Sunday 25 February 2024

The Battle is Spiritual

 Continuing with the theme of the last post concerning the conquest of the West, the question has to be asked, is the West worth saving? Is it too far gone on the path of truth rejection and God denial? Is it merely suffering the consequences of its apostasy not merely of Christianity but of recognising any kind of spiritual reality at all? The saying "those whom the gods would destroy they first drive mad" (see here) can be reversed and become "those who go mad are destroyed by the gods".  All previous generations would have thought that we have gone mad not only because of our spiritual abandonment but, even more, because of our denial of nature. I won't go into details about that but the same old culprits from anti-racism to mass immigration to feminism to same sex marriage and so on bear witness to what I mean. If you don't see these as denials of nature it's because you have succumbed to the temptation of giving abstract thought and ideology more importance than reality. You prefer theory to simple, naked, honest truth. Congratulations, you are an example of someone who has been educated beyond his intellectual capability and led astray by the glamour of thought. You illustrate the point of why certain spiritual teachers of the past preferred pupils who were illiterate and so could not be distracted by theory. I remember a saying from a Taoist text, possibly Lao Tzu,"Great Tao is very straight but the people love byways". You are one of those who has left the straight path and gone down a byway because it looks more superficially attractive. But it leads to death.

Francis Berger has a very good post about how someone who has not succumbed to the madness should fight it. There are three options. Confront it on its own battlefield through politics, ignore it and tend your own garden or fight it on the spiritual plane which might sound airy-fairy (and, to be honest, can be) but is actually the only way to confront it now because it is so deeply embedded in contemporary life and culture. There may have been a time when it could have been fought politically but that is long past. That does not mean those who feel called to do that should not do it but the fact is they will not win. On the other hand, the attempt to do so will at least invigorate those who see some of the madness and perhaps help them to resist it internally. But, in reality, to fight the enemy on his own terms will just mean that you are drawn into his world. He may give ground in small things only the better to advance his main purpose. You will start to become him.

No, the battle is spiritual and must be fought spiritually. The first thing to do is fight it within yourself. Put yourself right with God by full and complete orientation of your heart towards God and his purpose which requires humility and honesty. The next thing is to proclaim the truth as best you can. Not so much by condemning what is wrong (that too but it is not primary) as by asserting what is right. And then just live the truth, again as best you can. This will have a spiritual force which can't be measured and will probably not have a public and obvious impact but which is nonetheless very real. You will be injecting light into darkness on the mental plane and that light will be picked up and responded to by those in search of light. They won't know it comes from you and you won't know it has gone to them but the effect is real.

Francis's post is written in the context of The Lord of the Rings and points out how confronting Sauron, aka, in modern terms, the System, means you must think and act in ways that he doesn't know. If you fight him with his own weapons, he wins.  He (Francis not Sauron!) says in a comment to the post:

"Thinking like Sauron expands Sauron's influence and power. It creates more Sauron. On the flipside, not thinking like Sauron does not imply never confronting the enemy directly, but for goodness sake, if you're going to do it, be creative, intelligent, and "spiritual" about it". This sums the matter up perfectly and corresponds to Jesus's instruction not to resist evil, a widely misunderstood quote. It means don't fight evil with its own weapons because, just as modern materialistic technology actually alters the minds of its users to become more materialistic, so too do those who live by the sword die by it. The real battlefield is the mind and it's that you must address by showing people how to think and perceive differently.

Sauron was not defeated by armed opposition. He was about to crush his opponents on the battlefield when the ring was destroyed. He was defeated by hidden, secret work which went on without being noticed. It's true that the armies that confronted him did serve as a distraction but that was the best they could do.

10 comments:

JMSmith said...

I just left a comment with Francis suggesting that one strategy of resistance is what the old trade unionists called "work to rule." We cannot always escape evil systems, but we do not have to be efficient workers in them. Outright sabotage will leave you on the street, in jail, or dead, but there is the subtle sabotage of affected clumsiness, stupidity, forgetfulness, tardiness, etc. They call such acts "passive aggressive," and that is exactly true. They are weapons of the weak.

It can be objected that duplicity damages one's own spirit, This is probably true, but complicity probably damages the spirit more. Others point us down the martyr's path, telling us to stand up and get fired, arrested, killed. Perhaps I am making excuses for cowardice, but martyrdom often hurts the martyr's cause. The public is told that the dead martyr was an enemy of the people, and the dead martyr is beyond doing anyone on earth any good.

William Wildblood said...

With regard to martyrdom, I suppose there might come a time for that but, as you say, most would-be martyrs are soon forgotten or else never even known about. I think we serve God best at the present time by simply going about our business with Him in mind and being in but never of the System. We have to be in it because it is all there is and as we are born at this time this time is where we are meant to be. But we don't have to participate in our spirit. Of course, there may be occasions when we do not participate in any way at all. Perhaps that time is not far off but it's not yet.

Francis Berger said...

@ William - "I think we serve God best at the present time by simply going about our business with Him in mind and being in but never of the System. We have to be in it because it is all there is and as we are born at this time this time is where we are meant to be. But we don't have to participate in our spirit."

Yes, that gets to the heart of the matter. There's a big difference between being in the System -- a default position over which one has limited or no choice -- and being "of" the System, a position over which one has much choice.

Being "of" the System may have been acceptable in other times and places, but it isn't now. The sheer fact that the System demands we be "of" it rather than merely "in" it reveals much about the nature of these times.

William Wildblood said...

Agreed. The System is now so corrupt and evil and has absorbed pretty much everything to a greater or lesser extent that you cannot allow yourself to be of it at all. On the other hand, we do have to live and so must accommodate ourselves, outwardly, at least, up to a point. A few decades ago things weren't so bad but they are now though that may help more people to wake up to the truth of things.

Anonymous said...

I am imnobody00. Of course, the post hits the nail on the head and nothing more could be said. About the comments, the problem is that you don't choose to be a martyr: martyrdom chooses you. This happened in my case, as you know, because I never planned to be a martyr.

The days of being quiet in the System are drawing to a close. They will want you to applaud sin and engage in sin and spit on your ancestors. More and more. There will never be enough. Everyone should decide which is his red line. Even if you don't take a stand, they will find reasons to purge you.

For the time being, being in the System and not of the System is still the best option. But you don't know when you are going to become a martyr, so, friends, please be prepared. Thank God, there is life after martyrdom, although being prepared helps you a lot.

William Wildblood said...

"The days of being quiet in the System are drawing to a close. They will want you to applaud sin and engage in sin and spit on your ancestors. " I fear you are right. The nature of evil is that it cannot stand good because that reveals its own depraved nature so it must have good agreeing that actually it, evil, is the real good. We saw signs of this with the peck and that was probably just a precursor.

Kaniko Chin said...

I have a completely different assumption: a fake white hero ascends the Western throne, removes/restricts, the most promoted of "conservative alt-media, evil tendencies (like trans, antiwhite, Islamization), and pushes everything else (which is basic of the Plan), pure transhumanism for example. The right masses receive it with reverence.

William Wildblood said...

That is entirely possible. It's the old problem-solution (which is worse than the initial problem) scenario.

Anonymous said...

Then it falls to each of us to hear and follow the guidance that is ours and ours alone, each individual doing our part in our place as we recieve it. Whether before the walls of Minas Tirith with a sword and banner in hand, or on the slopes of Mount Doom hidden by grace.

- Cael

William Wildblood said...

Yes, that is all we can do or are expected to do. Be true to God and to ourselves.