In antiquity matter itself was held as the source of evil. (105)
The Neoplatonic thesis is that we are souls fallen into a body, and that we must escape this evil body through flight to the pure immaterial world. (112)
Manicheans held that the good God is not omnipotent. There exists also “an eternal, autonomous and evil material substance”. (105) Neither God nor the devil can get the upper hand. (262) And we are divided and have within us “two originally distinct substances”. (184)
Yes, in researching for this very short exploration of evil, I came across the belief that matter itself was a source of evil. I have some explorations about evil for other endeavors (homeschooling, debates with peers, etc.), but it has been awhile. There’s so much to ponder over...it’s fascinating and overwhelming at once.
I couldn’t watch the trailer, I’ll do so Monday (I hope) when I get internet back. (Just moved.)
First let me say, my sources are slapdash at best: a couple of books I’ve just begun, Arendt’s ‘Origins of Totalitarianism’ and Martha Stout’s ‘The Sociopath Next Door,’ recommended by Yuri Bezmenov. Oh, and the renowned Church theologian and philosopher Matt Walsh. Matt’s great but he’s not Augustine of Hippo.
(Unless Augustine had a hilarious recurring podcast segment titled ‘Am I the A**hole?’
Actually I expect Matt’s quite a bit funnier.)
But I am NOT convinced that our oppressors are actively possessed by, or otherwise consciously in league with Satan or his minions. I say this because we witnessed breathtaking, horrifying evil throughout the 20th century, that was unprecedented in history in large part because in prior centuries the technology to control, torture and murder people on such a grand scale didn’t exist.
What we’ve seen since 2020 - the gaslighting, intolerance of dissent and the sudden abandonment by half our neighbors of a longstanding American consensus on the limits of govt authority at all levels; indeed even mass murder by public-health policy (banning known, effective treatments; mandating deadly ‘vaccines’) is not unprecedented in the world, it’s just (kind of) unprecedented in America, at least on this scale.
Our technocrat oppressors (everyone needs to read Gato Malo’s recent post on data suppression) are almost the perfect illustration of Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ observations. They’re not possessed. Most of them, in fact, got where they are now precisely by REJECTING any notion of a higher power to Whom they must account for misdeeds.
The technocracy that rules the west are sociopaths - the 4% of people who, Dr Stout explains, are incapable of remorse for deeds that harm others. Stout points out that they mostly aren’t mass murderers, as people assume, because most people simply are too squeamish to be motivated by blood lust.
Instead, they are people who are motivated by the same impulses as the rest of us - power, control, laziness, lust, what have you - but who have no conscience. They’re the lovers who use you then blithely cast you aside. He’s the lazy asshole on your group classroom assignment who lets his teammates ‘carry’ him - because they want the grade and so, can’t afford to let him fail.
If they like control , they gravitate to politics, to teaching, to coaching, to bureaucracy, and especially to ‘public health’ - any field that enables their ability to boss people around without accountability.
An obvious corollary of their condition is that they’re pathologically incapable of admitting error.
Obviously I can’t prove there ISN’T something directly satanic afoot, starting with the Great Reset, continuing with the Covid and ‘vaccine’ psy-ops the continued full-court press of official gaslighting. Moreover a LOT of us got the ‘something wicked this way comes’ goosebumps with Biden’s weirdly petulant demands that we all submit to an experimental gene therapy with proven inefficacy and a horrific adverse-effects profile, for a virus less deadly than the forgotten Asian Flu of 1957-58. (I highly recommend Rob Slane over at The Blog Mire.)
But for now, Im content to chalk it all up to secondary evil.
Finally, Matt Walsh has argued that Satanism doesn’t mean you worship the fallen angel Lucifer. It means you WORSHIP YOURSELF. That’s what the Serpent instructed us to do when he told Eve that ‘in the day ye eat [the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil] then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
That’s been the problem with progressives (and communists, and fascists) from the very start: They’re so deeply convinced they have all the answers, that even when exposed as charlatans, they’ll kill (or die) en masse to avoid admitting it to themselves.
In the pandemicists and mask-&-jab cultists, in the WEF bug-eaters, even in our very own FBI director - that’s what we’re looking at: sociopaths (whom we let take those jobs) who got it all wrong, but who are constitutionally incapable of admitting error or failure.
Jack, you are SUCH a joy to have as a fellow Substacker and I am ever grateful for your thoughtful commentary. You are right in your assessment of Matt Walsh. He is quite astute at analyzing our modern culture, yet he is NO Augustine. I mean, who is???
I don’t think every higher-up orchestrating these current troubles is actually fully possessed by the devil. But there are four stages of demonic possession and I do believe at least an astonishing majority of them are at LEAST at stage one...many are probably closer to stages two and three and perhaps a few at stage four. But who REALLY knows? Certainly not me. I just watch, read, ask questions, and analyze.
Thank you! I prefer imagery of him as a strong, masculine warrior, rather than those Renaissance era images of a more feminine looking warrior. I know these depictions are only so we can picture him and his mighty work in our human minds, but still...
I agree. Those pics of "angels" from that time frame are, well, girlie. But, look at the men of the time. They didn't go down to the docks to get inspiration.
Yes, there is evil and those who do it's bidding, whether summoning up Satan himself or just existing as a vacuous vessel that performs nihilistic works of the enemy without the critical thinking skills involving The Truth. I know the demonic possession is real and Satan is always ready to take any opportunity to slide in and have his minions begin work in an unknowing victim. I, for one, do not let that shit in. Satans evil is evil. Jesus is the way, the Truth and The Life. Davos men are inhabited by a higher order of evil, but it is not worth thinking about, because God wins in the end. We might have to go through some shit, but God is always for The Truth. I choose The Truth.
Whatever the motivation of these people, it isn’t good. Another thing to point is the condition of the citizens. How far have we wondered away from the light, that we are controlled by fear, greed, vanity, and the rest of the seven deadly sins. We have to take a pause and fix us, before we could ever consider holding anyone accountable for their actions. The corruptness of our government is a symptom of us straying from God.
Oh Will, you are correct. It all begins at home and spreads from there. But so many people are blind to the fact that there is anything beyond our material realm. Yes we must do our best to help them see, but as a people and as a Church, we are so very fractured. It’s a daunting task indeed.
I haven’t read St Augustine since undergraduate. Should go find what box in the crawlspace that lives in & fetch & read.
But OK
So you have a collection of people, and each has a sort of compass. Evil is South, Good is North.
We’ve been experiencing the alignment of a whole bunch of compasses toward the same direction. Add them all up and you’re looking at a fair bit more South than North.
Is that because there is an underlying field that is causing them all to align in that direction?
Or is that an ‘emergent property’ where they are seeing the alignment of their neighbor and adjusting accordingly?
Hi Dr. Flurm -- Yes, I encourage you to delve, once more into St. Augustine’s works. I haven’t read much of his writings, but I have read Confessions thrice and am currently reading City of God.
In answer to your question, I think BOTH forces are at work. Truly, it’s highly likely that primary evil (the underlying for you mentioned) has always been at work -- throughout history since the Fall. The way I see it, it has nudged men toward secondary evil by encouraging their worst tendencies.
BUT, I do think the malevolence is growing ever bolder in these times, so close to the surface one might say it’s rumbling, barely detectable, but certainly there. Along with that, men (I’m sure you KNOW I am not only pointing at males by using that term 😂) have largely quashed that still small interior voice, which guides them away from enacting their basest desires. Obviously, not ALL men have lost their way, but so many.
It's a really good movie, though. I researched the truth of the story because, often, when a story is "based on a true experience," it's really not. But Sarchie is in all the newspapers in NY around the time everything happened. In the interview with Sarchie that I linked, he says that the depiction of the actual exorcism was visually exaggerated because it's very difficult to convey what really happens in one of those sessions.
Anyway, I'm HONORED that you visited my stack and commented, Yuri.
Thank you for your comment, Justin. I think almost all of us are guilty of some level of spiritual poverty. I believe that as long as one works diligently on ameliorating such poverty in oneself, it’s a good and holy thing.
Thanks so much, Spiro! Funnily (or not), I just found out that Eric Bana is Australian when researching this movie and Ralph Sarchie. If nothing else, I had NO clue he wasn't a born and raised American from watching the movie. He did a great job with the accent. My husband, who is a Yankee (yes, I know) turned "new native" Texan and he could not detect any 'lie' in the accent.
That said, I had no idea about Bana's other acting pursuits. I knew the name, etc., but am not aware that I've seen any movie in which he appears, though that doesn't mean I haven't. It just means I don't realize it. Anyway, personally, I typically don't care what other distasteful or failed movies actors have starred in when I see them in a movie I feel is very well done. The exception is, of course, if the actor has appeared in a promotional role in something horrific like a blatantly pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, or porn, etc., movie. I haven't see any of the other things you have mentioned, but I HAVE seen re-runs of those Hulk shows with Bill Bixby as the Hulk?
Yes, the movie is rife with symbolism and I love that. It won't even be on most people's radar to wonder about or even look it up, but it didn't get past us. The owl was the WORST! We actually SAW a stuffed owl almost exactly like the one in the movie, may have been exact, one time when we were just strolling through some boutiques in the Hill Country. It was right after the first time we had watched the movie. DS was ready to leave that store immediately! hahs.
I had a jack-in-the-box as a young girl and I also bought one for our kids when they were very young, but ours weren't scary at all, t hough they had the same tune. I didn't know the details until reading your comment, but I did learn a little afterwards that their origin was frightening.
I'm grateful for your input, especially because most of the people I have discussed this particular topic with aren't at all knowledgeable about this difference (not that I'm any expert, let's be clear on that), but even most of them agree that there's a special kind of evil at work here.
Augustine is one of my absolute favorite saints. I love his quote, "Late have I loved you, Oh Beauty Eternal, so old and so new. Late have I loved you." It makes me tear up every time I see it or speak it. I just now fought back tears typing it out here. And, yes, Aquinas is another of my favorites. I also love reading Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates. They didn't have a grasp on the whole truth, obviously, but they were being called by God. They knew something.
I've heard of that story, Le Marchant, though I haven't read anything focused on that or watched anything. I shall look it up. It sounds positively terrifying and, you're right, there are some things that ought not be sought. Aquinas talks about the sin of being overly curious. Perhaps, this sort of thing is what he's getting at.
One of my sons...the second... loves Jekyll and Hyde. He has seen the original black and white movie (yes, probably from the 50s) and a couple of remakes, plus an opera. It's interesting that you had a nightmare, spurred by that movie, which had such an impact on you that you remember it all these years later. Another son of mine (the 3rd -- lots of kids) had a terrible nightmare when he was about 6 and he remembers it vividly unto this day. I'm not sure one would call it a nightmare and I don't think he calls it that either (he's 22 just the other day), but it's quite disturbing, for sure. I think he'll remember that all of his life.
About your dream...wow. My husband had a dream, more like a vision, a little while ago. I won’t recount it here because it is his to elaborate upon, but it was a very vivid dream/vision of beauty and hope.
It’s probably a vision, NOT merely a dream. When these things are quite vivid and do not dissipate as do dreams, then one can assume they are visions -- at least that’s what I’ve been taught by a person I trust completely.
In antiquity matter itself was held as the source of evil. (105)
The Neoplatonic thesis is that we are souls fallen into a body, and that we must escape this evil body through flight to the pure immaterial world. (112)
Manicheans held that the good God is not omnipotent. There exists also “an eternal, autonomous and evil material substance”. (105) Neither God nor the devil can get the upper hand. (262) And we are divided and have within us “two originally distinct substances”. (184)
Not so Augustine.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1100951619?ean=9780521589529
Also, I’m GETTING that book!
Yes, in researching for this very short exploration of evil, I came across the belief that matter itself was a source of evil. I have some explorations about evil for other endeavors (homeschooling, debates with peers, etc.), but it has been awhile. There’s so much to ponder over...it’s fascinating and overwhelming at once.
Try your hand at translating Augustine. Subscribe and shortly you will receive emailed instruction.
https://quasillum.com/study/index.php
http://lists.quasillum.com/mailman/listinfo/latinstudy
https://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php
I will!
I couldn’t watch the trailer, I’ll do so Monday (I hope) when I get internet back. (Just moved.)
First let me say, my sources are slapdash at best: a couple of books I’ve just begun, Arendt’s ‘Origins of Totalitarianism’ and Martha Stout’s ‘The Sociopath Next Door,’ recommended by Yuri Bezmenov. Oh, and the renowned Church theologian and philosopher Matt Walsh. Matt’s great but he’s not Augustine of Hippo.
(Unless Augustine had a hilarious recurring podcast segment titled ‘Am I the A**hole?’
Actually I expect Matt’s quite a bit funnier.)
But I am NOT convinced that our oppressors are actively possessed by, or otherwise consciously in league with Satan or his minions. I say this because we witnessed breathtaking, horrifying evil throughout the 20th century, that was unprecedented in history in large part because in prior centuries the technology to control, torture and murder people on such a grand scale didn’t exist.
What we’ve seen since 2020 - the gaslighting, intolerance of dissent and the sudden abandonment by half our neighbors of a longstanding American consensus on the limits of govt authority at all levels; indeed even mass murder by public-health policy (banning known, effective treatments; mandating deadly ‘vaccines’) is not unprecedented in the world, it’s just (kind of) unprecedented in America, at least on this scale.
Our technocrat oppressors (everyone needs to read Gato Malo’s recent post on data suppression) are almost the perfect illustration of Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ observations. They’re not possessed. Most of them, in fact, got where they are now precisely by REJECTING any notion of a higher power to Whom they must account for misdeeds.
The technocracy that rules the west are sociopaths - the 4% of people who, Dr Stout explains, are incapable of remorse for deeds that harm others. Stout points out that they mostly aren’t mass murderers, as people assume, because most people simply are too squeamish to be motivated by blood lust.
Instead, they are people who are motivated by the same impulses as the rest of us - power, control, laziness, lust, what have you - but who have no conscience. They’re the lovers who use you then blithely cast you aside. He’s the lazy asshole on your group classroom assignment who lets his teammates ‘carry’ him - because they want the grade and so, can’t afford to let him fail.
If they like control , they gravitate to politics, to teaching, to coaching, to bureaucracy, and especially to ‘public health’ - any field that enables their ability to boss people around without accountability.
An obvious corollary of their condition is that they’re pathologically incapable of admitting error.
Obviously I can’t prove there ISN’T something directly satanic afoot, starting with the Great Reset, continuing with the Covid and ‘vaccine’ psy-ops the continued full-court press of official gaslighting. Moreover a LOT of us got the ‘something wicked this way comes’ goosebumps with Biden’s weirdly petulant demands that we all submit to an experimental gene therapy with proven inefficacy and a horrific adverse-effects profile, for a virus less deadly than the forgotten Asian Flu of 1957-58. (I highly recommend Rob Slane over at The Blog Mire.)
But for now, Im content to chalk it all up to secondary evil.
Finally, Matt Walsh has argued that Satanism doesn’t mean you worship the fallen angel Lucifer. It means you WORSHIP YOURSELF. That’s what the Serpent instructed us to do when he told Eve that ‘in the day ye eat [the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil] then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
That’s been the problem with progressives (and communists, and fascists) from the very start: They’re so deeply convinced they have all the answers, that even when exposed as charlatans, they’ll kill (or die) en masse to avoid admitting it to themselves.
In the pandemicists and mask-&-jab cultists, in the WEF bug-eaters, even in our very own FBI director - that’s what we’re looking at: sociopaths (whom we let take those jobs) who got it all wrong, but who are constitutionally incapable of admitting error or failure.
Jack, you are SUCH a joy to have as a fellow Substacker and I am ever grateful for your thoughtful commentary. You are right in your assessment of Matt Walsh. He is quite astute at analyzing our modern culture, yet he is NO Augustine. I mean, who is???
I don’t think every higher-up orchestrating these current troubles is actually fully possessed by the devil. But there are four stages of demonic possession and I do believe at least an astonishing majority of them are at LEAST at stage one...many are probably closer to stages two and three and perhaps a few at stage four. But who REALLY knows? Certainly not me. I just watch, read, ask questions, and analyze.
Oh, and I absolutely love that picture of Michael, the archangel.
Thank you! I prefer imagery of him as a strong, masculine warrior, rather than those Renaissance era images of a more feminine looking warrior. I know these depictions are only so we can picture him and his mighty work in our human minds, but still...
I agree. Those pics of "angels" from that time frame are, well, girlie. But, look at the men of the time. They didn't go down to the docks to get inspiration.
Yes, there is evil and those who do it's bidding, whether summoning up Satan himself or just existing as a vacuous vessel that performs nihilistic works of the enemy without the critical thinking skills involving The Truth. I know the demonic possession is real and Satan is always ready to take any opportunity to slide in and have his minions begin work in an unknowing victim. I, for one, do not let that shit in. Satans evil is evil. Jesus is the way, the Truth and The Life. Davos men are inhabited by a higher order of evil, but it is not worth thinking about, because God wins in the end. We might have to go through some shit, but God is always for The Truth. I choose The Truth.
Thank you, Sadie. Your response is oddly comforting and hope-giving. I needed that.
Whatever the motivation of these people, it isn’t good. Another thing to point is the condition of the citizens. How far have we wondered away from the light, that we are controlled by fear, greed, vanity, and the rest of the seven deadly sins. We have to take a pause and fix us, before we could ever consider holding anyone accountable for their actions. The corruptness of our government is a symptom of us straying from God.
Oh Will, you are correct. It all begins at home and spreads from there. But so many people are blind to the fact that there is anything beyond our material realm. Yes we must do our best to help them see, but as a people and as a Church, we are so very fractured. It’s a daunting task indeed.
I haven’t read St Augustine since undergraduate. Should go find what box in the crawlspace that lives in & fetch & read.
But OK
So you have a collection of people, and each has a sort of compass. Evil is South, Good is North.
We’ve been experiencing the alignment of a whole bunch of compasses toward the same direction. Add them all up and you’re looking at a fair bit more South than North.
Is that because there is an underlying field that is causing them all to align in that direction?
Or is that an ‘emergent property’ where they are seeing the alignment of their neighbor and adjusting accordingly?
Try your hand at translating Augustine. Subscribe and shortly you will receive emailed instruction.
https://quasillum.com/study/index.php
http://lists.quasillum.com/mailman/listinfo/latinstudy
https://www.quasillum.com/latin/latin-activities.php
I’m on it, John C! Will do right after Mass
Hi Dr. Flurm -- Yes, I encourage you to delve, once more into St. Augustine’s works. I haven’t read much of his writings, but I have read Confessions thrice and am currently reading City of God.
In answer to your question, I think BOTH forces are at work. Truly, it’s highly likely that primary evil (the underlying for you mentioned) has always been at work -- throughout history since the Fall. The way I see it, it has nudged men toward secondary evil by encouraging their worst tendencies.
BUT, I do think the malevolence is growing ever bolder in these times, so close to the surface one might say it’s rumbling, barely detectable, but certainly there. Along with that, men (I’m sure you KNOW I am not only pointing at males by using that term 😂) have largely quashed that still small interior voice, which guides them away from enacting their basest desires. Obviously, not ALL men have lost their way, but so many.
That trailer is terrifying, made my skin crawl.
It's a really good movie, though. I researched the truth of the story because, often, when a story is "based on a true experience," it's really not. But Sarchie is in all the newspapers in NY around the time everything happened. In the interview with Sarchie that I linked, he says that the depiction of the actual exorcism was visually exaggerated because it's very difficult to convey what really happens in one of those sessions.
Anyway, I'm HONORED that you visited my stack and commented, Yuri.
Thank you for your comment, Justin. I think almost all of us are guilty of some level of spiritual poverty. I believe that as long as one works diligently on ameliorating such poverty in oneself, it’s a good and holy thing.
Thanks so much, Spiro! Funnily (or not), I just found out that Eric Bana is Australian when researching this movie and Ralph Sarchie. If nothing else, I had NO clue he wasn't a born and raised American from watching the movie. He did a great job with the accent. My husband, who is a Yankee (yes, I know) turned "new native" Texan and he could not detect any 'lie' in the accent.
That said, I had no idea about Bana's other acting pursuits. I knew the name, etc., but am not aware that I've seen any movie in which he appears, though that doesn't mean I haven't. It just means I don't realize it. Anyway, personally, I typically don't care what other distasteful or failed movies actors have starred in when I see them in a movie I feel is very well done. The exception is, of course, if the actor has appeared in a promotional role in something horrific like a blatantly pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, or porn, etc., movie. I haven't see any of the other things you have mentioned, but I HAVE seen re-runs of those Hulk shows with Bill Bixby as the Hulk?
Yes, the movie is rife with symbolism and I love that. It won't even be on most people's radar to wonder about or even look it up, but it didn't get past us. The owl was the WORST! We actually SAW a stuffed owl almost exactly like the one in the movie, may have been exact, one time when we were just strolling through some boutiques in the Hill Country. It was right after the first time we had watched the movie. DS was ready to leave that store immediately! hahs.
I had a jack-in-the-box as a young girl and I also bought one for our kids when they were very young, but ours weren't scary at all, t hough they had the same tune. I didn't know the details until reading your comment, but I did learn a little afterwards that their origin was frightening.
I'm grateful for your input, especially because most of the people I have discussed this particular topic with aren't at all knowledgeable about this difference (not that I'm any expert, let's be clear on that), but even most of them agree that there's a special kind of evil at work here.
Augustine is one of my absolute favorite saints. I love his quote, "Late have I loved you, Oh Beauty Eternal, so old and so new. Late have I loved you." It makes me tear up every time I see it or speak it. I just now fought back tears typing it out here. And, yes, Aquinas is another of my favorites. I also love reading Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates. They didn't have a grasp on the whole truth, obviously, but they were being called by God. They knew something.
Oh wow. Do you happen to have a link, Spiro?
Thank you!
I've heard of that story, Le Marchant, though I haven't read anything focused on that or watched anything. I shall look it up. It sounds positively terrifying and, you're right, there are some things that ought not be sought. Aquinas talks about the sin of being overly curious. Perhaps, this sort of thing is what he's getting at.
One of my sons...the second... loves Jekyll and Hyde. He has seen the original black and white movie (yes, probably from the 50s) and a couple of remakes, plus an opera. It's interesting that you had a nightmare, spurred by that movie, which had such an impact on you that you remember it all these years later. Another son of mine (the 3rd -- lots of kids) had a terrible nightmare when he was about 6 and he remembers it vividly unto this day. I'm not sure one would call it a nightmare and I don't think he calls it that either (he's 22 just the other day), but it's quite disturbing, for sure. I think he'll remember that all of his life.
About your dream...wow. My husband had a dream, more like a vision, a little while ago. I won’t recount it here because it is his to elaborate upon, but it was a very vivid dream/vision of beauty and hope.
It’s probably a vision, NOT merely a dream. When these things are quite vivid and do not dissipate as do dreams, then one can assume they are visions -- at least that’s what I’ve been taught by a person I trust completely.
I love Fr. Chad Ripperger and it’s wonderful to hear that you listen to him as well.