people subjected to random offenses and violence from other imperfect people.
“Love your enemy” offers the best of guidance on how to respond in order to defuse the impulse to retaliation and vengeance that has repetitively across history caused the descent into cycles of payback, tit for tat ugliness. The ideal of love for enemies is about how we arouse our better impulses to maintain our own humanity in the face of vengeful payback, even violent offenses.
“Love your enemy” does not dismiss the fact that we naturally and rightly feel outraged in response to horrific offenses. But then the precept to love enemies cautions us to restrain our own impulse to retaliatory vengeance and instead hold firmly the intent to do the human thing, to not respond similarly to the actions of the offender but choose instead to act more humanely.
It also means that after incarcerating violent people, the human thing is to then treat them restoratively, humanely.
“Love your enemy” is the single most critical insight to help us maneuver humanely through the inevitable eruptions of evil that we will experience during our lives. It tells us how to become the heroes of our story, to conquer the monster inside each of us, to tower in stature as maturely human, to win the real battle of life that matters most- the inner battle with our worst impulses to tribalism and punitive retaliation toward offending others.
“Love your enemy” is not about feeling mushy, fuzzy, or warm toward offenders and the savagery of their offenses. It is more about our own intentions, despite how we feel, to remain human in a too often ugly and violent world.
“Love your enemy” takes us beyond the natural into the realm of the supernatural that can be experienced in this life. It is what enables us to be just like God, that takes us to the height of authentically human existence. It brings the presence of God to manifestation in this life and world.
It is the single most critical insight into the character and reality of God. It tells us that God loves God’s enemies. Note the illustrative evidence offered by Jesus affirming that God does not retaliate with eye for eye justice but instead love enemies. He said, God sends sun and rain on all alike, on both good and bad people. Meaning- there is no retaliation against offenders. No discrimination between good and bad people (reward the good, punish the bad). No tribal division or separation. No favoritism. There is only scandalously generous unconditional love toward all, even toward the worst.
As Jesus said- Do this because God does this. Do this and you will be acting just like your Father. You will be like the Creator.
Again, this is not advocacy for irresponsible pacifism toward offenders. Violent people must be restrained, incarcerated to protect innocent others. But then they are to be treated humanely, no matter how we feel about their offenses. We are obligated to treat all restoratively.
“Love your enemy” is the stunning new theology that Jesus presented to the world, the theology of a non-retaliatory, non-vengeful, non-punitive God, an unconditionally loving God. His Love your enemy statement defines the character of God as stunningly unconditional love and that overturns all conditional religion entirely.
The full context of Jesus’ statement on this can be summarized as “Love your enemy because God does”. Note especially the Luke version- “Be unconditionally merciful just like your God is unconditionally merciful” (Luke 6:27-36).
And the evidence is that, overall, we are succeeding in learning to love enemies, notably as human violence has declined across the long-term history (see James Payne’s History of Force, Stephen Pinker’s Better Angels of Our Nature). We are gradually learning to love our enemies. We are successfully making an exodus from animal existence with its retaliatory pathology to become more truly human. Again, see essay on the human exodus from retaliation to unconditional love.
But non-retaliatory, unconditional love is exceedingly hard as the woman at the back of the room in Bill Moyer’s documentary on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa said, “We know God wants us to forgive, but its so hard”. We press on wrestling with this precept, knowing that it is the best way into a future of less harm and more good, presenting a route to lasting peace.
Here again is the full context of Jesus’ statement to “love your enemies”…
Again- How to end cycles of retaliatory violence and achieve long-term peace in societies….
“Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Everyone finds it easy to love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Everyone can do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Most will lend to others, expecting to be repaid in full.
“But do something more heroic, more humane. (Live on a higher plane of human experience). Do not retaliate against your offenders/enemies with ‘eye for eye’ justice. Instead, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will be just like God because God does not retaliate against God’s enemies. God does not mete out eye for eye justice. Instead, God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be unconditionally loving, just as your God is unconditionally loving”. (My paraphrase of Luke 6:32-36 or Matthew 5:38-48.)
This can be summarized in these 6 words, the single most profound statement of an authentically humane ethic and humane theology in history: “Love your enemy because God does”. This is all you need to know about theology and ethics. Put it at the center of your narrative or worldview.
Example of non-retaliatory, unconditional love:
The Prodigal Father story in Luke 15:11-31. The Father illustrates what God is like. The Father (representing God) did not demand a sacrifice, restitution, payment, apology, or any other conditions before forgiving, fully accepting, and loving the wasteful son.
Again, a qualifier: This is not to deny the importance of offenders being held responsible for crimes, to make restitution to victims. That is critical to human learning, growth, and development. It is solely up to victims what approach they choose to take toward their offenders.
Notes:
The above statements and illustration by Jesus overturn the highly conditional Christian religion and Paul’s Christ mythology. Paul, along with the rest of the New Testament, taught a retaliatory God who demanded full payment and punishment of all sin through a blood sacrifice of atonement before he would forgive, accept, and ultimately love anyone. Paul re-enforced eye for eye justice.
Note:
Some may self-righteously congratulate themselves that they live above the infantile impulse of others to engage retaliatory cycles. But what about personal relationships, say in a family? What about the “passive aggressive” retaliation that kicks in when one spouse feels neglected (not shown affection) by the other and so similarly “cools off”, declining to exhibit affection toward the other “offending” spouse as a form of retaliatory payback? It’s the same old ‘eye for eye’ as all the crasser forms.