In the historical context of the Genesis story there are 48 verses that deal with the consequences of the first temptation and the exodus from Eden which St. Augustine refers as “The Original Sin”. The questions I raise in a novel are the implications of such a story whereby my protagonist is “Human Reasoning”.
What is Satan’s Greatest Lie?
John 8:44
– You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of all lies.”
“Don’t lie to each other.” (Colossians 3:9)
Christians are in warfare against Satan. While it is true that Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, it is also true that Satan never ceases his attack on God’s People. In this warfare, let us look at five of Satan’s greatest lies he uses against people.
GREATEST LIE #1 – GOD WITHHOLDS GOOD THINGS FROM US
A. Genesis 3:4-5 –“‘You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
B. Satan tempts us to believe God’s goodness obligates Him to gratify our desires immediately, and when that does not happen, it is a sign that God does not care about us.
C. God’s plans are always for out best over the long haul, and not just for the immediate short-term.
GREATEST LIE #2 – TRUST IN THE DEITY OF SELF
A. Psalm 20:7– “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
B. Satan always provides a list of alternatives to choose from in place of choosing to trust in God.
Humanism
Materialism . . . Things . . . Stuff
Denominational-ism . . . Religious beliefs and organizations that did not come from God.
Numbers . . . Satan tempts us to trust in numbers and not God’s provision.
1 Chronicles 21:1
– “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”
5. Self . . . Self-reliance.
a. Satan wants us to fall victim to the lie of self-reliance.
Philippians 4:19
–“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
b. God-reliance . . . Not self-reliance.
GREATEST LIE #3 – GOD’S PEOPLE WILL NEVER SUFFER
A. Matthew 16:22-23– “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’”
B. Satan tempts us to believe nothing bad will ever happen to us as Christians. And, if something bad does happen, it is just a further sign that God is not all we believe Him to be.” Satan would have us believe that.
C. Satan’s lie sows self-pity that blooms into bitterness of heart.
1. How thankful we should be for the Book of Job.
2. Romans 8:28
– “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
GREATEST LIE #4 – MONEY BRINGS HAPPINESS
A. Matthew 4:8-9– “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.’”
B. Greed will take our eyes off God.
C. Listening to Satan will short-circuit God’s plan for us.
1. Malachi 3:10
– “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
2. God will provide things for us . . . But things will not provide God for us!
GREATEST LIE #5 – FORGIVENESS IS IMPOSSIBLE
A. Corinthians 2:7, 11– “Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
B. Refusal to forgive invites bitterness into our hearts.
C. Unable to forgive divides people and kills fellowship.
D. The road to forgiveness begins with remembering how much we’ve been forgiven.
E. In order to reach Heaven, not only must we be forgiven by God . . . But we must also forgive others.
Mark 11:25-26
– “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
John 8:32
– “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
The transformational process for a protagonist to undergo change from both external and internal forces that sends them in a new direction is a rewarding story as it unfolds when disclosed. These stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end in this kind of approach with some defining resolution as it is divulged from the storyteller. On the other hand, there are stories of a protagonist who will never see or understand how to form a new path despite the obstacles (whether these difficulties are internal or external) as the protagonist’s story unfolds. This too is an interesting story in its own right however tragic it might be.
There are many stories to highlight the human condition. Most of humanity’s affinity is with unresolved identities in personal obstacles; most humans do not meet a definite resolution in many of their conflicts within their lifespans. But misery does love company.
The “unexamined life is not worth living”… (Socrates), or “The mass of men lead a life of quiet desperation”… (H.D. Thoreau), are examples of the preeminent failures of our kind to overcome interference and/or conquer our interference that is more often expressed in literature than the former example of a hero’s journey such as Joseph Campbell discusses.
The unexamined life is not worth living (Ancient Greek: ὁ … ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ) is a famous dictum apparently uttered by Socrates at his trial for impiety and corrupting youth, for which he was subsequently sentenced to death, as described in Plato’s Apology (38a5-6).
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..”
featured in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell
The hero’s journey
– personal completion of cycle
Departure
The Call to Adventure
The hero begins in a situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.
Campbell: “…(the call of adventure is to) a forest, a kingdom underground, beneath the waves, or above the sky, a secret island, lofty mountaintop, or profound dream state; but it is always a place of strangely fluid and polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, super human deeds, and impossible delight. The hero can go forth of his own volition to carry out the adventure, as did Theseus when he arrived in his father’s city, Athens, and heard the horrible history of the Minotaur; or he may be carried or sent abroad by some benign or malignant agent as was Odysseus, driven about the Mediterranean by the winds of the angered god, Poseidon. The adventure may begin as a mere blunder… or still again, one may be only casually strolling when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of man. Examples might be multiplied, ad infinitum, from every corner of the world.”
Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
Campbell: “Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless—even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire or renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.” [2]
Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his guide and magical helper appears or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid him later in his quest.
Campbell: “For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass. What such a figure represents is the benign, protecting power of destiny. The fantasy is a reassurance—promise that the peace of Paradise, which was known first within the mother womb, is not to be lost; that it supports the present and stands in the future as well as in the past (is omega as well as alpha); that though omnipotence may seem to be endangered by the threshold passages and life awakenings, protective power is always and ever-present within or just behind the unfamiliar features of the world. One has only to know and trust, and the ageless guardians will appear. Having responded to his own call, and continuing to follow courageously as the consequences unfold, the hero finds all the forces of the unconscious at his side. Mother Nature herself supports the mighty task. And in so far as the hero’s act coincides with that for which his society is ready, he seems to ride on the great rhythm of the historical process.” [3]
Crossing the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
Campbell: “With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian’ at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in four directions — also up and down — standing for the limits of the hero’s present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness, the unknown and danger; just as beyond the parental watch is danger to the infant and beyond the protection of his society danger to the members of the tribe. The usual person is more than content, he is even proud, to stay within the indicated bounds, and popular belief gives him every reason to fear so much as the first step into the unexplored. The adventure is always and everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown; the powers that watch at the boundary are dangerous; to deal with them is risky; yet for anyone with competence and courage the danger fades.” [4]
Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the last separation from the hero’s known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis. When First entering the stage the hero may meet a minor danger or set back.
Campbell: “The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would seem to have died. This popular motif gives emphasis to the lesson that the passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. Instead of passing out, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes in, to be born again. The disappearance corresponds to the passing of a worshipper into a temple—where he is to be quickened by the recollection of who and what he is, namely dust and ashes unless immortal. The temple interior, the belly of the whale, and the heavenly land beyond, above, and below the confines of the world, are the same. That is why the approaches and entrances to temples are flanked and defended by colossal gargoyles: dragons, lions, devil-slayers with drawn swords, resentful dwarfs, winged bulls. The devotee at the moment of entry into a temple undergoes a metamorphosis. Once inside he may be said to have died to time and returned to the World Womb, the World Navel, the Earthly Paradise. Allegorically, then, the passage into a temple and the hero-dive through the jaws of the whale are identical adventures, both denoting in picture language, the life-centering, life-renewing act.” [5]
Initiation
The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
Campbell: “Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is a favorite phase of the myth-adventure. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals. The hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper whom he met before his entrance into this region. Or it may be that he here discovers for the first time that there is a benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage. The original departure into the land of trials represented only the beginning of the long and really perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination. Dragons have now to be slain and surprising barriers passed — again, again, and again. Meanwhile there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land.” [6]
The Meeting with the Goddess
Campbell: “The ultimate adventure, when all the barriers and ogres have been overcome, is commonly represented as a mystical marriage of the triumphant hero-soul with the Queen Goddess of the World. This is the crisis at the nadir, the zenith, or at the uttermost edge of the earth, at the central point of the cosmos, in the tabernacle of the temple, or within the darkness of the deepest chamber of the heart. The meeting with the goddess (who is incarnate in every woman) is the last test of the talent of the hero to win the boon of love (charity: amor fati), which is life itself enjoyed as the encasements of eternity. And when the adventurer, in this context, is not a youth but a maid, she is the one who, by her qualities, her beauty, or her yearning, is fit to become the consort of an immortal. Then the heavenly husband descends to her and conducts her to his bed—whether she will or not. And if she has shunned him, the scales fall from her eyes; if she has sought him, her wish finds its peace.” [7]
Woman as Temptress
In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.
Campbell: “The crux of the curious difficulty lies in the fact that our conscious views of what life ought to be seldom correspond to what life really is. Generally we refuse to admit within ourselves, or within our friends, the fullness of that pushing, self-protective, malodorous, carnivorous, lecherous fever which is the very nature of the organic cell. Rather, we tend to perfume, whitewash, and reinterpret; meanwhile imagining that all the flies in the ointment, all the hairs in the soup, are the faults of some unpleasant someone else. But when it suddenly dawns on us, or is forced to our attention that everything we think or do is necessarily tainted with the odor of the flesh, then, not uncommonly, there is experienced a moment of revulsion: life, the acts of life, the organs of life, woman in particular as the great symbol of life, become intolerable to the pure, the pure, pure soul. The seeker of the life beyond life must press beyond (the woman), surpass the temptations of her call, and soar to the immaculate ether beyond.” [8]
Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must face and be initiated by whatever holds the greatest power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have moved into this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most often symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.
Campbell: “Atonement consists in no more than the abandonment of that self-generated double monster—the dragon thought to be God (superego) and the dragon thought to be Sin (repressed id). But this requires an abandonment of the attachment to ego itself, and that is what is difficult. One must have a faith that the father is merciful, and then a reliance on that mercy. Therewith, the center of belief is transferred outside of the bedeviling god’s tight scaly ring, and the dreadful ogres dissolve. It is in this ordeal that the hero may derive hope and assurance from the helpful female figure, by whose magic (pollen charms or power of intercession) he is protected through all the frightening experiences of the father’s ego-shattering initiation. For if it is impossible to trust the terrifying father-face, then one’s faith must be centered elsewhere (Spider Woman, Blessed Mother); and with that reliance for support, one endures the crisis—only to find, in the end, that the father and mother reflect each other, and are in essence the same. The problem of the hero going to meet the father is to open his soul beyond terror to such a degree that he will be ripe to understand how the sickening and insane tragedies of this vast and ruthless cosmos are completely validated in the majesty of Being. The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to a glimpse of the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands—and the two are atoned.” [9]
Apotheosis
This is the point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved. Armed with this new knowledge and perception, the hero is resolved and ready for the more difficult part of the adventure
Campbell: “Those who know, not only that the Everlasting lies in them, but that what they, and all things, really are is the Everlasting, dwell in the groves of the wish fulfilling trees, drink the brew of immortality, and listen everywhere to the unheard music of eternal concord.” [10]
The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.
Campbell: “The gods and goddesses then are to be understood as embodiments and custodians of the elixir of Imperishable Being but not themselves the Ultimate in its primary state. What the hero seeks through his intercourse with them is not finally themselves, but their grace, i.e., the power of their sustaining substance. This miraculous energy-substance and this alone is the Imperishable; the names and forms of the deities who everywhere embody, dispense, and represent it come and go. This is the miraculous energy of the thunderbolts of Zeus, Yahweh, and the Supreme Buddha, the fertility of the rain of Viracocha, the virtue announced by the bell rung in the Mass at the consecration, and the light of the ultimate illumination of the saint and sage. Its guardians dare release it only to the duly proven.” [11]
Return
Refusal of the Return
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to give the boon onto his fellow-man.
Campbell: “When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration to the source, or through the grace of some male or female, human or animal, personification, the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting trophy. The full round, the norm of the monomyth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may redound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet or the ten thousand worlds. But the responsibility has been often refused. Even Gautama Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have died while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being.” [12]
The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
Campbell: “If the hero in his triumph wins the blessing of the goddess or the god and is then explicitly commissioned to return to the world with some elixir for the restoration of society, the last stage of his adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron. On the other hand, if the trophy has been attained against the opposition of its guardian, or if the hero’s wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round becomes a lively, often comical, pursuit. This flight may be complicated by marvels of magical obstruction and evasion.” [13]
Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.
Campbell: “The hero may have to be brought back from his supernatural adventure by help from without. That is to say, the world may have to come and get him. For the bliss of the deep abode is not lightly abandoned in favor of the self-scattering of the wakened state. ‘Who having cast off the world,’ we read, ‘would desire to return again? He would be only there.’ And yet, in so far as one is alive, life will call. Society is jealous of those who remain away from it, and will come knocking at the door. If the hero. . . is unwilling, the disturber suffers an ugly shock; but on the other hand, if the summoned one is only delayed—sealed in by the beatitude of the state of perfect being (which resembles death)—an apparent rescue is effected, and the adventurer returns.”[14]
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.
Campbell: “The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world. Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold. The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life. Why re-enter such a world? Why attempt to make plausible, or even interesting, to men and women consumed with passion, the experience of transcendental bliss? As dreams that were momentous by night may seem simply silly in the light of day, so the poet and the prophet can discover themselves playing the idiot before a jury of sober eyes. The easy thing is to commit the whole community to the devil and retire again into the heavenly rock dwelling, close the door, and make it fast. But if some spiritual obstetrician has drawn the shimenawa across the retreat, then the work of representing eternity in time, and perceiving in time eternity, cannot be avoided” The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.[15]
Master of Two Worlds
This step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Gautama Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Campbell: “Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division, from the perspective of the apparitions of time to that of the causal deep and back—not contaminating the principles of the one with those of the other, yet permitting the mind to know the one by virtue of the other—is the talent of the master. The Cosmic Dancer, declares Nietzsche, does not rest heavily in a single spot, but gaily, lightly, turns and leaps from one position to another. It is possible to speak from only one point at a time, but that does not invalidate the insights of the rest. The person, through prolonged psychological disciplines, gives up completely all attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears, no longer resists the self-annihilation that is prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth, and so becomes ripe, at last, for the great at-one-ment. His personal ambitions being totally dissolved, he no longer tries to live but willingly relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him; he becomes, that is to say, an anonymity.”[14]
Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live.This is sometimes called living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
Campbell: “The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is. “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He does not mistake clear changelessness in time for the permanence of Being, nor is he fearful of the next moment (or of the ‘other thing’), as destroying the permanent with its change. ‘Nothing retains its own form; but Nature, the greater re-newer, ever makes up forms from forms. Be sure there’s nothing perishes in the whole universe; it does but vary and renew its form.’ Thus the next moment is permitted to come to pass.” [17]
The martyr’s story
– incomplete trans-formative cycle of an individual that transmutes and gives meaning to others
The common-ordinary protagonist
Non-completion and most of our kind falls under this category with no resolution discovered
The extraordinary protagonist
Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or special cases of people with extraordinary peculiarities that become intertwined with fortuitous circumstances
The conflicts are internal and external
Spirit / Will ( {internal} obstinate, ignorance, {external} control by fear, interpersonal interference) The spirit is essentially the embodiment of existential factors that depersonalizes us over extended periods of time with negative effects such as co-dependent relationships.
Mind ( the psychological factors such as ego, personality, intelligence, coping skills, drives and habits comprising of motivators that direct our behaviors)
There are so many examples of interesting stories that make up the human condition that can teach us about our humanity. Many of us are simply detached and do not pay attention as we drift through our living days on this planet in all its tumultuous underpinnings. I contend that most people, do not investigate what can make a better life for us and our fellow citizens on nothing more than a political level and that this purpose is hidden in the subterfuge of faulty logic and misguided erroneous human motivational factors.
Out of the immense varieties of self discovery, a very small amount of people will ever gain any kind of visionary wisdom that won’t be in vain. When in search for the “best possible life”, and learning about this knowledge could benefit the associations in their company, few if any would recognize the values of such an attempt. These seekers of betterment are more likely to explore this activity by perusing the book shelves in the local Barnes and Noble “self-help” bookseller inventory.
“Word of mouth”, and an internet search for such ideas is also very likely to turn a few heads, and only by serendipity if it comes to pass indeed. The idea of manifestation comes to mind when a topic such as this comes to the fore. For me, I have chosen the meta-topics of searching through available literature, and the discovery of humans connecting to others in the process. The stories we have been exposed to has a process; a process that connects us to one another for the simple reason for similar mindsets wanting something more than what usually leaves us defensively. The quest for a better understanding than what is usually an acceptable anecdotal path to the many journey’s of discovery pursued in a life is tested once again when we broaden this scope.
Where does a child’s spirit go when they close themselves off to family members and others who populate their world? What is the cost of their development when they decide to shut out others or simply feel ignored and unloved? They do not shut them out because of their own maladaptive behaviors, but because those in question are unavailable emotionally and they must decide to seek emotional sustenance elsewhere.
Many paths may lead someone to seek these missing human connections by either self-medication (drugs, alcohol), or by other means such as religious beliefs looking out and relying on faith to help them negotiate their pain. Arguably a more perplexing attempt to reconcile this issue is the person who looks within themselves to find these answers. I surmise the introvert who seeks answers to understand just how they fit in is probably more common than one would think.
The child is therefore forced to question the predicament they find themselves in. What follows next is the determiner of their fate. Do they educate themselves and look for these answers, or have they been already seeded with a resolution that may direct them into some meaningful way to express themselves and receive these feelings for the need of communion?
How many people walk the earth in a semi-present state of being that inadvertently affects others around them? I think we all are guilty of being “out-of-touch”, “disassociated”, “distracted”, “stressed-out”, “inattentive”, or simply just “out of sync” with those around us! The skills to overcome this dilemma are requisite in speech communication. These questions might apply for the once-in-a-while occasional mishap between family members or the severe cases of families that continually deal with alienation through-out their childhood, their adolescence, and their adult lives within their relationships.
I remember when I dealt with these issues, one of the first early conclusions I adopted was the view that “we are ultimately alone” in the world. Self-reliance was a fundamental coping strategy if you factor in this reasoning. This may sound somewhat of an “existential philosophy”, and may truly be such a starting point for many of these philosophers, but as I reached further in my inquiry; it is not the last valuation I consider for the human condition we find ourselves in. People with similar experiences do not always gravitate to this solution in our predicaments.
Despite the desolation, we are still agents in the world. We are reactive beings that have the ability to make changes on how we view the world. How we are a function of possibility is primarily due to our thinking and mental states that we use. Being is important but how we test this being is clearly up to us. There is no fixed attachment to the existential views that we are “thrown into the world” as J.P. Sartre would say. Though in his statement our “condemnation to be free” is poignant, the basic premise still has a controversial starting point in his assertion from my point of view.
The bewildered youth of today have even more distractions than our past generations due to the detachments of how we communicate with one another (social media), entertainment activities that are arguably more self-directed (gaming, computers), regardless of our generational evolution in parental awareness of this matter. The state of this bewilderment is not necessarily a condition that leads one into a deep abyss, it can also awaken a person to the depth of our human limitations. Take such as the Buddhist axiom for a path to enlightenment in the Siddhartha Gautama story.
The Buddha too experimented with various unexplored avenues, before coming to the final spiritual realization.
He first tried asceticism. Since he believed his disillusionment to stem from the cravings of his body, his first reaction was to negate it totally, even to the extent that he stopped eating. Consequently, his bones stuck out like a row of spindles, and when he touched his stomach, he could almost feel his spine. His hair fell out and his skin became withered. But all this was in vain. However severe his austerities, perhaps even because of them, the body still clamored for attention, and he was still plagued by lust and craving. In fact, he seemed more conscious of himself than ever. Finally, Buddha had to face that asceticism had failed to redeem him. All he had achieved after this heroic assault upon his body was a prominent rib cage, and a dangerously weakened physique.
Nevertheless, Buddha was still optimistic. He was certain that it was possible for human beings to reach the last liberation of enlightenment. And at that very moment, when he seemed to have come to a dead-end, the beginning of a new solution declared itself to him. He realized that instead of torturing our reluctant selves into the last release, we might be able to meet it effortlessly and spontaneously.
We are essentially dependent on “how” our thinking depicts the world we navigate. We do have the ability to change and augment the way we view the world and ourselves. The universe is also inclusive of those around us whether they be distracted, attached or not. This statement may be self-evident and factual, but many do not interpret with the same analysis in our dealings with one another. If such as we have a person that has a very troubling childhood, little communication, and an underdeveloped emotional and physical relationship to their family, one can draw the proper conclusions that may ensue. Feelings of abandonment, detachment, hopelessness, and an intense feeling of being alone just might exist for them.
There may be people you know that suffer from some form of detachment. They pull themselves away from contact as a defense mechanism to protect their feeling states and cognitive dissonant states. It might be a friend of your children’s or even a friend of yours. Many navigate the world without ever reaching any peace with the way they see the world, especially if they live by this depressive state of being.
The impoverished minds of this world may be inspired to overcome this impoverishment, or they may be destitute and wither away right before our eyes…..so we must pay attention because it may be someone you care about.
We all seek answers to the questions that affect us. We all have different personalities, different affinities to different determiners of how we come to feel. The common thread is precisely our connection to other people that binds us together as a species. The important mechanisms that filter our world is extremely important in the developing stages of a human being. Our adaptive processes are also ever increasingly prominent in comparative psychologies.
In short the summation I find myself to engender is defined by this simple statement. “Be the best person you can be!”
At what cost do we tread upon the woven fabric of society that is now dividing us because we think we have knowledge that fuses our disagreements into becoming weaponized moral issues? Are we so disconnected that we believe we are the only privileged owners of truthful information when we find ourselves in different corners of a debate? Is our world view that much different to begin with? Why is there so much tumultuous rhetoric being flung toward our conversations these days? I need only look to the “lame-stream” media to proclaim the child-like arguments many people seem to fall into before they see fit to unravel the chaotic rubbish embedded into the premises uttered. Even our educational systems feed politically correct agendas.
What is the source of our information to begin with? How do we know it is truthful, factual, or correct? This author believes whether we know it or not, we are in a cultural information war that is reaping havoc upon all of us.
Having healthy debates over issues is rightfully good if and only if the debaters allow the other to speak their minds freely without resorting to name calling and actually listen to the side of their respective opponents. I find that most people cannot properly debate their discussions on a social media platform among others. They do not follow any ascribed rules, but rather they tend to ramble on a diatribe of content that is not brought out into the argument with any integrity and tangles much of the content in logical paradox. If we make assumptions without proper analysis, then we can continue a conversation that will be laden with errors of logical deductions.
A few pointers for having fair intellectual debates:
1st) Never Use A Personal Point To Debate The Validity Of Someone Else’s Factual Point
2nd) An Argument Against A Reputable Expert Can Only Be Made By Another Reputable Expert
3rd) Emotional Responses Are Typically Full Of It
4th) Always Let The Other Person Speak
5th) Don’t be Long Winded – Make Your Points In As Few Words As Possible
6th) Lure and Destroy
7th) The Best Way To Respond To Name Calling: Silence
8th) The More References, The Better Your Chances Of Influencing Your Opponent
9th) Any Question That Anyone Asks You May Be Loaded
10th) Emotion Is Not Your Friend
When will we be free of this dishonest blather? If we do not approach one another with any constraint, we are destined to fall into baffled ruin like the children of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies!
We would all like to believe that we are independent free thinkers that can formulate original ideas and assess the validity of the opinions’ of others but I have found much of this to be an illusion and contrarily this foretold claim is not present in most people I’ve encountered. Do you know someone that belongs to a cult? The answer may surprise you!
If you shut down debate by emotionalizing an argument, or if you appeal to the many ways of false ad hominem arguments, then you are effectively letting your bias interfere with your critical thinking. These techniques are numerous in social media and conversation today.
2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also: its body of adherents
3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents
4: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
5a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially: such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b: the object of such devotion c: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
The overlap of cults and culture
Cult, which shares an origin with culture and cultivate, comes from the Latin cultus, a noun with meanings ranging from “tilling, cultivation” to “training or education” to “adoration.” In English, cult has evolved a number of meanings following a fairly logical path. The earliest known uses of the word, recorded in the 17th century, broadly denoted “worship.” From here cult came to refer to a specific branch of a religion or the rites and practices of that branch, as in “the cult of Dionysus.” By the early 18th century, cult could refer to a non-religious admiration or devotion, such as to a person, idea, or fad (“the cult of success”). Finally, by the 19th century, the word came to be used of “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.”
In my observance of everyday conversation in social media I have noticed trends in the structure of assertions others make in their communications. Because of my own educational background, I have found problematic logical anomalies in these common assertions that seem to sway the beliefs of the unsuspecting participants. This is unfortunate because after studying these exchanges of dialog, it is clear some people fall into the trappings of these logical fallacies that persuade many others despite the flawed reasoning.
The “hive” mind is observed in a conversation that often resorts to using misrepresented data points to further an argument. If you vet the source of the statistical inferences, carefully look at the data, then it is possible to clear the argument of bias and strip it down without convolution of the premise. Much of what we find today is loaded with misleading false narratives that are designed to sway you by lacing the argument with an emotional bias and sophistry.
One can easily recall the advertising industry to see countless and baseless examples of using fallacious and emotionalized narratives to sell their products. Actually you can find many examples in how our own government agencies use language and semantics to further a cause. Look at money and our current financial economic policies. Banking regulations, fiat currencies, and legal jargon prevent many people from understanding its design and is used against them all the time. It was written not for the people, but rather is written to benefit the private bankers, financiers who authored these systems. Simply look to the federal reserve; a private bank in control of deflating and inflating our currency backed by nothing, (fiat currency) which has usurped the constitution altogether.
When we bring in the debt of printing this fraudulent currency waged against the people, we invent a non-ratified, unappropriated tax on our labor to help pay for this unconstitutional agency called the Federal Reserve which controls the Internal Revenue Service. Since we have been duped into believing that we have to pay this tax, (amendment) people usually do or risk of having house and home taken away. Our culture is full of this kind of bureaucracy that has poisoned the wells of the intellectually free minded citizens. Scores of educational controversy has taken root in our school systems. The subversive takeover of our children’s minds has historical precedence in many countries around the world. In the country we have dealt with “no child left behind”, and “common core” among earlier infusions of propagandizing the “red scare” to our school children.
Persuasion itself is not under attack in this piece. Rather, the logical fallacies that are used to persuade people is! Debate is something I believe to be a healthy productive activity, but when you are diminished by being called a fascist, racist, or some other explicative; under false premises, than I think we have a problem. The trend for foggy thinking is unprecedented in current times. (Simply look at the 2016 presidential election). This is clear especially when other people do not like what you stand for if it does not agree with their world view. They will simply refute without paying attention to what you are saying if it is contrary to their beliefs. People without a healthy cognitive grip use the narratives that only support their world view. They tend not to use critical thinking skills to uncover the dust of confusion and propaganda that was designed to hinder their thinking in the first place.
Ask yourself this question. How many people do you know on your social media feeds that spend a great deal of time posting about political memes and articles that intend to further a cause? They don’t post much about their own family, yet they consume much of their time commenting on politically charged articles that beg to engender some kind of sympathy towards their post. I see these posts all the time and I am distressed by their diminished capacity for critical thinking when reading these pieces. All political parties take part and no one social group is excluded.
Social control in a society is a very difficult venture. The more control the state has, the less the people can do other than a revolution.
My problem with many of my associations is that I look at the argument from a philosophical viewpoint. I look at the structure of the argument before I usually make a judgement on the meaning and beliefs about the argument. I use my filters before I render a decision. Maybe this is why I see so many abuses of language, semantics, logic, and thinking in others who wish to tell me their opinions that it makes me a bit saddened. I am disheartened after reading many of these posts from even my own family members.
I must admit the most atrocious posts tend to rely on the ignorance of those believing in them. If we look at the current political climate, I tend to find that the Democratic party (USA) is the most tenacious and ruthless group of people bent on the domination and oppression of people. I’m sure one can find many examples of both parties corruptible attributions in their expression, but if I were to focus on one, than the Democratic party and the mainstream media in the United States is by far the worst I have ever seen.
If you look at the social posts of today, and with a corruptible mass media that is telling the lie over and over again, (i.e. climate change, dividing us group by group by calling us racist, ad infinitum), than maybe we are falling for this political paradigm that is misleading us away from the constitution?
There are countless memes used to shut debate. The assumptions made in many of these memes are fallacious and ridiculous, but on the other hand many simple-minded people tend to fall for them. I hope not to offend any readers. I myself am peeved by the outrageous claims that others do not share my belief system, yet we are exposed to the same set of data points and arguments made to us by educators, family and friends or business associates. Heck, the internet alone if used properly can be a useful tool if you know the pitfalls, along with fully researching the information.
In conclusion I claim that the cult like activities seen in protest rallies around the USA in 2016 are full of propaganda. The George Soros funded events around the globe were designed to plunder the outcomes of those that globalists oppose to gain credibility in these false scenarios. If you read the Wikileaks emails, if you “think for yourself” and not allow others to think for you, you have half of the problem solved in the critical analysis of information that is highly politicized in this day and age. I happen to believe that the democratic party (and much of our government), has sold us out, and does not believe in the constitution. The democratic party demonstrates it’s policy in communicating like a cult! Look at the voting record through-out history and see how the democratic party traditionally voted. If you look it up on the voting record the party voted against civil rights legislation, they are the party that supported slavery, they are now against the 2nd amendment, and against the 4th amendment in the previous Obama administration. They are against the 13th amendment, among many others that they have spun to impune their opposition and suggest the other party are the ones that are against the people. I am completely open to agree if there are truths about these claims, yet I find little evidence to support them despite some differences in modern-day political party corruption cases. Yes it does happen in both parties. Yes, I try not to be partisan, but I find many cases used as examples of my thesis in this claim that are overwhelming and complicit in the evidence mentioned.
If you would like more examples, just pay attention to your local social media feed, or turn on the television and watch the news.
The historical accounts of propaganda are definitely home grown. Before Hitler and others, there was Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, can be considered the father of public relations and propaganda. Bernays literally wrote the book on propaganda, public relations, and manipulating public opinion. Yes, Bernays was born in Vienna, and later moved to America becoming an American publicist. His notorious book written in 1929 was Propaganda.
Reception and Impact
Despite the relative significance of Propaganda to twentieth century media history and modern public relations, surprisingly little critique of the work exists. Public relations scholar Curt Olsen argues that the public largely accepted Bernays’ “sunny” view of propaganda, an acceptance eroded by fascism in the World War II era.[12] Olsen also argues that Bernays’s skill with language allowed terms such as “education” to subtly replace darker concepts such as “indoctrination.”[13] Finally, Olsen criticizes Bernays for advocating “psychic ease” for the average person to have no burden to answer for his or her own actions in the face of powerful messages.[14] On the other hand, writers such as Marvin Olasky justify Bernays as killing democracy in order to save it.[15] In this way, the presence of an elite, faceless persuasion constituted the only plausible way to prevent authoritarian control.[16] Concepts outlined in Bernays’ Propaganda and other works enabled the development of the first “two-way model” of public relations, using elements of social science in order to better formulate public opinion.[17] Bernays justified public relations as a profession by clearly emphasizing that no individual or group had a monopoly on the true understanding of the world.[18] According to public relations expert Stuart Ewen, “What Lippman set out in grand, overview terms, Bernays is running through in how-to-do-it-terms.”[19] His techniques are now staples for public image creation and political campaigns.[20]
You must be logged in to post a comment.