That said, I would say I have pride in my ancestors because in a way I share their accomplishments through my blood. I did nothing for this myself, which is where gratitude comes in. Gratitude to be born to loving parents. Gratitude to be born in a wealthy nation. Gratitute for my face, features, good genetics, and all the advantages my racial amcestors gave me. For example, General Robert E Lee is in my direct line, and I am proud of that. I admire him and try to live up to his example, which is more personal to me because of our kinship.
Yeah, gratitude and honor are particularly (and in my opinion, dangerously) close to Pride. I think some of the difference can be expressed as something like debt: What we owe, and why we owe it. If we are honest in that sum of debt, and strive to repay it with our own good works, then I think the trap of Pride can be avoided.
Glad you mentioned Lee. One line attributed, possibly mistakenly, to him has always struck me as a great antidote to Pride. 'Do your duty. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.' The recognition that we owe all that we have not merely to Our Creator but the great claim that our neighbor has on us, more than we will ever pay though I won't say more than we could pay if we thoroughly intended to, would be a death blow to Pride and Envy. A man, recognizing his duty, is the very opposite of a victim or a Proud Man, which two things seem more and more tied together as I go.
It all depends how you look at it I suppose. It would be inaccurate to say I’m not proud of my ancestry. It would also be inaccurate to say I’m ambivalent. I have the same feelings for my racial ancestors as I have for the great accomplishments in my life, the things I’ve worked hard for, are beautiful, and I want to share as part of my self. The values I’ve built over my life for example. Is that pride? I think the word describes it. Does that mean I think I’m better than others? Not necessarily, because it’s hard to know someone at a glance, and also because I find much in others to admire. But I do think I’m better than my previous self. Does that mean my soul now has more worth than then? Or I’m worth more in God’s eyes now than a year ago? Of course not, because God sees outside of time. And I don’t know how he sees things anyways. I do think that God created us to be in fellowship with Him, not to end up in hell, and therefore would value a soul more that.. well you finish this thought. I don’t believe salvation is by works either.
So what’s the word that will be non-triggering to other Christians that’s lets me describe this?
Why be non-triggering? Why not say, 'I am a proud SOB, I know the Scripture says I shouldn't be and I have tried to see it the way that Scripture says it is but I still see myself as right and my pride as justified. I am guilty of the chief of sins and there is mercy for me, so good news fellas there is mercy for you too." Our failure, our inadequacy, and our inability are the only prerequisites to His Grace. A guy who thinks that he fixed all of his problems(with the Holy Spirit singing backup of course) is the guy we don't want to be.
Just watched the Libs of Tik Tok stuff embedded in the article. Disturbing. A society that exposes youngsters to people like that can only expect catastrophic results.
IMO many of those are people with chronic disorders incorporating narcissism, but I also suspect that most are just fundamentally malicious people responding to the opportunity to get attention, power and thrills by messing with other people. But they have destabilised themselves and are developing mental health issues as a result.
This brings to mind an old question: What does it mean to *become* evil, as opposed to merely doing evil deeds? Is it a matter of crossing some invisible moral line? Or is it matter of integrating oneself with a malign system of perception and thought, via which every transaction with the human world becomes an opportunity to gleefully harm and destroy? I think it's something like the latter, and that the people in those videos reflect it.
Jun 6, 2023·edited Jun 6, 2023Liked by Mark Bisone
Spot on. It is about integration. The evil or inferior aspect of the self (we all have it) becomes unconstrained, unchecked, by conscience or ethics and the personality adjusts accordingly. Willful malice has its attractions (just witness the demonic ebullience of some of Shakespeare's villains). This is especially the case for people moved to envy others.
If I haven't mentioned it before (can't remember) you may be interested in Ken Russell's THE DEVILS (1971). The BFI (British Film Institute) released a version with the director's cut plus some astonishing extra footage. Based on a true story in 17th c. France written up by one of the Huxley's it shows the malicious/morbid side of female psychology (especially the link between frustrated sexuality/fertility and mental illness presenting itself as possession) in a way that would be unthinkable today. Stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Beyond brilliant.
I've actually seen it (though many, many years ago). It was part of what my friend and I liked to call "70's Scuzz Cinema," meaning films that left you feeling a little filthy after watching, lol. Oliver Reed in particular had that quality. Maybe I should give it a rewatch at some point.
Jun 8, 2023·edited Jun 8, 2023Liked by Mark Bisone
Filthy? I was in awe. It is a cinematic masterpiece IMHO and way better than Huxley's book (which I read as a young adult...don't bother with it...it will put you to sleep). It is especially interesting after you have done some thinking about depth psychology and possession (I understand that Jung himself became interested in medicine after witnessing one as a child and eventually figured it all out years later).
No spoilers but the deleted scene with Vanessa Redgrave in her cell post-execution will shock anyone no matter how jaded or how familiar they are with "scuzz". It'll blow your mind. The BFI edition is the one to watch.
The world is a duller place without Ken Russell or Oliver Reed. I am a big fan of both.
I didn't mean "filthy" in the sense of the content. We were more referring to certain elements of style -- color grade, lighting, editing, that sort of thing. Although now I'm curious what a restored print would look like (I only saw it on VHS, which was practically a criminal format in terms of capturing a filmmakers vision).
Jun 6, 2023·edited Jun 6, 2023Liked by Mark Bisone
"That includes giving everyone an equal shot to state their case, with minimum prejudice on my part. If your ethics are strewn with special pleading and exceptions, you don’t have any of those worth mentioning. I also subscribe to the theory that “no thing comes from nowhere,” meaning that root causes cannot be ignored.... I’m going to hear you out no matter what, but the tests I’ll apply are ancient and rigid as a pillar at the Pantheon."
You are singing my song!
What I recently realised is the extent to which "misinformation" and other such epithets are aimed at closing EARS more than at closing MOUTHS. They simply point out that you are about to enter that part of the map which used to be labelled "here be dragons" and there could be consequences. As a result, the capacity to "hear [anyone] out" - at pain of severe dragon burns - has been more eroded than almost any other essential aspect of public discourse.
Aye, "Here be dragons." And unknown Chesterton fences, and the black, radioactive reaches of space. And many fear them, sometimes with good cause. I think part of the problem is that sometimes the dragons are just household pests, or blowfish whose actual threat is greatly inflated.
Jun 13, 2023·edited Jun 13, 2023Liked by Mark Bisone
PREcisely!
Or as another friend has said - "remember that 99 out of every 100 Stormtroopers you see are cardboard cutouts"... ;)
It is much easier to expand the dangers of adventurous exploration in a person's imagination - because an imagination is SOOOO capable of carrying out that work - than it is to actually accrue, and be ready at a moment's notice to use, the force required to quell every single adventurer that cannot stifle their curiosity about dragons...
I think it's time for all Christian substack writers to issue an altar call at the end of every essay. Not kidding. You are doing a great job describing the horror of sin in our current world (and the 90s in this case), but it might be good to round it off with a reminder of how we can be freed from it. A lot of readers might not know!
But I will reflect some more on my own pride, thanks to your efforts here.
Maybe, maybe not. One thing that has stuck with me a long time comes from towards the end of Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will. He says that while he has many sins and failures one thing that he has accomplished is that he is 'almost a Christian'.(this is from memory I never got an electronic version and am not at home right now) Faith, and Christianity, is not the starting point but the finish line and as Kierkegaard says in his Fear and Trembling, if you get to the finish line of life before you get to death what are you gonna do then? As he points out, much better than I can, there Faith is as far as Abraham got in his whole journey, in the modern world we are taught to begin with faith which leaves us the problem of what to do with the rest of our lives, we can hardly help 'going further' which always means going off into our own imaginations.
Personally, I am not fond of altar calls. I believe that the best invitation is to hand spiritual food to the spiritually hungry and the only needed invitation is 'Taste and see that He is good.' but I will add a pretty great quote from Luther that I found while unsuccessfully trying to get his 'almost a Christian' quote right.
“Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”
Well, don't wait. God loves YOU so. much. He sent his Son into our mortal world, into time, in order to take all that hideous sin, that rightfully belongs to us, onto himself. To be that staggering sacrifice, by willingly laying down his life while bearing our sin, dying, and then being resurrected from the dead! Think of that!! That someone would do that for you and me! It's a gift we cannot possibly deserve, or earn. We can only realize the magnitude of the love God has for us humans, and then humbly accept His gift of salvation. Don't put it off. If you're thinking about these things then God is drawing you. Go! Open the door to Him!! I'm praying for you ❤️
Thank you for praying for me. I think I might need that more than I ever thought I would. And that's coming from a lost soul who is still trying to figure out what prayer is.
Ha, you're totally capable of it! Grab a book, any book, by Billy Graham to see a master at work. I was reading his book "Angels" not too long ago and surprise! At the end of a chapter was two or three sentences on how to be saved. Several chapters later, he did it again. Nice and simple, and not belabored. I hadn't read anything by him before, but had grown up seeing him on TV, and my dad seemed to respect him, so I decided to buy a book. Glad I did.
I understand where you are coming from, but altar call always sounds too formal. Jesus used more basic terms to draw people to himself, things they could relate to.
I like Jon Cutchins comment below "I believe that the best invitation is to hand spiritual food to the spiritually hungry and the only needed invitation is 'Taste and see that He is good.'
God is language and words feed our souls. When we really understand that life becomes truly amazing.
Absolutely. It is the same way that evil is close to good, the demons close to angels, the devil close to God. It takes wisdom -- and at times a gimlet eye -- to tell the difference. Even the politically gay come within spitting range of Truth, in terms of individuality and personal freedom. But that last inch becomes like an endless mile when we pit it under the microscope of moral coherence.
A truly epic piece, Mark! This quote of yours brilliantly sums things up with this whole "pride" shit:
"The prideful turn greedy when praised, envious when they see others praised, wrathful when such praise is denied them, slothful when asked to prove themselves worthy of it."
Also, I saw yesterday that when the words "pride month" are put together like on hashtags and banners, here is what happens:
PRI | DEMON | TH
These "people" are demonically possessed entities, individuals who are begging to be referred to as "they," because the demons inhabiting them are MULTIPLES who love to be worshiped with every plural pronoun uttered to/by a single being. This Cosmic Androgyne crap is really really sickening.
Great to see you commenting here, Baldmichael! I've got to get over to your Stack again soon.
Thanks for the anagrams, very fitting, indeed. The demons abound, being summoned by the wayward wizards into their mind-controlled minions. We are witnessing the *actual* Zombie Apocalypse, no?!
Thank you. And Zombie Apocalypse, very much yes. The whole is quite bizarre, if anyone had told me before 2020 what would be happening now I would have thought them quite mad.
But then I did not understand what I know now, so bizarre as it is, it all makes sense if you understand me.
I add things to my stack every three days or so if possible, but I have my main WordPress site which I started in June 2020 so have a fair bit there. I am largely mirroring posts there onto substack as I do articles, sometimes inserting previous posts on WordPress into substack as suitable.
Oh yes, I well understand! I knew things were going to get crazy, but I had no idea about the Cosmic Androgyne agenda until recently. The wanna-be controllers are certainly pushing hard, and I think they are doing so because there are also lots of people waking up and not wanting to be slaves any longer.
I just subscribed to your Stack, and I'll go to your WP site, too. Thanks for reminding me about that.
So would I, heh heh. Alas, that's not an option at the moment. But I have committed myself to do as much writing as I can, regardless. At the very least, it appears to have done some good for my soul.
For many souls. Myself among them. I find these days that there are so many things that I want to do and having to drag myself up here and take care of other people's business all day is such a hassle.
Above all other sins, I think Pride is the most like a trap. The line between a healthy self-respect and a grandiose self-adoration can be very thin and hazy at times, particularly when so many voices are promoting the latter. The allure of never bring wrong, never being humble, never having to earn respect or offer forgiveness is powerful and intoxicating.
Yes. I agree. Pride/vanity, the embiggening of the ego, is the most powerful drug. I have a friendly argument going on with my shrink about what the most powerful motivator is. He likes to say "follow the money." Yes, that *used* to be a good rule of thumb. But it's not anymore.
Follow the ego, follow the thing most likely to flatter a person's vanity, and you'll find a motivator much more powerful than money. Narcissistic ego supply is more powerful than money.
We see it everyday with corporations who deliberately tank their profits in order to preen about their "support" of the pervert community/race hustlers/Saint Of The Day Community.
In the developmental trauma literature (Heller's NARM theory) pride based identifications arise as trauma survival styles to cover up (from oneself) deeper shame based identifications. Grandiosity is another word that comes up in this context. The problem is that truamatize folks take pride in their pride based survival styles and identify too much with them. So for me, encouraging pride just deepens the trauma...
I think there's some truth to this. Certainly, we can say that "hurt people hurt people," and see evidence of that in our various relationships. And yes, I think that often includes aspects of the sort of dangerous pride I'm referring to (or at least, amplifies the temptation of that sin).
Mark, your point about vicarious achievement was very well made indeed. Our culture is preoccupied with vicarious experience (entertainment) from which people construct or derive their identities. So the ancestor-preoccupation is being reinforced by that. As people experience diminishing agency and as life in the pod shrinks our capacity for real achievement, we clutch at whatever we can to prop up our self-respect. Pathetic, even contemptible, from the perspective of the vitalist steppe-warrior types, but it is the way people are. Identity politics compounds this further. Social media reinforces all of it. Hence the absurdity of people removed by centuries of lived experience defining themselves by the imagined lives of people we have never met, whose languages we would not understand and whose ways of life we would find disagreeable, exhausting or even repulsive, to say nothing of their ideas (which we mostly misunderstand and invariably misinterpret).
In the end we are primates driving each other crazy in lieu of duking it out around the water-hole as in Kubrick's film. We return to monkey when we are most ourselves.
Disagree with your last point. When we are most ourselves, we become that which distinguishes us from animals. Unfortunately, that is as often Monster as it is child of God.
No way to reply beyond noting that the self is mutable, plastic, varied. Personally I see no contradiction between being full monkey and fully human simultaneously. Chimps have less shit going on in their heads which strikes me as enviable.
"If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?"
Great article, but I think a more accurate metaphor for White Nationalists would be "Everyone around you is grouping into teams and picking up bricks and baseball bats and looking at you with nefarious intent. Will you get together with others like you and do the same?"
At this point Whitey has given concession after concession and paid untold billions to make amends for history, yet all it has done is made everyone else view them in the same way a wolf would view a bleating lamb. The regime says that so and so immutable characteristics make you public enemy number one and justifies violence against you based on them. Grouping together with others based on those characteristics for the purpose of reducing the damage that can be done to you just seems like basic survival. If that makes me a sinner then so be it, at least I will keep my family safer from the many people who seem to want to do them harm these days.
Single at almost 50, I am wrestling with my (strong) desire to get laid, with a life long awkwardness about sex. I've been thinking a lot about how much I was unwittingly influenced by the sexual revolution, yet have not been particularly fulfilled by sex with even my monogamous partners. At the same time I'm certain I have never been more confident in myself, without I think being very prideful except in the work I do. Watching the culture around me collapse into depravity, I'm inclined to be not depraved, more spiritual, so less sexual, which ironically seems to make me more attractive to women than I have ever been. It remains a mystery.
Good article. Got me thinking.
That said, I would say I have pride in my ancestors because in a way I share their accomplishments through my blood. I did nothing for this myself, which is where gratitude comes in. Gratitude to be born to loving parents. Gratitude to be born in a wealthy nation. Gratitute for my face, features, good genetics, and all the advantages my racial amcestors gave me. For example, General Robert E Lee is in my direct line, and I am proud of that. I admire him and try to live up to his example, which is more personal to me because of our kinship.
But I know what you’re saying.
Yeah, gratitude and honor are particularly (and in my opinion, dangerously) close to Pride. I think some of the difference can be expressed as something like debt: What we owe, and why we owe it. If we are honest in that sum of debt, and strive to repay it with our own good works, then I think the trap of Pride can be avoided.
Glad you mentioned Lee. One line attributed, possibly mistakenly, to him has always struck me as a great antidote to Pride. 'Do your duty. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.' The recognition that we owe all that we have not merely to Our Creator but the great claim that our neighbor has on us, more than we will ever pay though I won't say more than we could pay if we thoroughly intended to, would be a death blow to Pride and Envy. A man, recognizing his duty, is the very opposite of a victim or a Proud Man, which two things seem more and more tied together as I go.
It all depends how you look at it I suppose. It would be inaccurate to say I’m not proud of my ancestry. It would also be inaccurate to say I’m ambivalent. I have the same feelings for my racial ancestors as I have for the great accomplishments in my life, the things I’ve worked hard for, are beautiful, and I want to share as part of my self. The values I’ve built over my life for example. Is that pride? I think the word describes it. Does that mean I think I’m better than others? Not necessarily, because it’s hard to know someone at a glance, and also because I find much in others to admire. But I do think I’m better than my previous self. Does that mean my soul now has more worth than then? Or I’m worth more in God’s eyes now than a year ago? Of course not, because God sees outside of time. And I don’t know how he sees things anyways. I do think that God created us to be in fellowship with Him, not to end up in hell, and therefore would value a soul more that.. well you finish this thought. I don’t believe salvation is by works either.
So what’s the word that will be non-triggering to other Christians that’s lets me describe this?
Honor, maybe.
Why be non-triggering? Why not say, 'I am a proud SOB, I know the Scripture says I shouldn't be and I have tried to see it the way that Scripture says it is but I still see myself as right and my pride as justified. I am guilty of the chief of sins and there is mercy for me, so good news fellas there is mercy for you too." Our failure, our inadequacy, and our inability are the only prerequisites to His Grace. A guy who thinks that he fixed all of his problems(with the Holy Spirit singing backup of course) is the guy we don't want to be.
Fair 😂
Just watched the Libs of Tik Tok stuff embedded in the article. Disturbing. A society that exposes youngsters to people like that can only expect catastrophic results.
IMO many of those are people with chronic disorders incorporating narcissism, but I also suspect that most are just fundamentally malicious people responding to the opportunity to get attention, power and thrills by messing with other people. But they have destabilised themselves and are developing mental health issues as a result.
This brings to mind an old question: What does it mean to *become* evil, as opposed to merely doing evil deeds? Is it a matter of crossing some invisible moral line? Or is it matter of integrating oneself with a malign system of perception and thought, via which every transaction with the human world becomes an opportunity to gleefully harm and destroy? I think it's something like the latter, and that the people in those videos reflect it.
Spot on. It is about integration. The evil or inferior aspect of the self (we all have it) becomes unconstrained, unchecked, by conscience or ethics and the personality adjusts accordingly. Willful malice has its attractions (just witness the demonic ebullience of some of Shakespeare's villains). This is especially the case for people moved to envy others.
If I haven't mentioned it before (can't remember) you may be interested in Ken Russell's THE DEVILS (1971). The BFI (British Film Institute) released a version with the director's cut plus some astonishing extra footage. Based on a true story in 17th c. France written up by one of the Huxley's it shows the malicious/morbid side of female psychology (especially the link between frustrated sexuality/fertility and mental illness presenting itself as possession) in a way that would be unthinkable today. Stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Beyond brilliant.
Here's the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC_Z4I62e5Y
I've actually seen it (though many, many years ago). It was part of what my friend and I liked to call "70's Scuzz Cinema," meaning films that left you feeling a little filthy after watching, lol. Oliver Reed in particular had that quality. Maybe I should give it a rewatch at some point.
Filthy? I was in awe. It is a cinematic masterpiece IMHO and way better than Huxley's book (which I read as a young adult...don't bother with it...it will put you to sleep). It is especially interesting after you have done some thinking about depth psychology and possession (I understand that Jung himself became interested in medicine after witnessing one as a child and eventually figured it all out years later).
No spoilers but the deleted scene with Vanessa Redgrave in her cell post-execution will shock anyone no matter how jaded or how familiar they are with "scuzz". It'll blow your mind. The BFI edition is the one to watch.
The world is a duller place without Ken Russell or Oliver Reed. I am a big fan of both.
I didn't mean "filthy" in the sense of the content. We were more referring to certain elements of style -- color grade, lighting, editing, that sort of thing. Although now I'm curious what a restored print would look like (I only saw it on VHS, which was practically a criminal format in terms of capturing a filmmakers vision).
"That includes giving everyone an equal shot to state their case, with minimum prejudice on my part. If your ethics are strewn with special pleading and exceptions, you don’t have any of those worth mentioning. I also subscribe to the theory that “no thing comes from nowhere,” meaning that root causes cannot be ignored.... I’m going to hear you out no matter what, but the tests I’ll apply are ancient and rigid as a pillar at the Pantheon."
You are singing my song!
What I recently realised is the extent to which "misinformation" and other such epithets are aimed at closing EARS more than at closing MOUTHS. They simply point out that you are about to enter that part of the map which used to be labelled "here be dragons" and there could be consequences. As a result, the capacity to "hear [anyone] out" - at pain of severe dragon burns - has been more eroded than almost any other essential aspect of public discourse.
Aye, "Here be dragons." And unknown Chesterton fences, and the black, radioactive reaches of space. And many fear them, sometimes with good cause. I think part of the problem is that sometimes the dragons are just household pests, or blowfish whose actual threat is greatly inflated.
PREcisely!
Or as another friend has said - "remember that 99 out of every 100 Stormtroopers you see are cardboard cutouts"... ;)
It is much easier to expand the dangers of adventurous exploration in a person's imagination - because an imagination is SOOOO capable of carrying out that work - than it is to actually accrue, and be ready at a moment's notice to use, the force required to quell every single adventurer that cannot stifle their curiosity about dragons...
I think it's time for all Christian substack writers to issue an altar call at the end of every essay. Not kidding. You are doing a great job describing the horror of sin in our current world (and the 90s in this case), but it might be good to round it off with a reminder of how we can be freed from it. A lot of readers might not know!
But I will reflect some more on my own pride, thanks to your efforts here.
This sounds like a good idea. I will try my best in the future, though I don't feel worthy of that task.
The beauty of it is, you don't have to be worthy. You're not the craftsman - just the instrument.
I only mean I should answer the call myself before I ask others to do so. Which is something I'm still working on.
Maybe, maybe not. One thing that has stuck with me a long time comes from towards the end of Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will. He says that while he has many sins and failures one thing that he has accomplished is that he is 'almost a Christian'.(this is from memory I never got an electronic version and am not at home right now) Faith, and Christianity, is not the starting point but the finish line and as Kierkegaard says in his Fear and Trembling, if you get to the finish line of life before you get to death what are you gonna do then? As he points out, much better than I can, there Faith is as far as Abraham got in his whole journey, in the modern world we are taught to begin with faith which leaves us the problem of what to do with the rest of our lives, we can hardly help 'going further' which always means going off into our own imaginations.
Personally, I am not fond of altar calls. I believe that the best invitation is to hand spiritual food to the spiritually hungry and the only needed invitation is 'Taste and see that He is good.' but I will add a pretty great quote from Luther that I found while unsuccessfully trying to get his 'almost a Christian' quote right.
“Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”
And beer in the UK at least is ale. The word translated God in the old testament is in Hebrew 'elohim', but the base five letters are 'Aleim'.
Split up these letters thus: Ale 'im, or I'm ale.
Phonetically the base letters are more like æl -hai-m
Assuming the diphthong is split we can have 'a ale him'.
God is ale, so beer is in the essence of God.
It's all in the word.
And in the beginning was the Word...
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/g-is-for-god/
Oh! I made an assumption!
Well, don't wait. God loves YOU so. much. He sent his Son into our mortal world, into time, in order to take all that hideous sin, that rightfully belongs to us, onto himself. To be that staggering sacrifice, by willingly laying down his life while bearing our sin, dying, and then being resurrected from the dead! Think of that!! That someone would do that for you and me! It's a gift we cannot possibly deserve, or earn. We can only realize the magnitude of the love God has for us humans, and then humbly accept His gift of salvation. Don't put it off. If you're thinking about these things then God is drawing you. Go! Open the door to Him!! I'm praying for you ❤️
Thank you for praying for me. I think I might need that more than I ever thought I would. And that's coming from a lost soul who is still trying to figure out what prayer is.
Well, that's fair. But if, as it sounds like, it's something you consider worth "working on", then I'd definitely encourage you to do both.
Ha, you're totally capable of it! Grab a book, any book, by Billy Graham to see a master at work. I was reading his book "Angels" not too long ago and surprise! At the end of a chapter was two or three sentences on how to be saved. Several chapters later, he did it again. Nice and simple, and not belabored. I hadn't read anything by him before, but had grown up seeing him on TV, and my dad seemed to respect him, so I decided to buy a book. Glad I did.
I understand where you are coming from, but altar call always sounds too formal. Jesus used more basic terms to draw people to himself, things they could relate to.
I like Jon Cutchins comment below "I believe that the best invitation is to hand spiritual food to the spiritually hungry and the only needed invitation is 'Taste and see that He is good.'
God is language and words feed our souls. When we really understand that life becomes truly amazing.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/g-is-for-god/
RE the bit on normal, useful pride in doing something useful. Every Deadly Sin has it's functional counterpart.
Sloth has Rest. Gluttony has Hunger. They aren't all named, but they are all there. We would do well to disambiguate them all.
Absolutely. It is the same way that evil is close to good, the demons close to angels, the devil close to God. It takes wisdom -- and at times a gimlet eye -- to tell the difference. Even the politically gay come within spitting range of Truth, in terms of individuality and personal freedom. But that last inch becomes like an endless mile when we pit it under the microscope of moral coherence.
A truly epic piece, Mark! This quote of yours brilliantly sums things up with this whole "pride" shit:
"The prideful turn greedy when praised, envious when they see others praised, wrathful when such praise is denied them, slothful when asked to prove themselves worthy of it."
Also, I saw yesterday that when the words "pride month" are put together like on hashtags and banners, here is what happens:
PRI | DEMON | TH
These "people" are demonically possessed entities, individuals who are begging to be referred to as "they," because the demons inhabiting them are MULTIPLES who love to be worshiped with every plural pronoun uttered to/by a single being. This Cosmic Androgyne crap is really really sickening.
Thanks, Sharine.
And yet, there's still hope for them. Demons can be cast out, through the miracle of love.
Well spotted on 'pride month'! An anagram is 'demon hit PR'. The whole thing is a PR stunt.
There are other interesting anagrams like 'he nimrod pt' reminding one of Nimrod who set himself against the Most High.
And 'heroin MD pt', the drug fueled rage of it all.
'The MD prion', the results of prion disease, the misfolding of proteins affecting the brain fro example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
Or a demon hit his personal record on souls destroyed.
Great to see you commenting here, Baldmichael! I've got to get over to your Stack again soon.
Thanks for the anagrams, very fitting, indeed. The demons abound, being summoned by the wayward wizards into their mind-controlled minions. We are witnessing the *actual* Zombie Apocalypse, no?!
Thank you. And Zombie Apocalypse, very much yes. The whole is quite bizarre, if anyone had told me before 2020 what would be happening now I would have thought them quite mad.
But then I did not understand what I know now, so bizarre as it is, it all makes sense if you understand me.
I add things to my stack every three days or so if possible, but I have my main WordPress site which I started in June 2020 so have a fair bit there. I am largely mirroring posts there onto substack as I do articles, sometimes inserting previous posts on WordPress into substack as suitable.
Oh yes, I well understand! I knew things were going to get crazy, but I had no idea about the Cosmic Androgyne agenda until recently. The wanna-be controllers are certainly pushing hard, and I think they are doing so because there are also lots of people waking up and not wanting to be slaves any longer.
I just subscribed to your Stack, and I'll go to your WP site, too. Thanks for reminding me about that.
Another great article, Mark. If I could write as many good articles as you do I'd quit my job today.
So would I, heh heh. Alas, that's not an option at the moment. But I have committed myself to do as much writing as I can, regardless. At the very least, it appears to have done some good for my soul.
For many souls. Myself among them. I find these days that there are so many things that I want to do and having to drag myself up here and take care of other people's business all day is such a hassle.
I stand in awe, every time.
Thank you, Karen.
Wicked good article Mark, nailed it!
Thanks, Baba.
Perfectly put.
Many (most?) gay men I knew, and I, fell into the pride trap. It's everything you say it is.
And boy, do they not want you to be able to crawl out of that pit. The crabs want you down in the bucket with them.
But climbing out is worth it.
Above all other sins, I think Pride is the most like a trap. The line between a healthy self-respect and a grandiose self-adoration can be very thin and hazy at times, particularly when so many voices are promoting the latter. The allure of never bring wrong, never being humble, never having to earn respect or offer forgiveness is powerful and intoxicating.
Yes. I agree. Pride/vanity, the embiggening of the ego, is the most powerful drug. I have a friendly argument going on with my shrink about what the most powerful motivator is. He likes to say "follow the money." Yes, that *used* to be a good rule of thumb. But it's not anymore.
Follow the ego, follow the thing most likely to flatter a person's vanity, and you'll find a motivator much more powerful than money. Narcissistic ego supply is more powerful than money.
We see it everyday with corporations who deliberately tank their profits in order to preen about their "support" of the pervert community/race hustlers/Saint Of The Day Community.
In the developmental trauma literature (Heller's NARM theory) pride based identifications arise as trauma survival styles to cover up (from oneself) deeper shame based identifications. Grandiosity is another word that comes up in this context. The problem is that truamatize folks take pride in their pride based survival styles and identify too much with them. So for me, encouraging pride just deepens the trauma...
I think there's some truth to this. Certainly, we can say that "hurt people hurt people," and see evidence of that in our various relationships. And yes, I think that often includes aspects of the sort of dangerous pride I'm referring to (or at least, amplifies the temptation of that sin).
Mark, your point about vicarious achievement was very well made indeed. Our culture is preoccupied with vicarious experience (entertainment) from which people construct or derive their identities. So the ancestor-preoccupation is being reinforced by that. As people experience diminishing agency and as life in the pod shrinks our capacity for real achievement, we clutch at whatever we can to prop up our self-respect. Pathetic, even contemptible, from the perspective of the vitalist steppe-warrior types, but it is the way people are. Identity politics compounds this further. Social media reinforces all of it. Hence the absurdity of people removed by centuries of lived experience defining themselves by the imagined lives of people we have never met, whose languages we would not understand and whose ways of life we would find disagreeable, exhausting or even repulsive, to say nothing of their ideas (which we mostly misunderstand and invariably misinterpret).
In the end we are primates driving each other crazy in lieu of duking it out around the water-hole as in Kubrick's film. We return to monkey when we are most ourselves.
Disagree with your last point. When we are most ourselves, we become that which distinguishes us from animals. Unfortunately, that is as often Monster as it is child of God.
No way to reply beyond noting that the self is mutable, plastic, varied. Personally I see no contradiction between being full monkey and fully human simultaneously. Chimps have less shit going on in their heads which strikes me as enviable.
"If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?"
Great article, but I think a more accurate metaphor for White Nationalists would be "Everyone around you is grouping into teams and picking up bricks and baseball bats and looking at you with nefarious intent. Will you get together with others like you and do the same?"
At this point Whitey has given concession after concession and paid untold billions to make amends for history, yet all it has done is made everyone else view them in the same way a wolf would view a bleating lamb. The regime says that so and so immutable characteristics make you public enemy number one and justifies violence against you based on them. Grouping together with others based on those characteristics for the purpose of reducing the damage that can be done to you just seems like basic survival. If that makes me a sinner then so be it, at least I will keep my family safer from the many people who seem to want to do them harm these days.
"Crossdressing Injuns"
I'm glad Lakota Man has representation.
Single at almost 50, I am wrestling with my (strong) desire to get laid, with a life long awkwardness about sex. I've been thinking a lot about how much I was unwittingly influenced by the sexual revolution, yet have not been particularly fulfilled by sex with even my monogamous partners. At the same time I'm certain I have never been more confident in myself, without I think being very prideful except in the work I do. Watching the culture around me collapse into depravity, I'm inclined to be not depraved, more spiritual, so less sexual, which ironically seems to make me more attractive to women than I have ever been. It remains a mystery.