You spoke to me with this one, and I was pondering the exact same thing a few days ago. I’m pretty certain that a world where everyone was nice and nothing bad happened would be a place more terrible than we can imagine. It would be a world where not only the worst human qualities, but the best as well would never have occasion to appear and none of us would ever know what we were capable of. You’ve emphasized the terrible and terrifying side of this dichotomy, but the same circumstances also bring out the best and highest in some of us. The paradise ideologues envision would offer no opportunity for the exercise of humanity’s finest qualities. - bravery, self-sacrifice, endurance, devotion, love.
I suspect there will always be wars, because if life fails to offer sufficient scope for all of the qualities inherent in us, we must create the occasions for them to appear. There is a kind of deep friendship, camaraderie, and understanding that emerges among men who go into battle together. Their experience is shared by one another and cannot really be understood by anyone who has not been a part of it. I believe that’s why men, after the Civil War, had in a certain sense greater fellowship with the participants on the other side than they did with their families. Both sides had been through something deeply transformative and revelatory in a way that those who hadn't could not possibly appreciate. The experience had called forth from them qualities they did not know they possessed - some of them admittedly dreadful. But in this envisioned perfect world, where would you find heroism, bravery, daring, self-sacrifice? What need or occasion would there be for these qualities ever to appear? We’re seeing such a world trying to be born. In the end, if they succeed, we will be like The Time Machine’s pathetic, childlike Eloi, incapable even of a genuine fear response.
That's beautiful writing: unsettling and disturbing in the best way.
I strongly suggest, if you haven't already, that you read some James Hillman. Much like you, he abhors the disenchanted soullessness of the modern worldview and calls for a return to a kind of polytheism. (Unlike you, he is essentially anti-Christian, but in this he might serve you intellectually as a devil's advocate.) He wrote many good books, but since you invoke "normie sadism" as your launching point for this essay, maybe you should start with his last book, A Terrible Love of War.
Classic Yoshi, beautiful writing. We have indeed pulled away from feeling in the modern world. I think the K-12 school system is a really big part of this - we train kids to not care. Caring is not 'cool' among their peers.
Ironically though this leads to a lot of issues as adults. I think depression and anxiety in general are symptoms of this sort of pathological distance and fear of our emotions.
Then again, as you say, if emotions can be likened to evil spirits, is this a better outcome?
I think the ideal situation is that we sublimate our emotions... or in other words we feel them and redirect them towards something like worshipping God, or bringing forth the Good into the world. Obviously a difficult and life-consuming task. Problem is most people typically don't care enough to even try this, let alone do it, unless they're in a relentlessly religious society.
Another excellent piece Yoshi, providing much to ponder. Amidst the noise of modernity and the media, reflective and deep pieces of exploration are salve for souls - even when discussing distressing topics and perhaps even more so. I believe that all metaphysics is speculation, but one inevitably has a metaphysical worldview, acknowledged or not. Modern materialistic science denies that generally because they don't want to submit their metaphysical basis to analysis since it would be undermine the capital "T" truth of materialism, putting it on the same plane as all metaphysical paradigms.
I believe that we are all fragments of God experiencing and exploring existence. We are also here to expand the space of existence and I cannot imagine that we would do this without free will and that includes an enormous range of experiences, from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the noble and loving to despicable acts that all humans experience, if only in their minds.
I also believe that deep down we all feel or know in some way the truth of our physical existence, in the context of the greater truth of our cosmic and spiritual existence. We are responsible for the choices and actions we carry out, and we cannot escape our own judgments born of that deeper knowing. It is a cliché, but there is no light without darkness and both those reside in the universe and within the microcosm of each of us.
Perhaps the Greco-Roman world embraced that notion more powerfully than any other and planted the seeds of a major upheaval in our culture, if not our collective humanity. I don't think we can or should try to deny these powerful forces. Exposing them to inquiry is surely part of our journey as individuals and as a species. We are deep creatures, beset by the trivial and mundane. We desperately need writing like this to remind us of our depths, as well as our moral and existential challenges. Bravo. Again.
"Normal guy. Kind. Nice. Good father. Killed the dog. I think, probably, it feels good to kill. I think that’s why we hunt. I think that’s why we have wars. Economic reasons, wars of religion, wars of ideology, wars over territory… what if all those are just excuses? What if, honestly, it just feels good to kill?"
Confronting ourselves can be maddening, but it's necessary if we are to remain sane. Progressivism is a form of insanity. It is denial of reality. It is Randle McMurphy thinking of himself as sane, and convincing the audience that he is the only sane person around. He was the one who flew. Everyone else, including those who cheered on his antics (us) are the cuckoos.
I’m not so sure that life for most ancient people, or any ancient people, was really that more like that of Homer’s tales than it is for people today, other than the fact that they were using Homer more as their guide. Homer’s works served almost more the role of a religious text in how society handled them at the time. And entertainment.
The Greco Roman world didn’t just go away, it was Christianized, so sometimes I wonder if much of this, when we dwell on the ancient world is just a desire to leave Christianity behind and fantasize about living in a pagan world. A world whose core values are power and glory, not love and redemption and care for the least of these.
Some of the Icelandic sagas seem a good example as a chronologically later example of writings that are similar in character to the Ancient Greek and Roman ones. Again, pagans who were christianized, just at a later date, as it took longer for Christianity to reach Iceland.
It more surprises me that anyone would be surprised at the inherent barbarity of man. Perhaps it is only because one was raised in a setting that was deeply impacted by Christianity that this is even possible, to be surprised by cruelty. It is quite an accomplishment to have a civilization that doesn’t promote these things.
I was brought up in a military family, though, so none of this would’ve surprised me from a young age. I would though defend the US military as being not quite as bad as it could be, though, restrained in a sense, see for example Iris Chang’s the Rape of Nanking. What your society encourages and discourages makes a difference. But at the same time all this military adventurism my country has been engaging in recently I believe is fundamentally unchristian in its designs and goals at the highest levels. It does seem warfare is something that Christianity has never fully been able to tame. Some Popes have tried to restrain it or reorient it. Theologians have tried to give it new justifications and create new rules of engagement.
You spoke to me with this one, and I was pondering the exact same thing a few days ago. I’m pretty certain that a world where everyone was nice and nothing bad happened would be a place more terrible than we can imagine. It would be a world where not only the worst human qualities, but the best as well would never have occasion to appear and none of us would ever know what we were capable of. You’ve emphasized the terrible and terrifying side of this dichotomy, but the same circumstances also bring out the best and highest in some of us. The paradise ideologues envision would offer no opportunity for the exercise of humanity’s finest qualities. - bravery, self-sacrifice, endurance, devotion, love.
I suspect there will always be wars, because if life fails to offer sufficient scope for all of the qualities inherent in us, we must create the occasions for them to appear. There is a kind of deep friendship, camaraderie, and understanding that emerges among men who go into battle together. Their experience is shared by one another and cannot really be understood by anyone who has not been a part of it. I believe that’s why men, after the Civil War, had in a certain sense greater fellowship with the participants on the other side than they did with their families. Both sides had been through something deeply transformative and revelatory in a way that those who hadn't could not possibly appreciate. The experience had called forth from them qualities they did not know they possessed - some of them admittedly dreadful. But in this envisioned perfect world, where would you find heroism, bravery, daring, self-sacrifice? What need or occasion would there be for these qualities ever to appear? We’re seeing such a world trying to be born. In the end, if they succeed, we will be like The Time Machine’s pathetic, childlike Eloi, incapable even of a genuine fear response.
That's beautiful writing: unsettling and disturbing in the best way.
I strongly suggest, if you haven't already, that you read some James Hillman. Much like you, he abhors the disenchanted soullessness of the modern worldview and calls for a return to a kind of polytheism. (Unlike you, he is essentially anti-Christian, but in this he might serve you intellectually as a devil's advocate.) He wrote many good books, but since you invoke "normie sadism" as your launching point for this essay, maybe you should start with his last book, A Terrible Love of War.
Thank you for the recommendation!
Classic Yoshi, beautiful writing. We have indeed pulled away from feeling in the modern world. I think the K-12 school system is a really big part of this - we train kids to not care. Caring is not 'cool' among their peers.
Ironically though this leads to a lot of issues as adults. I think depression and anxiety in general are symptoms of this sort of pathological distance and fear of our emotions.
Then again, as you say, if emotions can be likened to evil spirits, is this a better outcome?
I think the ideal situation is that we sublimate our emotions... or in other words we feel them and redirect them towards something like worshipping God, or bringing forth the Good into the world. Obviously a difficult and life-consuming task. Problem is most people typically don't care enough to even try this, let alone do it, unless they're in a relentlessly religious society.
Thank you.
I’m honestly not sure what the solution is or what is best for this problem.
Another excellent piece Yoshi, providing much to ponder. Amidst the noise of modernity and the media, reflective and deep pieces of exploration are salve for souls - even when discussing distressing topics and perhaps even more so. I believe that all metaphysics is speculation, but one inevitably has a metaphysical worldview, acknowledged or not. Modern materialistic science denies that generally because they don't want to submit their metaphysical basis to analysis since it would be undermine the capital "T" truth of materialism, putting it on the same plane as all metaphysical paradigms.
I believe that we are all fragments of God experiencing and exploring existence. We are also here to expand the space of existence and I cannot imagine that we would do this without free will and that includes an enormous range of experiences, from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the noble and loving to despicable acts that all humans experience, if only in their minds.
I also believe that deep down we all feel or know in some way the truth of our physical existence, in the context of the greater truth of our cosmic and spiritual existence. We are responsible for the choices and actions we carry out, and we cannot escape our own judgments born of that deeper knowing. It is a cliché, but there is no light without darkness and both those reside in the universe and within the microcosm of each of us.
Perhaps the Greco-Roman world embraced that notion more powerfully than any other and planted the seeds of a major upheaval in our culture, if not our collective humanity. I don't think we can or should try to deny these powerful forces. Exposing them to inquiry is surely part of our journey as individuals and as a species. We are deep creatures, beset by the trivial and mundane. We desperately need writing like this to remind us of our depths, as well as our moral and existential challenges. Bravo. Again.
Thank you John.
"Normal guy. Kind. Nice. Good father. Killed the dog. I think, probably, it feels good to kill. I think that’s why we hunt. I think that’s why we have wars. Economic reasons, wars of religion, wars of ideology, wars over territory… what if all those are just excuses? What if, honestly, it just feels good to kill?"
Confronting ourselves can be maddening, but it's necessary if we are to remain sane. Progressivism is a form of insanity. It is denial of reality. It is Randle McMurphy thinking of himself as sane, and convincing the audience that he is the only sane person around. He was the one who flew. Everyone else, including those who cheered on his antics (us) are the cuckoos.
I’m not so sure that life for most ancient people, or any ancient people, was really that more like that of Homer’s tales than it is for people today, other than the fact that they were using Homer more as their guide. Homer’s works served almost more the role of a religious text in how society handled them at the time. And entertainment.
The Greco Roman world didn’t just go away, it was Christianized, so sometimes I wonder if much of this, when we dwell on the ancient world is just a desire to leave Christianity behind and fantasize about living in a pagan world. A world whose core values are power and glory, not love and redemption and care for the least of these.
Some of the Icelandic sagas seem a good example as a chronologically later example of writings that are similar in character to the Ancient Greek and Roman ones. Again, pagans who were christianized, just at a later date, as it took longer for Christianity to reach Iceland.
It more surprises me that anyone would be surprised at the inherent barbarity of man. Perhaps it is only because one was raised in a setting that was deeply impacted by Christianity that this is even possible, to be surprised by cruelty. It is quite an accomplishment to have a civilization that doesn’t promote these things.
I was brought up in a military family, though, so none of this would’ve surprised me from a young age. I would though defend the US military as being not quite as bad as it could be, though, restrained in a sense, see for example Iris Chang’s the Rape of Nanking. What your society encourages and discourages makes a difference. But at the same time all this military adventurism my country has been engaging in recently I believe is fundamentally unchristian in its designs and goals at the highest levels. It does seem warfare is something that Christianity has never fully been able to tame. Some Popes have tried to restrain it or reorient it. Theologians have tried to give it new justifications and create new rules of engagement.