The great lie that humanity is not a part of the natural world, and that human culture and civilization and technology are not also natural phenomena, is foundational to this project to overcode the incomplete arbitrary over the organic evolved. The same mind that imagines humans can be fully replaced with robots, also imagines that the richness and depth of a mythos that has emerged through the countless interactions between humans and the human world, can be ripped apart and replaced with a manifesto and a manual.
And whatever you call it, mythos, tried and true through thousand of years of what works and what is of value, at the end you come to a belief, which is the bedrock of society, that human beings are flawed, and these mytos/stories/remembered civilizations...remind us what is real, what is true, how to live as a human being in this world with honor.
And you cannot have honor without some concept of a creator, something bigger than us, call it God or the gods...but there is someone who created us, and there is right and wrong.
It’s the lie we tell ourselves. That we are better than our ignorant ancestors. The values, traditions and principles that have acted as guardrails for cultures are now obsolete and we know better. Our communal arrogance will destroy us as a civilization.
Excellent essay. We live in dangerous times. To continue with your friend's movie metaphor: I've seen this film before. It played in Europe (Russia), Asia (Cambodia, China, Korea), and the Caribbean (Cuba). It's rated NC-17 for scenes of torture, starvation, brutality, and murder. And it's attempting a worldwide release right now.
They will ultimately fail, but how long will that take? Ten years? A hundred? Blue hellholes will mostly go along with this (Floyd riots were encouraged). It should be clear by now that the D behind a politicians name stands for Davos. The only thing I can think to do is to move to a red area where resistance to this revolution will be stronger. If anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
Gato, I love you, but no one is gonna fight for "mythos and heroes and story." That's the whole problem. Truth has been reduced to the stature of one myth among many.
The BIOS of our civilization was, once upon a time, not so long ago, the LOGOS. The Christian truth-set that produced our civilization did not evolve. It was supernaturally revealed over thousands of years, culminating in the life and death of the Word Incarnate, and though our understanding of these truths has continued to be clarified and refined since then by human intelligence operating in submission to the Holy Spirit, the fundamental proposition remains unchanged: "Believe me when I tell you this, the man who listens to my words, and puts his trust in him who sent me, enjoys eternal life; he does not meet with rejection, he has passed over already from death to life."
Eternal life is worth fighting for. The glorious paradox is that this fight produces civilizational flourishing here on earth, as well.
You may disagree, but TPTB sure don't. It's just that their idea of eternal life is a transhumanist fantasy, and their idea of civilizational flourishing, well, the less said about that the better.
Outstanding commentary. I share all of your stuff, but fear not so many people have lost the ability to follow any sort of extended thought. I could ponder this piece all day. Thank you for posting consistently the very finest content on Substack.
It's the difference between Tolkien, a linguist whose fantasy world was built on the solid structure of the history of the English language, and these guys today who think throwing consonants and punctuation marks into a blender and using what comes out as character names has any creative bones to it.
Well, on a happier note, I went to a huge used book sale last Sunday,and came home with three Eric Ambler books and a copy of "Hans Brinker, Or the Silver Skates" published in 1924, so I'm doing my part to preserve our heritage.
When I read Seamus Heaney’s “Beowulf,” I was startled by how deeply I was moved to see the raw language and ancient roots of my oldest culture brought to life.
And when I realized, in 2020, that we no longer had a common culture, I wept with grief for the country I had believed I lived in, and I grieved a long season before I felt healed.
And when I heard that they were brutalizing Wodehouse, *Wodehouse*, I felt as I felt when American Philistines stripped the tiles from ancient Babylon and thieves stole the Harp of Ur and Bush’s steaming pile of gussied-up bureaucrats called it “a taste of freedom.”
Jordan Peterson is right that we must study our archetypes-they spring from our deepest truths. They are not imposed.
the statues of the losers should be left in place. where I lived in Belgium there was a statue of a loser in the woods, not many people knew what he stood for. He was one of the rebels who tried to convince farmers to stand up for their rights and got killed. We need that kind of stories too. To destroy part of history is to destroy all of it. Both sides have to be told, and if possible, as much of the in-between as well. We all know the war was not to free the slaves. And we will probably never know the whole truth about 911. But we have to tell as much of the story as possible, and not the official version.
It seems the shared mythos, shared heroes, shared story now resides in video games and television programs - emphasis on the PROGRAMING. There is nothing real about virtual reality. Sorry, not sorry. As the governments, motherWEFers, banksters and media talking heads continue to tear apart everything in in sight for the not-so-almighty dollar that soon may only be a digital wet dream, I have to ask instead of pushing racism and compensation for slavery on people who never had slaves to people who never were slaves; telling us not to believe in God, religion, or anything spiritual, Why don't we decide not to believe in government. That seems to be the source of all our real problems. To paraphrase Deteriorata: "With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate. Give up!" Hillary Clinton had "Don't stop believing" as her campaign theme song. Now it may be time for "Stop Believing!"
The great lie that humanity is not a part of the natural world, and that human culture and civilization and technology are not also natural phenomena, is foundational to this project to overcode the incomplete arbitrary over the organic evolved. The same mind that imagines humans can be fully replaced with robots, also imagines that the richness and depth of a mythos that has emerged through the countless interactions between humans and the human world, can be ripped apart and replaced with a manifesto and a manual.
Now this is the kind of Build Back Better I'm all for 😸
And whatever you call it, mythos, tried and true through thousand of years of what works and what is of value, at the end you come to a belief, which is the bedrock of society, that human beings are flawed, and these mytos/stories/remembered civilizations...remind us what is real, what is true, how to live as a human being in this world with honor.
And you cannot have honor without some concept of a creator, something bigger than us, call it God or the gods...but there is someone who created us, and there is right and wrong.
It’s the lie we tell ourselves. That we are better than our ignorant ancestors. The values, traditions and principles that have acted as guardrails for cultures are now obsolete and we know better. Our communal arrogance will destroy us as a civilization.
Excellent essay. We live in dangerous times. To continue with your friend's movie metaphor: I've seen this film before. It played in Europe (Russia), Asia (Cambodia, China, Korea), and the Caribbean (Cuba). It's rated NC-17 for scenes of torture, starvation, brutality, and murder. And it's attempting a worldwide release right now.
They will ultimately fail, but how long will that take? Ten years? A hundred? Blue hellholes will mostly go along with this (Floyd riots were encouraged). It should be clear by now that the D behind a politicians name stands for Davos. The only thing I can think to do is to move to a red area where resistance to this revolution will be stronger. If anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” ...
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
mao did it. stalin did it. Biden did it.
Gato, I love you, but no one is gonna fight for "mythos and heroes and story." That's the whole problem. Truth has been reduced to the stature of one myth among many.
The BIOS of our civilization was, once upon a time, not so long ago, the LOGOS. The Christian truth-set that produced our civilization did not evolve. It was supernaturally revealed over thousands of years, culminating in the life and death of the Word Incarnate, and though our understanding of these truths has continued to be clarified and refined since then by human intelligence operating in submission to the Holy Spirit, the fundamental proposition remains unchanged: "Believe me when I tell you this, the man who listens to my words, and puts his trust in him who sent me, enjoys eternal life; he does not meet with rejection, he has passed over already from death to life."
Eternal life is worth fighting for. The glorious paradox is that this fight produces civilizational flourishing here on earth, as well.
You may disagree, but TPTB sure don't. It's just that their idea of eternal life is a transhumanist fantasy, and their idea of civilizational flourishing, well, the less said about that the better.
Godless, they declared themselves gods; and the faithful, apostate.
Outstanding commentary. I share all of your stuff, but fear not so many people have lost the ability to follow any sort of extended thought. I could ponder this piece all day. Thank you for posting consistently the very finest content on Substack.
Where to start?
Well, if your state allows you to own a gun, buy one and learn how to use it. That would be a good first step.
“Beware the pitiless crowbar of events”, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, June 8, 1978, Harvard university commencement address.
It's the difference between Tolkien, a linguist whose fantasy world was built on the solid structure of the history of the English language, and these guys today who think throwing consonants and punctuation marks into a blender and using what comes out as character names has any creative bones to it.
Well, on a happier note, I went to a huge used book sale last Sunday,and came home with three Eric Ambler books and a copy of "Hans Brinker, Or the Silver Skates" published in 1924, so I'm doing my part to preserve our heritage.
Sing We of Heroes and Dragons to Slay!
When I read Seamus Heaney’s “Beowulf,” I was startled by how deeply I was moved to see the raw language and ancient roots of my oldest culture brought to life.
And when I realized, in 2020, that we no longer had a common culture, I wept with grief for the country I had believed I lived in, and I grieved a long season before I felt healed.
And when I heard that they were brutalizing Wodehouse, *Wodehouse*, I felt as I felt when American Philistines stripped the tiles from ancient Babylon and thieves stole the Harp of Ur and Bush’s steaming pile of gussied-up bureaucrats called it “a taste of freedom.”
Jordan Peterson is right that we must study our archetypes-they spring from our deepest truths. They are not imposed.
the statues of the losers should be left in place. where I lived in Belgium there was a statue of a loser in the woods, not many people knew what he stood for. He was one of the rebels who tried to convince farmers to stand up for their rights and got killed. We need that kind of stories too. To destroy part of history is to destroy all of it. Both sides have to be told, and if possible, as much of the in-between as well. We all know the war was not to free the slaves. And we will probably never know the whole truth about 911. But we have to tell as much of the story as possible, and not the official version.
As all cats know.
It seems the shared mythos, shared heroes, shared story now resides in video games and television programs - emphasis on the PROGRAMING. There is nothing real about virtual reality. Sorry, not sorry. As the governments, motherWEFers, banksters and media talking heads continue to tear apart everything in in sight for the not-so-almighty dollar that soon may only be a digital wet dream, I have to ask instead of pushing racism and compensation for slavery on people who never had slaves to people who never were slaves; telling us not to believe in God, religion, or anything spiritual, Why don't we decide not to believe in government. That seems to be the source of all our real problems. To paraphrase Deteriorata: "With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate. Give up!" Hillary Clinton had "Don't stop believing" as her campaign theme song. Now it may be time for "Stop Believing!"