It should be obvious to anyone nowadays that the modern evils known as racism and sexism are being promoted as the deadliest of secular sins as part of the attempt to dismantle Western civilisation and install a new mindset in which nothing is better than anything else so everything is mediocre and therefore more controllable by our overlords, worldly and otherwise. Just like the mad crow disease of present times these secular sins were not built on nothing which gives them a certain viability if not examined too closely, but they have been grossly exaggerated and used as a means to destroy any idea of difference and even make difference itself a bad thing.
Equality is the great dogma on which liberal Western democracies are built. It might have seemed like a step forward at a time when the gap between rich and poor, powerful and weak was as great as it was, and the movement towards less inequality surely did bring certain benefits in the short term. But the flaw that lies at its heart is now being revealed. If equality, and equality alone, is taken as the foundation of a culture then that culture will collapse into the lowest common denominator and it will eventually collapse altogether. Equality is totally contrary to human nature and to enforce it is to force human beings to live against both their natural and their spiritual instincts. It becomes a tool to push the higher down to the level of the lower. This does not mean that the higher should dominate the lower (except spiritually) but liberty and equality are not natural bedfellows despite what the ideals of the Enlightenment may pretend, and it is liberty that is the great spiritual quality as far as human beings are concerned.
Equality is often said to be rooted in Christianity. If it were how strange it is that it is never mentioned in the Bible and was only discovered to be a Christian virtue 1800 years after the time of Christ. Oneness in Christ is a Christian virtue but that is not equality which is a materialistic distortion of it. Equality is actually a property of unformed matter, matter untouched by the creative breath of spirit, which is why you see it most at lower levels of evolution. The more life evolves, the more unequal it becomes because the freer it becomes and yet within that inequality there is also a spiritual oneness. To realise the truth of this apparent contradiction is one of the major goals of the spiritual path. It and it alone explains the mystery of love.
"Equality is actually a property of unformed matter, matter untouched by the creative breath of spirit, which is why you see it most at lower levels of evolution. "
ReplyDeleteThat's it! That's where equality is aiming. Against creation and towards chaos.
That is why Satan grasped onto equality so quickly - it is a perfect rationale for evil. For as long as there exists any being, any-thing created - anything virtuous, beautiful or true - the demand for equality will tend to destroy it.
The fact that equality exists at the lowest of levels leads to the fallacious view that we should get back to it as that was when we were purer and more in harmony with the essence of life. But this is actually the precise opposite of the truth. We may eventually return to the source, i.e God, but it must be with the fully developed fruits of the journey. Otherwise what's the point of the journey, indeed of creation itself?
ReplyDeleteYes, Satan wants to undo creation and return it to darkness. Anything good, beautiful or true has necessarily grown out of the inchoate chaos of primeval equality. He wants to chop all that down and send it back to nothingness.
Thought-provoking post. I pondered this: what did the West get "right" in the evolution of consciousness?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about this formulation: "equality" as a minimum floor which maximizes excellence is good, but raising the floor so that excellence is reduced is bad. Examples: rule of law, science, the university, freedom of religion, free schools, abolition of slavery. Once excellence is devalued by a perverted sense of "fairness," then that unmoored impulse to raise the floor becomes incoherent and ultimately destructive of what is excellent and good.
@William - "The fact that equality exists at the lowest of levels leads to the fallacious view that we should get back to it"
ReplyDeleteThat's a brilliant insight.
I think you now have the basis of another book or extended essay - about equality in its ultimate sense.
Yes, that seems about right Magnus. There was a time when the idea of equality brought improvements for many but now it just means a levelling down.
ReplyDeleteBruce, I always go back to what the Masters told me which was that men are by no means equal on the earth plane (as they called it) but that is no reason to dismiss anybody. This seems to me to encapsulate how to maintain the correct balance between sameness and difference.