Ugliness can be as thought provoking as beauty. Such was the case when I stumbled upon a vast area smothered in vines. It seemed a perfect metaphor for the suffocating impact of progressive ideology on our culture. I wondered if the strangled shrubs were aware of the danger or remained oblivious. As I stood transfixed and contemplated their potential death, the concepts of good and evil came to mind.
What does it mean to "promote life and liveliness?" This is so vague as to be a tautology. I think we need better definitions, and in my opinion, it is really not that hard to get them.
Concepts of good and evil tend to devolve into tribal relativism when divorced from any axiomatic first principles. "My tribe good, your tribe bad." This is the human default, the state of nature, and we can see that atheists often revert back to it without even realizing what has occurred.
If we consider religion as our species' moral evolutionary process, a sorting algorithm for good and evil refined over millennia of collective human experience, we now have some strong starting points for good and evil. God and Satan can be properly understood as embodiments of correct and incorrect behavior, cultural technology used to guide mass behavior. The modern atheist conceives of Christians as irrational bigots, and yet if one adopts the virtues and behaviors espoused by traditional Christianity, they are unlikely to go astray in life. Be humble, be honest; work hard; do unto others; get married, have children; avoid drugs and sexual deviancy; go to church. This is pretty much never a recipe for failure in life.
Deviation from this lifestyle advice, on the other hand, often ends in tragedy and disaster. It's safer to indulge in many vices today than it would've been in the past, but modernity has also brought with it some unique dangers such the widespread availability of extremely potent drugs, the omnipresence of pornography, and the ease with which people can sink into sloth, going nowhere and doing nothing, until they eventually realize that their life is meaningless and it's too late to turn the ship around.
It's no coincidence that the moral authorities who have guided our people for over two thousand years eventually forged a particular set of norms and values that is very well-adapted for long-term life satisfaction. And you are of course correct in demonstrating that the left is generally more opposed to these values than the right; it is also no coincidence that the right is the side of religion. Technology has changed massively in recent history, but human nature has not, nor is it likely to. The modern left is what you get when people become arrogant and think they can change human nature, casting off ancestral wisdom in the process.
Lots of good thoughts. Thanks for sharing them. I think the simplest definition of evil is that which crushes our spirit, figuratively or literally. Killing life or liveliness figuratively or literally is just another way of saying that but I can see how it could be viewed as vague.
Yes human nature hasn’t changed. By ignoring it or as you say thinking it can be changed, progressive policy has caused our culture to fray at the edges causing chaos and moral decline. This kind of legislation brings out the worst in some people. This is so clear in a number of US cities.
"Hate speech" is always best understood by tacking an I on the front. When Leftists accuse something of being hate speech, they invariably mean "speech that I hate."
Thanks Lori. My goal was to both expose those policies and strategies that impact our individual and cultural spirit negatively and to connect the dots between them. Hope folks see how one has led to the other. It is not accidental.
What does it mean to "promote life and liveliness?" This is so vague as to be a tautology. I think we need better definitions, and in my opinion, it is really not that hard to get them.
Concepts of good and evil tend to devolve into tribal relativism when divorced from any axiomatic first principles. "My tribe good, your tribe bad." This is the human default, the state of nature, and we can see that atheists often revert back to it without even realizing what has occurred.
If we consider religion as our species' moral evolutionary process, a sorting algorithm for good and evil refined over millennia of collective human experience, we now have some strong starting points for good and evil. God and Satan can be properly understood as embodiments of correct and incorrect behavior, cultural technology used to guide mass behavior. The modern atheist conceives of Christians as irrational bigots, and yet if one adopts the virtues and behaviors espoused by traditional Christianity, they are unlikely to go astray in life. Be humble, be honest; work hard; do unto others; get married, have children; avoid drugs and sexual deviancy; go to church. This is pretty much never a recipe for failure in life.
Deviation from this lifestyle advice, on the other hand, often ends in tragedy and disaster. It's safer to indulge in many vices today than it would've been in the past, but modernity has also brought with it some unique dangers such the widespread availability of extremely potent drugs, the omnipresence of pornography, and the ease with which people can sink into sloth, going nowhere and doing nothing, until they eventually realize that their life is meaningless and it's too late to turn the ship around.
It's no coincidence that the moral authorities who have guided our people for over two thousand years eventually forged a particular set of norms and values that is very well-adapted for long-term life satisfaction. And you are of course correct in demonstrating that the left is generally more opposed to these values than the right; it is also no coincidence that the right is the side of religion. Technology has changed massively in recent history, but human nature has not, nor is it likely to. The modern left is what you get when people become arrogant and think they can change human nature, casting off ancestral wisdom in the process.
Lots of good thoughts. Thanks for sharing them. I think the simplest definition of evil is that which crushes our spirit, figuratively or literally. Killing life or liveliness figuratively or literally is just another way of saying that but I can see how it could be viewed as vague.
Yes human nature hasn’t changed. By ignoring it or as you say thinking it can be changed, progressive policy has caused our culture to fray at the edges causing chaos and moral decline. This kind of legislation brings out the worst in some people. This is so clear in a number of US cities.
Beautifully written.
Thank you Casey
"Hate speech" is always best understood by tacking an I on the front. When Leftists accuse something of being hate speech, they invariably mean "speech that I hate."
So true and this is hopefully becoming more obvious to the electorate.
This is so well written. My hope is that it is read by many and contemplated. Such an important topic.
Thanks Lori. My goal was to both expose those policies and strategies that impact our individual and cultural spirit negatively and to connect the dots between them. Hope folks see how one has led to the other. It is not accidental.
There is so much impacting our spirit negatively right now. So many dots to connect! Thanks for taking on such a big and important subject.
Thank you
Thanks for reading!