Leftism and Reason

I've done a little update to the last post here.

The Overturning of the Natural Order

Is the West, and by extension the whole world, under spiritual assault?

A polemical piece on this subject on Albion Awakening.

The Incoherence of Modernity

Today's world does not believe in any underlying structure to reality and thinks it can make what it calls reality according to how it (currently and for the time being) thinks it ought to be. But in that case if you believe in what is acceptable according to modern lights and I am a racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobe, how can you say that I am wrong? How can one set of morals be any better than the other? Why should one have morals at all other than for purely utilitarian reasons? According to what yardstick are you saying you are right and I am wrong?  Any yardstick by which sets of morals are judged must be something that stands above and beyond them. Otherwise everything is equally valid or equally invalid, and even if you say that that is good which offers the greatest happiness and the least suffering to society as a whole I could say, why?  Why should that even matter? It might be good in a purely functional sense but that doesn't make it objectively better and, even if it did, by whose criteria, yours or mine?

If there is no underlying structure to reality then there is no truth. Nothing is better or worse. Nothing is right or wrong. Everything is what you want it to be. Life is basically a horror film in which we cover up the yawning abyss of nothingness by self-deception and self-distraction. The most reasonable attitude is that of the criminal who just seeks to exploit as many people as possible for his own benefit, up to and including murder, rape and anything else he feels like doing. This is the only logical conclusion, not that logic means anything either. The world is a nightmare from which we can never wake up. The blackness of unconsciousness is the only release. This is the absurdity of the modern world.

Luckily it is a completely false view of the world. There is an underlying truth, there is a reality to reality. But then that means we have to conform ourselves to it. We cannot just behave in a way that might seem to benefit us or be pleasing to us or even be regarded as fair according to the standards of the world. There is right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and bad and we must seek the one and avoid the other. Of course, we always know this on some level and even in our deluded state we try to fabricate something along those lines even though, if we really examined our thoughts about this, we would find they just didn't add up and were completely contradictory.  We don't believe in an absolute but try to 'absolutise' the relative. 

Life only makes sense if there is a spiritual reality behind it. Without that it is completely meaningless. Once you see this things start falling into place but it also puts you in a difficult position with regard to the world for you now judge by a different set of rules and right and wrong are not what they were, indeed are sometimes almost the opposite of what they were for they are based on something beyond the outward appearance of things. They are based on an unchanging spiritual reality not fashionable ideology and that puts everything in an entirely different perspective. It is only spirituality that can give coherence to the world. It is the only foundation on which any moral system can stand.

The Intolerance of the Politically Correct

It's been said a hundred times but the politically correct really are unable to extend the same tolerance they demand from others to those who have breached their standards. They position themselves as guardians of morality but are really only concerned with the letter of the law. Its spirit passes them right by. Is this because that fundamentally they are self righteous Pharisees whose real pleasure is in signposting their virtue by condemning others? Quite obviously, yes it is.

A foolish politician has used a phrase which should have been allowed to fade into obscurity long ago. But when she was growing up it was not uncommon as I can attest, being of a similar age to her. These things might slip out in an unguarded moment but generally they don't signify much more than a person's age and background. When will we realise that whether a person appears racist or sexist or anti-racist or anti-sexist is largely immaterial? These are intellectual positions or habits, cultural or generational. What really matters is the state of a person's heart and how much true loving kindness they possess. I know people who tick all the politically correct boxes but whose hearts are dead. I have known others who would have said worse things than this politician did but who had true love for all, regardless of race or whatever. 

Think twice before you cast stones. Don't judge by appearances. Judge by the heart.

How should a spiritual person behave in this world?

Aaron, an occasional commenter on this blog, asked a question in response to the post on the persecution of the innocents. As it's both an interesting question and one that requires quite a long answer I thought I might include it here in the form of a new post.

Basically the question is this. How should a spiritual person behave in the context of the unthinking opposition of this world? When the world regards serious and dedicated spirituality as foolish at best and sometimes a lot more than that how can we, who reject the world's goals and values, deal with that without getting crushed? I give some extracts from Aaron's remarks here, but they are at the end of the earlier post if you wish to read them in full.

He asks: "I am tentatively testing the idea that spiritual people must wear a disguise in the modern world - that failing to do so simply causes too much strife. When one is in a "enemy territory, one would be foolish not to wear a disguise!

Is it really helpful to me spiritually to generate enormous amounts of strife in my personal life? How can I practice serenity, detachment? Does this really help those who cling to material things to generate rage in them and a desire to attack me, or does this just make them even more attached to physical things, and more immoral?

The thing is to use disguise as and when necessary - if the temper of the times change, then one can be more open, but in certain periods higher levels of disguise are called for.

This is a serious spiritual problem that has never been resolved  - if you reject the World the world will reject you to the point where your very survival is imperilled. 

In the past if you "gave up the world", you were seen as no longer a threat to Power, and indeed Power was glad if people surrendered the earth to them. It was detente.

Today, somehow, if you give up the world, you appear as a threat to those who cling to it. Power needs you to cling to the world like they do, both politically and in personal life."

The first thing that occurs to me when I consider this matter of disguise is Jesus’ instruction to "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven".  Here we are plainly told not to hide our light under a bushel (that's a bowl in case you were wondering), but to let it shine. So Jesus told us to manifest our faith and proclaim it. However he also told us elsewhere, as you point out, not to cast pearls before swine, and, even more pertinently perhaps to the case in point, to be as wise as serpents which means judge each situation prudently and not rush into things without thought as to possible consequences.

So the advice in the Gospels could be said to be somewhat contradictory. It's not really because these words apply to slightly different situations but at first sight it might appear to be.

Looking at the matter without reference to scripture I would make the following points.

You're not going to be killed nowadays if you express unorthodox points of view. So the risk of announcing one's spiritual beliefs is not going to be fatal as it once might have been, especially if they were unorthodox.

On the other hand, you may well be mocked and ridiculed. That in itself is not something a spiritual person should worry too much about. Yes, it can be exhausting trying to defend yourself but, at the same time, you can learn from that. You can learn to articulate properly what may initially just be quite unsubstantial intuitions, and you can also learn detachment from worldly opinion. We must all learn this detachment from the world and from our own ego which might be embarrassed or feel humiliated in a particular situation. This can be an effective way to do that. To learn not to care about your image and how you are perceived. Remember that serenity and detachment are only real when they hold up under fire.

Then there is the question of disguise.  I do agree that sometimes it is necessary to protect oneself especially in the early stages of our spiritual journey when we are trying to put down roots. If we are attacked then it can be hard to develop in the way we could or should. However I don’t like the idea of pretending to be something you are not for the site of expediency, and as you grow in spiritual maturity you should be able to deal with unbelievers.  If you pretend too much there is a danger of building a kind of falseness into your character and then starting to become that. If spirituality is not entirely honest then it has the potential soon to degrade.

Nevertheless there remains the problem of living spiritually in a materialistic world especially if one is not a monk or hermit both of which it is hard to be in the modern world; the former because you pretty much have to subscribe to orthodox beliefs, the latter because our world is not set up to support it, and also because of the spiritual dangers of solitariness, principally pride and illusion.

So what is one to do? Maybe the best approach is not to speak unless you deem it necessary or beneficial to someone. Or if the situation clearly demands someone to stand up for truth. It may be you. I think we should rely on God to put us where he wants us to be, both for our sake and for any good we might do there.  Which means we must be flexible and not expect hard and fast rules to apply. 

Remember that truth is always preferable to dissimulation. How will the world change if spiritual people don't stand up and be counted? How will potential converts to truth be given the opportunity to convert if there is no one on hand to guide them when they need it? But then I agree it is foolish to expose oneself to ridicule and abuse unnecessarily. Perhaps the answer is to ask oneself this. Can good be done by speaking truth or harm? Not personal harm so much as needless conflict which gets no one anywhere. And sometimes it's the way one speaks. We can speak in a way that is perceived as arrogant and intolerant or we can speak in a way that is firm and assured but does not make the person we are speaking to feel belittled or that his views are rubbish. We must speak to benefit the person we are speaking to not seemingly promote ourself.

Online I use my real name and put a photo on this blog so as not to disguise myself but be completely open. However in my everyday life I don’t go around saying what I say here. If I am asked I will say that I believe in God and in Christ though in a slightly unorthodox fashion, and then wait to see where that goes. 

So what's the conclusion? As I see it the conclusion is that it all depends. If we really risk aggression then it makes sense to hide behind a mask. For the time being, at least. The question is how far do we go with that? When asked to go along with worldly views which we know to be spiritually false do we go along with them or do we refuse? There's the risk. That we become complicit in falsehood to avoid unpleasantness. That's a slippery slope to hypocrisy and self-deception. And then how will anyone whom we contact respect us if they know we have been playing a part? I mean by that how will they respect our spiritual integrity, and by extension the integrity of any spiritual person, if they see we have dissembled? You mention enemy territory and this world can often seem like that. But I don't think God needs spies behind enemy lines so much as foot soldiers in the field. He needs people to bear witness to the truth and that might be you.

Finally we should remember the most important thing and that is love. If we act from love, principally of God and then of our fellow men and women as images of God, then whatever happens we have done the right thing. You might say that our fellow men and women are very far from being true images of God which is quite correct but then so are we for the most part. The best way for them to become true images is for us to be a true image ourself. 

And so my final conclusion is that disguises are not right except in extreme circumstances when they may be. Unless there is real risk involved which, let's face it, is usually not the case nowadays, then we have a responsibility to stand up and be counted. Only thus will others, who may be searching, even unbeknownst to themselves, be given the opportunity to hear about the kingdom of God which is, when all is said and done, everyone's real heart's desire.

The Loss of Intuition

One of the great and unrecognised problems in the contemporary world is that we have not only rejected religion but are also in the process of separating ourselves from natural law. Of course, when you abandon belief in a transcendent and divine principle then rejection of natural law cannot be far behind because it is no longer tied to anything. It has lost its roots in the real. But our separation from natural law has also occurred because of an over-reliance on reason and the downgrading of intuition.

Continued on Albion Awakening.

The Persecution of the Innocents

The innocents referred to here are those seeking to extract themselves from this world and return to God. So perhaps not innocent in the normal sense of the word but since to do this one must become as a little child then innocence might not be such a bad description after all.

It was suggested on the comment thread of a previous post that I wrote something about a phenomenon that anyone seriously treading the spiritual path will have encountered. That is abuse and rejection from those still ensnared in the coils of this world. In the modern God-denying West this is so commonplace as to be almost universal but it is something that has always existed. If you go back to the book of Revelation there is a passage which talks about how the accusers of the brethren were cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels and thrown down to earth where they went about trying to corrupt the souls of men. This clearly refers to the devil and his hordes but the term 'accusers of the brethren' can be taken to apply to anyone who condemns another for attempting to walk the spiritual path.

Whenever a person tries to rise above this world they are attacked by representatives of the world and subjected to criticism. This can range from mild disbelief at your naivety through accusations of selfishness and mental instability all the way up to descriptions of you as insane and even evil. Sometimes this might appear to be well-meaning but at others it is plain vicious. If I say that people who do the attacking are under the dominion of the devil that does not mean they are necessarily bad people. As I say, some can be well-meaning, especially family and friends who worry that you might have gone off the rails. The stories about people running off to join cults you used to hear so much about (though I presume that sort of thing still goes on) shows they are not entirely wrong.

 But I am not talking about that. I am talking about the experiences of anyone who wakes up and then tries to devote him or her self to leading a life and behaving in a way that will bring them closer to God. When you do that you can appear to be confronting people with their own darkness and the less pleasant will attack you for that. So the evil powers can exploit weaknesses in these people in their attempt to undermine you. Either by getting you to abandon your spiritual goals and practices or else by causing you to react in self-defence or with fear or anger. When that happens you have entered a state of negative emotion and/or pride and the devil is quite happy for you to continue in your spiritual beliefs if he has succeeded in dragging you down to his level. He doesn't care what you believe. He's only concerned with the state of your soul.

I said your accusers are not necessarily bad people but the truth is that they sometimes are. I mean bad in the sense of identified with sins of various natures and not doing anything to try to overcome them, either because they are unaware of them or else because they don't regard the sin as a sin - which is in itself a kind of sin - or even because the source of their sin is their delight and how they see themselves. It could be said that we are all like that to a degree, but the degree is important as is the amount to which these sins are a dominant part of our character.

Some people resent anyone who turns to spirituality because they think it means you are saying you are better than them. Admittedly one may give that impression. I rather think I did in the heady excitement of first discovering the spiritual path. I didn't mean to but I did think I was now beginning to wake up and most other people were still asleep and that made me more 'advanced'. But again that's a different thing. What I am talking about happens with certain people regardless of any impression you may give. You show up their deficiencies and they don't like it so they try to bring you down. The only sensible response is not to respond. Don't react. Don't enter into arguments. You don't win arguments. They just create more friction and drag you down. The Masters told me that the mind can argue for any position under the sun but truth can only be known, and that's obvious when you think about it. So just state your position and then leave it at that unless asked to elaborate. Sincerely asked, I mean, not asked as a lure to further argument which your opponent is only interested in winning. 

The Masters also told me several times that the greater progress I made the more I would be assailed by evil in all its forms. Why does the devil attack those who set out on the spiritual path so much? It's clear that he has an interest in stopping souls escape from this world. Whether that is because he gains energy from souls locked in the lower planes, the only planes he can relate to in his fallen state, or because of his desire to prove God wrong in giving humanity free will, I am not able to say. He obviously has an interest in destroying aspiration towards the good and in promoting attitudes and behaviour that separate us from God, and perhaps the more you try to escape his clutches the harder he will work to stop you. The sorry fact is the there are powers in the world, supernatural powers, that seek spiritual destruction and it does no good to pretend otherwise. Indeed, to recognise this is important if one wants to understand the state of the world today and also to know how to protect oneself from them.

Which brings us to the heart of this whole matter. Forces of evil do try to attack the spiritual seeker. The stories of early saints being persecuted by devils are not fictitious or even allegorical. They are true. Nowadays this may not take such an overt form as described in the life of St Anthony and most of us are not saints either. Nevertheless attacks will still take place. These might be inner attacks from dark forces which seek to affect our mind through aggravating our weaknesses or appealing to pride and such like, even tempting us to despair about our unworthiness or the horrors of the world. Or they may be attacks on us from external people, people we know, even friends and family. How do we respond to this, especially knowing that the devil loves to attack by accusing us of his own faults and vices so as to prompt our outraged indignation at the unfairness of it all? Then he's got us where he wants us, in a downward spiral of mutual recriminations.

Jesus told us to resist not evil. This doesn't mean you should allow evil to ride roughshod all over you and have its way. That does no one any good. It means don't respond inwardly. Don't allow evil to drag you down to its level. That is what the accusers of the brethren often seek to do, whether consciously as in the inner dark powers, or unconsciously as in ordinary people fallen under their influence. So try not to react. That's hard but it's what we have to do. And then don't allow yourself to feel self-righteous or superior. That way lies pride.  Don't get angry and don't condemn anyone who criticises you as a pawn of the devil. Even if they are on this occasion, and it may well be that they are, they are to be pitied on that account not demonized as evil themselves. Frankly this is hard when you are under verbal assault but you can look upon it as a test that will make you spiritually stronger and bring you closer to God.

So neither anger nor fear nor pride nor self-justification nor the attempt to repay the accuser in his own coin. Patience, forbearance, long suffering, humility. Hard, I know! But none of us will be accused or pilloried as much as Jesus was. He gave us the example to follow.