See below Jordan Peterson’s interesting analysis of Justin Trudeau and the psychopathologies of narcissistic, even psychopathic leadership.
We hear interesting commentary today on the revival/return of religion as many are recognizing that the atheism of the past few centuries has left some kind of mental/emotional hole in human spirits- i.e. the recognition of something missing in our endeavor to be human, something fundamental to the human impulse for meaning, purpose, Wendell Krossa
On the title above. My response to the too common polarized options that we present to people. Either this or that. Simple-minded dualisms of entirely opposite things. Is this some residual influence from Zoroaster’s cosmic dualism of good versus evil? Some “archetypal” leftover in the collective unconscious?
Note this, for example, from Free Press, typical of this line of argument…
“How Intellectuals Found God: Almost 150 years after Nietzsche said ‘God is dead’, some of our most important thinkers are getting religion. Peter Savodnik meets the new theists”, Peter Savodnik, Dec. 28, 2024
But much of the contemporary return to religion just revisits and re-embraces what has been handed down to us from a primitive past, without critically analyzing what was valuable in religious traditions and what was wrong, what was the “psychopathology” in the mix.
I offer that “what was right and what was wrong” can be understood in terms of the profound contradiction between Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ. This contradiction expresses history’s greatest mental deformity where history’s most profound insight was buried in history’s greatest religious icon- the Christ of Paul. Yes, I like superlatives- i.e. “greatest”- to make a point.
The contradiction between Jesus and Paul’s Christ gets to the core of things very critical to human existence- the primal human search for meaning across history. Our endless and irrepressible curiosity for what this material reality and life is all about. Why does it exist and why do we exist as conscious humans in this world? What is our purpose here? What does the misery and suffering of this world mean?
What Historical Jesus offered in contrast to the religious traditions of previous history, and of his day, was something stunningly new and “trans-religious”, something above and beyond historical religious traditions, as expressed in his stunning new view of deity as an unconditional reality and the meaning/purpose associated with that new no conditions reality.
“The term ‘trans-religious’ refers to adopting a broader religious identity beyond calling oneself a Christian, Muslim, Baha’i, etc. – such that one can have both a specific faith-identity, and an overarching sense of being one of God’s children, who come from all faiths, and from none.”
https://bahaiteachings.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-trans-religious/#:~:text=The%20term%2e
Historical Jesus taught something that transcends religion and that is better understood as commonly human. What historical Jesus taught was entirely non-religious yet he was turned into the supreme religious icon. That reframing of him and his message by Paul and his Hellenistic Christianity deformed entirely the message of Jesus. Paul distorted the teaching of Jesus that God was a non-religious deity and that no conditions love was common, non-religious human love.
Two decades after Jesus died, Paul had shamefully retreated to the worst of the religious past, re-enforcing the same old threat theology that had long deformed human personalities and validated the worst impulses in people to tribalism, domination, and punitive destruction of differing others. His Christ re-embraced the core features of all past religious theologies, features in the Ultimate Ideal of deity that then validated the same behaviors in people to mass-harm outcomes.
Consider what Historical Jesus offered in contrast, beginning with his “stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory/unconditionally loving God”. Historical Jesus went to the core of human belief systems/narratives and overthrew the old theologies entirely, replacing them with his “stunning new theology of an unconditional God”. A God that was not tribal (no discrimination between true believers and unbelievers), non-dominating (no Lord/King lording over others but serving), and non-punitive, non-violent (no eye for eye destruction, but all generously loved and included).
Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy both understood the profound difference in what Jesus taught as contrasted with Paul’s teaching on the Christ.
They both urged- Pull the “diamonds/pearls of Jesus out of the dung/muck” of the rest of the New Testament, meaning Paul’s teaching on the Christ that dominates the New Testament.
To understand the details of this contrast between Jesus and Paul’s Christ, its worth the effort to read and get a grip on the “Search for Historical Jesus”, the “Jesus Seminar” research, and the “Q Wisdom Sayings” gospel research. See for example, summaries such as James Tabor’s “Paul and Jesus”.
The major conflict between Jesus and Paul gets us to all that went wrong in history and the way to make things right. The contrast in narratives between these two gets to the essence of the major issues in history’s great battles between good and evil, notably to the ideas that humans create to validate either authentic good or evil, and what the actual nature of evil and good are about.
Another suggestion on how to understand the contradiction between Jesus and Paul- Start with Bob Brinsmead’s… “What The Scholars Are Saying.”
https://bobbrinsmead.com/the-historical-jesus-what-the-scholars-are-saying/
The simple-minded taking of sides in the atheism/religion dualism is a sidetracking detour that misses the basic issues. That simple either/or choice distorts the real issues at play in meaning and purpose.
Try understanding the basic issues in the Jesus/Christ contradiction. To properly counter the modern era shift toward atheism, and associated nihilism, noted in the article above, “How Intellectuals Found God”, requires more than a return to traditional Christianity. That misses entirely what is wrong at the very heart of Christianity- i.e. the contradiction that Jefferson and Tolstoy saw clearly between Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ myth.
Understand just what the “diamonds” really are in contrast with the “dung” that Jefferson spoke of. This is critical to human meaning and purpose and to avoiding the endless repetition of the horrifically violent episodes across the history of Christianity (the violence from the early Councils, the Crusades, the torture and murder of heretics, witches, unbelievers, Inquisitions, etc.). Discerning between diamonds and dung is critical to understanding what ideas in the mix drove the mass-death movements of Marxism, Nazism, and now environmental alarmism and its mass-harm outcomes.
If we don’t get the bad ideas in the mix clear, then we will only keep repeating the horrific mass-death outcomes as warned by Richard Landes and the military guy who cautioned us about the ideas driving repeating eruptions of religious violence, such as ISIS in Syria in 2014.
We are actually repeating this problem of bad religious ideas inciting harmful outcomes right now in the climate crisis crusade and its Net zero decarbonization crusade, another profoundly religious movement producing destructive “salvation” outcomes for humanity.
Note:
The ideas that we have created across history to express our understanding of reality, what it means, what purpose is involved, our ideas then influence how we view life, how we feel about things, our motivations, our responses and behavior. It’s that old “behavior based on similar validating belief” relationship.
And theology, how we think about the ultimate Ideal and Authority- i.e. deity- is most dominant in the mix of ideas that influence human behavior. Deity has long been the “cohering center” of human narratives, shaping everything else in our narratives.
There is no better example of the starkly contrasting themes in human narratives and outcomes, good and bad, than these two people and their entirely opposite messages, their two entirely opposite gods. Punitive, violent threat theology in Paul’s Christ myth versus the unconditional God of Jesus.
Again, my list of opposites.
Main contradictions between Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ:
Here again are some of the main contradictions that highlight the oxymoronically opposite themes in the messages of Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ mythology. The point I draw from this? The themes of Paul have prominently shaped Western consciousness, narratives, and overall societies for the past two millennia. The Jesus themes have influenced us to a lesser extent, mainly moderating the harsher features of Paul’s message:
(1) Unconditional love (i.e. no sacrifice demanded in Jesus original message- i.e. the “Q Wisdom Sayings” gospel). Versus the highly conditional atonement religion of Paul (i.e. the supreme condition of the sacrifice of a cosmic godman- the Christ).
(2) Nonretaliation in Jesus. No more ‘eye for eye’ retaliatory justice but ‘love the enemy’ because God does not retaliate but loves and includes enemies in the generosity of the natural world, as in “sun and rain for all indiscriminately”. Versus supreme divine retaliation in apocalypse and hell myths. Note Paul’s theology of a supremely retaliatory deity- “’Vengeance is mine, I will repay’, says the Lord” (Romans 12), and his “Lord Jesus returning in fire to destroy all who don’t believe Paul’s Christ myth” (Thessalonians).
(3) Restorative justice (again- no eye for eye) versus punitive, retributive, destroying justice.
(4) Nonviolent resolution of problems (again, no retaliation against enemies) versus the violent destruction of apocalypse and hell, and the violent pacification of deity by blood sacrifices for atonement.
(5) Nontribal inclusion of all humanity (“sun and rain given freely to both bad and good people”) versus the highly tribal favoritism toward true believers and the discriminatory exclusion of unbelievers as per Paul’s Christ (Note the ultimate tribal divide illustrated in Revelation as the eternal division of humans- assigned either to heaven or to hell, as per the cosmic dualism of Zoroaster).
(6) Nondomination in relationships (“If you want to be great then serve others”) versus ultimate eternal domination by Lord Christ with his rod of iron totalitarianism (“every knee shall bow… He will rule them with an iron scepter”).
(7) Non-dualism (God as the Oneness of Ultimate Reality that is love) versus eternal dualism (i.e. again, the cosmic Zoroastrian dualism of “God and Satan”, “heaven and hell”).
And so on…
You cannot mix and merge such opposites in the one and same person- i.e. “Jesus Christ”- as that supremely oxymoronic combination creates such profound cognitive dissonance that you are left with a mental state akin to insanity or madness. And the egregious thing in the mix is that the good elements (i.e. the Jesus insights) are distorted and buried by the primitive and darkening elements in the Christology of Paul.
Applying Christology to Jesus (i.e. the divinizing of a common man over the first few centuries of Christianity) has effectively buried the potency of his liberating insights, notably his stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory, non-apocalyptic God. That truth of his entirely new view of deity, though still present there in summaries of his statements (see Matthew 5, Luke 6), that “stunning new theology” is no longer clearly visible to most people’s minds because the larger New Testament context emphasizes Paul’s retaliatory, apocalyptic Christ and overwhelms the Jesus message and themes.
Paul was intent on straightening Jesus out, correcting his “heresy”. Paul offered his “secret wisdom of the Christ” to correct the ignorant/foolish “worldly wisdom” of Jesus and his followers, like Apollos (see the details of his anti-wisdom stance in his first letter to the Corinthians).
Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy both nailed the contradiction between Jesus and Paul in the bluntest of terms and no one has been as clear and direct since, perhaps because their comments are so offensive to true believer’s sensibilities. Few since have paid attention to their clarifying the stark contrast between Jesus and Paul, preferring instead the religious reformism that tinkers around the edges and gets nothing done, that avoids the central issue of theology- how Paul’s Christology deformed Jesus and his message.
Most egregious is that Paul’s distortion and burial of Historical Jesus has short-circuited the potentially most profound liberation movement ever offered to humanity- liberation at the depths of human consciousness/subconscious from the history-long enslavement of human minds to threat theology, the associated deformation of human personality, and the consequent devastating outcomes in societies from threat theology ideals.
A whole lotta more to come…
More behind the scenes exposure from Mike Benz, Wendell Krossa
Here is Mike Benz on Patrick Bet-David podcast talking about the great goal of the “foreign policy blob” of the US, the goal of NATO, US State Dept., DOD, etc. since the Cold War to seize the $75 trillion of resources in Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nr85irW3g0
His point? That Trump just taking a neutral stance with Russia to end the Ukraine war will threaten the hundreds of billions invested by the US foreign policy blob to access those Eurasian resources.
Since 1990, the foreign policy blob has pushed the operation to expand NATO, a security alliance mixed with economic and political interests of the US.
This started to come under threat when Putin began to assert Russian influence with gas diplomacy over Europe and then began the struggle for control over the European gas economy. Russia also blocked the US plans to invade Syria and Russia supplied arms to rebels attacking US-backed African governments.
Sen. Lindsay Graham let out secret when he said that even if you don’t care about democracy in Ukraine, remember they sit on $12 trillion in natural resources. And when the US enters these countries, it makes them “our political and economic vassals”, as our American companies or allied companies develop partnerships with the companies in those countries. He illustrates that with the partnerships that are signed by US companies with Ukrainian gas companies.
The goal, he says, is to bring all that wealth into the arms of the big US finance institutions like Blackrock, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, etc. Trump poses a great threat to this foreign policy complex of groups bent on getting access to all those resources. He says that if Trump accepts a peace deal with Putin then all the hundreds of billions of dollars invested by US and other financial giants, to get access to those resources, will be lost.
He then illustrates the situation of Imran Khan, the most popular president in Pakistan’s history who was pushed out with US pressure. Pakistan has been for decades a main hub for US transit of weapons to Ukraine, a weapons depot for the US DOD and CIA. Khan wanted to be neutral between the US and Russia and that threatened the NATO/US war to weaken Russia. The US State Dept. message was that Khan had to be removed because he took a neutral position on Russia and that is what Trump will do and thereby threaten the US foreign policy blob’s goals to access the resources of countries like Russia.
This is ‘holy shit’ interesting analysis of Justin Trudeau by Jordan Peterson, noting Trudeau’s narcissism, the dark tetrad traits at play in leaders like Trudeau, the psychopathic abuse of victimization and the embrace of “compassion” as a cloak, how Canadian niceness is abused by such manipulation, and more…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxzAyj8SU4
Post to discussion group:
“Peterson can be blunt but accurate in probing what is going on with varied people and larger social situations. Here is some analysis of Justin Trudeau. Peterson says that sometimes niceness can become fodder for psychopaths to abuse. Dark tetrad types use the compassion of people against them.
“Psychopaths have learned how to use categories like victimization and to cloak themselves in compassion with virtue-signaling. When these types of people get together and gain control of societies the outcomes can be disastrous, as today in Canada.
“Psychopathic types present as confident and charming, hence their success with women and reproduction, till they overcome and distort natural evolutionary processes.
“I thought of what Peterson was saying in relation to the approach of pacifism in the face of evil. It does not work to protect the innocent and can be abused by the dark tetrad types and used against compassionate populations of nice people.”