Those of you who see me post on religious topics may notice that I refuse to use a capital G in that word, and that I always put it in quotes … and there’s a couple of reasons for this:
- It’s a bullshit concept;
- You can never get a straight answer from a believer about what they mean by it, because whatever answer they give, if seriously challenged, will be immediately changed so that (in their minds) you can never defeat their shifting goal posts … which is inherently dishonest & unworthy of respect.
You may also wonder “what has this got to do with Ecological & Social Justice & Sustainability” … and that’s what I’m here to tell you.
You see, the thing is, the people who control this social engineering known as the god delusion, are (almost) utterly disconcerned with consequences … because they know they can always get someone or something else to pay that price for them. All they’re concerned with, is control … and god is the ultimate social blackmail.
Basically it works like this:
- You grow up in a society where most of the social power structures are controlled by the faithful or their puppet masters … and even where those faithful are moderates, they’re nonetheless tacit supporters (or at least enablers) of the nutters, extremists, zealots & aforementioned puppet masters;
- So usually the majority (or at least a very large significant portion) of the population are brainwashed as children, many of whom never escape it … but for those who are protected from that brainwashing (by atheist or agnostic parents), or whom otherwise escape it on their own, reject it, or escape it later in life; they find themselves the target of the system, because they’re perceived to be a threat by the puppet masters and the more zealous & devout;
- BUT they’re usually the highly intelligent ones, so they’re also useful (especially in scientific & technical roles … and if they’re particularly narcissistic, psychopathic or sociopathic, they could even get a job in politics or executive business offices) … so there are other measures of brainwashing used to capture those who fall through the religion gaps (including: the new age, nationalism, war mongering, capitalism & so on) … and if all else fails, the manipulation of capitalism itself gets almost everyone else, forcing at least some degree of compliance, or creating a useful demonstration of poverty to help ensure the insecurity & compliance of others.
So in a sense, these are all just different versions of the same mechanism of social control, which is used both to punish the non-conformists, and to appear to be further justification for entrenching the brainwashing of others … for what more evidence could they need that “god is punishing you”, than to point out the misfortune in your life.
- They refuse you job opportunities;
- They further persecute you for being poor;
- They attack social welfare programs;
- … and then a handful of moderates speak out (genuinely nice but brainwashed folks), while the remainder of the multitude get their pitchforks ready to lynch the heretic (usually at the command of some arsehole like Tony Abbott, Donald Trump, or some other insane right wing knob end) … the heretic who’s only real crime was to fail to conform.
Some are fortunate in that the manner of their rejection of the status quo is nice and quiet, not rocking the boat too much, or in some other way not perceived as a threat … others are fortunate because theirs involves a throng of others, and they find protection in numbers … but for some of us, we’re the lone wolf types, we don’t have a big supporter base, we cannot bring ourselves to be quiet about it, and so we howl at the injustice, and we snarl because we’re hungry to rip out its throat.
For us, we survive through strength, endurance, adaptation, perseverance, and the acceptance of suffering … which acceptance can take a while to develop, as it’s not exactly a situation anyone ever wants. Life itself for us is torment … not always, but a lot of the time … not because we want it to be, but because we cannot accept the alternative … we are Neo in The Matrix taking the red pill, knowing it’s going to hurt like all hell … we do not fit in, we do not relate, we do not conform, and the more we discover about who we really are, the less support that status quo is willing to offer us … in fact, that system will defend and support a molester of children who accepts “god”, before it accepts and supports us, which really demonstrates just how evil it is.
Perhaps it fears us? Perhaps it knows that we see what the world would be like without it (?) and we are in love with that alternate reality … what we see, is the potential for a world of immense beauty, and we will fight with every breath and beyond to bring that about; because the world at present, defended by the blackmail of “god”, is profoundly ugly by comparison.
So I write this post because “the ultimate social blackmail” is the exact opposite of everything my vision of Open Empire stands for … and I want you to consider this:
- How much less will that load of responsibility hurt, and for how much shorter a duration of time …
- How much more quickly will that pain diminish, how much more rapidly will it be replaced by pleasure …
- IF instead of the weight being borne by only a very few, it is borne by a multitude?
The blackmail of god keeps people from utilising the full extent of their intelligence … as part of their brain is busy asking irrelevant, invalid & meaningless questions which they mistakenly believe to be profound … and another part of their brain is busy desperately reinterpreting data to protect a set of core untruths which have been accepted via brainwashing … so when anything contradicts the internal status quo of their belief paradigm, it is reinterpreted, misconstrued, or dealt with via other fabrications, in order to rationalise the gap between reality & belief / faith.
Such a mind as this can never reach its potential; the theft of this potential is a social injustice & ecologically unsustainable, particularly because of the consequences of the manipulation of individuals it allows for:
- Getting you to join the army;
- Getting you to vote for injustice & environmental vandalism;
- Getting you to agree to debt slavery;
- … and so on.
So whether you god is a supernatural sky daddy, invisible “market forces”, a political ideology, or something else … you need to understand that neither god(s) nor aliens are coming to save us, our so called “leaders” haven’t a collective clue & are only concerned with power / control anyway, and if we don’t change this system soon, we won’t be able to change it in time, because there’s too much thermodynamic momentum building towards the kind of ecological calamity that could wipe us all out.
You can no longer afford to be afraid of the blackmail, you have to step up and get ready to hit back in whatever way you can, because it is abundantly clear the “leaders” of this world have no intention of relinquishing power, no matter the consequences … they will see the world burn before they eat a single bite of humble pie.