Posted on 08/24/2007 8:31:42 PM PDT by Jeremiah J
Promised Land ? by: Jeremiah J
Here are two questions that are imposing themselves repeatedly in somewhat dimmed search lights of this age’s conscience: Is it possible to proclaim the excellence of the system and the country and in the same time betray the very principles on which these are founded on? Or to praise quality of life where the values of man’s privacy and dignity are trampled upon ? These are contradictions of this age when so many promises are promulgated but few ever fulfilled. There had been the voluminous theoretical varieties on the subject of responsible government and many are proudly founding their claims on the philosophy of the enlightenment, whose influences is still very strong in today’s western societies, and are considered and studied as the role models in contemporary western social studies. On the other side , there is a question whether they have true ability to represent the question of the dignity of man in its full potential , in particular regarding the concept of the natural law imprinted in a heart of every man or woman, that is one of the major foundations of Christian theological and philosophical systems of thought , from the ancient times . We do not only speak here of natural law that is inherent to every person, thus obliging that person to act accordingly to inner reference but also the revered value to be respected by others in relation to that person. In such relationship emerges vision of “inexhaustible riches of person “. In truth, such visions also represent the admission of unalienable and infinite quality of person and the value of its existence that cannot and must not be abrogated. Than the question cannot possibly be overstated in reference to the culture of governance, policies and legal acts regarding true respect of human rights , dignity of man and privacy. When the government who under pressure to accommodate needs for replacement and supplement of declining and aging work force and population engages in bringing in the immigrants , often leaves impression of a treatment of the objects than a dignified and reverent acceptance of persons . While often in a background one can hear accolades to system that delivers refugees from distant troubled , war torn regions , these praises give Canada and other western countries the honor of beacons of true freedom. Their hospitality is being often praised by various UN instances, but while certainly there are many qualities recognized in these that are true, there are still events which add disconcerting notes and show the other, dark side of this coin. They give grim testimony against these widely accepted positive marks. The abuse of Syrian born Canadian citizen Maher Arar and cowardly delivery into hands of foreign government which was not to be trusted in matter of good and dignified treatment , is just the peak of the iceberg where in reality multitude of immigrants are treated the same way or worse. In his case he was surveiled and put under pressure not because he was dangerous terrorist or spy or threat but because he was highly educated intellectual, the software engineer and thus familiar with many aspects of new technology ; well equipped to be free in a country which proclaims its own heritage of freedom as the core foundation of its mission statement: land of free citizens and free enterprise. But under the surface, there is another tendency with its own aim: these personal talents are not easily forgiven by culture of patronizing and supervision. He was seen as some one with potential of insider; intelligent who can be fruitful in delivery as a snitch with a value of respect within Arab community. Thus machinery was to be set in motion to make it happen. The fact that great , vast number of newcomers, especially highly educated, are exposed to filthiest campaigns that very often include sexual setups , blackmails, subtle and not so subtle psychological warfare , trappings into engineered social and professional environments and so on, is the best kept secret among many immigrants in this country: while shadowed by good deeds of many noble Canadian men and women of good will among whom many very generously care and provide help for newcomers, and choral praises by media, underneath the surface intelligence agencies and RCMP ravage systematically private lives of many immigrants by constant invasion, manipulation and deceit: they look for new recruits and find them very often among those with weak nerves, or strong ambition or simply incapable to discern and defend themselves. The lukewarm coverage in media disinterested in discerning fine print of the justice in events often looks through vision of patriotic allegiance and shuns away from the confrontation with centers of power and preeminence . In the atmosphere where is concluded in advance that there are no controversies it is easy to rationalize the ignoring of a protest. And the government nowadays is very resourceful in PR spin doctoring , to have upper hand even in the appearance of things. Then naturally arrives question whether the trade off in regard of life some immigrants had before arrival here, despite all personal tragedies and experiences of war , famine and persecution suddenly looks having the price way too high . Because somehow this new beast appears far more malign then former one. There is question whether it is not of greater value dignity of innermost privacy in undefiled personal habitat ( what we would call home), state of one’s own soul than any material assistance one can receive from anyone. But the traditional Christian culture that is foundation of today’s wellbeing in this country which reveres man's dignity is slowly but steadily loosing foothold in this country. When protests emerge , they have the effect of abomination that disrupts happy ever after living of this new paradisiacal realm of perfect world : joyful island in ocean of sorrow. To investigate these is something of unforgivable in collective culture infused with ever repeating messages of confidence in its excellence , with shallow infantile show of happy physiognomies of newcomers, waving flags and underneath not so subtle exacting from them the obedience in form of submission and meekness that does not question anything, with no need for uprightness if possible , perfectly in tune with contemporary culture. Because the obedience like the one taught by religious systems in the world that is irreligious, is something to be reinvented on the earth that became somehow flat again. Immigrants then can become lively, healthy submissive exotic merchandise - the flock ready to be processed through systematic classification where stands pedant and polite treatment but somewhat void of true acceptance of equality of all in approach. The negative perception is obviously on the side of the oppressed ones; on the other, one would sense unbridled pride . It has to do with traits of rationalistic clutter which still pervades contemporary West as remnants of what is splendor of reason , faculty that naturally conveys man's image and likeness to Lord God. What now is left is peculiar detached utility set in motion for any desired purpose; it is the one where the new monsters are proliferating out of abandonment of the truth and the essence, as prophetically wrote French philosopher Jacques Maritain. The precise ideological organization , methodology and language of rationalism appeals to modern westerner as the healing remedy for the controversy of human condition . It is to him as the blessedness of the best of all worlds. It has a comforting and soothing effect that one may find in religious experience. Its dense network is overwhelmingly present in all aspects of western society : one can note reliance on it , something cherished with pride in front of the world , yet it hides deprivation in its innermost core . The examples are many. One may be the tragedy of residential schools for Native children as form of diabolical desire for the racist, colonial control and subduing, after having under vestment of Christian ideal to spread the Gospel. It made awkward wedding of state institutions with all their overt and hidden agendas , and the Christian Churches which wanted to to make evangelical effort in bringing natives in a bosom of the Christian faith. As always there is appearance of the over -entrepreneurial spirits ending up in bureaucratic and racist nightmare where children became victims of repeated physical and sexual abuse. In the last analysis Church's loss and the damage to its credibility were far greater, because it was undermined in its spiritual credibility and the authority. This peculiar matrimony not forged in Heaven is the example of the mistake whose way was paved by good intentions . Particular character of manipulative nature of this whole fantasy dressed up as fruit of the Spirit was in reality coming out of the Evil. When it comes to fantasy of the mundane , Canada is the country whose media in particular are full of verbal enthusiasm and bright , colorful propaganda pictures of smiling faces of all races. The all-embracing mission statements in reality often hide hypocrisy of double standards and practices of the hidden persecution by many public and private entities. Among them is so called intelligence community and other law enforcement entities and parties, including crown corporations which are often the paramount for these abuses that are equally intrusive and aggressive ( one would note not without irony the euphemistic character of the expression ' community”) In this proliferation of systematic and premeditated assaults against personal freedoms and invasions of privacy , unseen since the collapse of totalitarian left and right wing systems , there are no humanistic value non threatened.
Taken by surprise and ambushed by well-organized apparatus of government agencies well armed with esoteric technologies , ordinary newcomer from any part of the world stands no chance. He often walks through the mine field in good will and conviction that there is no danger. He cannot avoid being stripped of his privacy, intimacy and of his dignity, or to fall one way or another into nets and traps set up by predators of this age, among whom is also Canadian government itself. That is just the beginning of the processing and of peculiar form of the cat and mouse game, where stakes are of the serious consequences. In other words , under seemingly forgiving and optimistic vestments of widely declared freedoms there is a quite intensive activity whose purpose is without any excuse directed against freedom of the individual, and whose true nature is not detected by majority in the society lulled by soothing hypnotism of media; the mindsets of these two are impregnated by the same kind of rhetoric and thus at the end they blend in . It appears that public notion of state of freedom in contemporary society in substantial delay after the life itself. That is the product of many factors: lack of proper and prudent distance in inquiry, deficiency of media that are corrupt with the consumerist agenda , imperative to put the accent on profitability and not importance of the social role of media in promoting of the freedom and dignity of man, media which are often not interested to investigate political matters with the critical eye.
In the shallowness of culture void of spiritual content and search for the truth and in relativistic ambient accursed to spin aimlessly in now meaningless Universe , there is little to hope when it comes to the promotion of dignity of man. The advocates of self centered and self produced values are exacting their satisfaction to the point of singularity . We can use here as parable the astronomical concept of Schwartzschield radius , to compare this to the implosion into black hole of infinite density of egotistic prisons, where no light can escape from . The absurdity of man who is his own law maker. The true dignity that we speak of is stemming from God 's promise and His vision of man and from man's innermost being , not from socio-political correctness. Looked from the perspective of the Christian heritage this culture is heavily biased since unofficially but substantially claims that only contemporary atheistic or agnostic culture is enough competent and dignified to explain and answer all needs of contemporary man. It is the ideological bundle founded on several movements of human thoughts from the second half of 19th and beginning of 20th century, with easily recognizable claims of revolutionary character. Here we have thick vegetation of size of a rain forest , of more than a century in output with many theories and concepts . In this domain there are psychology of masses , ethno-psychology, the utilitarian one, the psychology of the behavior, all of them offspring of the radical theories of early twentieth century among which is the false prophetic Freudian psychoanalysis one of the most admired ; all are part of contemporary culture and present in many domains of the social life. Such presence is in many instances justified by insisting they are sole truly scientific methods , taken for granted for very long period of time as the ushers of new era where science is elevated to the throne of new supreme authority. Very often under the surface of the arguments promoting such concepts there is pseudo logical tendency proceeding from its very dynamics to apply them in life , thus they are acquiring the flesh and blood of use in the every days affairs. The situations in which are used vary , for instance nowadays are often used reasons of the security concerns or the necessity to procure by all costs safe and unimpeded functioning of social and political life, institutions etc. There is evident absence of questions which challenge these systems or instead propose different approach. They are without the referential point of inner ethical foundation and main feature is utility and sheer determination of the self justified will . They dissect and analyze neighbor with enthusiasm of one who had transformation of vision ; realizing that fellow man can be in deed researched as object , the butterfly or frog in school's lab. The revolutionary numerous schools of psychology offered new explanations for the phenomenon of spiritual experience , and that was turning point of throwing away the heritage of centuries . The other ingredient in this mixture is very contemporary malice of the detached , cerebral will for power: instead of reverent , appreciative and acknowledging vision of the fellow human being , there is surrogate of the manipulative and alienated one , easily saturated with boredom for the humanity and eager to dismember fellow neighbor. In reality these are worldly contemporary Pharisees always ready to set up traps , to psychologically analyze and if possible, to capture one in one's sin, in order to be able to dispense remedies for humanity herded into narrow space of new material corral : the medicine , psychiatry or law. We recall Marry Shelley's famous work as a peculiar prophecy of this age; this is the age when Joseph Mengele would not be far from home, with his ideological iconography of origin. The picture we can imagine is this: multitude of people, who can be our neighbors transformed by force of diabolical and hateful ideology into inmates and rounded up and herded to grim, ugly and lifeless place to be executed. The executioners themselves can be perfectly polite and in impeccable, clean uniforms : among them there were those in love with Bach's “ Goldberg Variation” or Wagner, officers with the academies and university degrees , with a soothing Olympic elitism of education of epochs long layers of knowledge , science and culture , short- circuited into thick darkness of color of Schutz- Staffeln . Dealing with a problem of processing : how to solve the problem of execution in a logical and timely manner? The officer in impeccable ordered uniform stands and decides : left or right , who lives and dies. But under cold calmness of facial expression we can imagine certain cerebral activity , thinking, if not actually quite frantic discernment or almost the anxiety of one eager to solve the problem , to please the superiors. After all that is dedication of a faithful follower. Would this old man be useful worker in factory or should he die? Or this woman ... or him ? If this whole approach of his and the multitude of criminals of the same mindset would not be actually unbearable for us , it is possible somehow to guess the sickness of this transformation of vision. Being willing, without hesitation to subdue fellow neighbor from person, subject and free being, at least free from own human despotism to start with , into the object of meticulous investigation, dissection; to abrogate charity for him by decree and then focus on technicality of idea of destroying human lives on a mass scale . This would describe pseudo-rational trait in Nazi ideology in its extreme. There are many scattered siblings of it , equally radical: ethnic cleansing and ethnic engineering in Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, migrating by force, human displacement of whole regions and so on . And there is always lineup of arguments for them , always trying to offer the appearance of reason. For the time being the only difference is the degree of radical commitment. The other side of coin is Rimbaud alike vision of tribal, new pagan humanity , brooding through debris of again dismantled world , hoping to acquire somehow the missing freshness of native innocence. While we recall artistic works in cinematography or literature depicting the aboriginals having simplicity of children while living in the their own garden of Eden; the new ones embarked to refashion the world anew through, like many before them , convulsion of ideas born out of angst. The angst of above mentioned “new humanity” has been born out of unclean conscience and self destructive anger in rejecting the Christian belief . Underneath, its restlessness is caused by Lord's invitation to repent and look for salvation . The controversy of human condition we know exists is century ago diverted against the man himself . Many theories with hidden revolutionary urge as the Freudian psychoanalysis turned then toward man and wanted to sift through his own spiritual experience while claiming that the evil is the inner part of individual nature. Armed with readily prepared nails and the hammer of the newly acquired sapient preeminence ( since they had overthrown the old values they needed to make up for the lack of reference so instead of Divine Creator it became historical necessity and Epochal Revolutionary Insight to replace Old World ) so from now on they set out to catch the men, to detect shadowy elusive evil promptings of spirits and to label by it to their own brother. But by doing so the man's arch-enemy became his own brother's keeper. Eventually couches of these new worldly inquisitors became familiar iconography furniture, adorned with the flair of humanistic clothes and the Golgotha where took place crucifying of millions in a course of one single century. It can be said that this perceived need for action prepared the way to concepts of revolutionary changes. They are taken and put to practice with the religious fervor, ironically by many of those who overtly despise the religion itself. Nowadays all the above pertain to having humanistic motives in dealing with fellow neighbor so the number of these experts in a field of man’s soul multiplies with geometrical progression (if anybody bothers to admit the existence of the soul in a first place) so the followers mimicking great gurus of psychoanalysis and their sibling theoreticians proliferate in abundance. But the revolution in thinking and rethinking of man has once again in history cleared way to promulgate its main goal, which is to promise its own new earth and new heaven , new meaning and new purpose; along with the new man who this time comes without so many times dismissed and passionately hated metaphysical coordinates but standing firmly on the material ground and in proper reverence for the new religion: Science. In deed already for long time is in the pantheon of deities towering authority and it serves to offer something again of déjà vu: long known and familiar thing, the Hope. One according to ancient Greek myth of Pandora is kept in a box, one that is to be left at gates of Hades. Saint Paul put her together with Faith and Love. It is now warmed up in the completely new perspective, as a remote dream of new redemption to be achieved by means of Science and her niece , the Technology. Never before in a history was not so prominent essentially new pagan view on the world and so conveniently stripped of religious ethical connotations, simply because those would threaten its own unforgiving determination to erect its own system, its own universe , its own New Creation. But it is not that the religion is dead or abandoned; it is more treated with benevolent superior smile and ignored where there is a serious talk of everyday business. Many in Church are willing to give more attention to the world in desire not to shun away sincere dialog but in a process give sometimes undeserved credit to theories that are in their nature and effects hostile to her . There is a sometimes apologetic attitude accompanied by syndrome of false inferiority , blatantly wrong in its own underestimate of innumerable riches of Jude o-Christian heritage. It should be mentioned here as the most prominent and crucial for understanding Thomistic Christian existentialism firmly rooted in Holy Scriptural foundation , unabated and never refuted , in deed never truly threatened in any account still witnesses ancient wisdom for the ages. In a splendid pontificate of our pope John Paul II it has been integrated into the opus of fascinating beauty and volume. This true genius brother in Christ , dedicated to the point of sacrifice , stood with unshaken courage and love till the end for all those who are ravaged , robed and crippled by false promises and injustice of the world and this age. His opus will certainly be witnessing the truth for the ages to come to humanity who will once rediscover its splendor. There is still more fearfulness of the world in Biblical sense, which boastful as always is imposing , luring, seducing, or raging with overt or hidden threats, still at times appears with upper hand. As we go back to speak of the newest technologies which are used extensively and without license often against the ordinary man in his every day's life, in this culture where less and less find that dignity of man is important. It may be the toll of mind -numbing and obscenely invasive reality shows that are signs of the times , profoundly denigrating but well paid: the stakes are all the more higher in money and prizes the more is man or woman participant abused and humiliated. The hideous features of these new rules of play promote treachery , backstabbing , viciously cunning struggle for self promotion and interests with no too much of a hesitation . And Western and North American public finds these forms of entertainment nowadays not only acceptable, but profoundly attractive. That would be brief and illustrative outline in this essay on contemporary culture seen in media . When we speak in regard to cultural differences in perceiving freedoms and dignity, it happens very often with the great majority of immigrants who are becoming more and more challenging phenomenon in Western societies, who quite often, despite disguised derision for their values, still do not want to abandon completely traditional values brought with them into new home or inherited from their parents , for which there is serious temptation that wants to attack with the most rage preserved common sense , based on the truth of universal natural law and impregnated into soul of every man or woman no matter what is their background, as the precious quality of one's identity, even when local culture is seemingly cynical towards it and to replace it with the artificial correctness vested as tolerance. The same common sense hatefully undermined by relativism of this age because that is the only way to destroy the notion of the natural law on which is based true morality. Though they rarely get equal treatment in this country where local culture still holds as the matter of sheer survival disguised demand to keep things under control, the immigrants are still vital force of change that is shaping radically contemporary western societies, bringing along hopes and dreams often with the freshness of children , into decadence of the Western culture resembling more and more to Babylonian concept of melting furnace that defaces traits of the other . After the massacre of innocent people in the events of September 11, the condition within society regarding racism and racial profiling was aggravated , even though the abuses existed long before terrorist attacks. They were used than to justify retroactively the restraining of the freedoms, and mostly of those who are the immigrants especially of the middle-eastern discendence. The protagonists and interests here are ancient in nature but new in appearance. They found their new face in global positioning of powers often vested in bright colors of newly discovered patriotism or in thoroughly exercised campaigns aiming to have public approval of impending war enterprises. These are new faces of principalities , rulers and dominions . When there is positive PR spin on warfare , it is surprise only for the naives, because the war pays off . Together with the supporting industries, hundred of billions of dollars are spent in the machinery of war. In background of it , on the surface of polished New Age is often seen theatrical ritual exalting of tolerance. The ambient chatter of chaotic relativism and clueless numbness of modern culture serve as the paramount. The banality of whole thing is accompanied by the ignorance of newest technologies , and it is easy to come to conclusion that the significance of the ethical inquiries into the use of new technologies and their implications especially in domain of telecommunications cannot be underestimated anymore. This is somewhat difficult task to catch up with, when it comes to people, who without thorough knowledge of new technologies are practically in mercy of suddenly emerging new ruling caste: arrogant and ultra rich government, its agencies and very often in this country, public corporations ( read government's one) along with many privately owned entities which are able to invade and abuse privacy of great number of people, unpunished and in no need to fear any reprimanding . What remains is the illusion vested with pomp in a royal commissioner attire, but basically deficient and unable to deliver the remedy for void of democratic process.. In reality, often amorphous in sense of its credo and cynical, new governance culture is by its own attitude and structure without true reverence for the human dignity but aware of tradition would like to be seen as respectful in this matter. Yet it is more of a mirage then the reality. It is because of inner attitude that observes and treats man rather as the object than the subject. But these two have nature and properties that are not interchangeable and belong to separate Universes. As we speak of unofficial culture of governance , despite its own mission statement ( perhaps if some one would call it libertarian , he would perceive it being somewhat dark and tired , without ancient boastfulness) this one sees the immigrants in particular from utilitarian point of view , as multitude to be apprehended, put in a social context and processed , uniformed in melting pot of Canadian or North American patriotism rather than respected in their own right of freedom and dignity. That respect includes also help to express their own cultural needs. These needs have inner quality of free choice and are part of some one's identity. If we do not admit that, we can speak more of a sophisticated cultural enslavement than equality. But it is not only the culture in question, but its repercussions that affect freedom of individuals in every day's life. The delicate and natural unity of reverence for the person and preserving the interests of citizens has already been disrupted in form of imposed false raison d'etre for breaching of privacy under excuse of security concerns. Those who rob fellow neighbor of things far more precious than any gold or silver are not willing to see that these values exceed material offerings that are placed in front view of society as a proof of good will toward strangers . There is lot of hidden anger when one speaks of street crime or theft , while in a same time takes place advocating of the lifestyles that are abomination in the eyes of many ; there is in the same time relentless scrutiny of the immigrants who are often most defenseless ones. There is a front of these mundane new Guardians of Revolution that very influentially pervade many venues of modern society and often have the upper hand of the heavy weight preeminence . As a product of advancing ethical emptiness and erosion of traditional values , than it emerges the urge to organize and create structures that would replace and supplement gapping hole ; where ever there is void of ethics, there is also a growth of cynical view on fellow man ; that is equally the case with governmental structures especially those with already present oppressive character . Here one would note agencies and entities who are readily exploiting the phenomenon of the rapid informatics development in a void space where ethical stands are still undefined . The encouraging of anonymous reporting in various crime stoppers proves that this weird new Big brother's culture seek to promote mentality of informer in humanity oppressed by fears and frailty of material existence.
2. Experience In this theater where reality show drama unfolds, the actors are real people , immigrants. With their own lives as the screenplay , they are staggering on the stage, laden with sorrow or guilt; memories of bad times are all too vivid and life in them seeks the outlet ; they came abroad because of seducing appeal of a dream of new birth. Many carried providential promise in their heart of hearts of the better , more dignified life. So they emerged from the womb into the world determined to forge new life and start afresh. Instead, they came onto the stage which is their own apartment or house ; in silent presence of invisible confessors they will sob and spill their gut out with the innermost intimate prompting; they will quarrel or mourn; relive scenes from their own lives with the this unloading is the fruit of anxiety born under pressure, the intuitive knowledge they are noted produces its effect. And those who are doing it know it well. The invisible officers of new perfect impeccable state will read and examine the papers later; they may analyze them with specialists from psychological point; maybe there are some hints promising convenient perversion or weakness; or controversy within patriarchal culture that should be exploited. That can be helpful in some future social encounter, with a staged spontaneity.
In the same time , on the TV they can see reality shows of different kind : coupling in front of the millions; adulterous schemes of the young, beautiful, talented, swayed to act as the scoundrels , plotting against each other while millions bet on ones or the others. Or TV shows featuring cold, emotionless series about coroners adventures with background of aseptic spaces and muted lights where new type of heroes with clean shirts and dresses, between adulterous affairs are sifting through dead tissues . The creepy posterity of Mr Sherlock Holmes in the service of the audience needy of detachment. Eventually everything perfectly fits ; no one to protest to and who would understand the point in a first place? Finally somewhere in a future the seal of the approval is to be put on: no danger. The diabolical character of anti-sacrament is evident. There is no absolution of sins and the sanctification , but the beast is fed and satisfied and gives its peace . Another ones are slowly becoming converted to acceptance of that , after all t h e r e is still war , or maybe famine or troubles, here is comfortable and with enough food, with gadgets, cars, things, leisure. The playful, noisy chatter of Babylonian culture and all-embracing paroles of fraternity will eventually dispel the anxiety, and lull until the wound is forgotten. Yet deep down in their hearts these actors who are trying to suppress and escape viciousness of whole idea know it is true that something is wrong with this earthly paradise and they can't do much about it. The intuition has its own laws and cares little for the denial and self dilusion of the sheer will; it does not allow to be fooled. The robbery's scheme is perfectly laid down and visible. But who would do such things in the best of all worlds? Let us remind ourselves that this is role model country and pride of hosts. One has to struggle not to give in to hatred , because how to forgive when fellow neighbor, this time the Orwellian brother is after your very soul? After all something to think about: maybe is not far moment when many may wake up and find themselves in worse Gulags then those of communist regimes . It should be remembered that all most notorious tyrannies of twentieth century came to power by slowly removing the democratic process bit by bit; they moved into the void of disappointment of the masses betrayed by corrupt governments or after carnages of lost wars to offer comfort from the icy touch of existential anxiety, fear and hunger and to promise false redemption. That happened even with fact that in substantially greater number of people there was still collective memory and presence of cultural riches: centuries old layers of culture. Still, the evil happened. What will happen here? Today is very difficult to advocate dignity of man or reverence for fellow neighbor, as something not negotiable, to respect and protect despite our own sinfulness and pride. It is more important thing than to promote proliferation of security and surveillance mentality that unnoticed to many is part of genuine culture of death. For what is indeed all this restraint and grip on private lives of the defenseless and preying on their freedom , schemes and traps laid down in order to CAPTURE one's very neighbor , but culture of prison , ever shrinking space with all too familiar imagery that preceded twentieth century's worst crimes. In one occasion not so long ago the journalist of one Canadian newspapers laconically stated that the privacy is on its way out of social consideration. This may be illustrative: in all totalitarian regimes , in attempt to secure unimpeded reign of oligarchy it was common tactics that the fears of threat of various sorts are artificially stirred up in citizens , and the siege mentality is established very often by government entities themselves , who knew that to rule by and because of fear is convenient and almost irresistible . The communist and right tyrannies were using similar schemes . More enemies the stronger need for grip of control. When the October revolution was unfolding there emerged concept of so called perpetual revolution: it was parented by Leon Trotsky , one of the most eminent commanders of Bolshevik Red army. It claimed that revolutionary character of changes in Russia had to expand beyond borders to neighboring countries and further, thus ushering the claim for perpetuation of the same revolutionary changes elsewhere. But after Lenin's death , his successor Stalin who was ever suspicious of any possible competitors in power struggle , in prepared purges steadily removed and executed every remaining preeminent leader of October and used this theory against Trotsky himself . Many decades afterwards, in the events after September 11, with emergence and proclamation of so called War on terror by the US government , the some patterns are very recognizable : imposing the perpetuation of activities that aggressively restrain freedoms under excuse of equally perpetual threat of terrorism. Equally latent ethical emptying , all the more accelerated by the influence of contemporary consumerism which in the effect have features of an ideological system with viciously demanding utilitarian character, is making a way for new, deviant concepts. Void of true respect appears the vision of mechanical man , or perhaps animal man , soulless , with no Divine imprint of the natural law and thus in appearance unconcerned with question of sin, but in truth staggering under the load of it. And after the ethical foundation of man is brought into the question and destroyed, everything falls apart easily : one can be fragmented and dismembered with faculties becoming goods for rent or for sale - body, mind, emotions and the soul. The man accepts his own prostitution without willingness to recognize it and resist it. The utilitarian gigantic pressures in business or at work will keep exacting more and more. And once one has passed through mirror like Louis Carrol' s character in quest for redemption or out of curiosity it is very difficult to find one's true face again. The void of swallowed potential for freedom gets bigger when ever the ethos is being eroded, also is the man's ability to discern and defend the truth and the justice. It means that whenever man forsakes the ethics is also not capable to truly love. When it appears to him that the search for the truth is in vain, he would like to abandon that quest, and eventually start spinning in circles of down winding spiral. In reality he prepared the creation of vision of new pig alike humanity that finds delight in rolling in its own filth. This is also vision of the atheist , stylized new man , petty and sweetened ; he is declared being set free and absolved from sin in a world where everything is relative and possible ( Stalin was once claimed to say : where everybody tells lies , no one lies), surrounded by material abundance . But happy end somehow eludes him: by the irony the same relativism robes him of chance to find his true identity which is solely in the truth. He gets lost in gigantic hall full of deceptive images and none of them is true; for it is meaning he has lost because he lost himself first, and now desperate to get it back it he clings to fragments of creation as to his comfort. Or he may suddenly bursts in anger for he knows intuitively that he is robed and deceived , and there is need to find the scapegoat; he can do it in plenty of 'isms' offering to him to channel his rage. These ' isms' are ideologies as rigid forms of artifice to offer them selves for choice instead of the Truth of The Holy Spirit. At the end of it it remains to take the least hurting way, into the soothing flatness of perspectives ; in media colors are strong and seductive and flesh is weak; one easily drifts away in a surrender to warm comfort of a collective daydreaming . In a world where TV advertisements are very aggressively using visual arts and the artists to send very appealing merchant messages , audience is molded by these; the advertisement industry sadly emerges as the cultural source echoing the tastes of everyday life. This player with vast financial resources and unburdened with scruples of humanistic concerns for existential quest for meaning and truth can turn now to look for the best mean to utilize , convince of necessity to buy, and spend again . These are some among many faces of culture of death , against which ingeniously wrote and spoke with prophetic vision pope John Paul II. This reality, slowly soaking and impregnating the fabrics of Western societies is producing at the end rather new phenomenon : man rich in material things and in depth scientific knowledge, but with a cold heart and poor in wisdom and love. In the era when genetic tampering with living world has at times the utterly perverse effects, one would ask: maybe it is very close the age which had been prophesied as the time in which the scent would vanish out of flowers in the fields and charity out of man. When we think of all these things one question appears to many : do we love Lord God and fellow neighbor as our selves? In these times when doubts so easily settle in when is to judge fellow neighbor easier than to forgive . Do we look away from the disturbing image of suffering on the blessed cross of salvation, that asks to be carried, from the gospel of life that asks to be spread? Is our heart ready? Maybe we should try always to remember that love is the best thing that may happen to us, and may well be all we ought to achieve in this terrestrial life , after we find the most precious of all treasures , the kingdom of God. That is where we ought to entrust our hopes to, in joyful expectation of future splendor and glory of eternal life and salvation. The commandment that fulfills all others in both worlds is in deed most precious: simple and true.
Feeling a little melancholy there ain’t ya.
It's much more pithy.
If you read that whole thing Crazyhorse, you’re a better man than I.
"The commandment that fulfills all others in both worlds is in deed most precious: simple and true."
Gadzooks !!!
If you think I’m reading that, you’re high.
IATZ!
(rats)
Well, that concludes the first day of posting. Tomorrow begins Part B, section 1, subsection a.
What did you say?
No matter what the topic, when you sit down and write a 3,200-word paragraph, it’s time to switch to different medications.
If you can’t be bothered to edit this, what possible inclination could I have that it’s going to be worth reading?
Heavy Man, Heavy!
Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed reading that!
My, we’re a little full of ourself, aren’t we.
Mask squeeze?
Full of something.
Whar a coincidence!
I just got off a Vicodin treatment too!
I am grateful to the person who made this post - the comments following it have been priceless! :-)
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