ENEMETICS
“The artificial codes of conduct and essentially superficial modes of personal expression our various cultures impose on the human spirit are very powerful, because we fear ostracism and isolation from our own kind more than we love freedom.”
After reading a couple of letters from a defender of fascism I've coined a term –– ENEMETICS. A mercifully-short, recently published article by ultra-liberal Chris Hedges, unfortunately not available to us here, is a virtual Rorschach image of the recently conventionalized ravings of the extreme right wing against the left –– so much so it is almost comical in its undisciplined use of hateful hyperbole. Ironically, however, passages from that article hit upon home truths that, I believe, apply to human relations at all levels and from every angle.
ENEMETICS: the rabid, seething and overt expression of a fundamental human craving to loathe and despise SOMETHING in order to give oneself a sense of purpose and identity. As a species, we appear to be virtually addicted to conflict.
It's the very thing that has held ancient tribal cultures together and empowered them for countless centuries. However, it is hardly peculiar to ancient peoples. Where would anyone be without enemies? Who would they be without enemies to define them? Everyone should ask that of himself -- including thee and me.
Marxism, Fascism, Theocracy –– authoritarianism of any and all kinds –– inevitably lead to TOTALITARIANISM. So, oddly enough, does Anarchism.
"Revolutions" inevitably wind up supplanting one form of tyranny and oppression with another. That's a cliché.
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| Delacroix - Liberty Leading the People |
Great sage that I am I figured out for myself a long time ago that the human lust to dominate –– exert power and control over others one personally deems inferior or (more kindly) "in need of guidance" –– is the truest enemy of mankind. Certain hyper-aggressive, hubristic individuals spearhead movements, sway masses, develop poisonous cults, start wars, et al. in order to prove to themselves they count for something. That too is a cliché.
Superstition, poisonous gossip, rabble-rousing, internecine warfare in organizations –– all of it fueled by an illusory pursuit of some kind of "Truth" or "Justice" –– usually a counterfeit thereof –– are responsible for most of the perplexity, violence, agony, and unnecessary deaths in history.
Aggression, suppression, oppression, exploitation, enslavement –– all bad no matter who may be wielding the Big Stick. As Pogo said back in the early nineteen-fifties:
"We have met the enemy, and he is US."
SO, the moment ANY movement or philosophy becomes aggressive and domineering, it automatically becomes pernicious. Jesus Christ has been ill served by "His" church ever since it became organized, worldly, acquisitive, politically powerful and authoritarian.
While I suppose I am an elitist, and fancy the trappings (at the very least) of wealth, refinement and high culture –– as originally SPONSORED by authoritarian Christianity, Royalty, and Aristocracy and even some pretentious industrialists (i.e. certain so-called Robber Barons of The Gilded Age) –– all of whom left magnificent architectural monuments –– churches and cathedrals, hospitals, university quadrangles, libraries, museums, opera houses, concert halls, railroad stations, city halls, public parks, restored antique villages of historic importance, and many other achievements in their wake –– achievements no savage or peasant society would devise or value –– I cannot sympathize with "fascism," any more than I can tolerate Marxian proletarianism.
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| Symbolic Surrogates for Human Hatred |
I've met too many people up close and personal from supposedly disparate and conflicting walks of life, who act like long lost brothers when free from the constraints and pretenses of ordinary social, professional and business society, not to realize that at root we'd rather love and enjoy one another than anything else.
The artificial codes of conduct and essentially superficial modes of personal expression our various cultures impose on the human spirit are very powerful, because we fear ostracism and isolation from our kind more than we love freedom.
Freedom scares the bleeding tar out of most people, ergo they conform. But deep down, I'm pretty sure most of us would rather fuck than fight –– at least I hope so.
~ FreeThinke
Very nice. Human nature is what it is and cannot be fundamentally changed. Caution: Double-Edged swords are everywhere.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting reading Franco. Thought provoking and honest.
ReplyDeleteI think that maximum personal freedoms is the desire of most but certainly not all. Laws restricting freedom in society are the direct result of human excesses. IOW some peoples inability to control their worst impulses.
I know this is dreaming and it would be unworkable but it is too bad the only law needed isn't this: respect the rights of all others to live and believe as they wish as long as their actions do not abridge the rights of others to live and believe as they choose. All one really need understand completely is this: “Reason, which is that Law,” Locke declared, “teaches all Mankind, who would but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Possessions.”
This post could, and should IMO, generate a lively conversation.
Good post Franco.
Thak you. The most RATIONAL thing any of us could ever hope to do would be to obey The GOLDEN RULE:
Delete"DO unto OTHERS as you would have THEM do unto YOU."
IF we did that, there would be no need whatsoever for any of the OTHER laws.
BUT, because we are, as I indicated, ADDICTED to CONFICT, we constantly reject and shun the simple, clean direct path to Salvation.
In essence, and at its best CHRISTIANITY is nothing more or less than the sedulous, unstinting applicatiion of good Commin Sense.
Unfortunately, Human Nature generally would prefer to Iive in endless strife and agony rather than surrender its will to a Higher Power.
Naturally I hope this little essay DOES generate a lively exchange of thoughts and feelings, but chances are ...
DeleteNeed I g on?
We'll just have to wait and see see what comes in over the transom in the next day or two.
The Liberty to Hate
ReplyDeleteTaki´s Magazine
by Christopher DeGroot
If you want to understand politics, it is instructive to overcome the common prejudice against negative feelings—enmity, hatred, contempt, envy, resentment, and others—because though often concealed by people’s moral delusions and self-serving social games, they are constitutive of political ideology and essential to political action. Consider David French, that phony conservative par excellence. His April 22 column in Time magazine—“Donald Trump Is Weak and Afraid. The Mueller Report Proves It”—is typical of French’s method. Instead of criticizing the president’s neoconservative foreign policy and betrayal of the American working class on the labor/immigration issue—the subjects for which . . .
The hate drug is very powerful and very obvious with the libtard/progressive/communists.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Kid, BUT –– even though I hate to be the one to say it –– there's an awful lot of mindless hatred and stupidity among those who like to think they're "conservatives" too.
DeleteGeorge Burns made two great movies towards the end of his very long life
Oh God!
and
Oh God, You Devil!
I highly recommend them as great-but-painless lessons on the nature of good and Evil, and how best we ought to live our lives.
Imagine how entertaining win weighty issues could be FUN, and you'll get the idea.
Hollywood, which onservatives love to think of as a Fount of Evil, was not all bad –– not by a long shot.
That's the trouble with SIMPLISTIC thinking.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAnother paranoid Democrat xenophobe...
DeleteA real charmer that one! Definitely one of those Glass-Half-Empty typed.
DeleteSadly their name is Legion.
Slightly off topic - I've been thinking lately on just why it is that some folks can't seem to simply discuss (argue) political issues (or religion) w/out getting pissed off with those who think differently. After some time it occurred to me that the main reason reasons is because they take disagreement personally rather than approaching disagreement dispassionately and with the thought they might learn something by LISTENING to the others points.
ReplyDeleteThe world is complex, made so by the complexity and diversity of the human race. It's too bad folks can't celebrate differences and diversity rather than trying to change the world to be just like them.
There isn't a person alive you can't learn something from if one takes the time.
I know this is redundant Franco but once again, a great post.
I've aways been willing to listen when someone who dsagrees wth me has stimething SUBStNATIVE to SAY, but I cant' –– and WON'T –– tolerate Taunts, Jibes, Jeers, Catcalls, Mindless Invective, and Insults without a trace of thought or intelligence behind them, Les.
DeleteYou mentioned my improbable friendship with Jersey McJones over at WYD a day or two ago. YES! Jersey and I, despite being polar opposites politically, grew genuinely fond of one another.
I m STILL stricken and feel deprived by his tragic untimely death at age 48 from cancer not long ago.
I've told very few about this, but I sent him and his wife a monthly stipend as soon as I realized what they were up against. Jersey and I talked almost daily on the phone while he was in the hospital, until the terrible day came that he went blind and lost his voice simultaneously.
After that I made a point of talking to his wife, almost daily and after he died, I continued to send her money.
Unfortunately, it was ALL I could do.
Apparently, it wasn't enough, because –– despite my attempts to lend support through frequent emails, phone calls and the monthly stipend ––, the poor girl commited SUICIDE bsrely 11 months after his death. She had just turned 44.
A real tragedy.
I developed a high regrd for Jersey, beause he was never NASTY, CRUEL, SPITEFUL or deliberately UNKIND.
Yes, we enjoyed frequent verbal fisticuffs at Western Hero, but we were able –– like any good pair of habitual barroom brawlers –– to laugh about it afterwards, and I HAVE to say this about Jersey, he was ALWAYS willing to give credit where credit was due, –– whether he agreed with your politics or not.
Now THAT was a real MENSCH. I shall mourn his loss as long as memory serves me.
Can you dispassionately discuss the issue when someone is shit-talking your parents or your wife? Of course you can't.
DeleteToo much communication today is purposely meant to troll and provoke, and that stokes anger and hatred.
"DO unto OTHERS as you would have THEM do unto YOU."
ReplyDeleteThat's Exactly What Is Being Done To YOU, you Stinking Pig, You Bigoted Bastard, You belong in a Pigs Sty!
You are an Insult to Humanity, and the rest of the human race.
I wouldn't Piss on you if you were dying of thirst!
Oh dear! Apparently, you've never had the benefit of any religious training. No wonder you're so angry, bitter and disconsolate!
DeleteYou don't seem to understand what the Golden Rule means.
According to what YOU have just said, if somebody with whom you've had a disagreement offers you an Olive Branch, it would be incumbent on you to TAKE IT, then StICK IT IN HIS EYE.
If you think that would in any way be helpful to you, you are sadly mistaken.
The idea is to treat others NOT the way you think THEY have treated YOU, but rather the way you WISH they WOULD treat YOU.
Does your uncharitable assertion mean that YOU would like ME to ATTACK YOU with simlar unkind words and gestures?
I can't see how that could benefit EITHER one of us.
What do you hope to GAIN from nursing grudges and keeping yourself in a perpetual state of ill humor?
Steal your OWN blogs for identity titles you lazy sh*tposter!
DeleteNot to worry, TAM. I left "its" rebarbative comment intact, because it's such a clear example of the inherenty bilious nature of the shallow, spiteful, vengeance-prone people who are determined to ruin the presideny of Donald Trump at all costs, and to turn this blessed land over to Globalists who desire above all to undermine American sovereignty and establish a Soviet-style DICTATORSHIP designed to CONQUER, SUBJUGATE and ENSLAVE the ENTIRE WORLD.
DeleteYou may disbelieve that at your peril.
I have a question Franco and I would appreciate it if you told the time to clarify for me. In my reading of the New Testament it has always been my understanding that Christ would have one return hate, derision, unkindnes, and outright aggression with the opposite. IE kindness. If someone strikes you on the cheek turn your head and offer them the other.
ReplyDeleteThat's what the Republican RINO's did for years and what was the result? It made the Democrats more confident AND more demanding. They lost the culture.
DeleteTAM make an excellent point, Les.
DeleteBeyond that, however, gaining a deeper theological understanding of what Jesus' life on earth as God Incarnate signifies can't be answered easily with a simple statement, even if the words came, as we've been told, from Christ's own lips as He was being spat upon, tortured, mutilated, and treated with utmost cntempt on the Cross.
Jesus had little patience with hypocrites, and genuine malefactors. He did not suffer fools gladly either, and gave no support to those He regarded as unworthy. Yet He never went OUT of HIS WAY to insult, abuse or punish anyone either, but He didn't hesitate to denounce those He found dishonoring His Father which is in Heeven either.
Jesus was certainly not a WIMP or a MOLLCODDLE. He was, probably the MANLIEST MAN who ever lived.
What made Him unique was His ablity to see beyond objectionable behavior to the CORE z-- th4 SPIRIT OR ESSENTIAL NATURE –– of each human being. Consequently He could forgive the worst behavior towards HIMSELF, because He understood that most act more out of IGNORANCE and STUPIDITY than out of genuine MALICE.
Jesus wqas sent to earth to DEMONSTRATE the IDEAL NATURE of Almighty God. He is our EXAMPLE of what we should strive to EMULATE, but at the same time knowing that "WE" will never be ble to achieve what HE achieved.
In my view as a Christian, our time on earth is meant to be a LEARING EXPErIENCE and would best be spent STRIVING toward the CHRIST IDEAL, even while knowing we can never attain it.
That's the bet I can do rght now, Les. I hope it makes some sense to you? I don't expect to make and "converts" with mere words.
Thank you for that Franco. It is an honest response to my question.
DeleteYes, it makes a good deal of sense. It is likely you couldn't convert me, but, there aren't better examples to emulate.
That may be TAM, and I certainly would not dispute the possibility that it is so. Having said that I believe the "new" GOP has responded in a manner that is, IMO, counter productive and even harmful to the interests of the US and its people. I think rational discourse leading to a win-win compromise is always preferable whenever POSSIBLE. I acknowledge that sometimes compromise is not possible. What I do think I know is right now, at this point in our history, our government is steadily moving to greater and deeper dysfunction. I also happen to believe there is PLENTY of blame to go around.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Republicans lost the culture and in the process a lot of folks like me. I am now an independent and REFUSE to be part of EITHER party now or in the future. Neither represent what I believe are ethical and moral principles any longer.
"counter productive and even harmful to the interests of the US" is John Kerry and the serial frauds and failures of the foreign policy establishment openly and tacitly encouraging China, North Korea, Iran and other malefactors to wait it out for President Trump to leave and a fresh pasty is installed.
DeleteWith the exce-tion of most members of the Freedom Caucus BOTH houses and BOTH parties STINK to High Heaven.
ReplyDelete