More on the real battle of good versus evil: Wendell Krossa
Today US Woke Progressives are presenting the latest example of how repeatedly across history people have abused and deformed the Zoroastrian (Zarathustra) cosmic dualism of good battling evil. This is daily illustrated in their derangement over the Orange Monster. As Michael Shellenberger and Jordan Peterson comment below, this liberal Progressive derangement rests on a self-conception among Democrats who “view themselves as children of light battling children of darkness”. (Yes, this is a “bothsideism” issue as following comments will point out.)
When we frame fellow human beings (opponents, differing others) as our “evil enemy”, then we miss entirely what the Hero’s Quest should be about. Our hero’s journey should first and foremost focus us primarily on the evil within each of us. For communications sake I oversimplify and summarize our inner evil as the inherited animal impulses to (1) tribalism (us “righteous ones” versus differing “evil” others), (2) domination (enlightened elites dominating and controlling ignorant commoners), and (3) punitive destruction as the “righteous justice” response to the imperfections and failings of others. The “evil triad” that illustrates the worst of the worst.
Insert: Just for illustration, note this guest of Joe Rogan (“Rick Doblin’s DMT realization about Hitler”) discovering his own inner evil from a DMT experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd92fg1VWyU&t=532s
The struggle against these inner impulses is the real battle of life, the fight against the real enemy and monster in life. This battle takes place inside each of us. It’s intensely personal. Miss this and you have missed the fundamental point of human life and story.
We must first win this intensely personal inner battle and then we are better qualified to go out and fight public “righteous battles against evil” equipped with the mature human understanding and attitude that enables us to maintain our own humanity during the public struggles. Differing others are not our “enemies” but fellow members of the one human family.
Again, listen to these two sage commentators on this critical inner battle and how to understand and frame the public battles of life:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the real battle of good against evil that takes place inside us, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either- but right through every human heart- and through all human hearts.”
Joseph Campbell: “For love is exactly as strong as life. And when life produces what the intellect names evil, we may enter into righteous battle, contending ‘from loyalty of heart’: however, if the principle of love (Christ’s “Love your enemies”) is lost thereby, our humanity too will be lost. ‘Man’, in the words of the American novelist Hawthorne, ‘must not disclaim his brotherhood even with the guiltiest’” (Myths To Live By).
New stuff
Scattered qualifiers and points on another “good versus evil” dualism…
“Collectivism” is perhaps the best general descriptive for its varied iterations across history in Robert Owen’s communalism, Marxism/communism, socialism, and social democracy or democratic socialism, etc. They are all forms of collectivism with its primary mission to eliminate the “evil” of private property (Marx) and to subjugate individuals to centralized control by enlightened elites who believe that they know what is best for all others- i.e. how to manage and control populations of “ignorant, unenlightened” commoners. Leftist elites sincerely believe that they alone know how to socially engineer all to become collectivist spirits who own nothing and are happy eating bugs.
A bit more on how our narratives and the abuse of narrative themes can delude us, notably the tribal dualism theme, Wendell Krossa
(Yes, this is kind of a bothsideism point… See the bothsideism qualifiers further below):
Many have puzzled over why Socialists never give up on their collectivist approach even though it has now been through some 20 major experiments over the past century or so and all have failed (see historical detail in “Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies”, Kristian Niemietz, also Joshua Muravchik’s “Heaven On Earth”).
I would suggest a significant deluding element in Socialist narratives is the belief that their approach alone promotes “the greater or common good” therefore they feel justified in defending it as inherently righteous or morally superior. They pose their collectivist approach to organizing societies in opposition to what they frame as the “selfishness and greed” inevitably promoted by the other approach that orients societies around the primacy of self-determining free individuals.
The Socialist reasons- How can we go wrong when our collectivist approach is fundamentally righteous in contrast with the obvious evil of the alternative individual approach? The evil of “self-interest”. Hence, the “never-give-up” response of Socialists despite an accumulating record of failures. It’s always the defensive apologetic of- “OK, all the past experiments failed, but we just need another chance to show that our system works best to promote greater good”. My former profs at Simon Fraser University actually argued this in the late 80s/early 90s as the Soviet Union was collapsing.
The Socialist belief that collectivism is inherently righteous and morally superior to approaches that protect the freedoms and rights of individuals is drawn from beliefs that have long been deeply embedded archetypes in human subconscious. Note, for example, this commonly recognized statement of the nature of true love from Acts chapter 2: 44-45. This Christian view affirms the belief that authentic and ideal love will be communalist or collectivist:
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold their possessions and goods and gave them to anyone that had need”. Commonly paraphrased as- “See how they love one another”.
And that helps explain the often-comfortable association of Christianity with Socialism (the version of Jesus as “collectivist or communalist revolutionary”).
Further, the committed Socialist denies the historical evidence of what has actually achieved the greater or common good across the past few centuries. Socialists appear to be in denial of the fact that the protection of individual freedom and rights since the 18th Century has unleashed human motivation and creativity to improve life for all and hence lifted billions out of poverty, as well as resulted in improved natural environments. The protection and promotion of the freedoms and rights of individuals, equally, has achieved the “most good for the most people” (Milton Freidman’s basic criterion).
Where, to the contrary, collectivist experiments (subjecting individuals to collectives, to centralized state powerholders) have consistently destroyed the lives of billions and devastated environments through bureaucratic central planning of resource use. The former Soviet Union was a notable example here.
Given the belief that their model is inherently righteous, the collectivist sincerely believes that he/she is exhibiting genuine “compassion” even when engaging totalitarianism to shut down opposition and coercively enforce their approach on societies. Even when destroying democracy to, in their view, “save democracy”.
Related point: Niemietz notes this interesting thing about Socialist apologetics over, for example, Soviet repression (i.e. why democracy must be abandoned/rejected in order to “save democracy” from the alternative free individual approach): “Those who made the Revolution intended to apply Marxist principles. They assumed a necessary period, on the Marxist model, of iron dictatorship…. They were confident that the necessity of dictatorship would be transitional only”.
How has that worked out in Venezuela, as in all the other socialist projects? When the collectivist projects begin to fail, as they inevitably will, then the Socialist activists too often have doubled down and even shifted toward “exterminate or be exterminated” as necessary to protect their vision of “greater good” (Richard Landes in “Heaven On Earth”). And the outcomes have consistently been suppression of opposing views and speech (censorship), criminalization of dissent, political arrests, torture, and even mass-death.
Again, these things have to be understood in the larger context of “the psychopathology of left-wing totalitarianism”.
(Insert: And as I point out these defects of leftist collectivism, I am reminding myself of the horrific deformity of democracy that has been repeatedly exhibited throughout the history of US interventions to overthrow democratically-elected leftist administrations in varied countries, all in the name of “saving democracy”. Chile and other examples come to mind. Also Vietnam. Including, in the recent past, Ukraine. Michael Shellenberger, Glen Greenwald and others have reminded us of these examples of Western intervention, cloaked as “fighting for democracy”, to overthrow democratically elected governments.)
Another qualifier: After poking at Socialism for its failures, let me add that the motivating intentions of many Socialists are to be affirmed. It’s just that we are all responsible for the outcomes of any ideas/practices/approaches that we advocate. We are obligated to understand what true compassion should produce for our fellow citizens. For a Socialist, this will involve understanding the deforming of compassion that occurs under the “psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism” as per Christine Brophy and Jordan Peterson’s research.
There is authentic compassion for the oppressed that actually produces greater good, and there is deformed compassion that, while initially presenting as love for oppressed people, results in mass-harm to others. Pay attention to the outcomes of Net Zero decarbonization for another example of mass-harm masquerading as compassion today (i.e. “save the world, save life and humanity”).
From Arthur Herman’s “The Cave and the Light: Plato versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the soul of Western Civilization”.
“Aristotle believed that the goal of political institutions was man’s improvement rather than his perfection. He believed the way to do this was by encouraging each individual to realize his potential, rather than force him to submit to a collective order.
“By contrast, the most famous Platonic dialogue, the Republic, is all about raising that collective order to the highest-pitched perfection…
“Over the centuries, Aristotle’s politics will lead the way for Western advocates of individualism and democracy, including America’s Founding Fathers. Plato’s communitarian vision points very much in the other direction, with ugly consequences.”
Herman traces the descent of these two main approaches to organizing human societies- collectivism versus the individual approach- from Plato and Aristotle on down through history.
This is another prefacing note to my comment below “Watch how you interpret and use your narrative themes”– Wendell Krossa
Make yourself fully aware of the basic themes that have always shaped human narratives from the earliest days of humanity, and how the misuse of some themes (bad ideas) has deformed human personality, and on out to deforming human societies (again, psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo details this in “Cruel God, Kind God”).
The creation of narratives stems from our primal impulse to meaning, the impulse that stirs us, as conscious and curious beings, to create explanations for all things, especially stories/narratives to explain our existence and guide our lives. After creating our explanations with varied narrative themes, we then embrace the themes as ideals that validate our behavior.
From the earliest emergence of human consciousness, it has always been fundamental to the human impulse for meaning to want to understand the creating Source of all, and the related consequent purpose for our existence, and then to try and fulfill that purpose to some degree. This has been an intuitive and primal urge from the beginning, central to emerging and developing human consciousness. We ignore or dismiss this to our own disadvantage.
Note Arthur Herman’s account in “The Cave and the Light” of how Socrates and Plato wrestled with this issue of understanding the metaphysical ideals that should guide and validate human life- i.e. the human endeavor to understand the invisible Ideals/Forms/Ideas in order to shape the ideal life and society. The ancient Hebrews did this also (see Old Testament accounts). Very much like kids have always wanted to be like Mommy and Daddy. As Jesus stated it, “Be merciful like your Father is merciful”.
On another topic– A short but interesting video clip, Jordan Peterson and guest on silent majorities. Peterson’s guest notes that surveys in the US, Britain, and Canada show populations turning away from Woke extremism. By a ratio of 2 to 1 people are against Woke Progressivism. Also, some interesting comment on why conservatives have been scared to touch social conservative issues- i.e. for fear of being called “racist”, etc.
And because, as Peterson says, “the Woke psychopathic mob would go after and destroy them”. He adds that “radical leftist psychopaths” feel no guilt, but know how to use guilt on conservatives who do feel guilt. Hmmm.
The guest, who does surveys, suggests that brave politicians need to break the ice on all these social issues and then the population will follow as most citizens agree but are afraid to speak out for fear of cancellation by mobs.
Jordan has previously made a similar point to that made by the police supervisor in the Netflix movie “Will” who said to his new recruits who would have to serve under the occupying Nazis during WW2- “You will stand by silently and observe”. But from his own example during a Nazi crackdown on Jews it was obvious the supervisor meant- Will you just submit and collaborate out of fear, or will you resist and speak out? As Peterson argued, each of us has to make such choices. Courage or a failure of courage?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=860FJoFYzHY
Note, in the linked comment below, how these elite policies harm common people, working class people that the left once claimed to represent and feel compassion for. That hypocrisy has been exposed again and again. Reminds me of Marx/Engels, and Mao, all leading crusades that proclaimed compassion for peasants and workers yet private conversations revealed they hated and despised peasants and workers.
“Far-Left Extremism Enabled Right-Wing Victories: The backlash to radical energy, migration, and security policies in Europe, North America, and Latin America isn’t irrational”, Michael Shellenberger, June 11, 2024
https://public.substack.com/p/far-left-extremism-enabled-right
Sample comments from article:
“Political experts and the mainstream media say far-right politicians worldwide are stoking irrational fears and ancient hatreds to win elections….
“But voters in those nations are expressing legitimate concerns, not illegitimate grievances. In the US, voters are legitimately concerned by the huge influx of migrants since Biden took office. In Argentina and El Salvador, voters were responding, respectively, to hyperinflation and the highest murder rate in the world. And in Europe, voters are understandably rattled by the higher rates of crime and failure to assimilate foreign-born migrants, as well as sharply higher energy prices….
“Rather than take responsibility for the problems they created, governments demonized their political enemies and blamed the public for not accepting such radical policies….
“The real question is not why voters are turning toward far-right leaders but rather why establishment leaders have been implementing far-left policies….
“Today’s ostensibly mainstream climate and energy policies are all based on an extremist pro-scarcity agenda created by Malthusian intellectuals and philanthropists after World War II. Over time, this Malthusian agenda took over mainstream environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and eventually the Democratic Party and European social democratic parties….
“And, finally, the far-left agenda of mass migration and expensive energy allows for elites and the professional-managerial class (PMC) to distance themselves socially and politically from working-class people, who they view as their moral inferiors….
“The elites deny their fellow citizens the basics of civilization, including law and order and cheap energy….
“The right-wing populist backlash signifies the capacity for self-renewal of Western civilization….
“Italy shows that right-wing populists are likely to moderate as they come to power and attempt to govern….
“The shift of European youth voters from the Left to the Right suggests that a broader generational change may be in the works, from a green politics of scarcity to a politics of abundance…” (End of Shellenberger article)
On apocalyptic millennial eruptions, other social contagions of madness: Wendell Krossa
We look back at past eruptions of apocalyptic millennialism and shake our heads at how populations became caught up in those repeated Chicken Little episodes of absolute lunacy. Yet, here we are today actually living through one of the worst-ever episodes of what many describe as “lunacy, insanity, craziness, absurdity…”- i.e. the “profoundly religious” Climate alarmism crusade with its Net Zero decarbonization as salvation. Add also the contemporary panic being generated by Woke Progressives over the “end of democracy” if differing others gain power.
Was Ayaan Hirsi Ali correct, on her Joe Rogan appearance years ago, when she suggested that the best way to deal with the insanity of our era was to mock it? Totalitarian elites detest mockery or comedy at their expense, people having fun with their ideas and policies. They want to be taken with the utmost seriousness as “saviors of the world”, not exposed as naked emperors. Anyway, comedians you have your mandate to be outrageous, poke away at the powerholders, and thereby keep free speech alive and well. Mock away.
Another example of the lunacy of our era… This by Amy Hamm, a recently emerged and surprisingly common-sense commentator on issues of our day. Thanks, Amy.
“A cervix is not a ‘front hole’ no matter what the tyrants say: Inclusive language is demeaning”, Amy Hamm, June 13, 2024
Quotes:
“Front hole: it’s not your mouth, or one of your nostrils — it’s, umm, apparently the cervix, which both men and women can possess. At least according to the Canadian Cancer Society….
“We recognize that many trans men and non-binary people may have mixed feelings about or feel distanced from words like ‘cervix.’…
“This language likely comes as a shock to many Canadians, as is should — it reads as though the country’s largest cancer charity has hired a gaggle of budding comedian pre-school children to write their public health advice…. It is, infuriatingly, becoming the norm in the “progressive” West….
“A phrase like “front hole” doesn’t just imply men can have female organs, but that the name of the organ — the cervix — itself is offensive….
“Undeniably, and for those of us who have been paying attention, there is an inexorable march towards the erasure of women from Canadian society. We are repeatedly told that we are being mean, exclusionary, or bigoted for wanting to keep the word “woman” to ourselves, or for even wanting to use it at all. We are expected to politely accept the latest denigrating terms that gender ideologues concoct for the fairer sex….
“For the record, “front hole” is language that escaped the dank recesses of extreme activist communities. It spread from activism, to academia, and now to health care….
“We are females, mothers, and women — and more and more of us are coming out to rail against the deranged blathering of groups like the Canadian Cancer Society, or the Supreme Court of Canada, who’ve seemingly forgotten that women comprise half of the Canadian population.
“We won’t be erased.” National Post
Just as Stephen Pinker noted in his “Better Angels of Our Nature”- past insanity, such as the history of Christian violence, caused reflection and a sense of revulsion in people, notably in Christians, and then a return to moderation, common decency, and normalcy in populations. Hopefully, the eruption of Woke madness over past years is creating a revulsion in majorities and now a return to sanity. So with the climate alarmism insanity over past decades. Are we now seeing a rising revulsion at the apocalyptic madness and the longing for a return to common sense?
Winston Marshall stated that “Populism is democracy” and I would add that it is exhibiting in general a return to common sense. And, as expected from the extreme leftist Woke Progressives, they are smearing the worldwide populist uprising as “rightwing extremism, far right, racism, etc.”. Why? Because populism is a threat to elitist leftist power and their view of themselves as world saviors. These elites believe that they are saving people from themselves, from their wrong views and choices. See below the statements of our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on “the danger of populism movements worldwide”, dangerous for dissenting from his world savior complex.
Reminds me of C. S. Lewis’s warning in relation to the moralizing busybodies who believe that they alone know what is right and best for all others and will seek to coerce and control others:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals”.
The personal safeguard to the self-delusion of being solely right, to the delusion of believing that we know what is best for all others and that we must gain and hold power to implement our visions and approaches… Hold fast to Classic Liberal principles re the protection of individual rights and freedoms, as the best safeguard against the ever-creeping totalitarianism of collectivist approaches that subject individuals to some claimed “greater good or common good”. The greater good that has to be managed by “enlightened elites” who believe that they alone know what is best for all other and will use state coercion to control others. Keep dispersing power back to the commoners, via deregulation projects, lowered taxation regimes, and via public institutions that truly represent populations (elected representatives) and maintain the clear focus on protecting and promoting the freedoms and rights of all citizens, equally. Along with all other liberal democracy principles and practises.
Another illustration of elitist politicians using apocalyptic-scale panic-mongering to alarm populations, demonizing dissenters as evil monsters, and then using state coercion to push through their policies as “salvation” schemes that are best for all.
“Editorial: Hike taxes or it’s Armageddon, Freeland suggests”, Opinion by Postmedia News, Toronto Sun, June 12, 2024
Quotes:
“Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s shrill rhetoric in defence of the Liberals’ tax hike on capital gains hasn’t yet reached the level of “children will die if you don’t pass our bill” — but it’s getting close.
“According to Freeland — who sounds like she’s lecturing a class of elementary schoolchildren whenever she’s telling Canadians what she thinks is good for them — if the legislation doesn’t pass, Canada will descend into a dystopian nightmare….
“This class warfare rhetoric aimed at dividing Canadians is so typical of the Liberals who view their opponents — in this case, Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, who will vote against the legislation — as not merely wrong, but evil….
“(Economist Jack) Mintz estimates 1.25 million Canadians will be hit with the increased capital gains tax at least once in their lifetime — for example, when selling a vacation home, small business, farmland or other assets — not just the 44,000 in the 2025 taxation year, as claimed by the government.”
Good comment from Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn on the CIA meddling in elections, now through AI gaming, and the same old, same old McCarthyite alarmism over Russian disinformation…. They (Taibbi, Kirn) begin commenting on the Steve Bannon imprisonment and compare that to what Putin did to the oligarchs when he became president- coopting their support with threats…
“America This Week: Elections and Dragons: Matt and Walter play a new election preparedness role-playing game produced by the CIA’s venture capital arm (Racket story to come), and discuss Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace”, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn, June 14, 2024
https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-june-4cc
Summary quotes from link….
“Walter Kirn: America likes to wrap itself in its, oh, I don’t know, idealism and naivety at the strangest times, usually to protect itself from rather cynical and obvious realities. So if that’s how you want to deal with the fact that your country is becoming a place where parties and political mobs are using a little bit more serious laws than our traffic laws to keep each other from running campaigns or campaigning at all, and doing it in the context especially of a presidential election ongoing, man.”…
And then some interesting comment on how the CIA may try to meddle in the 2024 election, and to avoid crossing into the illegal, the agency is framing their approach as game playing with AI…
“Walter Kirn: And this is explicit to me. Explicit abrogation of that principle. They’re literally going to train American information firms in how to spin a presidential election….”
The potential interference (the CIA use of AI gaming) would be to claim that some video clip of, say Biden’s dementia, can be framed as an “AI fake” and hence dismissed with the old McCarthyite smear of- “Russian disinformation”…
“Kirn: And two, we know exactly who the blame is going to be placed on. AI. AI is the new Putin. AI is the new Boogeyman. Watch out. That’s also yesterday Guccifer too, and Russian hackers. It’s going to be an AI. It’ll probably be combined with… It’ll be a Putin AI probably, but that’s the news from this thing. Get ready for all hijinks to be blamed on AI. And for cynical people like me, prepare yourself for the world in which AI does all the bad stuff and covers all the bad stuff.
“Matt Taibbi: Absolutely. And there’s already a pretty sophisticated media campaign out there saying exactly what you just said. This is a story from last week that was in NPR. ‘This is what Russian propaganda looks like in 2024’….”
Glen Greenwald and Michael Shellenberger have also exposed how the previous concerns over disinformation campaigns by foreign enemies has now shifted to the domestic population (i.e. to domestic opponents, namely conservatives- e.g. those concerned parents framed as “domestic terrorists” by the FBI). Intelligence agencies use the Russian bogeyman thing endlessly… As they note from the “Twitter Files”, there were elements of bothsideism in the censorship on social media but clearly there was more censorship against Republicans/conservatives…
Kirn and Taibbi warn that the intelligence agencies and state bureaucrats are now arguing that they alone know what is dangerous “disinformation” and should be trusted to protect all from such threats…
“They’re basically saying, “We need the authority and we are gearing up to fight some info war of the future where nothing is reliable and only us, only we can be trusted. We who’ve been lying our pants off are asking for extra power to be truth meters for every video you see, and especially in election processes, but probably in wartime too.”
“But we’re talking about elections. Lest we forget, lest we have grown so hardened, creating strategies for NATO to counter Russian propaganda is one thing, but battling in the American media space or wherever over election results is quite another. And the militarization of politics is what we’re really… The militarization of electoral politics, not on the ground, not in terms of getting out your troops to bring people to the polls, but in terms of information warfare is what is happening here.
“Taibbi: And so, this is all people who live in this influence operations world, and they think, “Well, the Russians, they get to lie. Why can’t we? And why can’t we do it to our own population?”, and this just goes back to the whole thing of even just the reaction to a consent of Congress charge. We once had a whole population that just reflexively says, well, we don’t do that, right? We don’t censor, we don’t propagandize our own population, we don’t have the CIA meddling in our own elections. Those days I think are over where we’re in this new world, and we’ve got to get used to it….”
Taibbi asks Kirn if he thinks the left fear of populism is because they really believe Trump is some sort of Russian manipulated villain…Kirn’s response…
“So, my answer to your question is do they genuinely think that Trump was some manipulated phenomena put in by super geniuses from abroad? No. I mean, I’ll lay it on the line. I think anybody going back to the financial crisis or the Iraq war could see and knowing what trade policy was going to do to our industrial base and so on-
“Matt Taibbi: Oh, well, that’s for sure. Yeah.
“Walter Kirn: … could see in the future that the natives were going to get restless, and they overestimated their ability to soothe that restlessness, and they also, I think were sort of shocked by the emergence of a tribune of the people as it were, the role Trump plays, of such warty absurdity, how could it be possible? But if they really think that this is some secret plot hatched by the Russians that worked and is working at all these other places and appears to be immune to their usual counter efforts and maybe immune to their new ones like lawfare, if they really think that, then they’re just pure conspiracy theorists: they’re nuts.
“Matt Taibbi: Right? And they’re crazy-
“Walter Kirn: Because the reason that they can’t truly believe it, if I am to grant them rational capacities, is that they have never produced… Matt, I was more willing to see the evidence of this plot and how it all worked out and how they installed their instrument at the highest level of American government, I was more willing to see how that worked out and see the evidence and delve into it than anyone, and they never brought it forth.
“Matt Taibbi: No, they didn’t.
“Walter Kirn: So, unless they have some secret room full of proof that they still won’t show us for some reason, that causes them to rationally believe the tale they’re telling, what they’re really doing is they’re creating a fable which is meant to front-run the quite predictable rebellion of a shrinking, threatened middle class that probably could have been modeled on AI long ago, and certainly when they signed that NAFTA agreement and did other things like send hundreds of thousands of our guys off to war from a certain tranche of economic people, and then later…” (End of Taibbi/Kirn discussion).
And now…
Here is something from the “spiritual” arena. Not the religious realm, but the general “metaphysical” arena, which has always been critical to human curiosity, to the primal human impulse for meaning, and the framing of our narratives. A lot of superlatives will be sprinkled through the following comment because it deals with the transcendent metaphysical or “spiritual”. There are no words, categories, definitions, or terms that can fully and properly express the reality that is unconditional love in deity. The “God infinitely beyond the term ‘God’” that Joseph Campbell spoke about. Wendell Krossa
To set the tone for the comment below, I offer some insights from Ken Ring’s “Lessons From The Light: What we can learn from the near-death experience”. Ring notes that during the “life review” part of NDEs (i.e. not a judgment from God but a self-evaluation of one’s life, what was learned), the central concern of the Light or God is not the great accomplishments of the business world, important as those are in creating jobs for others. The main concern of God is not famous achievements in the sports arena, or the publicly proclaimed successes in entertainment, education, and other social areas, etc. The main concern of the Light or God is the daily ordinary interactions that we all have with other humans. NDEs show that God is concerned mainly with the questions of, through such mundane interactions with others, have we learned what love is, and how to love? Have we learned anything about love?
My point here is that these comments from NDEs offer some interesting insight into a metaphysical basis for true equality among people, in that all humans have the same opportunities to achieve the highest things in life, the greatest exploits, the most important successes in life that reverberate out to eternity, whereas so much of what we are taught to consider in this life and world as important is discounted and forgotten.
These hidden things that the Light or God is concerned about are about the battles with the real enemy and monsters of life that reside inside all of us. These, for comparison, are far more important achievements than the great historical battles that our public narratives celebrate.
Most people will never get opportunities for great public achievements in the areas like the business world, in terms of great success and wealth. Most people will never have opportunity to achieve sports records and fame, or to enjoy publicly praised entertainment achievements. These public successes are hierarchically limited to a tiny proportion of populations that exist at the top of societal hierarchies. But all people can achieve the highest reaches of success in what apparently matters most to God- i.e. success in the small acts of daily kindness and love, quite similar to the “unpraised loving of the unloving” as per Jesus’ statements in Luke 6:27-36:
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 3Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
(Below I have posted a similar set of statements from Matthew 6 where Jesus urges us to our acts of “righteousness” in secret and not for public praise. Doing good anonymously will reveal our more authentic selves, help keep our motivations more pure, as in not for the public praise from others, and that is what God is most concerned with.)
My interest in this topic of the importance of the little private things was piqued again recently by a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The Rogan guest noted the feature of a “life review” in NDEs (Rizwan Virk on “Joe Rogan Experience”, episode 2151) and how in that element of the NDE the small daily mundane acts of love are viewed as most important by God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNy0L1wBt4
In commenting on this, I face again my personal quibbles with the term “unconditional” that is central to this issue of deity and the spiritual. Unconditional tends to orient people toward mushy pacifist conceptions of love (i.e. “turn the other cheek”) and that is not what unconditional is about. Any truly humane version of love will hold people responsible for the consequences of their behavior. Meaning, love will unhesitatingly embrace the incarceration of violent people in order to protect others.
Where unconditional is useful is in pointing to the absolutely “no conditions” reality that is God. Unconditional in deity presents us with the most humane ideal to inspire us to maintain our humanity as we face evil throughout life. “Maintaining our humanity”? Yes, shaping our narratives with the supremely humane ideal of unconditional God then influences our consciousness, our emotions and motivations, and then subsequently our responses and treatment of others, thereby enabling us to maintain our humanity throughout the worst that life throws at us.
This will mean, for example, (1) unlimited forgiveness of the failures of others, (2) the full inclusion of all as equals in our one human family (non-tribal, non-dominating), and (3) restorative, not punitive justice approaches to human failure.
Taking off from the Rizwan Virk comment above I would add this:
The focus of God on the critical importance of the ordinary mundane interactions with others in daily life, and the love that we exhibit in such hidden interactions, points to true equality of opportunity that places us all on the same equal footing in terms of true success and achievement in life. It affirms the equal opportunity for all of us to succeed to the highest levels in the things that matter most in life. This is about a new metaphysical basis for true equality among people.
I affirm this point (i.e. deity concerned with the small and hidden things of daily common life) from the “metaphysical” insights offered by NDEs. But first, why grant any establishing credibility to those subjective NDE experiences?
Because the NDE movement is the only area of modern spirituality that clearly validates the central theme and message of Historical Jesus, notably his stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God, which is the negative aspect of an unconditionally loving God. Jesus was the first in history to state that God was unconditional love. And that stands as the single most profound discovery in human history, giving us the single most defining feature of deity.
No religion has ever communicated this truth of God as unconditional love. Some in religious circles have tried to present their religion’s view of deity as “unconditional” making such oxymoronic and cognitive dissonant statements as “God can show unconditional love because Jesus died to pay for all sin”. Huh? Unconditional love based on the ultimate cosmic condition of a supreme payment for sin? The sacrifice of a godman? Huh, again?
Here are statements from several NDE accounts shared by Ring in “Lessons From The Light”, statements affirming the unconditional nature of God:
“I vividly recall… what felt like a switched-on current of pure, undiluted, concentrated unconditional LOVE. This love… in the Light was so powerful it can’t be compared to earthly love…Its like knowing the very best love you feel on earth is diluted to about one part per million of the real thing…. This stream of pure love went through me… There is more love here than anything else… It was like being bathed in energy particles of pure love”
Another: “Everyone is loved infinitely and with incredible compassion… What kills is judgment and what heals is love. The Light itself is only love and it never judges… It gently nudges you toward our essential self… that your core being is this Light, it is not something external to you… the primacy of love… everything is love and is made of love and comes from love”.
Another: “The Light told me everything was love.. We too are conceived in and by love. Love… is our true nature… we have forgotten our true home.”
God as unconditional Love changes everything in our narratives that have long centered human consciousness on highly conditional deities, gods that threatened retaliation, judgment and eternal punishment for wrongs done, along with demanded sacrifice/payment, and submission of believers to religious traditions and their priesthoods. These central features of religious deities have been a huge psychic and material burden to humanity from the beginning.
An unconditionally loving deity goes to the foundations of human narratives to transform human thought/consciousness at the deepest levels, and thereby liberate human spirits and life as nothing ever before, especially from the highly conditional burden of religious traditions.
And, as some have noted, theologians and philosophers have ignored the NDE movement and I would suggest that is because the NDE movement’s central discovery of an unconditionally loving God is a threat to all religions as highly conditional institutions demanding loyalty to religious conditions, conditions of “right belief, correct rituals, demanded sacrifice/payment, and adherence to religious lifestyle as identity marker of being a true believer”. An unconditional God spells the end of all subservience/enslavement to such religious conditions.
An unconditional God transforms, for example, our understanding of death that has from the beginning been presented by religious traditions as punishment for sin (see the Adam/Eve in Eden story in Genesis). Human fear of death has been intensified by religious threats of after-life judgment and severe punishment in eternal hells. God as unconditional Love transforms our understanding of death from a threatening reality to just a transition back home into the love from where we originated.
As the Intro to Ring’s book states, “NDEs replace the Grim Reaper with the Being of Light as the embodiment of death… a Being of Light that loves all (i.e. Buddhists, atheists, Christians) unconditionally”.
Again, this is the central discovery or insight of most NDEs- that God is a stunningly inexpressible unconditional love. Many come back from their NDE with the realization that their religious traditions, with deities threatening judgment, exclusion, and punishment, are all wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7JmmJVKoyM&t=1810s
I further affirm God as unconditional this way- Unconditional is the highest form of love or goodness that humans have discovered. We know of nothing higher or better. And if God is ultimate Goodness and love, then of course God would be unconditional love, the highest form of love. And the NDEs affirm this very point.
Unconditional love is self-validating as the highest love, the highest good. It needs no defense aside from its inherent nature. Additionally: Bob Brinsmead has noted that if love is not unconditional then it is not real love.
The second main discovery of the NDE movement is our “oneness with God”- i.e. that we are one with that divine love. Inseparable from it. The Love that is God defines our inner self, our true self, the real us.
So to recap- Unconditional love is the highest good, the highest form of love, and hence the truest thing about deity, and further, that makes it the most true and real thing of all. Because God, as Source, Creator and Sustainer of all, is the most real of all reality behind all other more surface levels or realms of reality. God is the creating and sustaining Consciousness at the base of all else.
Here in the link just below Andy Petro presents his very helpful NDE and how he learned that the true reality is in the Light that is God, and this world and life is an illusion in comparison to the divine reality. This life, says Petro, is like a play where we are all acting our parts. This world and life, he explains, is not ultimately real as the only reality is in God.
Others explain it thus- that waking consciousness here is like a foggy dream state compared to the hyper-lucid consciousness when we are free of our bodies as in NDEs. They compare the death transition as similar to waking up from a dream state to real daily consciousness but the consciousness beyond is infinitely more hyper-lucid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThW7SB7FmFA
But back to my point- That the core reality creating and sustaining all else is love, inexpressibly wondrous unconditional love. As the NDErs further state, God’s very atoms and substance consists of this unconditional love. And we are also that same love. It is in us, closer than our own breath or atoms, or spirit. The love that is God is inseparable from the human spirit. Immediately present to everyone of us.
Now to take this again to that little things matter most in our life stories, our quests- the daily, mundane, ordinary interactions with other people…
Opportunities for true success in life will present in the tiny details of daily interactions with others, especially differing or enemy others. More difficult to love people present opportunities for the most heroic of actions that we can exhibit in our personal quests, opportunities for kind words, jokes to lighten the mood, expressions of compassion.
It is in these things that God considers most important that we can all succeed and therefore that is true equality of opportunity. Such opportunity is not dependent on educational levels, or wealth, or social status, or power. We are all offered the same opportunities to achieve the best of life in the ordinary, mundane interactions of daily life.
Just as love and freedom are the highest of human ideals or goods, I would also add equality to this mix of most fundamentally important things. The above statements from NDEs present a stunning new metaphysical basis for equality. Yes, God incarnated equally in everyone, everyone having equal access to the immediate presence of God, with no need for intermediaries to communicate God- i.e. no priests, pastors, or other religious experts. And this present God is primarily interested in the little details of daily interactions with others.
Further on this greatest possible human achievement– i.e. love in hidden details of ordinary mundane daily life, I would add below the other comments of Jesus that our actions are most genuine and most appreciated by God when hidden from the public praise of others, when we are not playing to the cameras.
Hidden acts of “righteousness” reveal what we are really like when no one is watching. Such acts reveal our true selves. Acts of goodness are easier to display if they are to be publicly praised and the cameras are on.
I am not affirming Matthew’s points about “receiving reward” because that buttresses retributive deity theory- i.e. that God is a retributive reality, rewarding or punishing. I refer to this passage just for another illustration of what really impresses God, similar to the above NDE comments on the small, mundane and hidden interactions where all can shine equally.
Jesus: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words….
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
These comments are similar to the spirit of what Jesus said in Luke 6- i.e. that its easier to love and loan if you will be repaid by others. But you can do something more special and heroic and give to those who can’t repay or won’t repay you. So also, do the harder thing in love others when no one is watching, when there is no public praise for your acts of righteousness toward others, when it’s just you as your true private self.
Here are some quotes from previous articles along this line of divine appreciation for the daily mundane and ordinary, the small and hidden…
http://www.wendellkrossa.com/?p=8661
“Our contribution may be small and hidden, or it may be offered in the larger public realm. Again, our contributions to life are as diverse as the opportunities to be human in billions of individual life stories. There is infinite creative potential in the freedom to explore, to experience, to create and innovate, to live a unique story….
Another: Wendell Krossa
“The most important battles in life are not the great historical wars of tribe against tribe, or nation against nation. The greatest battles/wars are those that take place inside us. And this relates to the deeper meaning of equality in human life. There can be no outer material equality because life is shaped by hierarchies and pyramidal structures where only a few can reach the upper levels, whether in business, sports, politics, or entertainment. Only an elite few can achieve the highest success in the pyramids of life. But everyone has equal opportunity to achieve the greatest success of all in the most important achievement of all- love.
“Love is the foundational feature that defines real success in human life and story. It is the essential core nature of our human spirit and consciousness, and it gives singularly potent meaning to our existence. Further, love is the only lasting achievement in the cosmos. All else will be left behind and forgotten in this material world or realm. Only what is done in love lasts forever and reverberates to infinity and beyond.
“Speaking superlatively, when we struggle and suffer in life, and then discover unconditional as the route to an authentically humane life story, that is the single greatest insight that we can discover, the greatest treasure that we can find, and living unconditionally is the greatest victory that we can achieve. When we orient our lives to unconditional love, then we can offer the greatest benefit or boon to others- to treat them unconditionally.
“Unconditional points us toward the greatest revolution that we can bring to life, toward the greatest possible transformation of life, toward the greatest liberation that we can offer to the world (i.e. liberation from the inherited animal in all of us). The unconditional treatment of imperfect people around us (restorative justice) is one of the most potent personal ways to make the world a better place. Include here also the expression of unconditional love toward oneself and one’s own failures and imperfections.
“Another way of putting this… We will all face some struggle, some experience of suffering, something we fear, perhaps opposition from an enemy, or some abuse from an opponent. If we choose to respond to that challenge with love, we then discover our true self as a being of love, and we mature into a heroic person through that experience and choice. Again, for examples, note “The Railway Man”, Nelson Mandela’s life story, the tortured prisoners in “To End All Wars”, or the mother in “The Forgiven’.
“In all that we do, and should do, to make this life better- i.e. in sports, in business and work, in all public or social issues, or entertainment- we should never forget that how we treat others in the daily mundane interactions (the ordinary and hidden things) is what make us real successes and achievers, or not.
“Steve Jobs appeared to have understood this on his death bed when he apologized to his daughter Lisa for treating her sub-humanly at times. He had achieved great public material success but regretted that he had failed in his private life. He died wishing that he had treated his family members with more kindness while he was alive and healthy.”
Further illustrations from NDEs:
First, this interesting insight from the NDE of a woman who volunteered at a camp for special needs kids. She served as a camp counsellor and one day a child threw a tantrum that disturbed the other campers. This lady went over to calm the child down, giving the kid a cup of water. She gave no thought at all to doing that for the child.
Later during her NDE and life review, that forgotten act of kindness to the child was focused on by the Light/God as a strikingly important act of love and was praised by God. The lady was stunned at how that forgotten act was celebrated as a highly honored thing and reverberated as a great burst of light throughout the supernatural realm.
Similarly, a businessman had an NDE and during his life review he thought that he would be rewarded and praised for his great public accomplishments during his business career on Earth. But the Light that was God ignored all that the man considered important to focus on the little interactions with others in this man’s life and asked- How did you treat others in the hidden daily interactions? Did you love? Did you learn how to love, especially when no one was looking, when there was no one to praise you?
And some interesting comment of Joe Rogan and a guest on DMT experiences and the similarity to NDEs.
As with NDEs, during DMT experiences there is the element of “real beyond real” and “out of body in another realm” that are undeniable. This is something Pim Van Lommel also noted in “Consciousness Beyond Life”, that DMT perhaps plays some role in separating consciousness from the brain, a role in separating consciousness from the physical/material realm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcdItgUjZnY
Moving along…
The commonly used terms “crazy, lunacy, absurdity, etc.” fail to communicate the full-frontal insanity of the era that we are living through. We are battered daily with the hysteria of “profoundly religious apocalyptic millennialism” from the Climate alarmism crusade and its Net Zero decarbonization scheme to “save the world”. We suffer insanity from the revival of Marxist collectivism via new fronts like DEI, ESG, etc. to save civilization from the evil of private property in capitalism (yes “insanity” because after some 20 major failures of collectivism over the last century, Socialists refuse to give up their approach and that persistent “we need yet another chance” response is the definition of insanity- see more below on this). General Woke Progressivism claims it wants to “save democracy”, meaning saving the version of democracy that maintains Woke Progressives in power, where their elites can save us all by taking us back to a primitivism where we will own nothing and be happy eating bugs (former WEF motto).
Here is more illustration of the “strange days indeed” world we are in…
“Democrats Deny Basic Biology In Push To Change Gender Of Children: Governor Gavin Newsom’s allies have passed legislation to block schools from telling parents when their kids think they’re the opposite sex”, Michael Shellenberger, June 16, 2024
https://public.substack.com/p/democrats-deny-basic-biology-in-push
Quotes:
“For the last 30 years, Democrats have attacked Republicans and others as science deniers. They have pointed to skepticism about climate change, evolution, and the history of life on Earth as proof that Republicans are in the grip of a pseudoscientific religion.
“But now it’s Democrats who are denying science. In California and across the United States, Democrats are demanding that schools teach children that they can change their sex. They say that boys can become girls, and girls can become boys through the magic of language. You’re a girl if you say you’re a girl, and vice versa, many Democrats believe…
“I have a real problem with taxpayers funding schools to teach the pseudoscientific idea that there are more than two sexes and that they can be changed. There is no debate over this question. No amount of magic words, drugs, or cosmetic surgery can turn a boy into a girl or a girl into a boy. This is basic biology.
“What’s happening is much more horrible than most people realize….
“Convincing children into thinking they were born into the wrong body and that they can do something to their bodies to change their sex has resulted in one of the ‘worst medical mistreatment scandals in human history’…
“Every nation in Europe is moving away from so-called gender medicine because it’s not medicine. It’s mistreatment…
“The right way to deal with all of this is through cognitive behavioral therapy and “watchful waiting,” not promoting the delusion that anyone is “born into the wrong body,” much less blocking puberty, giving children testosterone or estrogen, or God forbid cutting into their bodies…
“What’s worse, many teachers and schools are promoting this pseudoscience. And so Democrats are proposing not only that schools miseducate children, they want to hide what they’re doing…
“The news media and corporate America have not only promoted trans pseudoscience, they’ve celebrated it. They have demonized those who have stood up for science and for the right of children to go through puberty as somehow mean or “transphobic.”…
“There are only males and females. And no amount of drugs, surgeries, or magic words can change that.”
These are comments by readers of Shellenberger’s article:
This from “John”
“Lesbian and gay rights groups should have closed up shop after they won same-sex marriage rights”…
“This is something that applies to all NGO’s. When they reach their goal, they need to close shop. Instead what happens, is they are afraid of “being unemployed” and look for new projects to use their fundraising machinery on. The end result is the “NGO Industrial Complex” always looking for new dragons to slay.”
This comment from “Maria”
“Sick, sick, sick, sick! Chris Rock is right, ‘what ever happened to ‘fucking crazy’? I don’t think there’s a better way to describe these demented idiots.”
This from “Robert Wallace”
“Progressivism is a cult with programming by the media. And Democrats have joined the cult. It’s falling apart from many directions, and the runaway train is going to crash, and I think the establishment media knows it, but they don’t know how to get off.”
This one from “Diane Dellarmo”
“Thank you Michael. Excellent article as usual, and perfect for Father’s Day! Those of us who see this evil for what it is must stand up and shout it from the rooftops. This craziness must stop!”
And one from “Sea Sentry”
“California is the nation’s laboratory for failed liberal policies, with Gavin Newsom as its Grand Wizard. The litany of failures stretches from homelessness to housing costs to farms denied water to terrible public schools to skyrocketing energy prices for electricity and gasoline. Natural gas is being phased out. Electric cars – with an inadequate grid – are being mandated in.
“All of this is funded with high taxes and, yes, massive deficits. The twin liberal bastions of Silicon Valley and Hollywood have traditionally sustained the State’s spending, but both of those industries are increasingly dispersed throughout the country and world, and those sources of revenue will diminish over time. Then what? People already see this. Long time residents are fleeing. Long time businesses are fleeing. Middle class jobs have largely left the state, leaving mostly the rich, progressive clerisy along with their gardeners, maids and waiters.
“Despite incredible wealth, resources and the infrastructure of prior generations, progressives have turned California into a quasi-3rd world country. Those of us still here are living in the progressive utopia that so many continue to pine for.”