The nature of evil in the modern world

[Bruce G Charlton]

The choice is now and increasingly not so much "kill or be killed", but "be-destroyed +/- destroy".

In other words, an evil-motivated large-minority of the world has-been/ is-being trained to fear, resent and hate some other group; then these evil-serving groups are being armed, subsidized, organized, and given-license-to destroy those they have been trained to hate.

All this is backed by sheer compulsion: once they have chosen to fight on the side of evil, the agents of evil will not be allowed to change their minds without themselves suffering destruction.



Those who the evils-side haters have been trained, equipped, encouraged and facilitated to destroy; are principally those who are (to some extent - even a small extent) dissenters from the side of evil; especially those who are on the side of God, divine creation and The Good.



For those on the side of God, divine creation and The Good the choices are not easy. The choice is either:

1. Submit to your own destruction.

2. Fight against the agents of your own destruction...



But - and here is the evil-double-bind - in fighting against your own destruction, you will be up-against those who hate you, and who will not be allowed to desist from trying to destroy you until either they themselves are destroyed, or else their capacity to destroy you is itself destroyed.

"Be-destroyed, +/- destroy", leads to destruction either way.

Indeed, to defend yourself, to defend The Good results in greater destruction than when Good passively allows itself to be destroyed!



So, the immediate consequence of taking the side of Good is to increase the totality of destruction; and this increase of destruction may be very great indeed - even if the side of Good eventually prevails.

yet such a choice is something that will probably come to all who strive to maintain The Good in a world where all major institutions are on the side of evil - indeed the decision has already come to many people, most of whom appear have chosen to join and assist the side of evil.

(Which decision the evil-servers are not allowed to revoke without... consequences.)



On top of which; the powers-that-should-not-be always take care to ensure that the actual job of destroying takes place among the little people.

And even among the little people - those who resist evil will be up against not just the orcs (those wedded to evil by their natures), but also many coerced and lied-to Dunlanders, Easterlings, Haradrim - that is, up against decent people, brave people, stupid people... who just happen to be doing the work of evil - individually well-meaning, acting on orders, just trying to get-by.

These agents of destruction will probably see themselves as taking the path of least-destruction, choosing the lesser of evils; and the agents of evil will regard the designated victims who resist their own destruction as trouble-makers, wreckers, Men of violence; bullies picking on the little people...



Such is the nature of our times.

Such is the 'karma' of this Western civilization; accumulated over many generations, and contributed-to by our-selves.

Those who look for Good in this world, and who equate Good with material Goods such as peace, prosperity and comfort - will be disappointed.

The powers-that-should-not-be have engineered the world so that these are off the agenda.



To avoid rational despair, and unless we choose and are able to live by delusions and lies; our hopes must be spiritual and located beyond this world; and our faith in these hopes will need to be strong enough to survive and increase without external institutional support.

[Matthew]

Posted by Bruce G Charlton (here)
...Sorathic evil is the purest, most negative and destructive form of evil; as being the direction in which the world is going, here-and-now.
...

I want to share a very personal outlook, but it's too intertwined with my dogma to untangle it.

Spite, revenge and schadenfreude are far from divine in the Christian God sense but more general than that too. I don't like feeling those feelings, but I'm only human. But I never condone them when it happens, ...they feature highly in my consciousness so I can mitigate them. It is with some self-loathing in my internal dialogue but not without a strong sense of self-worth. And because of the gifted sense of self-worth in the universe I can face my shadowself without attachment but sincerely. A crazy but useful contradiction. I take a day at a time, it takes a little work but is still a light burden.

This is what I believe is a useful Christian sense of original sin, but not without repentance and forgiveness on a very private and internal level, which happens as and when annoying people cause it to. Which is all the time. It's part of having an invisible friend who is also the creator of the universe. My invisible friend can have your invisible friend any day of the week, prove me wrong. *1

Although results may vary my experience is Christianity addresses this internal contradicting dilemma of shadowself-awareness vs enough self-worth to conquer it.

Thank you. It's a very personal outlook, I don't normally use the C word unless as here I can't untangle it.

edit update: *1 I forgot they're your invisible friend too so this doesn't make sense

[Bruce G Charlton]

If the digital world (internet, computation, AI etc) are indeed a demonic incarnation - What then?

William Wildblood has brought to my attention a pair of articles entitled Four Questions Concerning the Internet, part one The Universal and part two The Neon God; written by Paul Kingsnorth, in which he independently converges on a theme explored here (also in related blogs and by Jeremy Naydler) over the past few years.

Kingsnorth also reaches the same general conclusion (Which William Wildblood has articulated lucidly; which is that 'the internet' and computers generally may (in some circumstances) provide a vehicle for the incarnation of demons.



If this is regarded as a possibility (which mostly depends on one's metaphysical assumptions concerning the nature of this reality and the relationship of 'life' and 'matter') - then the hypothesis of demonic incarnation in 'computers' explains a great deal, and has extensive implications.

For instance; technology is usually presented as value-neutral, and whether it is a Good Thing or an Evil would therefore depend on the use to which it is being-put.

Yet, if demonic incarnation is a reality, then technology may itself become an active and purposive evil; in other words, technology may seek the spiritual harm - including destruction - of Men.

If we accept this as probably true, in some real but imprecise sense; then what are the implications?



Kingsnorth (a recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy) focuses on the potential for asceticism; for rejecting, denying-ourselves (as much as possible) usage-of and contact-with these demonic entities.

Such a strategy has the practical limitation that people Just Aren't doing this - not even the most ascetic. Kingsnorth describes that even the famously-ascetic monks of Mount Athos are, albeit belatedly, often carrying and using 'smartphones'.

Then there is the more general problem that it is almost impossible to function in the modern world without a significant level of usage of these possessed technologies.

But there is also - and most importantly - the ultimate limitations of asceticism: the deep question of whether this is the proper or best Christian response to the evils of this world.



My approach would be rather different. I see the problem of a demonic internet as an extension of the very general problem of evil-affiliated social institutions, a problem that characterizes All major social institutions in The West and 'globally' - including the (self-identified) Western Christian churches (and a Western convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, still counts as Western).

This means that the Christian inescapably lives in a demon-dominated and evil-orientated society; from which there can be no escape while remaining alive and socially-functional.

But this has - to some significant extent - always been the case; and was surely the case for Jesus himself during his earthly life.

Thus Christianity has always, properly understood (e.g. in the Fourth Gospel), been rooted and aimed beyond this mortal and social life - and therefore the task for Christians is to deal-with the presence of pervasive evil.



As I see it; the primary problem of 'the internet' is that people spiritually surrender their values and attitudes to it; and by this they invite evil into their hearts.

Evil needs to be invited - and this invitation of evil has become not just a personal corruption, not just a 'means to ends' as in the past; but in Western Society here-and-now evil has been given positive evaluations; officially, by the mass media, legally, economically etc.

We are, for the first time in human history, inhabiting a world where transcendental values of truth, beauty, and virtue are substantially and increasingly inverted.



Since this situation is almost-everywhere and cannot be escaped; we must recognize it, and deal with it.

Dealing with the internet, computers and digitalization is part of this; but only part. Evil needs to be discerned, identified, recognized - and spiritually rejected (and repented when we have failed to do this) wherever it is encountered.

Some of this will surely entail avoidance of internet, computers, AI etc; but as a specific tactic, not as a general strategy.

Such a Christian life is not to be envisaged negatively, as a state of siege; ended only by death or the triumph of evil. To accept this understanding would itself be a surrender to the demonic perspective.

Because the Christian life is positive, not negative; thus discernment is a by-product of faith, and faith is 'about' spiritual learning during this life ('theosis'), as well as resurrection after this life ('salvation').



In sum; life may be regarded as what it spiritually is; that is, an adventure and a quest.

We must therefore engage-with evil, and the business of identifying and rejecting evil is a by-product of our positive spiritual goals.

Since God is the Creator, and is Good, and Loves us each as His child; our personal life-situation has been set-up so that nobody can be defeated except by his own choice, and we can all succeed in the end - if that is what we really want to do.



So, we should strive not for an ideal of asceticism, but for an ideal of high-hearted and hope-full confidence; with faith that, no matter what the demon-dominated world throws-at-us; we are equipped to beat it.

[Bruce G Charlton]

Among all the many Litmus Test agenda issues - which are all very important strategies of evil - what is the most important issue for the most powerful of the demonic factions?



One can only infer such things indirectly; but I think two things are apparent.

The first is that the Great Reset stuff - the Ahrimanic grand-plan which purports to build-upon the world coup of 2020 to create a new global totalitarianism - is increasingly a deliberate distraction from an increasingly merely-destructive, spitefully-motivated, agenda - focused on the Fire Nation war.

My feeling is that almost everyone - even Christians on the right side of the spiritual war and Litmus Tests - is misunderstanding what has been and is going-on across the board; but especially in the FN business.

I shall try and be plain: The side of evil is not trying to "win" anymore.



What I mean is that - at the very highest level of evil-power and evil-influence - They are not trying to achieve any particular end result

They are not trying to achieve a carbon-zero world, not trying to cool the global climate, not trying to make an inverted world of sexual liberation; nor do they intend or hope to unite the world under a single demonic-controlled bureaucracy with a unified mass media... Nor do they intend to defeat the FN in the current war.

Not any more.



All of these issues are Now merely means to a destructive end, excuses for destroying whatever is of God, whatever is Good, whatever is divinely-created, whatever is residually Christian - They seek to destroy even whatever is simply functional - including, and this is vital to realize, that which is functional within the agenda of evil.



In this respect the FN conflict has become the single major issue for the powers of evil.

While the conflict has been ignored or trivialized among some, and regarded as a traditional two-sided war of conflicting objectives by a minority of others...

While all this has been going on, step-by-step we are being walked-into all-out and uncontainable WWIII - the objective of which is not victory but chaos and mass destruction on a scale far beyond anything seen in the history of the world.

The pieces are already in place, and the inertial momentum is rolling, and nobody with power or influence on the side of The West has even spoken against it, never mind opposing it.

Quite the contrary, the leadership class of all Western nations are united in pursuit of an agenda which will lead to the annihilation of the countries they purport to represent: starting-with Europe and the UK, and extending outwards... who knows how or where exactly?

As things stand here-and-now; WWIII gets closer every week, and Will Happen.



We can only see what we comprehend; and if we want to understand what is being-unrolled and implemented inexorably - we must first understand the nature and reality of Sorathic evil - understand its spiteful motivation and destructive aims.

Which means recognizing, understanding - and repenting: that is rejecting as evil - such impulses within our-selves.

I am not claiming that this insight could happen sufficiently widely and swiftly to stop and reverse where we are heading in the world; but, for sure, nothing positive can happen (globally, nationally, in our hearts) unless understanding first happens.



Because when an evil dominates the world; it is imperative that it become known as such.

[Ernie Nemeth]

I do not know why we chose this dream as the primary reality.

We are shown each night how easily we are fooled by our dreams.

This waking dream we call reality is just as inconsistent as any nightmare. While in it, the nightmare is as real as the waking state.

And it is in reference to this dream that we compare all other realities, including the one we will, or do, or did, share with our Creator.

We love this dream so much we cling to it with our last erg of energy - just one more breath, one more day, before death takes us.

There is no evil, only bad choices from which evil must arise.
There is no reality, except the one we share with our Creator.

Evil is the sign that we have chosen wrongly.
Choose the right 'dream' and evil dissolves and is no more.

Somnambulants must learn that dreams are manifestations of the desire to create.

But dreamers cannot create because they are asleep. So they create nightmares instead.

The nature of evil is moot. The nature of the dreamer is the key.

[Delight]

Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
The nature of evil is moot. The nature of the dreamer is the key.

I remember the story about Alice, the Lady In Number 6. One quote from her was "I know about the Bad but I live in the Good". She literally never ate food to give what she had to eat to her son when they were being starved in a concentration camp. She lived on music which is the force of God for her.

Inspirational, pianist, Holocaust Survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer - 109 years old
A Senhora do Nº6 - Alice Herz-Sommer

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hN8q45SJBN0

This force can literally feed the body and it is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent. It also is with us where we are and can guide us through and out of the hell of the terrible choices being made by asleep robotic dreamers. If WE deny the Presence, it cannot enter in our dream. Religion can actually keep us from accessing miracles. IMO we are meant to waken in the dream and experience Good.

How we each can live in the Good is OUR CHOICE. I have been to listening so many testimonies of the miraculous. I choose to have miracles.

I think I had one today when my truck went down and THERE on the Ford lot was the 2018 Subaru Outback with 55,500 miles. This is the exact car I wanted to buy (but had not planned on having today). I drove it home and there are many details of confirmation for me that in MY life, the dream is getting more and more beautiful. I decline to live in a nightmare with No Recourse. Others are having their dreams.

My music which feeds me is that I KNOW I am in MY dream and that I have authority over it. More and more of us KNOW and the narrative of a destined evil fades away.