In England since yesterday it has become what they call mandatory to wear a face mask every time you go into a shop. I hate the idea of this and don't much like the physical reality of it either. There appears to be no solid evidence that these do any good and people have been shopping without masks for the last few months without there being any resultant spike in cases of Covid 19 that can be traced to this. Why bring this ruling in now when cases are falling? If I mention this to anyone I know I am told I am acting like a conspiracy theorist. I don't have a wide circle of acquaintances but every single person I have spoken to on the subject of my reservations about masks, mentioning such things as personal liberty and coercion by government, says I am being ridiculous and should just do what everyone else is doing. To do otherwise is selfish. Of course, this is the sneaky card played by the powers that be. You are protecting others by your actions so not to wear a mask is the sign of a bad person. You are being shamed into compliance.
Why write about this on what is supposed to be a blog about spiritual matters? Because this is a spiritual matter. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like but it seems that we are gradually being forced to give up more and more of our freedoms, freedoms that we in the West have taken for granted for a long time. We are doing it because of fear and for our own perceived good but how else did you think this would be brought about? Clearly, in our modern world it would need be done in an underhand manner, making it seem we are getting a good deal. What we do voluntarily, we don't resist. I don't believe there is some worldly cabal engaged in a secret power grab but I do believe there is a supernatural plot (let's call it what it is without fear of seeming absurd) that has been busily engaged for at least a century to bring about our separation from God and our spiritual enslavement. The operation has been ramped up since the turn of the millennium and has moved into an even higher gear this year.
What, then, do we do about masks? I went into a small local supermarket yesterday without a mask to buy a pot of yoghurt. Just one thing. I was testing the waters to see what would happen. Nothing did but I felt bad for the staff. All the other shoppers were wearing masks and I felt I was putting the supermarket employees in an uncomfortable position to no real purpose except for my own self-satisfaction. Why should they have to confront non-cooperators? As I was going out I apologised to the security person who actually wasn't wearing a mask herself though she had one in her hands. I said I didn't want to cause anyone any embarrassment but I didn't want to wear a mask. She said she didn't mind. She couldn't force anyone to do anything they didn't want to do. She herself got claustrophobic wearing the thing. She was perfectly friendly.
I've thought about this. Part of me thinks that we should resist what is obviously a totalitarian ruling, unacceptable in a democracy. People mention seat belts in cars to me but I don't think it's the same thing at all. There is a very strong unavoidable symbolism about being made to wear a mask. You and everyone else are being dehumanised, rendered faceless and gagged. This is not just imaginary. The symbol in this case actually becomes the reality. Once you have submitted to it, a corner has been turned.
On the other hand, Jesus said that we should render under Caesar what is Caesar's which means obey the law of the particular society in which we find ourselves. However, this brings up the interesting question of what actually is Caesar's. Your face?
We may be forced to wear masks if we want to buy food which we obviously have to do. But those who do not wish to give up their spiritual freedom must resist this in their hearts. The Masters once told me that sometimes it is the will and not the action that counts. This may be one of those times.
William,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm a scientist, my primary objection to VirusRegime has always been spiritual. The science is spurious and I'm sure Dr. Charlton could get into it if you asked. But in a spiritual point of view, the universal mask order renders the whole of mankind unclean and to be shunned, unless approached in the only means acceptable by the Establishment (Internet and social media which, like the palantir, can be manipulated for Their purposes). Questioning the Narrative is met with emotionally charged resistance and even wishes of grave physical harm ("you'll be sorry once the shove a ventilator in you!!!")
The zombie apocalypse is real, and it's here. Note that the voodoo zombie is not a reanimated corpse, but a slave created by dark magic. All the Virus shibboleths ("Stay safe," "stay at home," "social distancing" "wear a mask" "protect me") are incantations and the omnipresent images of viral particles and line graphs are sigils. The best protection of course is to avoid media or at least don't consume it passively. That is difficult because even the traditional media like signage and billboards perpetuate this VirusReligion.
Thanks for commenting, Ingemar. Yes, the issue is spiritual but because most people don't recognise the spiritual, even many religious people, this is ignored or dismissed as superstitious nonsense. People simply don't realise how their freedom, and not just outer but, worse, inner freedom, is being taken away from them.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Three points:
ReplyDelete1) If you take the infernal logic (fake-morality) of the mask mandate seriously, then mask are permanent (until you can take a certain Mark showing vaccine compliance). This is never stated, but implied.
2) I am most concerned about our children in this dystopian future (ex: playing in invisible cages, or [un]social distancing). You and others have thoughtfully written about these problems. I see the result as carving off a small sliver of sane people from the frightened mass of humanity who fears (& respects) Men over God. And, this must lead to a dangerous in-group vs out-group dynamic.
3) The tension between the commands of Caesar and God. I think you and Dr. Charlton have persuasively argued that the best way to interpret this boundary of authority is through personal spiritual insight guided by the Holy Spirit. It's odd that so few churches provide context of this issue (ex: both Scriptural and historical) rather than merely puppeting the "health" authorities.
Great post. One note on this "not being acceptable in a democracy" is that democracy is mob rule, and that which controls the mob (via the retarding msm) rules. A fine quote from Tytler:
ReplyDeleteA democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.
"[T]here is a supernatural plot (let's call it what it is without fear of seeming absurd) that has been busily engaged for at least a century to bring about our separation from God and our spiritual enslavement. The operation has been ramped up since the turn of the millennium and has moved into an even higher gear this year."
ReplyDeleteThis ties to the latest comment on Dr. Charlton's most recent, from Bruce himself: "My feeling is that when the Empire became the BIP, maybe 1917 USSR... well, this should not have happened. I think the ideal time for the blip was about 100 years before 1917 in Britain and Germany and at various later times in the rest of the West. The 20th century was already too late. Things would thenceforth be very difficult. By going so far down the path of sinful rejection, the BIP was made possible, its tendency towards self perpetuation is only possible when many people are far down the path, habitually and ideologically turned away from God, regarding the world as dead..."
Both of these comments are true. When we look "at least a century" back at this subversion to separate man from God and enslave him, we must look quite far back (on the Western scale, not that of a longer-lived civilisation such as Egypt). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire - as we know, the Eastern Empire persisted another millennium then found a successor of sorts in Russia - it took Christendom centuries to recover. Although the Empire in its Fourth Century Christian manifestation was imperfect, it was a strong home for Christianity and springboard for evangelisation. That Empire served a holy purpose in its fragmented way, atoning for the persecutions of earlier centuries. Its breakup was a civilisational catastrophe.
The West slowly recovered and grew, in large measure thanks to the Church, with at least the idea of a Christian Imperial order restored through Charlemagne and then the Holy Roman Empire. More in the breach than the observance, perhaps, but still a framework and grounding for Christendom. That Christian civilisation - still, we confess, imperfect - reached its peak around the Twelfth Century. Thereafter nascent scepticism, materialism and abuse of rationalism began to gnaw at the foundations. The Renaissance and its near-neighbour, the Protestant revolt culminating in the Thirty Years War, were the eruptions that ended the mediaeval order of Christendom, even if the forms remained at least in the Catholic, and to some degree, Anglican confessions. The material achievements were outweighed by the spiritual damage.
Despite (because of?) material progress, spiritual sundering continued. The first great peak of materialism ascendant was the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars - Bruce's ideal time for the blip. Those were our first deafening warning - coinciding, curiously, with Francis II's writing finis to the HRE. We didn't listen.
The process of separation from God and spiritual enslavement has proceeded unhindered since. The next, even more deafening, warning that we ignored (well, St. Pius X tried to warn us, but we were distracted in August 1914) was the Great War and the Bolshevik Revolution - coinciding, not coincidentally, with the abdication and murder of the last plausible heir to the mission of Byzantium, Nicholas II. We didn't hear.
As Bruce notes, we've been fully spiritually unmoored since 1917. We meaning the tattered heir of our civilisation that we live in; individual men need not accede to the Black Iron Prison. But we need to be awake enough to see what it is.
I'm seeing it more clearly in recent years, thanks in good measure to Bruce, you, and other writers in this circle. And that despite having returned to Christianity more than 30 years ago. I should have known all along.
If there is a road out of this, might Francis Berger's Hungary have something to teach us?
Regarding your first point, Magnus. Yes, exactly. It's the old slippery slope. Today masks in shops, tomorrow what?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your second point too. I have never signed a petition in my life but yesterday day I signed one that was against the suggestion that children in the UK should wear masks when they (finally) go back to school in September. The idea is horrifying especially for a disease that has near negligible effect on children. That adults should even think to betray children in such a way speaks volumes about our current state.
Point 3. Churches should be speaking out but they are either silent or complicit - as far as the leadership is concerned anyway. I'm sure there are many individuals within the churches who see what is going on. We are now having to fall back on inner guidance but I do believe that is part of the test of the present day.
Excellent comment Jana. It reminds me of the saying that hard times make strong people who make easy times which makes weak people who make hard times. It doesn't have to be like that though and certainly not on an individual level.
Thanks for your interesting comment, Howard. There has been a constant battle between the spiritual and the material when ideally the two should work together though under the overall direction of the spiritual. It's only relatively recently that the material has gained complete dominance to such ill effect.
ReplyDeleteHello William,
ReplyDeleteWhen I pursue the theme of death, my mind does incline in favor of wearing the mask. Given this, it is possible that wearing the mask is necessary - spiritually at the very least.
If one has to wear the mask, it is necessary to give the benefit of faith - for the sake of non arising of depression and vexation.
Without the benefit of faith - depression & vexation is sure to arise.
> On the other hand, Jesus said that we should render under Caesar what is Caesar's which means > obey the law of the particular society in which we find ourselves. However, this brings up the > interesting question of what actually is Caesar's. Your face?
Yes, my face is Caesar's. If he says wearing a mask is good for him and his people, I believe him.
BSRK, everyone has to make their own mind up on this. For me it's a question of priorities, material or spiritual. If the fact of mask-wearing was conclusively proved to be helpful and if the virus really was as deadly as was originally believed then I agree there would be justification for masks. But neither of those are true, and to me it all seems part of a much broader agenda of control and dominance, and reducing people to a dehumanised state of fear and obedience.
ReplyDeleteDo you really believe Caesar? I have to say that in the modern world I don't.
But again I'm not saying people shouldn't wear these things. I expect I will myself at some stage but it will be very reluctantly and I will try to avoid it as much as possible because I believe there is an agenda that goes way beyond simple protection. Not necessarily on the part of governments but on the part of those demonic forces manipulating world events at the moment. I say this as a sober truth.
I find myself in complete agreement with your position on this William, and especially with regard to young children, of which I have two and would protect them up to and including death if that is ever required. It's a tricky one.. I reluctantly wore a mask yesterday to go and buy food whilst inwardly despising having to do so. Clearly it is nonsense to suddenly compel with threat of fines to wear these things now in the face of what is clearly not the plague or anything nearly bad enough to justify the move and especially in the face of falling (although publicly proven to be overblown fake figures for impact). Of course, as for you, most people I know including friends and close family, treat me with the same disdain you describe when I challenge the basis for this recent instalment in the pandemic response and other more fundamental issues wrt to the whole thing besides. The voice of dissent is not welcome. So what do you do? I can go down in a blaze of glory and decry it publicly as clearly evil in action and flat out refuse to submit to it? Where would that get me? Clearly I stand to lose quite a lot by doing that and it would adversely impact on my loved ones. Of course I pose these questions rhetorically. In one respect I am increasingly imaging something of a similar sort might have happened to the average wartime era until the Nazis insinuated themselves as totally in control of all aspects of life. Did your average sensible decent German just go along with it until the became so groseque but iron-clad in its grip over the conformity of the whole nation?
ReplyDeleteFor me the line is still with issues like kneeling to show obedience to a political cause or forcing my children to wear masks in primary school. If and when demands for that escalate or similar (we will all personally know when a darker line is crossed I think) then I regard it as my duty to God to stand against this despite possibly grave consequences. Non-violently of course,but the fundamental freedom to act on one's conscience should not be violated and there is a point where enough is enough and a strong stand in the face of these evils must be made and declared to the world. It seems an inescapable Cristian duty if Caesar begins to take more than what is Caesars and actually God's.
David
I'm completely with you on what you write there, David. Masks in shops or on trains is relatively innocuous and I think one should probably comply though with full understanding of the underlying intent, supernatural intent I mean. But this will probably be taken further and there may well come a time when people have to take a real stand. It's not yet though.
ReplyDelete@ William - Good post, I find the mask wearing to be the most pernicious of all the new rules. Doubtless there will be rules and impositions to come that will far exceed even this one.
ReplyDeletePeople mention seat belts in cars to me but I don't think it's the same thing at all.
This is the most infuriating analogy isn't it! It also smuggles in the notion of permanence as per the seat belt rule. Behind it lies the age old demonic glee in perpetual torment.
@BSRK
If he says wearing a mask is good for him and his people, I believe him.
I must say I was astonished to read this statement. Unless I have misunderstood the context, surely this attitude leaves you open to all kinds of misdirection. And even if you have a certain equanimity towards your own fate - what of other people who might look to you as a role model?
What if an evil regime took power? Does Buddhism even accept that there is such a thing?
Sorry if I have misunderstood. I don't really know what you mean by your face is Caesar's so that might lie at the root of my misunderstanding.
Remember Plato!
ReplyDeleteAs surely as the sun rises and sets so does Democracy lead to Tyranny.
Moonsphere, a very good point about the permanence of seat belts that I hadn't thought of. As for BSRK's comment, that puzzled me too. I wonder if it's because he's not familiar with the reference? Maybe he can enlighten us because as it stands it's odd to say the least.
ReplyDeleteYes, Faculty X, that looks to be exactly the way it's going. Jana's comment above is pertinent in that regard too.
Just a small point about seat belts and masks. Seat belts have been rigourosly tested and proven to save lives. The same cannot be said about masks, although I know your point goes way beyond this kind of thing. But it might be a useful factoid to point out to those using this argument.
ReplyDeleteAnd he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.
ReplyDeleteRevelation 13:16-18 (Douay-Rheims version)
@Howard. That's a superb overview. It really is. It seems invidious of me to pick out one comment in such an illuminating post and thread, but yes - very much so - you've captured everything in a nutshell there. I would also add that the end of the First World War also saw the abdication of the last Austro-Hingarian Emperor (Blessed Charles, I think?), who had a claim to be the last representative and successor of the Western Roman Empire and The Holy Roman Empire. So that's a double loss occurring nearly exactly at the same time - the deposition of the Tsar in the East and the abdication of the final Emperor in the West. Valentin Tomberg writes perceptively on all this in 'The Emperor' chapter of his seminal 'Meditations on the Tarot.' The loss of the Emperor, he says, 'is a wound which speaks.' We feel it acutely. I've written about if myself elsewhere - this removal of the 'Katehon' referred to by St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians - the Restrainer who holds back the tide of evil. But when the Restrainer is removed, as he definitively was after the end of WWI, what happens then? Degradation and decline, as we see all around us, and the setting of the stage for that ape if Christ who Paul calls 'the man of lawlessness', aka The Antichrist to make his appearance and stake his claim. His advent (if we can call it that) can't be far off now, one feels.
ReplyDeleteI'd also add, just tying things in with your last post, 'Remember the Signs', that where we are at the moment - spiritually, socially, politically, etc - reminds me very much of that episode in That Hideous Strength where Ransom sends Denniston, Dimble and Jane out unti the wild and windy night to find the reborn Merlin. There's a real atmosphere of tension and seriousness, Ransom says a prayer, gives them a blessing, tells them to always have the name of Maleldil upon their lips. They all know this could be the last time they meet. The stakes are high and the odds seem stacked against them. That's exactly where we are at the moment, I think.
ReplyDeleteGreat post supported by an excellent comment thread.
ReplyDeleteThe appearance of face-masking in the West made me think about how Orwell's definition of totalitarianism would now need to be updated 'to a boot stomping on a MASKED human face forever.' The original image was hideous enough, but the updated version is even more horrific in my mind.
Another good point I hadn't thought of, Astraea. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI hadn't connected this with Revelation yet either, S.K. But that extract is very pertinent especially with regard to buying and selling. Muzzles are normally only put on beasts so there's a connection there too.
John and Francis, excellent comments both. Yes I really do feel the net is tightening.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI got some questions, so I will try to answer them the best I am able.
There are two qualities that protect goodness & guard against evil in this world - shame & dread. And one can cultivate shame & dread by mindfulness of death.
When I cultivate mindfulness of death: my mind - under the influence of shame & dread - does incline towards wearing a mask.
Shame & dread does not have to side with the government - but in this case, it did side with the government.
Furthermore, It's possible to question "is compliance with the government in this regard appropriate or inappropriate?" - The answer was appropriate (under the sway of shame and dread)
Now there is this question: "is it appropriate to make masks mandatory?" - I don't have the prerequisite knowledge & vision to answer this question.
In the absence of knowledge & vision faith (and certain other strengths) is necessary. If the government says "wear a mask - it is good for you & others & me" - I will take it on faith, until knowledge & vision.
Now, if the government said "I will not mandate masks - It is for the best if people decide for themselves or seek doctor opinion", I would have taken that on faith too, pending knowledge & vision.
ReplyDeleteWe have a substantial disagreement here BSRK. It may be we are coming at the subject from different perspectives but shame and dread are surely aspects of fear so cannot be considered spiritual qualities when it comes to discerning good and evil. Is it fear of death you are talking about? I understand that but a religious person should still try not to be motivated too much by it.
ReplyDeleteMany people feel that our fear of death is causing us to react in ways that will undermine our spiritual integrity. It's clear that most governments don't really know what they are doing. It's possible that they are puppets just as much as the rest of us but that is all the more reason for people to be free to make up their own minds.
But I am not condemning anyone who wears a mask. I understand the reasons why one might do so. My complaint is to do with governments forcing everyone to wear masks when the scientific evidence is lacking that it is effective.
@ William
ReplyDeleteI think that we have here a good example of the difference between the national consciousness of the East vs that of the West.
In Valentin Tomberg's "Russian Spirituality and other Essays", he examines this difference and makes the point that the populations of Western countries are generally decent people - most are not burglars or violent offenders. And yet Western history shows an endless list of atrocities. From this we come to understand that the State is morally inferior to the Individual. The State is not super-human rather it is sub-human.
In BSRK we have the Eastern view - (perhaps Far Eastern) in which, as Tomberg puts it, "the State is a living being that embraces the individual not only dynamically but morally. It is not only a power, but also has spiritual and moral greatness. From the moral perspective, it stands above the individual."
And so, we cannot look to the East for help and understanding in the Age of Evil that the world now faces. To survive, the West must recall the truth that the State is absolutely inferior to the Individual and must be viewed with the utmost suspicion.
The human face expresses the uniqueness of an individual and a manifestation of their personality. It seems to me that a mask strikes at this at a fundamental level separating people from one another. In the depiction of Christ in religious art, his face is arguably the most important feature. It shows he is human and knowable as such. Not remote and abstract. We can enter into a friendship with him. Likewise in western art the face is major theme, and expresses the value of the individual. To see the face is an important part of knowing an individual. Seen in these terms, face masks as a everyday part of life seems a denial of the human spirit.
ReplyDelete"render [unto] Caesar what is Caesar's which means obey the law of the particular society in which we find ourselves"
ReplyDeleteI am dismayed at the weight which people put on this specific verse - as well as the interpretation. In the first place, we ought not to read scriptrue a verse or paragraph at a time; but should interpret the small sections in light of the larger, and oft-repeated teachings. Further, we must test both validity and understanding against our personal discernment and in 'consultation' with the Holy Ghost.
But even if we braodly accept the validity of this section of Matthew, it does not bear this weight of being interpreted as a universal staement of human behaviour. IN comes in the midst of the authorities trying to entrap Jesus with webs of words; and Jesus was speaking primarily to escape these traps. He was not making statements of behaviour meant to apply to all men in all circumstances.
The general behaviour of Jesus, on multiple occasions, was to break the laws - especially observance of the Sabbath.
In sum, I don't think the statement is generally applicable, and this particular interpretation is a clear mistake (or else a manipulation by church leaders of the past).
Further, I would emphasise that lying is regarded in the New Testament as characteristic of the devil, and when the authorities (spiritual or secular) are obviously lying, to believe such habitual liars (and to defend their lies) is morally equivalent to joining the devil's side in the spiritual war.
Yes, exactly Hamish. We really can't ignore the deep significance of being made to hide your face if you want to buy the basic necessities of life.
ReplyDeleteI take your point, Bruce. It does all depend on what Caesar is asking us to do. Sometimes, as now, he oversteps his authority.
Sometimes it's hard to believe what is happening because of the sheer unreality of this corona theater. It's just a social act of humanity posing towards itself. A humanity that tries to love and look after itself without God. Hopelessly in love with its own image. In other words, a supernaturally initiated ritual of collective submission to the dark powers, ironizing reality itself. We have reached the stage where people are no longer able to perceive the immediate. It's more "convenient" to keep the script going. They have systematically torn down all our spiritual defenses. People are no longer illumined and enchanted by the world through sense experience, which is completely superseded by the artificial, rational superstructure. Even nature is made into a distant idol by the same activists claiming to protect it. In this symbolically impoverished domain of 'mere rationality', safety measures like masks and social distancing is perfectly rational. But what is "right" is not always synonymous with what is appropriate. It is only when you weigh it against common sense morality that the insanity becomes apparent with its 'safeguarding' yet dehumanizing pseudo-morality of egalitarianism. Yet the irony is lost on these people. The same people who eagerly read George Orwell and tell us to trust the experts. I once heard that suicide rates are highest among doctors. That first surprised me, but then I realized that it must be spiritually exhausting to constantly deal with the body as a 'stupid' machine, and sickness as an endless enemy of natural injustice without any spiritual causes or cures. Every expert is a specialist, but no one seems to have the overview. The modern world has become a screenplay; a parody of itself. The plot of operation Covid-19 is quite clear: an increasing integration and usurpation of the natural world with virtual reality, so that we become two-times removed from God.
ReplyDeleteExcellent comment. Thanks Eric
ReplyDelete@Hamish
ReplyDelete"In the depiction of Christ in religious art, his face is arguably the most important feature. It shows he is human and knowable as such. Not remote and abstract."
In my local Catholic Church, there hangs an abstract grey crucifix on the wall, which doesn't depict any clear outlines of Jesus, whose contours blend in with the cross. I found it dismaying. It was a symbol for the victory of anonymous secularism right in front of me. I'm not sure the priests see it the same way. I was handed an article about the crucifix in which the headline read: "No one has ever seen God". It stroke me as a very odd statement coming from a Christian perspective, regarding a cross of Christ.
"Likewise in western art the face is major theme, and expresses the value of the individual. To see the face is an important part of knowing an individual. Seen in these terms, face masks as a everyday part of life seems a denial of the human spirit."
Yes, it is the denial of the human form and the centrality of the human face in the universe getting to know itself through us. Some of the more cynical environmentalists might inform you that the planet would fare better off without humans. I would say it would lose its most qualitative link to give life any meaning. Islamic and Asiatic art does not seem as keen representing the human face, leaning towards the abstract. The Chinese symbol yin-yang shows the hide-and-seek play between apparent opposites that seem to characterize existence. This spirit of deception seems to be a common thread that peculiarly links Western secularism with Islam and Eastern spirituality.
Therefore, the face of Christ is the most important of principles. Representing the infinite absolute becoming concretized in the finite particular.
Wiliam,
ReplyDeleteShame is:
1) shame with regard to evil inauspicious qualities one has & is not abandoning
2) shame with regard to good auspicious qualities one has & is not maintaining
Dread is:
1) dread with regard to evil inauspicious qualities one does not have & not guarding against
2) dread with regard to good auspicious qualities one does not have & not developing
Shame is the opposite of shamelessness. dread is the opposite of .. there is no equivalent well-known word that is in english language - but someone coined the word tolerification (http://mindingourway.com/see-the-dark-world/) for it.
I am not the only one who speaks in praise of shame & dread. The Buddha did, and I recall some medieval christian monk also did in his writings (though I don't remember who).
Shame and dread follow after good auspicious qualities. Shamelessness & tolerification follow evil inauspicious qualities.
Fear is to be indeed overcome, and faith is the tool one uses to overcome fear. That being so, shame & dread are distinct from fear.
Mindfulness of death is typically cultivated as thus - "At any moment I might die, and this might be disadvantageous for me. Therefore, I should develop good qualities & abandon bad qualities"
The objective is to generate ardency, shame & dread.
I see what you mean. A Christian might call this consciousness of sin which is certainly a good thing. I'm not sure where it comes in with regard to mask-wearing though.
ReplyDeleteCaesar has sold his soul to Satan, and he will suffer like Judas did, and all his subjects also. I wonder why the powers and principalities did it, though. If you've already got all the power and pleasure in the world, why bother with making deals with the devil? Existential boredom? Ennui? Hedonistic burnout? Torturing other human beings is pathetic behavior, deeply pathetic. There's a whole solar system out there waiting for our dominion, but instead the powers are preoccupied with petty tortures. It's totally bizarre. It doesn't have to be this way.
ReplyDelete@Epimetheus. The power (to oppress and control) that TPTB have is from the devil in the first place. The pact wasn't signed after this power was amassed but as a precondition to gaining it.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is therefore why would you do this in the first place?
I agree with Bruce's most recent insight over at his blog that we shouldn't waste much precious attention a and time on these sort of matters. However, summarizing, I suspect a mixture of a "bad constitution" and successful blinding by the adversary (leveraging this bad constitution).
On masks -
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rcQSnUCzjfc
It's easy to mock what that chap is saying and most people will probably think he's being ridiculous and over-reacting but, as far as I am concerned, what he says in that clip is the plain truth. Good for him.
ReplyDeleteAllow odd people to be the first to tell the world the truth and then nobody will believe the truth.
DeleteAs for the 'render unto Caesar' argument - was that not rather that Jesus was rejecting the worldliness & temporal power had any part in the Kingdom, and that Caesar's face on the coin was the opposite of the Kingdom, and 'rendering' it back to him was a rejection of the idolatry inherent in it ? Not necessarily a call to overthrow the temporal government but a wry exposure of its impotence, alongside an unmasking of the base trickery which the interrogation was attempting to provoke ?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the seatbelt analogy, I heard someone make the excellent point that if you drive a car at all you have a chance of knocking someone down. Does that mean you won't drive a car? This same anti-mask person also countered when asked if he would sign a waiver saying he wouldn't use the NHS if he got Covid 19 that this was an over the top attempt to shame people into compliance which it is. I would add that you may as well ask fat people or people who smoke or eat unhealthy diets or drink alcohol or don't exercise or any number of people whose whole way of life isn't impeccable to sign such a form.
ReplyDeleteBut the main point is that there is no evidence that mask-wearing helps. If there were conclusive irrefutable evidence that might change things though one would still question why such an edict was brought in at this late stage when infections may still be occurring (picked up by increased testing?) but the death rate is going down.