Anti Federalist
05-22-2020, 01:02 PM
For the Sake of Fellowship
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2020/05/22/for-the-sake-of-fellowship/#comment-737937
By
eric -
May 22, 2020
As Solzhenitsyn pointed out in his classic book, The Gulag Archipelago, creating a nightmare of evil is easy if you can convince people they are laboring on behalf of heaven on earth.
Then they will do unimaginable things. Like the things happening right now. And more to come.
Sickness Psychosis is being sold as a virtue – and the corollary is that it’s not virtuous to question it. This will inevitably devolve into something much more ominous. After all, people are dying!
Do you want people to get sick?
People who don’t wear Fear Masks and refuse to pretend these are “necessary” are already being painted as selfish and uncaring. They will be painted as evil and then criminal people.
And what happens then? Does it need elaboration?
This is all so obvious to a thinking brain. Not a genius brain. Just one capable of following the inexorable logic of things. That principles matter – and that surrendering them for expedience or any other reason is lethal.
But this ability to follow the inexorable logic of things – which must be developed – has been purposefully stifled in millions of people, as in the old Soviet Union – chiefly via “public” education and social pressure – such that we now have a Sovietized population not only ready but champing at the bit to “do good” – as they are told.
And thus, now, some very bad things. Which will morph into much worse things. People are being tackled by armed goons for not wearing the Fear Mask. Denied entry to grocery stores. Soon, they will be forbidden to leave their homes. They might break the spell of fear – and that is a very bad thing, you see.
Fear the future. Because this will not be resolved peacefully. Because one cannot reason with psychotic people. But one can separate oneself from them. From churches and businesses and people – even friends – who are so afflicted. Do not, for the sake of friendship, allow dangerous people to set the terms and conditions of your life.
Even if they think they are doing good.
There is a dialogue in the famous – and excellent – play, A Man for all Seasons, which is about the life of Sir Thomas More, friend to Erasmus, Henry VIII of England and Chancellor of England.
Sir Thomas would not bend his principles even for the sake of his friendship with Henry VIII, who was also king and as such held literal life and death power over him. More refused to accede to the demand of Henry that he publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of his second marriage, to Anne Boleyn – after having divorced his first wife, Catherine, on spurious charges of the marriage not having been legitimate. In fact, because Henry was frustrated by her inability to produce a male heir.
The Pope (England was still Catholic at this time) refused to grant Henry dispensation to marry Anne. Henry thus broke from Rome (and founded the Church of England). Sir Thomas, a committed Catholic, could not abide this – as a matter of principle – and expressed this by resigning his office and losing his friendship with Henry.
He would lose more, ultimately,
At any rate, there is a conversation between More and another friend of his, the Duke of Norfolk – who tries to persuade More to be reasonable – to not rock the boat. To go along to get along.
It goes like this:
Norfolk: I am your friend. I wish I wasn’t but I am.
More: What’s to be done, then?
Norfolk: Give in!
More: I can’t give in Howard. Our friendship’s more mutable than that.
Norfolk: Oh, and the one fixed point in the world of turning friendship is that Thomas More won’t give in… (but) We’ve all given in! Why must you stand out? . . .
More: No one is safe, Howard – and you have a son. We’ll end our friendship now.
Norfolk: Oh, confound all this! I’m not a scholar. I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not . . . but damn it, Thomas, why can’t you do as I did and come along with us for fellowship.
More: And when we die and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience and I am sent to Hell for not doing mine, will you come along with me, for fellowship?
The entire movie – which first aired back in 1966 – should be watched by every American today because so many Americans have lost their way and are willing to go to Hell – and consign everyone else to it – for the sake of not rocking the boat.
For fellowship.
They want to keep the peace with their wives; not lose their jobs – are desperate to open their businesses, even at half capacity and under tortured restrictions that all but assure they will go out of business, if they haven’t already.
They want very badly to go to church again, not virtually. To eat inside a restaurant. Get their hair cut. And for the sake of that, many are willing to . . . come along. To sigh and put on the Fear Mask and walk in between the painted lines, as if they’d just been arrested for something. They are willing to accept as the “new normal” being treated – and expected to behave as though – they and every other human being is an AIDs-dripping Typhoid Mary . . . for the sake of fellowship.
That all of this is reasonable, even necessary. At the very least, that it’s something we just have to go along with.
For fellowship.
Even if it means Hell on earth.
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2020/05/22/for-the-sake-of-fellowship/#comment-737937
By
eric -
May 22, 2020
As Solzhenitsyn pointed out in his classic book, The Gulag Archipelago, creating a nightmare of evil is easy if you can convince people they are laboring on behalf of heaven on earth.
Then they will do unimaginable things. Like the things happening right now. And more to come.
Sickness Psychosis is being sold as a virtue – and the corollary is that it’s not virtuous to question it. This will inevitably devolve into something much more ominous. After all, people are dying!
Do you want people to get sick?
People who don’t wear Fear Masks and refuse to pretend these are “necessary” are already being painted as selfish and uncaring. They will be painted as evil and then criminal people.
And what happens then? Does it need elaboration?
This is all so obvious to a thinking brain. Not a genius brain. Just one capable of following the inexorable logic of things. That principles matter – and that surrendering them for expedience or any other reason is lethal.
But this ability to follow the inexorable logic of things – which must be developed – has been purposefully stifled in millions of people, as in the old Soviet Union – chiefly via “public” education and social pressure – such that we now have a Sovietized population not only ready but champing at the bit to “do good” – as they are told.
And thus, now, some very bad things. Which will morph into much worse things. People are being tackled by armed goons for not wearing the Fear Mask. Denied entry to grocery stores. Soon, they will be forbidden to leave their homes. They might break the spell of fear – and that is a very bad thing, you see.
Fear the future. Because this will not be resolved peacefully. Because one cannot reason with psychotic people. But one can separate oneself from them. From churches and businesses and people – even friends – who are so afflicted. Do not, for the sake of friendship, allow dangerous people to set the terms and conditions of your life.
Even if they think they are doing good.
There is a dialogue in the famous – and excellent – play, A Man for all Seasons, which is about the life of Sir Thomas More, friend to Erasmus, Henry VIII of England and Chancellor of England.
Sir Thomas would not bend his principles even for the sake of his friendship with Henry VIII, who was also king and as such held literal life and death power over him. More refused to accede to the demand of Henry that he publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of his second marriage, to Anne Boleyn – after having divorced his first wife, Catherine, on spurious charges of the marriage not having been legitimate. In fact, because Henry was frustrated by her inability to produce a male heir.
The Pope (England was still Catholic at this time) refused to grant Henry dispensation to marry Anne. Henry thus broke from Rome (and founded the Church of England). Sir Thomas, a committed Catholic, could not abide this – as a matter of principle – and expressed this by resigning his office and losing his friendship with Henry.
He would lose more, ultimately,
At any rate, there is a conversation between More and another friend of his, the Duke of Norfolk – who tries to persuade More to be reasonable – to not rock the boat. To go along to get along.
It goes like this:
Norfolk: I am your friend. I wish I wasn’t but I am.
More: What’s to be done, then?
Norfolk: Give in!
More: I can’t give in Howard. Our friendship’s more mutable than that.
Norfolk: Oh, and the one fixed point in the world of turning friendship is that Thomas More won’t give in… (but) We’ve all given in! Why must you stand out? . . .
More: No one is safe, Howard – and you have a son. We’ll end our friendship now.
Norfolk: Oh, confound all this! I’m not a scholar. I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not . . . but damn it, Thomas, why can’t you do as I did and come along with us for fellowship.
More: And when we die and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience and I am sent to Hell for not doing mine, will you come along with me, for fellowship?
The entire movie – which first aired back in 1966 – should be watched by every American today because so many Americans have lost their way and are willing to go to Hell – and consign everyone else to it – for the sake of not rocking the boat.
For fellowship.
They want to keep the peace with their wives; not lose their jobs – are desperate to open their businesses, even at half capacity and under tortured restrictions that all but assure they will go out of business, if they haven’t already.
They want very badly to go to church again, not virtually. To eat inside a restaurant. Get their hair cut. And for the sake of that, many are willing to . . . come along. To sigh and put on the Fear Mask and walk in between the painted lines, as if they’d just been arrested for something. They are willing to accept as the “new normal” being treated – and expected to behave as though – they and every other human being is an AIDs-dripping Typhoid Mary . . . for the sake of fellowship.
That all of this is reasonable, even necessary. At the very least, that it’s something we just have to go along with.
For fellowship.
Even if it means Hell on earth.