There are those who want to stay in the box obeying the rules, and there are those who want to leave the box by being creative.
Alan: There are two kinds of people in this world - absolutists and relativists.
Relativists are okay with absolutists -- so long as the latter "mind their own business" and don't impose their will on others.
But it also needs to be pointed out that absolutists are, by their nature, implacable moralists who cannot really be happy unless relativists are banished from "Righteous Society."
But it also needs to be pointed out that absolutists are, by their nature, implacable moralists who cannot really be happy unless relativists are banished from "Righteous Society."
Sadly, the only way to be surethat relativists are banished is by converting them, hermetically isolating them or killing them.
But since it is both difficult to implement any of these outcomes, absolutists have settled (at least until now) for vituperative condemnation, making it absolutely clear that "evil relativists" are damned -- by God Himself!!! -- and therefore ungodly relativists will spend eternity -- isolated -- in an "Unquenchable Lake Of Fire."
Absolutists rarely convert relativists and almost never kill them, although movement is underfoot to isolate them as we can observe with mass incarceration, the promotion of race-based divisiveness, Trump's Wall, concentration camps along the border, the horror of Family Separation and the public shaming of intellectuals.
Absolutists rarely convert relativists and almost never kill them, although movement is underfoot to isolate them as we can observe with mass incarceration, the promotion of race-based divisiveness, Trump's Wall, concentration camps along the border, the horror of Family Separation and the public shaming of intellectuals.
Tragically, anyone who believes that "others" are damned, cannot live at peace with them, at least not until those "others" are converted, "snuffed," politically disenfranchised or get their "just desserts."
Once disenfranchised/isolated, absolutists - left to their own unimpeded devices - tend to abolish meaningful democratic process, replacing it with theocracy (or some other authoritarian system.
At bottom, this is the modus operandi of Trump Cult, which has created a secular version of conservative Christianity in the guise of QAnon.
But just as Jesus pointed out that it is equally bad to commit adultery "in one's heart" as actually "doing the dirty deed," it is a short skip to being guilty of murder "in your heart" by wishing people dead.
At the end of the day, relativists are content to let absolutists live in peace.
By contrast, absolutists are NEVER content to let relativists live in peace.
Not only do absolutists prefer the demise of relativists, they can't wait to gloat over their eternal torment, "looking down on the damned" from the parapets of heaven.
There is no good will in these people.
Instead, we find an abundance of cruelty, malice and malevolence.
The crux of absolutists' essential hostility toward relativists is that absolutists spurn Lincoln's wisdom, instead presuming "God is on their side" which relieves them of any need to question finger-wagging (and ultimately damning) moral judgments.
Absolutists see themselves as divinely authorized (indeed, as divinely ordained) to act in God's stead even though this staggering presumption -- this self-apotheosis -- is the sin of hubris, perhaps in its most extreme form.
It is not an aberration but the norm that absolutists - working their evil "completely and cheerfully" - replace kindness with cruelty.
The collapse of contemporary American conservatism is - effectively - "stand your ground murder" writ large.
Conservatives only need to "feel threatened" and they are authorized -- legally! -- to blow the brains out of anyone they perceive as existentially threating.
Contemporary "conservatives" believe they are righteously ordained to kill "the bad guys" - even if their presumed badness is a misperception. A mistake.
Of course, contemporary Christians will couch their bloodlest in millenialist, eschatological terms which "sanitize" them as "subsidiary, faithful servants of Jesus" who is about to return in His Second Coming Glory.
At bottom, this is the modus operandi of Trump Cult, which has created a secular version of conservative Christianity in the guise of QAnon.
QAnon Is Nucking Futs: A Clearing House For Crazy People (Which Continually Tells Them THEY Are The Sane Ones)
At the end of the day, relativists are content to let absolutists live in peace.
By contrast, absolutists are NEVER content to let relativists live in peace.
Not only do absolutists prefer the demise of relativists, they can't wait to gloat over their eternal torment, "looking down on the damned" from the parapets of heaven.
There is no good will in these people.
Instead, we find an abundance of cruelty, malice and malevolence.
Compendium Of Trump Videos That Reveal His Arrogance, Inhumanity, Stupidity And Cruelty
The crux of absolutists' essential hostility toward relativists is that absolutists spurn Lincoln's wisdom, instead presuming "God is on their side" which relieves them of any need to question finger-wagging (and ultimately damning) moral judgments.
Absolutists see themselves as divinely authorized (indeed, as divinely ordained) to act in God's stead even though this staggering presumption -- this self-apotheosis -- is the sin of hubris, perhaps in its most extreme form.
But "Hubris be damned!"
These absolutists are the chosen agents of God, designated to work God's will, which is to say their own self-apotheosized will.
"Conservative" "Christians" Only Believe In God And Themselves & The Two Are Interchangeable
Inevitably, a time comes (often sooner than later) when these self-designated "chosen ones" mistake God's will as their own and go on a rampage (like Trumpism) inflicting tremendous damage in their unquestioning self-righteousness.
Blaise Pascal, a very devout Christian made this summary comment.
It is not an aberration but the norm that absolutists - working their evil "completely and cheerfully" - replace kindness with cruelty.
Compendium Of Trump Videos That Reveal His Arrogance, Inhumanity, Stupidity And Cruelty
Blinded by their unshakeable conviction that "God is on their side," they never even second guess their presumption of divinely-ordained virtue and proceed with the self-righeous conviction that cruelty (ultimately modeled on the eternal torment God Himself has designed for the denizens of Hell) is not only acceptable behavior, but is the distilled essence of God's will.
A calling. A vocation.
A calling. A vocation.
And so absolutists -- in an exceptionally subtle act of self-apotheosis -- confound God's infinite power with their own, and while seeing themselves as God's blessed agents (just as papal inquisitors did) they become evil people.
And they become evil people blithely - giddily - their lives consumed by the self justification of being absolutely right.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
Fr. Thomas Merton Explains -- In 16 Words -- Why "Christian" "Conservatives" Are Always Wrong
The collapse of contemporary American conservatism is - effectively - "stand your ground murder" writ large.
Conservatives only need to "feel threatened" and they are authorized -- legally! -- to blow the brains out of anyone they perceive as existentially threating.
Contemporary "conservatives" believe they are righteously ordained to kill "the bad guys" - even if their presumed badness is a misperception. A mistake.
Conservatives And Liberals: "How We Ended Up In 2 Totally Divided Camps, Both Convinced They're Absolutely Right"
On a larger scale - even on a global scale - American "conservatives" "know" that God has already prepared His unrelentingly torturous "Lake Of Unquenchable Fire" for "the God-damned Others" -- the "infidels" and anyone else who is not just like them. And so, re-making themselves in the image of their God, they are divinely authorized to begin the damnation of others whenever they damn well please.
Of course, contemporary Christians will couch their bloodlest in millenialist, eschatological terms which "sanitize" them as "subsidiary, faithful servants of Jesus" who is about to return in His Second Coming Glory.
Even now, millions of "Christian" "conservatives" (who are neither) are praying for Armageddon.
Even if it requires nuclear conflagration to make Jesus say "Do I have to come down there?", their resounding answer will be: "Yes, Jesus! Come! Can you not smell the blessed aroma of the divine holocaust we have prepared for you?"
Even if it requires nuclear conflagration to make Jesus say "Do I have to come down there?", their resounding answer will be: "Yes, Jesus! Come! Can you not smell the blessed aroma of the divine holocaust we have prepared for you?"
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