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The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-093
Last weeks posts on Moon of Alabama:
Empire:
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Other issues:
China:
Lebanon:
Woke-ism:
Use as open (not related to Ukraine or Palestine) thread …
The question of evil. Yes, there is evil. But no – it is nothing personal. Before I’m giving my argument, however, let me paraphrase Oscar Wilde, on the topic of smoking: It is the perfect desire, because it leaves you unsatisfied. —
So, evil. How does it get at us? Get into our lives? Whence does it spring forth? (paraphrasing Georg Büchner)
It might be this thread, or another recent one, where james said he believes that being good, well-meaning, and attentive towards others is actually our default mode, yet not everyone even realizes this. I’m of this opinion, too.
The older persians had some interesting theology. With Zaratustra, and later Mani, the basic setting is not a monotheism, but a dualism. This brings the chance to deconflict the detrimental aspects of our Dasein, something which monotheism fails at rather consequentially. Leibniz analyzed the issue systematically, and ended up with an unresolved question, which he called the theodizee: how can God be all-seeing, all-powerful, and all-good, when there is evil in the world?
Across all the major teachings that I’m aware of, only one has a sensible take on the problem. Most all others, be they scientific, religious, or atheist in nature, explain things away, typically thus:
1 – Pain is real because it serves a higher purpose, which we do not know or understand.
2 – Pain motivates us to struggle for survival in nature/afterlife accomodation in paradise/etc.
Leibniz observes that it is not a solution to deny the reality of pain, btw. Indeed, pain is as real as Dasein itself. And this is one reason which necessitates to put forth a notion of God, at least in the way of an unanswered question. I like the comparison of this to the final (closure) brick when spanning an arch. If it’s missing, then there will be a god-shaped hole. Turned around the other way, asking if someone made the universe on purpose cannot be satisfyingly answered from the present lack of a coherent answer – because, what if this answer reaches us at a later time?
So we can neither answer, nor defy asking, who is God?
The notion that a creator-god is behind this, but his reasoning is per se beyond our understanding, solves nothing; it must remain intellectually dissatisfying. Also, why should God create little stupid beings to put them into a quagmire, just to see them fail and misbehave, so He can then proceed to torture us? That just doesn’t make sense. More generally, either God has made us as equals to him, or we are in serious trouble. – That’s why an exclusive notional entity like Jehova is indeed satanic. He’s jealous, violent and psychotic even towards his own chosen folk. Franz Kafka’s Der Prozess puts the problem forward in a very refined way: A man gets indicted, but never finds out why, until he dies at the hands of bureaucratic ‘justice’. I’m also reminded of my kharkovian friend Anna, who met Him in a Berlin bar once, and somehow managed to get His telephone number: 0800/π. Jehova demands his chosen people to follow, or else. This is reminiscent of a hostage situation.
But how real is he? People working together can apparently build something in their collective subconscious that’s been called an egregor, but google it yourselves please (h/t MoA).
The idea that evil itself has actual personal qualities I find unconvincing. Why? Because we are all made in God’s image, as argued above. We can only fail to realize this in full understanding, as if veiled by a misty haze, as goes a persian proverb.
That still leaves open the actual why? —
Monotheism can’t incorporate it coherently, and denial doesn’t work either.
In typing out my comment – thanks for asking, btw – I’ve reached the point in the above linked opera where Wozzeck joins a festivity. “My soul stinks of brandy!” there they sing, – “Sad!” – “Immerzu! Evermore!” — soon, the bar’s live band will tune its instruments … then, The Fool shows up. Lustig! Lustig!, it will insist. I note the german language lacks my current favourite english word, silly.
Excuse me, I’m crying a bit.
I don’t know why.
But it helps to at least face up to the problem. Absent of God showing up to explain to us wtf has happened – which is why I think we should try to throw Him a party – I think we should accept selfhood as basically good, though obscured; and selfhood is, essentially, noetic. Being noetic in the way of being a person (Husserl: having ‘intentionales Bewusstsein’) is apparently intermingled with a distracting Otherness, though this otherness is not itself something noetic. Mani calls it the darkness principle, as opposed to light. And we are stuck in this somehow. Like a SOF team deep behind enemy lines that’s forgotten its mission. Like the grating edge of a drill that’s put into darkness to reach someplace, where our side can meet and overcome the evil HQ.
For the time being, it is essential that we do not forget about the Good in us. The Manichaeans introduced the handshake gesture, so we would remind ourselves as well as each other that we are on the same team, and in this mess together. They also advised to relax, be nice, and ride out, possibly enjoying it while it lasts. In the end, he says, things will be sorted out. God is missing us as much as we miss him, but the time of struggle will end. Perhaps when the universe has ended, entropy run its course, and the distancing obstruction into which we are firmly stirred presently gives way to release of our noetic, drop-like specks of soul. Or, perhaps, when we come to realize that all the obstruction is, in fact, fluid before our will, and we may dissolve into great unity, as one experential continuum, made up from the many.
Posted by: persiflo | Apr 4 2024 0:02 utc | 204
Dugin’s latest in Arktos. He is echoing two things have been wrestling/playing with past few years, the endemic problem of materialism in western culture and also the many layers and levels of complexity at play making understanding very difficult. I believe this complexity is because, having drifted away from any mooring to bedrock principles, the many layers and levels of ever-changing experience and social organization natural in any civilization are increasingly disparate because not aligned to core, common principles. This makes things increasingly disharmonious, non-resonant and thus confusing. The cookie is crumbling…
Construction of Hell in the Modern Era
by Alexander Dugin
ARKTOS JOURNAL
APR 04, 2024
Alexander Dugin delves into the convergence of multiple dimensions, highlighting the resultant chaos that challenges conventional understanding and demands a reevaluation of progress and modernity.
Today, several planes converge into a unity, until the last moment having represented something autonomous:
Religion, Theology, and Eschatology: Previously thought to be relegated to the outskirts of relevance, these aspects are now infiltrating every facet of life, from the broadest societal levels down to individual daily routines.
Geopolitics: This sphere is witnessing the clash of fundamentally incompatible visions of global order, highlighting the stark contrasts in international relations and power dynamics.
Political Ideologies: Ideologies are being turned inside out, leading to the emergence of unexpected and often forbidden hybrids, such as Nazi-liberalism, illustrating the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of contemporary political thought.
Philosophical Processes: Here, the extreme declines in societal and moral values are juxtaposed against moments of profound insight and enlightenment, showcasing the dichotomy between despair and revelation.
Cultural Dynamics: Cultures are experiencing a rapid freeze and melt process, moving at breakneck speed towards rigidity only to dissolve into fluidity again, symbolising the constant state of flux and transformation in cultural identity and expression.
All the different layers intersect in unique and unconventional ways, creating complex knots of meaning that are difficult to fully understand or define. This intricate interweaving leads to a collapse into conflict and a wild frenzy of technological advancements. However, war itself is a profound metaphysical issue that demands deep reflection, and technology presents similarly profound metaphysical challenges. This situation is intensely complex and far from being superficial; it is nonlinear and teeters on the brink of chaos due to its complexity. Traditional methods fall short when trying to unravel this complex web of meaning. Moreover, the reliance on conventional wisdom is now questioned due to a pervasive sense of doubt. Every attempt to construct a theoretical model bumps up against previously unaddressed shortcomings or outright mistakes from the past. The moment we begin to doubt the simplistic (and even outright false) notion of progress, our trust in the advancements made since then compared to what existed before is shaken. If an initial mistake was made, it will ultimately lead to disastrous consequences.
When did everything go wrong? In the era of the great geographical discoveries. By crossing the forbidden boundary of the Pillars of Hercules, Western Europe committed an act of irreversible transgression. This was fatal. The place of Atlantis is at the bottom.
The only generalising explanation that would cover the entire territory of unsolvable problems is the conclusion that five hundred years ago, Western Europe began to systematically lose its sanity. And it went mad because once having begun to go mad, eventually you will go mad. Thus, five anomalies were formed.
Atheism and materialism in the scientific worldview, based on nominalism and a pathological Protestant ideology, were prevalent. Even then, it could have been concluded that the West was entering an Antichrist mode, with all things Western and modern irreversibly marked by it. The British pseudo-Empire marked the beginning of hypertrophied Atlanticism. The Anglo-Saxons embodied the biblical Leviathan. In the twentieth century, the baton was passed to the USA, but the dominance of the sea civilisation is England’s legacy.
The Middle Ages and its Indo-European tri-functional ideology, Catholicism, and Empire were rejected and ridiculed, replaced by a form of capitalism that was pathological in all respects. Ideologically, it later diverged into liberalism (the main form of mental degeneration), nationalism, and an inverted version that acknowledged its foundational principles — socialism. Any ideological movement within the system of capitalism was doomed to mimicry and collapse. Capitalism is absolutely totalitarian. As Deleuze showed, capitalism culminates in schizophrenia.
The philosophy of the modern era split (without warning) into an eccentric continuation of the classical tradition and into destructive perversions in solidarity with materialism and the externalism of science. This caused systematic confusion — a semantic shift in interpretations. Thought struggled in the nets like a deer, sometimes breaking through. But where there was breakthrough and where agony, no one reliably knew; often everything appeared to be strictly the opposite.
Culture began to transition into civilisation (according to Spengler), cooling down but not without excesses — from time to time, an unpredictable genius discerned the essence of the thickening darkness and pierced it with a shining needle. Overall, culture was deliberately sliding into hell.
Russia suddenly found itself at war with all this — without wishing, understanding, preparing, or expecting it at all. Russia was placed by an invisible hand in the position it now finds itself. Now, against all odds, we must — institutionally! — respond to all the challenges of the civilisation of the Antichrist, including the challenge of technology. All the electronic devices with which the West has equipped humanity turned out to have a catch — through them, it turns out, someone unknown collects information about everyone in order to then rule unchallenged.
What people hide the most are their sins. They are of interest to Big Brother. He records them and lets them in when needed. Techno-dependence is the most perfect tool of the devil and his civilisation. We rejoice in digitalisation — we help the devil rule us. But what are oceans of sins if not a field of madness? The cycle of hell construction is almost complete. In its way — only our desperate Special Military Operation. Well, how do you propose we interpret it?
Had a hard time picking a short excerpt that made sense alone so since it’s not a long article, pasted it all in. Translation could be better, but am grateful for this online publication for bringing Dugin – and many more – from outside the Anglophone sphere quickly to print in English.
https://www.arktosjournal.com/p/construction-of-hell-in-the-modern
He asks ‘when did everything go wrong’ and answers it with the Age of Discovery. I don’t disagree, but as have explored here occasionally, I believe the Mandarin Bureaucracy’s regressive revolt against the Great Emperor Yung Lo resulting soon after his death in the Maritime Ban enabled the rise of the West by creating a security vacuum in the China and Indian Seas. Isolationism of the wrong kind can be as bad as hyper-expansionism. Without that Maritime Ban Western exploration and expansion would have been confined to the Americas, and perhaps there too might have been curtailed by Chinese expansion into the Western coasts of the Americas, where early European explorers encountered several Chinese-speaking settlements there from long before 1492, with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain which in some ways triggered the whole sorry mess barely fifty years after the Maritime Ban was put into effect and piracy began to rule the Indian and Chinese Seas.
Posted by: scorpion | Apr 5 2024 5:00 utc | 249
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