Thoughts on Passive/Aggressive Goodness
• It’s a condition as old as civilization. Humans need a god of some kind. Even those who claim there is no god actually do still worship something, usually it comes down to idolizing the Good/Better/Best Self because, you know, humans ought to be willing to strive for a state of perfection so that the world can finally just get along and enjoy utter peace.
•This perfectionism is simply the Good-For-Goodness-Sake Syndrome; a handy replacement for God. It dresses up in different models to suit the times. A modern term is Globalism. But, ultimately it comes down to the idyllic state of Humanism, which ironically always ignores and disregards the actual state of being human.
• Humanism is a clever manipulation tool and a crafty shape-shifter because humanists use similar and parallel language that mimmic religionists, making it difficult to discern if a reference is to a specific God-originated concept or just a generic Goodness Ideal that periodically reorders itself to mold to and therefore better serve the evolved modern culture du jour.
• Love, love, love (love what? how? can this be more vague?) If you want to be Good, then, by golly, you must pay attention to what those who really know what good is and let them tell you how to do/be it! Just love, damn it!
• After all, don’t you want to be seen as being GOOD?
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These are the random Monday morning thoughts bouncing around in my head inspired by little posts in The Facebook that, to me, seem to be nothing more than passive/aggressive nudges to herd me into the latest meme by using old words in new ways. That seems to be one of many hidden snares in The Facebook. Herding. Appears to me that it’s never been easier to shepherd folk into a good-for-goodness-sake state of mind as in this feel-don’t-think era.
What is problematic for me is, like a cat, I’ve never been very herdable.
And...since I have this blog forum to speak my mind... I think I will...
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Stop now if you prefer PC talk.
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What started my thought ramble was a little video produced by Amazon posted as a salute to good will between two prominent religions loosely disguised as an advertisement for knee pads but there have been a number of others of a similar vein lately. I’m new to The Facebook so I haven’t learned to ignore everything yet.
First of all, let me get this off my chest, I’m really tired of businesses, that make money from selling stuff to me, feeling as though they need to also preach to me even as a cake baker is not allowed to exercise his religious/political view as he sells his product. See, I expect this to be a standard enforced on all other companies that they too remain neutral as well. Can a coffee seller refuse to sell a half-caff latte to someone wearing a t-shirt that expresses a different political view? No? Yes?
The new definition of GOOD says YES! In the new age the GOODNESS quotient adds lop-sided weight to the scale. Here’s a couple example tallies:
Coffee Barrister 10 - Cake Baker - 0
Smart Actors/Celebrities - 10 - Unsmart Non actor/celebrities - 0
The new age, the new view, says we must define, redefine, make the stream of consciousness conform to the reordering of the latest concept of GOD...er...uh...GOOD.
Frankly, I don’t care what the religious/ideological beliefs are of the individual or individuals behind a company. I only care about policy enforced that impacts me personally and that, along with goods and pricing, is what determines where I choose to spend hard-earned money. If I don’t like how I am treated, or if policy puts me in a compromise or danger, good products/prices or not, I don’t shop there anymore. If I don’t like being preached to or manipulated to bow to the god of political correctness, again, I don’t give them my money. How simple is that?
That I am rapidly running out of places to shop might be of slight concern.
Don’t you want to be GOOD as the world now defines GOOD?
Me, not so much. Thanks, I’ll stick with how my God defines good. It has been time proven after all. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This means EVERYBODY. What happened to common sense and live and let live? Oh, I forgot, it got scooped up into the redefining of Good.
I’m way over being reminded of how I am supposed to feel now that the world is so very good and righteous to embrace everything, even those things that do not align with my core beliefs. I am willing to agree to disagree but I will not be shamed into apologizing for or denying those beliefs just to keep from being an outcast. And, most especially, if others are not also bound by the same standards I’m held to.
Of course, the key word here is - shamed. I can be silenced by law, when/if that time comes, and, truly, being Christian nowadays makes my right to speak out less a right and more a badge of courage, but, like it or not, I will not be shamed into anything. Call me names, vilify me, do your worst to try to force me into the herd. I say, meeeow.
I refuse to be aggressively or passively bullied.
I believe God recently answered many prayers for those who understand that we’ve been given another chance to step up and so I made a commitment to speak out if there was something to be said.
I don't need to be passive/aggressive because, you know, I’m not selling anything.
For Him,
Meema
(Matthew 10:28) And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Philosophic systems that destroy human individuality will have secret attractions for men who live in a democracy. Men are much alike, and they are annoyed, as it were, by any deviation from that likeness; far from seeking to preserve their own distinguishing singularities, they endeavor to shake them off in order to identify themselves with the general mass of the people, which is the sole representative of right and of might in their eyes.
ReplyDeleteAlexander de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Alexander de Tocqueville understood the big picture. He also understood that humans are forever subject to the childish side of human nature that can never grow up. This is one of my favorite quotes from his incredible wisdom:
Delete“Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”
Ah yes, but you must finish his thoughts--
DeleteDemocratic communities have a natural taste for freedom, but for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, and invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.
The more social conditions become equal and the less power individuals possess, the more easily men drift with the crowd and find it difficult to stand alone in an opinion abandoned by the rest. However the powers of a democratic society are organized and weighted, it will always be very difficult for a man to believe what the mass of people reject, or to profess what they condemn.
What concerns me in our democratic republics is not that mediocrity will become commonplace, but that it may be enforced.
Thanksgiving is a fitting time for that discussion because the Pilgrims were not arrive free, but communist. All their farming was done collectively, and many did not live to the second harvest. Faced with death they abandoned their Utopian dreams and left a different legacy.
Communism (regardless all its other names it hides under) is an ideology founded in the concept of “common good” but, like all lofty aspirations that touts goodness as the ultimate goal, it disregards the reality of human existence that strives to be its own god. Human nature is a child that thinks goodness must always sweet - but what is truly ‘good’ is often bitter and involves stretching and bruising. What is in our best interest, as a species, is that which grows us in three dimensions, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Often this means difficulty and/or out-of-the-pack action that launches tough experience.
DeleteI watched a short video touting the strides science is making in AI - seems a computer can watch a game and learn to sort through all possibilities to come to the most likely scenario for perfect outcome. The point being, according to those who are invested in making us artificially perfect, one day we can fast forward to make the most perfect choice by simply being plugged into AI. No thinking necessary. No real experience required. Just another way to get to Utopia. Which is always the goal of a godless society.
What is missing in this projection is that good choices/bad choices are the crux of growing experience which is how humans develop from base to better. The focus, of course, is on some definition of what perfect is as antithesis to ‘trouble’ ‘struggle’ ‘suffering’. When, in fact, perfection is still just a subjective term, meaning subject to interpretation. Personally I prefer not to be subject to anyone else’s definition of perfect.
Not only do I fear that mediocracy will be mandated, as it’s been in the works in our education system for decades - known as lowest case denominator -I see it is fully implemented. I also see it is a spiritual war, though, and my faith keeps me sane as I watch it unfold.