If I were the devil what sin would I most try to stimulate? What sin would be most spiritually corrupting for those who succumbed to it, and most damaging for the integrity of any culture in which it took hold amongst a sufficient number of the people?
Resentment is the perfect sin from the demonic point of view because it can be disguised as a virtue, both to the one who holds it and to the society into which it is introduced. One can clearly see how resentment has undermined the Western world and is causing the West to allow itself to be destroyed. It is not only resentment, of course, because there are many factors at play, but this is a prime driver of the spiritually debased condition of our day.
Resentment is behind the push for equality, and equality is the tool used to bring down the West and all it strove for which was excellence. For equality always does bring down more than it raises up as it inevitably reduces to the lowest common denominator the standards and culture of any society in which its pernicious influence takes hold. No egalitarian culture strives for nobility of soul and that is the preeminent spiritual quest for Western man. The very word nobility is meaningless in the egalitarian world, but if I had to pick one word to describe the goal of the spiritual path that would be it.
What is nobility? It is a spiritual condition of dignity, authority, responsibility, sacrifice and love, though love understood in its fiery rather than watery context. Nobility is the sun shining in solitary splendour in the heavens, the light by which everything else sees and to which everything else aspires. It is the fully realised individual soul that is able to express the power and majesty of God. It is Christ on the cross and Christ resurrected. It is that which stands at the top of the hierarchical ladder and the justification for that ladder which, be it noted, has height but also steps whereby to mount. Climbing is harder than falling and to be noble is harder than to resent but the noble soul knows God whereas the resentful soul has completely lost sight of God. It was resentment that caused Satan's fall and he uses it to bring us down if he can find anything anti-noble in us which he can stimulate. Therefore, cultivate the noble in your heart and shun the petty. That way you will find the path to the true God who loves absolutely but is no egalitarian. He is too big for that.
8 comments:
Resentment is probably the preeminent attitude/mentality in all major political and cultural phenomena today.
It is the basis of feminism, anti-racism (racism against Whites), hatred of Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-Putin sentiment and the desire to see Ukraine vanquished and humiliated, the Trans movement, LGBT movement, the strange Leftist alliance with Islamism, certain major forms of socialism etc - and many more.
It is based on a feeling of worthlessness and inferiority, and is the desire to "bring down" someone or something seen as better or more excellent or more worthy. And it is utterly tragic because it is an utterly useless and unfounded feeling - only authentic religion can truly cure it.
Only religion in the sense that "everyone participates in the Whole", and is not a mere isolated atom fighting all other isolated atoms, can truly cure it. Only realizing this world is not ultimate ,and superiority in earthly terms not the aim of life, can cure.
But the modern world with it's materialism makes escape from resentment impossible. Even people who write with brilliant insight on resentment, like Bruce Charlton, cannot escape it - his politics are steeped in it, and resentment clings to him like a leech.
Only authentic religion can let us escape, of the ancient kind that sees us not as truly seperate and isolated beings but as retaining individuality within a larger, cosmic unity.
"Only religion in the sense that "everyone participates in the Whole", and is not a mere isolated atom fighting all other isolated atoms, can truly cure it. Only realizing this world is not ultimate ,and superiority in earthly terms not the aim of life, can cure."
I generally agree, but . . . the insight is somewhat contradictory when set against the insistence that the cure to resentment rests upon a return to some authentic, ancient kind of religion -- Catholicism or Orthodoxy, I assume -- yet utterly disregards the shift in human consciousness that has occurred since then.
It also begs the question of why the ancient religion -- so good at countering resentment, so effective at realizing that the world is not ultimate -- failed so miserably.
First off, I don't see any resentment in Bruce Charlton at all. I've no idea where you get that from.
Next, I would agree with Francis that the way forward is not to go back. That in us which caused us to reject the past is not all wrong. We have taken many wrong turnings but we are not the same people we were and must be true to what we are now not what we were at one time in the past. This will still mean recapturing much we have abandoned and radically changing our orientation in line with what you say Anon, but we meet the past on higher turn of the evolutionary spiral not at an earlier stage of the cycle.
After all, things were never right, just less wrong.
"everyone participates in the Whole"
Much also depends on what the Whole signifies here. If by Whole we mean participating in Creation, then yes. If, however, Whole refers to participating in God's "Being," then those assumptions go nowhere for me.
@Anon What do your Zionist (and pro-NATO) politics have to do with this? The fact that certain people (Leftists) absorbed in resentment still have moral sense to condemn the indefensible, the atrocities of the Israeli government, certainly does not by extension void the position they endorse (and one can still be right for the wrong reasons). To overlook and dismiss this situation (and hopefully you are merely uninformed of what has been going on in Gaza) suggests a coarseness and vulgarity of sympathetic response which is far from the spirit of true religion—which should indeed make people who love you worried about the state of your own soul. In addition to so casually defaming (from the position of anonymity) a man as resentful who, to any discerning consciousness, is anything but —you ought to consider if you yourself weren’t full of resentment (and resenting the resenters is resentment just the same).
"Righteous indignation" colloquially understood as resentment?
What can be said about recognizing one's own resentment? There is no one factor, whether for instance intelligence or moral duty, that allows for individuals to have Aurelian understanding into their own motivations, the motivations of others, and the outpouring of the consequences of either that affect themselves in whatever way.
Contrary to that, life, nature, the Earth and beyond doesn't seem to produce more life with anything low and debased such that humans can be capable of, such as ideas of revenge and resentment. Consider that humanity is certainly immature and immaturity is only a manifestation of the feelings of powerlessness appropriate to ideas like resentment, and which immaturity is forced upon life by those concerned as matured humans, with their ideas of fairness and equality. One who is not concerned about resentment has not equated themselves with anything outside of their nature.
I'd just chip in that the point for Christians is not to become free from the sin of resentment - which is probably impossible for most people, especially given the amount of cultural encouragement.
The point is to recognize and repent resentment in ourselves - and not to indulge, justify or defend it.
The above exchange illustrates one (of several) reasons why I won't print "Anonymous" comments on my blog - in that there is apparently an Anon 03:18 being debated by an Anon 18:42... Or maybe it is the same entity debating with itself?
I do print anonymous comments because I don't get many but I would much rather people identified themselves in some way. It doesn't have to be their real name but something that marks them out from the mass. We do seem to have 2 anons here and it's just confusing.
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