The Unconditional Human Spirit

After the “here we go again” attack in New Orleans… Wendell Krossa

The military guy, following the 2014 eruption of ISIS violence in Syria, urged this- “You can crush these episodes of violence with military force, but they will just keep erupting until you go after the ideas that drive them”. But that will require the approach of going to the very root contributing factors and many people shy away from what has been presented to them by religious traditions as “blasphemy, heresy…”, as in tackling the prominent religious themes of our world religions.

Historian Richard Landes stated this just below, following his detail on how apocalyptic millennial themes drove Marxism to murder 100 million people last century, and Nazism to start a war that resulted in the murder of 50-60 million people, and before his chapter on environmental alarmism as another mass-harm crusade driven by the very same apocalyptic millennial ideas…

“The study of Nazism’s appeal, of Hitler’s charisma, belong to the field of millennial studies, whether one wishes to designate Hitler’s efforts as religious or millennialism as having secular variants. Only then can we identify the key problems of how movements go from the margins to the center of a society/culture, how they pursue their millennial goals, and how they respond… to cognitive dissonance, frustration, and failure… (Hitler) is not so much the measure of the unthinkably, the impossibly evil, as he is the measure of how, with modern technology and an only partially developed civil polity, a nation, a people, seized by, ridden by a millennial passion, can become one of the great dealers of death in human history” (end of ch.12).

His point? Until we deal with the religious ideas that drive such madness, we will only see further such eruptions of madness. Again, those root contributing factors.

Where are these apocalyptic millennial ideas protected and promoted today? They continue to dominate the major world religions, as well as dominate “secular/ideological” versions like climate alarmism conjoined to the neo-Marxism of Woke Progressivism, and are also promoted by the Hollywood public story-telling machine where apocalyptic millennialism dominates movie narratives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apocalyptic_films

I would add to Landes’ research, that at the core of apocalyptic millennial mythology is the most critical of all religious ideas- i.e. the cohering center that is threat theology, the myth of an angry God who promises to punish and exterminate people with violent destruction. And consider psychologist Harold Ellens’ point that such a deity, held as ultimate ideal, then incites and validates the same punitive, destroying violence in followers. “We all become just like the God that we believe in” (Bob Brinsmead).

I repeat these comments because few have stated the issue better than Ellens. Here below psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo is quoting Ellens in his book “Cruel God, Kind God”…

“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’”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

This site starts the new year continuing to expose the real meta-monster behind many of the eruptions of violence in human societies, behind the varied crusades for totalitarianism, whether religious or secular. They are driven by the same complex of mythical themes that have always been the main monster of humanity, our real enemy, from the very beginning of early humans creating myths to respond to their primal impulse for meaning and purpose. Wendell Krossa

This is about probing what it is that deforms human narratives, consciousness, personality, and at scale, entire societies. That same complex of mythical themes that drove Marxism, Nazism, and now environmental alarmism (and also drives neo-collectivism as in the Neo-Marxism of far left Woke Progressivism and DEI).

More on the quest of this site to understand the ideas/themes that shape and drive human behavior, especially to understand the ideas that validate the behaviors that are destructive to human well-being, and at-scale, destructive to entire societies.

I have a bent, like many others, to join endeavors to “save the world”. I want to look at problems and try to understand what is behind them, what are the root contributing factors. I do this with varied public issues and problems, like the climate alarmism panic of the past three decades and its destructive decarbonization plan. What the hell is this really about? What drives this “madness of crowds” episode?

My interest in root contributing factors to public crusades like climate alarmism arises from long-ago experience in my family religion- Evangelical Christianity. That experience provided me the insight of feeling firsthand the impact of “threat theology” religious beliefs, to feel, with the immediacy of personal experience, how such “cruel God” theology deforms human personality with fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, despair, nihilism, and violence. Yes, violence.

I get how religious ideas of an angry God who threatens to punish us with apocalypse and hell, how such themes incite the survival impulse. And that survival desperation renders many susceptible to salvation schemes. It disables people to the cowering state of not even questioning the destruction of their society that is required to “save the world”, because they are promised utopia just beyond the destruction of the world. Think of average good Germans during the Weimar years as they were primed with the apocalyptic millennial vision of the Nazis. And think, similarly, of how we have been primed with the apocalyptic millennial vision of climate alarmists over the last three decades.

My personal experience of the harmful influence from the more destruction oriented religious themes helped me to appreciate how primitive apocalyptic millennial ideas carry good people along till they will embrace policies and crusades that harm themselves and others. It’s the religious-incited desperation for salvation. It’s the “fear=control” formula of totalitarians. Scare people and then you can manipulate them to embrace your salvation schemata. Read the rest of the opening comment here

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

https://www.thefp.com/p/how-intellectuals-found-god-ayaan-hirsi-ali-peter-thiel-jordan-peterson?utm_campaign=email-post&r=vl4wv&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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. Read the rest of the opening comment here

See below a revised reposting of “Hating that ‘some people are better than others'”, on the Lex Fridman interview of Jordan Peterson re the “spiritual” basis of human equality.

See also new comment on “The single most important thing that we will learn in life, the single most important thing that we will ever do, the single most important contribution that we will ever make to peace and order in the world…” (“Greatest”? When talking about transcendant realities, superlatives are justified.)

This good commentary from Matt Taibbi– “Thankfully, Some Things Never Change: A few reflections on an extraordinary year, as we give thanks and burn the Yule log”, Dec. 24, 2024

https://www.racket.news/p/thankfully-some-things-never-change

Matt rehashes some of the madness that we have lived through over the past decade but concludes, “Mad scientists who think they can redesign human experience are always undone by eternal truths that arrogance won’t allow them to grasp, one being that life isn’t so bad”.

Speaking of madness, former leftist/Democrat Dr. Drew Pinsky

Dr. Drew in just 2 mins, or so, nails mainstream media for propagandizing people to excesses of hysteria and delusion over the past 8 years, to the point that people have become literally mentally ill, losing rationality. He says this madness peaked with Covid. So, deal with these people, says Drew, with “compassionate firmness”. Don’t argue with them as you are not dealing with rationality.

The Woke Progressives driving the hysteria, delusion, and dividing the country have been like a cult, says Drew, and cults separate families, demanding that people should not associate with their families at times like Thanksgiving, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7GcjQGSje4

Varied new scientific reports are confirming that CO2 levels are already “saturated”, a physics term meaning that further increases in atmospheric CO2 will contribute little or nothing to any possible further warming. And the current levels are highly beneficial to plant growth and crop productivity.

“Science Shock: CO2 is good for the planet, peer-reviewed studies suggest”, Chris Morrison, Daily Skeptic, Dec. 24, 2024

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/12/24/science-shock-co2-is-good-for-the-planet-peer-reviewed-studies-suggest/

Morrison says, “None of this work will be reported in the mainstream since it disrupts a ‘settled’ climate science narrative tied to the political Net Zero fantasy.’

He adds that CO2 levels were much higher in the past and all life flourished.

As always, my conclusion from such evidence- There is no scientifically justified reason to tax carbon or decarbonize our societies, to embrace the mass-harm of Green extremism.

Main site theme: “Don’t be afraid its going to be alright.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

More on the larger social issue of the elite/commoner divide in our societies, Wendell Krossa

The struggle for freedom from domination is fought and won most critically inside each of us. The “Hero’s quest” struggle against our real enemy- i.e. most notably or critically, the “evil triad” of inherited animal impulses to tribalism, domination, and punitive treatment of differing others. This affirms Solzhenitsyn’s point that the real battle of good against evil runs through the center of every human heart. We win the great battles of life by first taking care of what is wrong inside each of us. Not “sinfulness”, but residual things from our animal past.

And at some level of consciousness most of us feel these things naturally, i.e. the desire to be free of what we sense is subhuman- those animal impulses inside us- and to experience what it feels like to be truly human, fully human. We get this at some level of consciousness, what we call the difference between right and wrong, good and bad.

Honing a bit more the focus to the real nature of the human struggle for freedom…

The real battle of good against evil takes place at the most fundamental of levels, as a battle against the bad religious ideas (religious ideas as ultimate ideals) that have from the beginning validated our worst impulses. Some call them “archetypes”. And they tell us that the archetypes reside in the human subconscious and emanate their influence from there. Hence, the 95% of human behavior that is subconsciously initiated. So they say.

Moving along… Probing or looking past the societal level of our daily lives. (“Societal level”? The struggles between varied groups in public- i.e. society-level battles over differing ideologies, beliefs, policies, etc.) Read the rest of the opening comment here

Observe the varied public debates on this and that, and associated crusades, and then take note of what goes on behind the scenes of the public displays of this and that. That behind the scenes manipulation gets us to the real story of life, Wendell Krossa

Again, I place the points below within the larger historical framework of elites constantly pushing the elite/commoner divide on human societies and commoners pushing back for freedom.

Now some argument…

Extremist leftist “Woke Progressivism” and “climate crisis” alarmism are related fronts of the same general push by elites, consciously intentional or not, to shape our liberal democratic societies into another collectivism. The elites actually running our governments (the “deep staters”), are pushing a fundamentally collectivist approach that undermines private property rights through big government, big taxation, and big regulation (see interview of Jon Moynihan below). Private property being the number one evil to liberate humanity from, according to Marx.

(“Intentional”? It could be devotion to socialism or some unformed embrace of “greater or common good” as ultimate goal, and not understanding that Classic Liberal protection of individual rights and freedoms has actually achieved more “greater or common good” over the past two centuries while collectivist/socialist approaches have consistently ruined greater or common good.)

Contemporary collectivist-oriented elites are being exposed for reshaping our liberal democratic societies through expanded government bureaucracies and state programs that are gradually replacing the private sector through a kind of “soft socialism” approach, that may not continue to remain “soft” much longer.

We get repeated intimations from elites that as they become aware that the pushback from populist revolts, agitating for restoration of basic equal rights and freedoms, may possibly be weakening their collectivist crusade, the elites are, in response, “doubling down” and may even be toying with resorting to the late-stage desperation phase of “exterminate or be exterminated”. See, for example, Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn on the coming-out-of-the-closet validation of vigilante violence in mainstream media as Progressives become frustrated by the slow pace of democratic processes to bring the change that they want (i.e. notably, Taibbi and Kirn pointing to Joy Reid making this very argument recently on MSNBC).

(Note: On the shift to the extermination phase, Richard Landes in “Heaven On Earth” covers in detail the varied stages that totalitarian revolutions go through- i.e. Marxism, Nazism, environmental alarmism. Add Woke Progressivism to this list.) Read the rest of the opening comment here

New below- Classic Liberalism is how we ensure that government “serves the people” and does not become the tool of elite domination. Also, “How to ruin a nation in 9 short years”. The Trudeau legacy by Matthew Lau.

Here is more on the proven best approach to organizing human societies- Classic Liberal principles, laws, representative institutions. Best, as in “doing the most good for the most people” (Milton Freidman). Best, as in protecting all of us from the true “enemy within”, as in our own personal impulses to tribalism, domination of others, and punitive destruction of differing others/”enemies”.

Marian Tupy and Jon Moynihan offer good commentary below on how Classic Liberalism works best to improve the human condition. We now have two centuries of evidence that illustrates the differing outcomes from Classic Liberalism and collectivist socialism. Some two centuries of evidence that affirms the critical role of freedom in the grand enterprise of improving life, meaning freedom from big government, freedom from high taxation, and most critically freedom from excessive regulations. In a word, freedom from socialism.

I will soon offer more on Mike Benz (Joe Rogan interview) exposing the corruption behind-the-scenes of our societies as state elites manipulate government bureaucracies and control information media (i.e. engage censorship projects) to propagandize citizens. As Jimmy Dore noted, “We are the most propagandized people, and we don’t know it”.

Benz is good on exposing the massive infrastructure of censorship that is used by state elites to maintain their power in the elite commoner/divide of our societies.

This below by Tupy and Moynihan shows how critical it is to re-educate each generation with the principles, laws, and representative institutions of Classic Liberalism, as contrasted with the destructiveness of freedom-denying collectivism/socialism. They explain why societies of free commoners/innovators produce better outcomes than elites controlling commoners through big states, big taxation, and more regulations. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Intro comments before the Christmas message….

The “best” assembled in a new “populist” coalition, Wendell Krossa

A raft of the best of presidential candidates for the 2028 election have been brought together in a new populist coalition around Donald Trump. I would argue that no one, in the entirety of US history, appears better qualified of that bunch, than Vivek Ramaswamy. And hey, I can meddle a bit in your business down south because we are soon to become the 51st state. Yes, I get Trump was just kidding with Trudeau, or “bogarting” as a friend from Washington, DC used to call it. Meaning- “intimidate, bully, scare, browbeat” but in a fun sort of way. Keep doing it Donald. We love it.

I have two criteria to evaluate anyone potentially positioning themself to run for president of a large world economy, two critical requirements that make one suitable to manage an economy, requirements that are so calamitously absent from our PM Justin Trudeau.

Political candidates should preferably (1) have experience successfully running a business, understanding debt and cash flow issues, regulation and taxation issues as they impact the environment in which businesses can flourish, pricing and competition issues, and so on. And of course, how to pick and encourage skilled employees to perform at their best. Not being a “boss from hell”, the dictatorial type that ruins life for colleagues.

Business experience prepares candidates to understand the environment that is required for businesses to flourish. An environment that governments must promote, as Ben Carson outlined so well during his 2016 run. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Another champion for Classic Liberalism has emerged in Britain, Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of British Conservatives. See comment below. She understands the threat to Western liberal democracies from the new authoritarianism that is Woke Progressivism. Also good comment from Marc Morano of Climate Depot with links to Elon Musk’s change of mind on the “climate crisis” crusade to destroy Western societies.

Karnick on Stockman

Mike Benz, in his Joe Rogan interview, touched a bit on the history of the expansion of the “US Empire”. I was reminded of Benz’s comments when I read this below from S. T. Karnick’s latest (Dec. 9, 2024) “Life, Liberty, Property: #86”. What got my attention- If this information below from Stockman is correct, then the world-spanning expansion of the US empire, since the end of WW2, may not have been entirely, as we were told, the proclaimed great battle for freedom against Communist totalitarianism, a noble legacy to be celebrated. It appears that the worldwide expansion of “US influence” across past decades may be exposed now as something that was infected by the base impulse to world domination. Again, see the detail that Benz presented to Rogan.

Once again, the Rogan/Benz discussion…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrJhQpvlkLA&t=2s

Karnick says this, commenting on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s plans to cut government spending significantly. He refers to Former Congressman David Stockman who now posts articles at Substack and specializes in “identifying potential spending cuts and explaining them in detail”: Read the rest of the opening comment here

The previous section is still just below this new comment- “Benz exposes the massive infrastructure pushing the elite/commoner divide in our liberal democracies”, Wendell Krossa

The crusade to establish the elite/commoner divide in our liberal democracies, and the “influencer” ideas behind these crusades.

Also still below this opening section- a summary of the Joe Rogan interview of Mike Benz on the massive infrastructure of the elite censorship complex that is now in a full-frontal battle against populism.

Here is the link to the JRE interview of Benz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrJhQpvlkLA&t=2s

Also new below: Michael Shellenberger’s latest in the battle against the censorship complex, and Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn’s latest “America This Week” on Biden’s pre-emptive pardon project and what that involves.

Now this new section:

Some may think that my repeated arguments about the profound contradictions between Jesus and Paul’s Christ are lacking merit. Check out Brinsmead’s summary of research posted below… “What the scholars are saying”. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The crusade to establish the elite/commoner divide in our liberal democracies, and the “influencer” ideas behind these crusades.

See below a summary of the Joe Rogan interview of Mike Benz on the massive infrastructure of the elite censorship complex that is now in a full-frontal battle against populism.

Here is the link to the JRE interview of Benz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrJhQpvlkLA&t=2s

Most dominant and influential theme in the modern world, Wendell Krossa

“Declinism”- I make the argument below that you cannot understand our world today aside from the research on the 19th Century ideology of Declinism. The ideology of Declinism, outlined by Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline in Western History”, dominates the modern world- “The most dominant and influential theme in the modern world”. And add this- Declinism is an essential element of the psychopathology of apocalyptic that is the most violent and destructive idea in history (Arthur Mendel in “Vision and Violence”). As in life declines toward something worse, toward collapse and apocalyptic ending.

I relate this directly to the dominant influence that Paul’s apocalyptic Christ myth has had, and continues to have, on Western narratives, consciousness, and society.

We see surveys like the YouGov research (“Ten Global Trends”, Tupy and Bailey) that revealed most people across the Earth today believe “the world is becoming worse”. This is in direct contradiction to the research of Julian Simon (Ultimate Resource), and many others, who have amassed evidence that life has been improving across the long-term trajectory and, unless there is contradictory evidence emerging, life will continue to improve in the future due to human creativity, innovation, and compassion.

But why then do so many people continue to believe that life is becoming worse?

There are varied contributing factors to the widespread acceptance of the Declinism psychopathology. Read the rest of the opening comment here

New comment below:

The Swedish system of mixed elements (democratic socialism/social democracy) is not an Eden-like answer to organizing societies. Bad elements in mixed systems undermine the good elements. Did we learn nothing from the merger of Historical Jesus with Paul’s Christ? Look up “oxymoronic”. More on re-establishing tribal dualism as per Marxist collectivism and the inevitable consequence of another bout of the elite/commoner divide in society. And oh, Starmer pushes the destruction of British society with Net Zero zealotry. Imagine, the birthplace of Classic Liberalism being ruined by an apocalyptic death-cult.

See reposting of revised “Review of main site topics” below. Ideas to stir the Christmas pot, known in the vernacular as the “Number 2” pot. Ideas to transform consciousness and change the world for the better. And other new bits below.

Salvaging DEI concerns. Well, some of them, Wendell Krossa

Two of the main principles in DEI- i.e. “inclusion and diversity”- are generally acceptable to most people, depending on exactly what meaning is associated with them and what form of promotion is used to present them. Most of us can agree that inclusion and diversity are good for liberal democracy.

But not the “equity” element in the mix as in coerced equal outcomes that deny performance-based criteria.

And then we ask- Why are contemporary DEI programs too often promoted in our societies with such hatred and bullying? Why, for example, the quick and harsh condemnation by many DEIers of any diversity from dogmatically affirmed “correct speech”? Why the all-too-common follow-up calls of DEIers for censoring, cancelling, even criminalizing those who speak incorrectly or even just question the dogma? Read the rest of the opening comment here