Atheists typically do not believe in the existence of evil, and one might be minded to say this permits them to perform evil acts with a good conscience.
But what one never says is that they are not in the habit of demonising their fellow men and women, either —
They say ‘woman is a mystery’. But is she really mysterious, or is that said that you make her interesting, and thereby unnecessarily complicate matters?
Then there is the golden question we rarely ask — who says that woman is a mystery? Is it not young men, awkward in courtship and compensating for their often justified insecurities, which they eventually grow out of with age. And is it not old, narcissistic, insecure men who are awkward in life and, in many cases, refuse to grow up, having failed to compensate successfully for their insecurities?
Firstly, my dear, insecure, fellow men — grow up and stop resisting life, or be patient and focus on security in the broadest sense of the term, then you might begin to see the ‘mystery’ wash away.
Secondly, there is no such thing as ‘woman’; each woman is a person with wishes, dreams, hopes, habits, and emotions. You created the concept of ‘woman’ to project your needs and manage your insecurities.
Thirdly, leave her out of it; she is not the problem, you are. Look at your thoughts, beliefs, and stubbornly defeatist habits — they undermine your security and, in turn, corrode the feeling of life you crave and the feeling she wishes to share with you.
He said, “please do not hinder my expression”.
She replied, “then please do not force me to lose respect for you.”
(Hello, is this thing still on?)
What does he want, you may ask, my dear? What could he want, other than to borrow an inch of your infinite light, and to repay with interest, of course —to repose for a moment under your eternal shine.
Your love light, your life light, what else — he wants to feel the pulse of your pleasure — to rejoice in the melody of your ecstasy — to swim in the currents of your swoon.
But, enough, don’t let them hear you — it’s all too shameful, isn’t it? The highest resonances of living are morally wrong — are they not? Maybe what is wrong is that we speak of them, and not their quiet, private enjoyment. What do you think, dear?
Shh — don’t let the mob occupy such premium space rent free in your soul, the kernel of your affirmation of life. The dumb, dirty, spiritually destitute mob — what do they know? What do they want? And what have they to give that they haven’t taken already? — They have the polis, and they should be happy with it. The spirit is your own… claim it and defend it to the death, dear. I will be there with you on the frontline and the strategy room.
Your spirit is the house of God.
And God knows better than the mob.
A good way to measure the spiritual value of an ideology — whether it promotes the value of life or demotes it — is by looking at the emotions to which appeals.
For an ideology falls on deaf ears, a car without wheels, if it fails to appeal to something we feel or want to feel.
Fear, pride, anger, hatred, schadenfreude, envy, love, wonder, reverence — have they not been baked into doctrines before, or at least attempted to be so baked? And is not the success of a doctrine its ability to take an emotion and structure it into a way of life, to give it meaning within a complex of action and reason — namely to take emotions to their logical and practical conclusions, to their extremes in many cases?
Two common vantages that politicians assume when reasoning about the populace are: the gardener or the herder. One treats the populace as plants and their jurisdiction as a garden or plantation. The other treats them as a pack of barely rational animals.
How a politician perceives the populace, what assumptions they make and nurture about human beings en masse and as a mass, makes a difference in how they interpret events and what decisions they make.
One who would value uplifting falsehoods over petty facts must be in a poorly state.
Would we not be more charitable to them if we attended to their poorly state as opposed to their falsehoods?
Why waste their time by indulging their intellectual sleights of hand?
There are people with a purpose and they have their reasons, and then there are those without any cause, who are looking for an excuse.
For the last century, political philosophy has tried to find the moral core of political opinion — and it has been incredibly inventive in doing so. To the point of conflating ethics with politics as if there is a direct causal link between what we deem to be right and wrong and what political decisions we make, which policies we ascribe to.
In the first instance, it is important to pay homage to the incentive behind this approach to political philosophy: they have sought to bring humanity, compassion and morality to matters of ownership, control, survival, interest, self-interest, resource allocation and management, war and peace. This ought to be commended as a worthy motive.
But, despite its noble intentions, the moralisation of politics has led to the creation of extreme political viewpoints and actions, emboldened by the sense that one has a moral right to their policies. It has eroded at the practical reason — the trade-offs and the instinct for equilibrium in power — which used to serve as a powerful bulwark to the chaos and misery which follows the decline of political order and which is preceded as a symptom by the proliferation of decadence.
Who would have thought that eroding at practical reason in pursuit of a higher form of reason — a moral reason seduced by the promise of a moral utopia — would lead to political disorder, misery and chaos?
What you really feel about a circumstance is the most primitive assessment of that situation you possess and therefore the one closest to who you are. Let’s call these “root feelings”.
Ideally, your root feelings are where you begin (not end) your journey from understanding to deciding and finally acting upon a circumstance such that your actions are the richest and most complete expressions of your personal and moral identity.
However, any interpretation of the circumstance also conjures up other feelings. These feelings, in turn, obfuscate your root feeling. These interpretations, especially when they become habits of mind for one reason or another (partly nature, partly nurture)can happen really fast and can be difficult to interject, suspend or even prevent. Let’s call these “stem feelings”.
The more habits of mind we create, the faster we become at interpreting and, in turn, the more distant the connection to the root feeling from the stem feelings.
After a while, it becomes increasingly difficult to get to the root feeling and so you lose yourself, which affects your actions and eventually makes your happiness and fulfillment that much harder.
Eventually, the connection is lost by layers upon layers of stem feelings — this event is typically understood as the development of a complex.
Complexes are habitual interpretations of circumstances that engender such feelings that detach you from your root feeling about the circumstance.
What is the root feeling and how do you know you arrived at it?
A story for another day, but as a preface: it expresses what you want, not what you think you want, or what you should or what you can want.
Prenormative 