Saturday, 27 January 2018

Argument

It is clear we live in a world that has decided it wants to believe certain things and will find the evidence to "prove" those things while ignoring evidence that contradicts them. Scientific materialism is an obvious example, but the whole politically correct form of modern leftism is another more recent instance. Official propaganda supports it, as does practically the entirety of the media in one way or another, and statistics will always be found to confirm it.

So it is really useless to engage in argument at that level. At the same time, care must be taken that one doesn't fall into the opposite extreme and simply state prejudices as a reaction against official indoctrination. Always check your thoughts against scripture, nature, intuition and common sense. Don't react against lies just to be contrary, but be sure you are aligned with truth. What you put forward to counter falsehood must be rooted in and grow out of the awareness of truth and goodness. But these are spiritual things which are not proved or disproved by argument because they exist at a level of being beyond the rational. This does not mean they are irrational. Far from it. They are eminently rational, but they can only be known super-rationally and by the intuition.

The Masters told me that the mind can argue for or against any position but truth can only be known. This means that argument and debate are irrelevant for the spiritual person. I mean they are irrelevant unless the one with whom you argue or debate is open to the truth and wishes to deepen his or her understanding. But so often people are not. They only want to push their angle. They are not interested in learning something new. 

I have found this to be especially true for those on the Left. Their aim is not to understand but to impose their way and score an intellectual victory. I sincerely doubt their honesty. I don't mean they are consciously dishonest but they are dominated by an ideology, and partisans of ideologies are slaves to those ideologies and see nothing outside them or, if they do, they see it as threatening and it must be destroyed. There is no point arguing with such people. You must simply affirm the truth, calmly, without rancour and keeping emotion at bay as far as possible. Not easy I know from my own experience. Sometimes the intellectual dishonesty of those brainwashed by the present day distortions of reality is only explicable in terms of a kind of possession. But once you have let emotion in your opponent knows he has scored a victory, even if what you are saying is the truth.

The spiritually oriented person is the enemy of the world, especially nowadays. And the more serious about real spirituality that person is, the more the world is his enemy.  This must be so because real spirituality points to the falseness of this world and everything in it that is not turned towards God. But if you are such a person, particularly if you are young and full of enthusiasm (which is good), then know that it is pointless to preach to those who don't want to hear. You are entitled to make known your understanding, you should do so, but don't allow yourself to be drawn into argument except with those who you feel are genuinely searching for the truth.

4 comments:

  1. Dear William, I would like to write you a personal letter. Do you have an e-mail address for such purposes?

    I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

    / Eric

    ReplyDelete
  2. No inconvenience, Eric. My email address is william.wildblood@gmail.com.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Dispute not with a man of railing speech, heap no wood on his fire"
    Sirach 8:3

    ReplyDelete
  4. I didn't know that quote but it's a good one and true.

    ReplyDelete