Hi Paul, I wanted to ask about the importance of Lent in the modern machine world and any thoughts you have on it's use/misuse etc in the situation we find ourselves in. Despite not belonging to any Church I find the season useful and always try and observe Lent. This year I have given up coffee, news media, and ordering from Amazon. These are all things I enjoy but equally are all destructive habits health and sanity wise. I do wonder though if I should give up something that hasn't got any fringe benefits to giving up or am I getting Lent 'wrong'? I'm already on a pretty restrictive diet so fasting is not really an option. Also my catholic relatives insist you can 'break the fast' each Sunday so the total time adds up to 40 days. Is this generally true?
For me, your first and last topic weave together. Since 2017, I have been in the Lenten habit of fasting from all Internet activity beyond what I must do for work and email (which is how I read my substacks). This year I started early when I noticed that same pattern of manipulated hysteria begin beating away in my heart. I turned it all off two weeks ago, and I couldn't tell you a thing about the Ukraine, Canada, Covid. None of it is any worse for my ignorance, and I am certainly a lot better for it.
Why? Jaques Ellul wrote a book in the 60s called "The Humiliation of the Word". It's a classic, but it is especially pertinent during Lent. The Logos of the Universe simply cannot be heard amidst this inchoate flood of images that is late modern culture (and don't fool yourself. Even as we "read" on the Internet, we are inundated with images). The more time I spend on the internet, the less I can hear. Yes. And the more powerful the image--say tanks or horses bulldozing human beings--the worse it becomes. It seems clear to me that the reason the Ukraine or Canada or Covid unfold as they do is because of this phenomena. The world needs Lent, in other words. I do at least.
So I fast, and then I can pray. Which is what I will go do now I suppose. I can't look at Twitter; so, what else am I going to do with myself?
" I am being told what to think and who to hate and how to react, and as a result I find myself trusting nobody at all." yes yes and yes. The salon is a great idea.
I watched this video today: https://youtu.be/fx3JV-5myK4 Patriot Nurse. Don't believe anything, war is not a new thing, and nothing you're seeing on the internet is true. It's a good reminder. Heck, when she talks about self-defence and making sure your rifle is clean locked and loaded, it made me wish for a moment that we had gun rights in Ireland. What a disaster that could be!
Ultimately, there are some people out there who still believe that a saviour will come and save the world. They are going to be way disappointed. We have to save ourselves, it starts very much with us, and with the quality of our lives. I drove to my little office this morning behind a 4 wheel drive SUV (much needed in the burbs of Dublin I may add) and it had a bumper sticker saying "Work sucks, go surfing instead" Well I love my work, and I believe that's the issue here. Surfing on a wave that may or may not come isn't something that I particularly love, but I'm getting better at it over the last 2 years. Loving what I do is important to me. I changed my whole life around it, its not the easy choice and for that reason, most people don't do it. I know it sounds like I'm rambling but I do believe all of these things are connected. I wrote this on Facebook/Instagram last night:
I have to speak my truth. Truth can hurt. But life isn’t about protecting your feelings over truth. Or protecting mine. And guess what - the truth is probably going to hurt your feelings - but it’s better to hear it, then you can process it and get over it and grow. That’s why we are here - to grow. To understand each other, to respect the other, that’s just part of it.
Choosing truth and what is right over fear and what is easy is hard. Especially when corporations are trying their damnedest to censure and hide it.
Hi Paul, and thanks for your newsletter, which is both a guide and a support.
This morning I wrote the following note to myself. It was intended to be only a self-provocation, which I could return to later. But in the spirit of this Salon (which is a great idea), I'll post it here and see what it provokes in others. As it sounds, I wrote it in an attempt to understand what I think. I am not deeply attached to the claims I make in it.
*
For the last 30 years we in the west have enacted a collective hallucination. We have lived a kind of hallucinatory realism. Not Nietzsche's Last Men, but the dream of the Last Man, reproduced a billion times.
We have lived in a dreamland without edges, without time. That is not to say that the historical real did not happen, but that it was processed as dream. This process has its roots in our obsession with the reproduction, the copy. Which in turn has its roots in a certain orientation to the world; the subject/object orientation at the heart of our metaphysics. We exported our obsession with reproduction to the rest of the world; Russia and China. But they were ruled by a political class grounded in history and existential struggle. They used our copy-making machines as systems of control. Meanwhile, we lost ourselves in hyperreality.
Immensely powerful rival systems gathered their strength; the elites that constituted them could hardly believe their luck. Now history is wrapping its long fingers around us again. What will follow is a battle for the future. The war in Ukraine is just a shock wave (and not even the first), a signal of the massive detonation that is to come. On the one side stand people, wherever they are, who believe in recognisably human forms of life. On the other are those who want to facilitate the domination of a technics megastructure. Putin believes in nothing but a hollowed-out Russian nationalism that has become a cipher for global capital. China is building a form of techno-authoritarianism the like of which the world has never seen.
On the surface, the project that awaits us is to conserve recognisably human forms of life. We might say that the answer is to be properly conservative, if that word had not been assaulted by the idiocies of the modern conservative parties, which have inverted conservatism and liquidate every recognisable human relationship and value.
The deeper answer can only be spiritual revolution. It must come.
Speaking about control & money, if you live in a latin american country (such as my homeland Brazil), you are already very familiar with government messing up with your money. Brazil in the 90s and Argentina in 2001 were both situations where government froze the savings accounts of the whole population, effectively leading lots of people to not be able to access their savings for almost 2 years.
That's why I think this whole idea of having your whole assets financialized is so dangerous. People should have land, vehicles and other physical assets, so the government can't have this imense financial power over its own citzens.
I have, during Covid, stopped exposing myself to the news. A year and a half into this fast I find it harder and harder to justify going back to doing so. Apart from the usual arguments about being lied to without a way of knowing where the manipulation ends and a broader view emerges, there is for me a more important consideration.
What gives meaning to my life is love. That being so, the most important relational work of my life lies in my immediate circle: wife, children, friends and acquaintances - Christ's 'neighbours'. I have found that they require, if I am to live a loving, meaningful life, all my energy and thoughts. And they are the place - for me increasingly the only place - where I can make a real difference (apart from in my garden).
The News intrudes on these efforts in two ways. It distracts my attention from the love and thoughts required by my relations; and it plants a floating anxiety in my soul that disturbs the peace required for my best relational work. Thus because I am wondering how things are going in the Ukraine and continually checking to see the latest 'progress', I'm not open to noticing the real anxiety which my child's teenage conflicts are causing him, or to appropriately respond to it.
By following this line of reasoning, do I forego 'being up to date' or 'knowing what's going on in the world'? To a large extent I do, but I find that it impacts very little on my life in real terms. I know, for instance, that the Covid rules still apply in Cape Town because I still see people wearing masks. If I want to know what is going on in the Ukraine, I can just press a friend's button and their anxiety will cause them to gush out the latest.
We have been sold the lie that we 'can make a difference' by reposting video clips of people agreeing with us, writing comments on news sites and shouting down 'yes, but' in social contexts. But we make a significant difference only to the people with whom we are in relationships. These relationships constitute our most important task, and that should command our best attention, I think.
I am not sure if this topic fits with the idea you are going after Paul...perhaps practical ideas for self sufficiency. Given the different living situations that we all have (some have land, some don't, some have much experience, some don't), what are the practical steps that a person/family can take to be more self sufficient and not a slave to the machine?
What I find so disturbing is the acceleration of ‘othering’ people. First people losing their jobs for posting something on social media that pushed back at the Woke Doctrines, then the people who donated to the vaccine mandate protests were doxxed, had their names posted around town and were chased down by the media, now people are vandalising Russian owned stores. The trajectory is frightening.
I want to understand what is happening and what I can personally do - which is why I love this substack.
I think maybe moving out of the medium sized city I live in and out to the country might be an answer.
I am also looking at religion - although my own church talks about nothing but social justice politics - I am reading books on Christianity and signed up for a course on paganism. I think the answer lies in embracing spirituality, tradition, self-sufficiency - just trying to figure out how to best do that.
I'm, in general, pretty down on social media. I think it does allow/encourage us to be the worst version of ourselves too much of the time. But it can be helpful in situations like the Russia/Ukraine war (recognizing its limits, of course). On one hand you have Russia which says it is conducting a "special military operation" targeting only the "Nazis" in power. On the other hand, you have loads of videos and pictures taken by everyday Ukrainians demonstrating that their homes are being destroyed, their infrastructure is being decimated, and, most grievously, civilians (including children) are being targeted and killed. Could some of the videos and pictures be manipulated or photoshopped? Sure. Does every person in Ukraine documenting this war have the appropriate software and equipment and the ability to do such a convincing job under great duress? Certainly not. The documentation of the destruction of their country and their lives happens to correspond with the narrative that the western media is promoting about the war (and conflicts with the Russian narrative). And I will admit here that I have been following this conflict way more closely than I probably should, and more so than could be considered healthy for me (though, like you, I have tried to limit myself for Lent).
I agree that a certain amount of suspicion and cynicism about "what we can really know" is warranted in light of the fact that people do, everywhere and in all places, have agendas, even journalists, even Ukrainian farmers. However, I don't believe complete cynicism is helpful in the face of obviously evil acts (recognizing, of course, that "the west" can do evil and the USA, where I live, is certainly guilty of much evil in its brief history). In my mind, it doesn't matter that Russia may have been provoked, or not welcomed into the European fold in the 90s when there was a chance, or whatever. The killing of civilians (including children), as documented on the vast and dense social media network, is wrong. It's ok to say so. It's imperative, as Christians, that we say so, because these evil acts are, in part, the work of dark, evil powers. Just as we participate with God in theosis, we can participate with the demons in the opposite process. Evil is widespread and it's hard to keep track of it all, including the evil within ourselves. And sometimes there truly are grey areas in which it's difficult for us to know for sure, and therefore wise for us to be quiet. But sometimes it really is just black and white. You can admit the west could have handled its relations with Russia better in the past and that it did make mistakes and the politics of the situation are truly complicated AND still condemn this war of aggression as evil.
Perhaps it's better to think of this as a manifestation of a dire spiritual war, in which the forces of evil have a hold on/are influencing certain powerful world actors (even those that call themselves Christians and declare that they stand for "Christian values"), instead of seeing one side as evil, immoral, and degenerate and the other as perfect and justified. And in that case, it's appropriate to call upon the Lord, the saints, the angels to help those being influenced by evil to resist and to soften the heart of those who may be willingly cooperating with evil, starting with ourselves.
Hi Paul, I love this platform, but absinthe isn’t my thing, a good Cabernet might work, ha!
Anyway, to those who are struggling for “faith” or a church, I can relate. However, one year ago I was Chrismated in the OCA (Orthodox Church in America). Although to be truly Orthodox would take a lifetime of practice and even then would not be totally comprehensive, I have found true peace and joy. This past Sunday was Forgiveness Sunday and it is one of the most spiritually beautiful experiences and of course extremely humbling and cathartic. To ask forgiveness of fellow worshippers, individually, is soul shaking! In the midst of all the horrible news about Ukraine and Russia there was peace for that hour. Our priest urges us to turn down the noise and focus on what really is important in our lives and in Christianity that is focusing on the love that Christ gives to us and share it with whom we come in contact.
For those who are reading this I humbly ask you to pray, pray, pray. Also, fasting does help keep one focused on your prayer goal.
The whole fiasco with Russia/Ukraine has ultimately driven me towards Lent, or the Orthodox articulation of it, in two different ways.
The first is related to an essay by Wes Jackson titled 'Towards an Ignorance Based Worldview'. I highly recommend it. The premise is that for all the knowledge than humans have on any subject, do they have enough knowledge in the grand scheme of life to make decisions? Do we know enough about, say, the world's ecosystem, that we can say that throwing buckets of metallic glitter in the air to combat global warming won't have any negative unforeseen effects? This relates to the Russia/Ukraine conflict in the story that is told of St. Sophrony of Essex. When WW2 broke out, news eventually traveled to his hermitage on Mt Athos. It is said of him that he stayed in his hut, and prayed for the least evil side to prevail. May we all strive towards that, to pray with open hands, with no solution in mind, acknowledging our own ignorance of everything. And this is ultimately our prayer and practice during Lent. We pray that we will be purified and draw closer to God, yet hold nothing in our hands. We don't know what we need, except to be closer to God.
The second is related. My wife and I have been off social media for quite a while, and I struggle against my passions to check the news. I am, in fact, Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series who must listen to the radio constantly, just to make sure that the chaos of this world hasn't gotten too personal. We both do believe that as humankind, we were not created with the mental capacity to fully understand the world. I don't think anyone can truly understand geopolitics, although many pretend they do. There is no amount of research or tweeting that will make me understand on a deep level what the lived experience is of someone in Russia or Ukraine. And, my heart is small. I think I was created to empathize and hold the hurts of my local immediate community. When I hear of the tragedies of war in another country, I don't know what to do with that, and I don't think anyone does. If I keep them as 'just numbers', there is no humanity to it. And if I dive into the humanity, read the stories of all that died, my heart is overwhelmed and I lose sight of everything, including God. So the question is, during this Lent, can I learn to love and feel without rational knowledge? Can I know that terrible things are happening, and while drawing closer to God, learn to love in Him and pray in Him for those around the world? Can I trust, without knowledge of the details or solutions in mind, that my proper response can find its place in God, and that He will reveal anything I need for my prayer life? If action is required of me, won't God let me know, or align circumstances in such a way that is obviously? Wouldn't it be better to love and support Russians and Ukrainians in my local community that are torn up with this situation?
I'm not advocating for putting one's head in the sand, I guess for me I feel like live-streamed 24/7 destruction and death delivered to my pocket computer isn't actually helping me process the situation and pray about it appropriately. Maybe God intended us to be in our local community, and then pray for the world in Him. I don't know, but these are the questions I wrestle with.
I find this relevant to both Lent and the current world situation:
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
This does seem to be the choice we are given. To whom do we give worship?
Just a cup of tea this time. I have got work outside I need to get back to. Which is also nice.
The age of information is difficult and kind of addictive. I need to go back to the books, but essays are worth reading, thank you. (Read your 2021 account of conversion this morning.) Am more wary than ever of the rumour machine running on the dense wires of social networks. We might need to extend Lent a bit.
I like the painting but I'm feeling flippant for no reason: salon, bon mot, dilettante, ancien regime? I'm trying to recall the painting of the philosophes; Raphael, The School of Athens. (Looked it up. That was a touch earnest, perhaps.) Ah, would that Diogenes was with us now!
"At what point does propaganda become so pervasive that it is impossible to believe anything you hear?"
Propaganda can never become so pervasive that it obscures the Dharma.
"Aaapo deepo bhava"--be a lamp unto oneself with Buddha-nature as the flame.
"How should we respond to it?"
Dissent should not be penalized unless/until it has been weaponized and used to cause harm. To deny access to the financial system causes harm, and harm needs to be avoided.
"I’m interested in the meaning of self-denial (and indeed prayer) in an age of self-worship, and not just for Christians."
Saicho, the founder of my lineage, believed in putting others first, before the (no-)self. The West has promoted the self for centuries at an accelerating rate. The best way I have found is to go cold turkey on the self, embrace no-self, and then every action/interaction becomes an instance of prayer and compassion. Self-worship only becomes a problem when a person takes the first step and believes in a self. To adapt an old motto: Just say no-self!
Hi Paul, I wanted to ask about the importance of Lent in the modern machine world and any thoughts you have on it's use/misuse etc in the situation we find ourselves in. Despite not belonging to any Church I find the season useful and always try and observe Lent. This year I have given up coffee, news media, and ordering from Amazon. These are all things I enjoy but equally are all destructive habits health and sanity wise. I do wonder though if I should give up something that hasn't got any fringe benefits to giving up or am I getting Lent 'wrong'? I'm already on a pretty restrictive diet so fasting is not really an option. Also my catholic relatives insist you can 'break the fast' each Sunday so the total time adds up to 40 days. Is this generally true?
Hi Paul,
For me, your first and last topic weave together. Since 2017, I have been in the Lenten habit of fasting from all Internet activity beyond what I must do for work and email (which is how I read my substacks). This year I started early when I noticed that same pattern of manipulated hysteria begin beating away in my heart. I turned it all off two weeks ago, and I couldn't tell you a thing about the Ukraine, Canada, Covid. None of it is any worse for my ignorance, and I am certainly a lot better for it.
Why? Jaques Ellul wrote a book in the 60s called "The Humiliation of the Word". It's a classic, but it is especially pertinent during Lent. The Logos of the Universe simply cannot be heard amidst this inchoate flood of images that is late modern culture (and don't fool yourself. Even as we "read" on the Internet, we are inundated with images). The more time I spend on the internet, the less I can hear. Yes. And the more powerful the image--say tanks or horses bulldozing human beings--the worse it becomes. It seems clear to me that the reason the Ukraine or Canada or Covid unfold as they do is because of this phenomena. The world needs Lent, in other words. I do at least.
So I fast, and then I can pray. Which is what I will go do now I suppose. I can't look at Twitter; so, what else am I going to do with myself?
" I am being told what to think and who to hate and how to react, and as a result I find myself trusting nobody at all." yes yes and yes. The salon is a great idea.
I watched this video today: https://youtu.be/fx3JV-5myK4 Patriot Nurse. Don't believe anything, war is not a new thing, and nothing you're seeing on the internet is true. It's a good reminder. Heck, when she talks about self-defence and making sure your rifle is clean locked and loaded, it made me wish for a moment that we had gun rights in Ireland. What a disaster that could be!
Ultimately, there are some people out there who still believe that a saviour will come and save the world. They are going to be way disappointed. We have to save ourselves, it starts very much with us, and with the quality of our lives. I drove to my little office this morning behind a 4 wheel drive SUV (much needed in the burbs of Dublin I may add) and it had a bumper sticker saying "Work sucks, go surfing instead" Well I love my work, and I believe that's the issue here. Surfing on a wave that may or may not come isn't something that I particularly love, but I'm getting better at it over the last 2 years. Loving what I do is important to me. I changed my whole life around it, its not the easy choice and for that reason, most people don't do it. I know it sounds like I'm rambling but I do believe all of these things are connected. I wrote this on Facebook/Instagram last night:
I have to speak my truth. Truth can hurt. But life isn’t about protecting your feelings over truth. Or protecting mine. And guess what - the truth is probably going to hurt your feelings - but it’s better to hear it, then you can process it and get over it and grow. That’s why we are here - to grow. To understand each other, to respect the other, that’s just part of it.
Choosing truth and what is right over fear and what is easy is hard. Especially when corporations are trying their damnedest to censure and hide it.
I'll stop now. Love what you're doing here xxAbby
Hi Paul, and thanks for your newsletter, which is both a guide and a support.
This morning I wrote the following note to myself. It was intended to be only a self-provocation, which I could return to later. But in the spirit of this Salon (which is a great idea), I'll post it here and see what it provokes in others. As it sounds, I wrote it in an attempt to understand what I think. I am not deeply attached to the claims I make in it.
*
For the last 30 years we in the west have enacted a collective hallucination. We have lived a kind of hallucinatory realism. Not Nietzsche's Last Men, but the dream of the Last Man, reproduced a billion times.
We have lived in a dreamland without edges, without time. That is not to say that the historical real did not happen, but that it was processed as dream. This process has its roots in our obsession with the reproduction, the copy. Which in turn has its roots in a certain orientation to the world; the subject/object orientation at the heart of our metaphysics. We exported our obsession with reproduction to the rest of the world; Russia and China. But they were ruled by a political class grounded in history and existential struggle. They used our copy-making machines as systems of control. Meanwhile, we lost ourselves in hyperreality.
Immensely powerful rival systems gathered their strength; the elites that constituted them could hardly believe their luck. Now history is wrapping its long fingers around us again. What will follow is a battle for the future. The war in Ukraine is just a shock wave (and not even the first), a signal of the massive detonation that is to come. On the one side stand people, wherever they are, who believe in recognisably human forms of life. On the other are those who want to facilitate the domination of a technics megastructure. Putin believes in nothing but a hollowed-out Russian nationalism that has become a cipher for global capital. China is building a form of techno-authoritarianism the like of which the world has never seen.
On the surface, the project that awaits us is to conserve recognisably human forms of life. We might say that the answer is to be properly conservative, if that word had not been assaulted by the idiocies of the modern conservative parties, which have inverted conservatism and liquidate every recognisable human relationship and value.
The deeper answer can only be spiritual revolution. It must come.
Speaking about control & money, if you live in a latin american country (such as my homeland Brazil), you are already very familiar with government messing up with your money. Brazil in the 90s and Argentina in 2001 were both situations where government froze the savings accounts of the whole population, effectively leading lots of people to not be able to access their savings for almost 2 years.
That's why I think this whole idea of having your whole assets financialized is so dangerous. People should have land, vehicles and other physical assets, so the government can't have this imense financial power over its own citzens.
I have, during Covid, stopped exposing myself to the news. A year and a half into this fast I find it harder and harder to justify going back to doing so. Apart from the usual arguments about being lied to without a way of knowing where the manipulation ends and a broader view emerges, there is for me a more important consideration.
What gives meaning to my life is love. That being so, the most important relational work of my life lies in my immediate circle: wife, children, friends and acquaintances - Christ's 'neighbours'. I have found that they require, if I am to live a loving, meaningful life, all my energy and thoughts. And they are the place - for me increasingly the only place - where I can make a real difference (apart from in my garden).
The News intrudes on these efforts in two ways. It distracts my attention from the love and thoughts required by my relations; and it plants a floating anxiety in my soul that disturbs the peace required for my best relational work. Thus because I am wondering how things are going in the Ukraine and continually checking to see the latest 'progress', I'm not open to noticing the real anxiety which my child's teenage conflicts are causing him, or to appropriately respond to it.
By following this line of reasoning, do I forego 'being up to date' or 'knowing what's going on in the world'? To a large extent I do, but I find that it impacts very little on my life in real terms. I know, for instance, that the Covid rules still apply in Cape Town because I still see people wearing masks. If I want to know what is going on in the Ukraine, I can just press a friend's button and their anxiety will cause them to gush out the latest.
We have been sold the lie that we 'can make a difference' by reposting video clips of people agreeing with us, writing comments on news sites and shouting down 'yes, but' in social contexts. But we make a significant difference only to the people with whom we are in relationships. These relationships constitute our most important task, and that should command our best attention, I think.
I am not sure if this topic fits with the idea you are going after Paul...perhaps practical ideas for self sufficiency. Given the different living situations that we all have (some have land, some don't, some have much experience, some don't), what are the practical steps that a person/family can take to be more self sufficient and not a slave to the machine?
What I find so disturbing is the acceleration of ‘othering’ people. First people losing their jobs for posting something on social media that pushed back at the Woke Doctrines, then the people who donated to the vaccine mandate protests were doxxed, had their names posted around town and were chased down by the media, now people are vandalising Russian owned stores. The trajectory is frightening.
I want to understand what is happening and what I can personally do - which is why I love this substack.
I think maybe moving out of the medium sized city I live in and out to the country might be an answer.
I am also looking at religion - although my own church talks about nothing but social justice politics - I am reading books on Christianity and signed up for a course on paganism. I think the answer lies in embracing spirituality, tradition, self-sufficiency - just trying to figure out how to best do that.
I'm, in general, pretty down on social media. I think it does allow/encourage us to be the worst version of ourselves too much of the time. But it can be helpful in situations like the Russia/Ukraine war (recognizing its limits, of course). On one hand you have Russia which says it is conducting a "special military operation" targeting only the "Nazis" in power. On the other hand, you have loads of videos and pictures taken by everyday Ukrainians demonstrating that their homes are being destroyed, their infrastructure is being decimated, and, most grievously, civilians (including children) are being targeted and killed. Could some of the videos and pictures be manipulated or photoshopped? Sure. Does every person in Ukraine documenting this war have the appropriate software and equipment and the ability to do such a convincing job under great duress? Certainly not. The documentation of the destruction of their country and their lives happens to correspond with the narrative that the western media is promoting about the war (and conflicts with the Russian narrative). And I will admit here that I have been following this conflict way more closely than I probably should, and more so than could be considered healthy for me (though, like you, I have tried to limit myself for Lent).
I agree that a certain amount of suspicion and cynicism about "what we can really know" is warranted in light of the fact that people do, everywhere and in all places, have agendas, even journalists, even Ukrainian farmers. However, I don't believe complete cynicism is helpful in the face of obviously evil acts (recognizing, of course, that "the west" can do evil and the USA, where I live, is certainly guilty of much evil in its brief history). In my mind, it doesn't matter that Russia may have been provoked, or not welcomed into the European fold in the 90s when there was a chance, or whatever. The killing of civilians (including children), as documented on the vast and dense social media network, is wrong. It's ok to say so. It's imperative, as Christians, that we say so, because these evil acts are, in part, the work of dark, evil powers. Just as we participate with God in theosis, we can participate with the demons in the opposite process. Evil is widespread and it's hard to keep track of it all, including the evil within ourselves. And sometimes there truly are grey areas in which it's difficult for us to know for sure, and therefore wise for us to be quiet. But sometimes it really is just black and white. You can admit the west could have handled its relations with Russia better in the past and that it did make mistakes and the politics of the situation are truly complicated AND still condemn this war of aggression as evil.
Perhaps it's better to think of this as a manifestation of a dire spiritual war, in which the forces of evil have a hold on/are influencing certain powerful world actors (even those that call themselves Christians and declare that they stand for "Christian values"), instead of seeing one side as evil, immoral, and degenerate and the other as perfect and justified. And in that case, it's appropriate to call upon the Lord, the saints, the angels to help those being influenced by evil to resist and to soften the heart of those who may be willingly cooperating with evil, starting with ourselves.
That's what I think, anyway.
Hi Paul, I love this platform, but absinthe isn’t my thing, a good Cabernet might work, ha!
Anyway, to those who are struggling for “faith” or a church, I can relate. However, one year ago I was Chrismated in the OCA (Orthodox Church in America). Although to be truly Orthodox would take a lifetime of practice and even then would not be totally comprehensive, I have found true peace and joy. This past Sunday was Forgiveness Sunday and it is one of the most spiritually beautiful experiences and of course extremely humbling and cathartic. To ask forgiveness of fellow worshippers, individually, is soul shaking! In the midst of all the horrible news about Ukraine and Russia there was peace for that hour. Our priest urges us to turn down the noise and focus on what really is important in our lives and in Christianity that is focusing on the love that Christ gives to us and share it with whom we come in contact.
For those who are reading this I humbly ask you to pray, pray, pray. Also, fasting does help keep one focused on your prayer goal.
The whole fiasco with Russia/Ukraine has ultimately driven me towards Lent, or the Orthodox articulation of it, in two different ways.
The first is related to an essay by Wes Jackson titled 'Towards an Ignorance Based Worldview'. I highly recommend it. The premise is that for all the knowledge than humans have on any subject, do they have enough knowledge in the grand scheme of life to make decisions? Do we know enough about, say, the world's ecosystem, that we can say that throwing buckets of metallic glitter in the air to combat global warming won't have any negative unforeseen effects? This relates to the Russia/Ukraine conflict in the story that is told of St. Sophrony of Essex. When WW2 broke out, news eventually traveled to his hermitage on Mt Athos. It is said of him that he stayed in his hut, and prayed for the least evil side to prevail. May we all strive towards that, to pray with open hands, with no solution in mind, acknowledging our own ignorance of everything. And this is ultimately our prayer and practice during Lent. We pray that we will be purified and draw closer to God, yet hold nothing in our hands. We don't know what we need, except to be closer to God.
The second is related. My wife and I have been off social media for quite a while, and I struggle against my passions to check the news. I am, in fact, Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series who must listen to the radio constantly, just to make sure that the chaos of this world hasn't gotten too personal. We both do believe that as humankind, we were not created with the mental capacity to fully understand the world. I don't think anyone can truly understand geopolitics, although many pretend they do. There is no amount of research or tweeting that will make me understand on a deep level what the lived experience is of someone in Russia or Ukraine. And, my heart is small. I think I was created to empathize and hold the hurts of my local immediate community. When I hear of the tragedies of war in another country, I don't know what to do with that, and I don't think anyone does. If I keep them as 'just numbers', there is no humanity to it. And if I dive into the humanity, read the stories of all that died, my heart is overwhelmed and I lose sight of everything, including God. So the question is, during this Lent, can I learn to love and feel without rational knowledge? Can I know that terrible things are happening, and while drawing closer to God, learn to love in Him and pray in Him for those around the world? Can I trust, without knowledge of the details or solutions in mind, that my proper response can find its place in God, and that He will reveal anything I need for my prayer life? If action is required of me, won't God let me know, or align circumstances in such a way that is obviously? Wouldn't it be better to love and support Russians and Ukrainians in my local community that are torn up with this situation?
I'm not advocating for putting one's head in the sand, I guess for me I feel like live-streamed 24/7 destruction and death delivered to my pocket computer isn't actually helping me process the situation and pray about it appropriately. Maybe God intended us to be in our local community, and then pray for the world in Him. I don't know, but these are the questions I wrestle with.
I find this relevant to both Lent and the current world situation:
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
This does seem to be the choice we are given. To whom do we give worship?
Just a cup of tea this time. I have got work outside I need to get back to. Which is also nice.
The age of information is difficult and kind of addictive. I need to go back to the books, but essays are worth reading, thank you. (Read your 2021 account of conversion this morning.) Am more wary than ever of the rumour machine running on the dense wires of social networks. We might need to extend Lent a bit.
I like the painting but I'm feeling flippant for no reason: salon, bon mot, dilettante, ancien regime? I'm trying to recall the painting of the philosophes; Raphael, The School of Athens. (Looked it up. That was a touch earnest, perhaps.) Ah, would that Diogenes was with us now!
"At what point does propaganda become so pervasive that it is impossible to believe anything you hear?"
Propaganda can never become so pervasive that it obscures the Dharma.
"Aaapo deepo bhava"--be a lamp unto oneself with Buddha-nature as the flame.
"How should we respond to it?"
Dissent should not be penalized unless/until it has been weaponized and used to cause harm. To deny access to the financial system causes harm, and harm needs to be avoided.
"I’m interested in the meaning of self-denial (and indeed prayer) in an age of self-worship, and not just for Christians."
Saicho, the founder of my lineage, believed in putting others first, before the (no-)self. The West has promoted the self for centuries at an accelerating rate. The best way I have found is to go cold turkey on the self, embrace no-self, and then every action/interaction becomes an instance of prayer and compassion. Self-worship only becomes a problem when a person takes the first step and believes in a self. To adapt an old motto: Just say no-self!