Every civilization has its own peculiar characteristics, and because of them, each has its own vulnerable areas… areas that a clever adversary can take advantage of. Our Western civilization is no exception.
And most unfortunately, we’ve been under a sharp attack for many years by people who found our weakness and are exploiting it. I’ll explain how and what we need to do about it.
Our Foundations
Western civilization was built upon the Judeo-Christian tradition… and primarily on the Christian tradition. Anyone who claims differently simply doesn’t understand the civilization or doesn’t want to. Whether or not the doctrines of Judaism and Christianity are true, these are the foundations of our civilization((To be clear: Greece and Rome are not part of Western civilization. Those civilizations were based upon slavery, which Western civilization removed because of its new morals. Did we borrow from them? Sure. Just like we borrowed writing from the Sumerians and the alphabet from the Phoenicians.)). That can’t really be disputed.
These principles – things like compassion for the outsider, forgiveness, and loving your neighbor – are demands for enlightened and righteous action in the world.
So, how do you subvert people in a culture centered on righteous action? You convince them of sin of course. You find one way after another to make them feel like they – and their civilization – have failed to be righteous; that’s the weak point. Then you convince them that they need to absolve themselves in ways that suit your agenda.
Have you noticed that the guilt slingers always have a preset conclusion for you… a single thing you must do to absolve the guilt they tossed upon you?
Here’s an example: An imposer of guilt says that your community has allowed sewage to be poured into the river. And along with that comes an either/or solution: A new regulatory agency must be given sweeping powers… and if you don’t agree, you favor sewage in drinking water!
This trick has been eviscerating the West for decades. There’s even a well-known school of thought known as critical theory that promotes this. These people have dedicated themselves to criticizing everything possible about Western civilization… and have prospered by it.
Their tool is weaponized guilt… the West’s Kryptonite.
So, if we’re going to survive as a civilization – and I think we really, really should – we must stop being suckers to everyone with a fresh criticism. These people are not trying to build; they’re trying to tear down.
Stated differently, we must stop believing that we suck. Because we don’t.
How to Ditch the Guilt
We ditch our guilt by facing up to what we’ve done in the past. And we can start that process by giving ourselves credit for the good things we’ve done. We’re not supposed to pretend that those things never happened; we’re supposed to feel good about them.
Secondly, we need to face the things we’ve actually done wrong and fix them. If you were unfair or cruel or whatever, gather up your guts and fix it. Go to the person you hurt and apologize. Make a public statement if you must. Restore what was lost any way you can. If that’s hard or embarrassing, tough. Do it anyway.
We become suckers for guilt when we leave our errors in an unfixed state. We can fool others, but we know what we’ve done and we know what we haven’t repaired. That state of mind makes us vulnerable to guilt.
So face your errors and fix them.
Adding to our troubles is the fact that huge swaths of modern Christianity focus on telling people how badly they suck. It’s how they “evangelize.” I’ll pass up a dissertation on how Christianity has strayed from its roots, but I’d like you to understand that Jesus’s message was not “You suck.” In one place he repeats and defends the saying, “You are gods.” In another he says that God loves us as much as God loved him (Jesus).
But regardless of theology, we need to ditch the guilt. If you’ve done something bad, fix it. Then fix yourself so you don’t repeat it. But after that, stop complying with people who trade in guilt.
Guilt Mixed with Politics Is Nothing but a Weapon
Please remember that guilt plus politics is a toxic mixture. It serves to dethrone reason and transfer power to clever abusers. Don’t concede good intentions to people who wield this weapon against you. They aim to chop things down, not to repair them.
Let me make this very clear:
Guilt mixed with politics is poison. It’s a weapon designed to destroy Western civilization.
So repair your errors and then reject the guilt.
* * * * *
A book that generates comments like these, from actual readers, might be worth your time:
- I just finished reading The Breaking Dawn and found it to be one of the most thought-provoking, amazing books I have ever read… It will be hard to read another book now that I’ve read this book… I want everyone to read it.
- Such a tour de force, so many ideas. And I am amazed at the courage to write such a book, that challenges so many people’s conceptions.
- There were so many points where it was hard to read, I was so choked up.
- Holy moly! I was familiar with most of the themes presented in A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, but I am still trying to wrap my head around the concepts you presented at the end of this one.
Get it at Amazon ($18.95) or on Kindle: ($5.99)
* * * * *
Paul Rosenberg
www.freemansperspective.com
Good article here Paul. One should also beware all these “New Age” movements and practicioners. With New Age you get to ditch the guilt, but little need and sometimes no need at all to admit to or process, errors, shames or actual sins when they are valid reasons one might feel guilty – because all of that is “negative” and lower vibration”.
Of course it doesn’t really work. Or when it seems to, it always becomes just a form of sociopathy. But it sells a lot! See Abraham-Hicks “teachings”, Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch, and Deepak Chopra as prominent examples. Anything having to do with “success technology” or Tony Robbins also has similar very demonic characteristics as well. Oprah as well. Mr. Cosby did wonderful hiding his sins for decades. And of course Mr. Orange in Chief is pretty much the ultimate story of major business success built largely off of habitual shame avoidance and failure to really look at oneself which, given enough more time, will prove totally crippling to old Uncle Don.
Did you give His Majesty King Obama as much criticism?
I was plenty critical of Obama. And some people didn’t like that. But unlike some others, I could actually see positives in the guy. Orange Cheeto may ultimately help humanity serve a purpose by shaking some things up that need to be shook. But none of that changes the fact that he’s a fool and a moron and that his sad and lonely soul is destined for the eternal garbage heap. Thanks for the reply to my comment anyway.
I apologize if I seemed to be a “Donaldite”. I’m not, but I do get wearied hearing people attack presidents as if they were kings. Congress is, as I’m sure you know, the conglomeration of mongrels and ne’er-do-wells that has plagued the American people for 200 years and it’s still the best form of gov’t so far (?)
I don’t now nor did I ever see any positives in Obama’s Marxist condition and endorsements. I suppose I am not sophisticated enough. Marxism is it’s own religion and has many, many devout followers because it’s all about promise and not substance. Capitalism, though fraught with danger, is still a system endorsed by God. On earth we need a degree of wealth against the ravages of the world and of life itself. It is choice, I believe, that sets men apart along with acceptance of the Holy Spirit as guide and inspiration to all things Holy and good. We, as humans, are animal, hateful and mean. Only our inspirations and ideals separate us from the animal world. Without the inculcation of a doctrine of retribution for doing evil, men will do all things evil.
I would rather have a moron than an evil genius.
You may look at you tube for Frankfurt School. Also to amuse yourself with how deep is our current social engineering, go ahead and google the words American inventors.
Yes, I have been “preaching” the research of “THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL” in many of my postings. Thanks my friend and yes I did search:”American Inventors”. Not surprised at all.
Ok, mostly a great article, in terms of sentiment. Really mean it, stay strong Bro.
However…
“Western civilization was built upon the Judeo-Christian tradition… and primarily on the Christian tradition. Anyone who claims differently simply doesn’t understand the civilization or doesn’t want to. ”
Complete nonsense. The ‘primarily’ bit.
First of all, that view requires one to regard western civilization as beginning only at the point of Judeo-Christian values becoming the majority system in the ‘west’ ( itself a loose term…) something that took hundreds of years.
Spain is in the west, was Muslim Spain part of western civilization?
Do you regard Rome as being part of ‘western civilization’ before it was Christian?
How about Gaul? The Vikings?
Many things seen as signatures of western civilization do not come from the west. Much of our mathematics come from The Islamic middle east. Personal hygiene, from India.
Enough about where western civilization is, how about what is it?
From a libertarian perspective, it is classical liberal values. Classical liberal minded philosophers argued for these principles, and utilized the strategy of trying to show how they were resonant and compatible with Judeo-Christianity, the ruling system of the time. But this manifested itself more as a strategy of appeasement to a violent oppressor, the Roman Catholic Church.
King Henry the 8th didn’t promote protestantism, because he was theologically inspired, he did it because focusing on the parts of a version of Christianity that pleased him, allowed him to sell what he wanted to do, get divorced and remarry, to English society.
Anti-statist libertarians will still use the strategy of championing the constitution, and founding fathers, if it coincides and serves the purpose of liberty, despite having no real reverence for it ( then again, such lack of faith is not punishable by painful death…) But the uncomfortable truth is that this religious text empowers the oppressor arguably at least as much as the oppressed.
The simple fact is that for most of the Christian west’s existence, Judeo-Christian values were in opposition to the advancement of natural rights from a classical liberal perspective. Classical liberals fought more often against it, than with it. The more secular and less devout the west became, the more free it became.
I saw that…no, you can’t use the ” but muh that wasn’t REAL JC values…”
That’s for commies. Take the fleas with the dog.
Philosophers fought against, more often than they found anything within Christianity to bolster their case, an act of interpretation, that utilised a type of Christianity quite different than the mainstream strains mostly historically credited.
Were Judeo-Christian values not nearly as bad as some of the belief systems that came before? you bet! they were miles better, and allowed for change and advancement. But Judeo-Christian values, were NOT the source of that advancement, even if ( some ) of those responsible were christian. Their true motivation, was humanistic, altruistic, ( genetic? ) more so than spiritual.
Steam engines improved civilization for those that adopted them in the 1800’s, they were much better than what came before, liberating mankind from relative squalor and misery. So if steam engines are good, from a historical perspective, and the greatest improvement in the west happened alongside and because of them…shouldn’t we go back to steam engines? The petrol engine brought two world wars!
Judeo-Christianity didn’t stomp the sapling of liberty nearly as much as some other systems. But it didn’t exactly water it either, and many of the more classical liberal advancements in natural rights were made as a reaction TO the horrific acts sanctioned by the Christian church.
Have Judeo-Christian traditions informed western civilization? sure they have. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But to say they west is built primarily on these things, is simply untrue.
P.S. Many of the most benevolent sentiments form Judeo-Christian teaching, originate in older religions and ancient Egyptian society of all places, among others, so their not really Judeo-Christian in origin to begin with…
Me,
First, thanks for your opening comment. I shall.
On Western civ and Christianity, I can’t post a long discourse now, but I did explain at length in several issues of the newsletter. In particular #70 and #33. The list is here: https://freemansperspective.com/about_freemans_perspective/
One example is that Christianity inherited mass slavery from Rome and drove it out of Europe by 1000 AD or so. That happened for no other reason than Judeo-Christian morals.
Peace.
I would quibble with the inclusion of Judeo with Christian. Although the original Hebrews were chosen of The Lord they rejected Christ as Messiah and cursed themselves for all eternity in their own words. Christ and HIs teachings stand apart from Jewry as east is from west. Jews consider themselves a race and not a religious sect. You are only considered Jewish by lineage and not by religious practice as many Jews are atheists. If we are truly going to defend ourselves from “weaponized guilt” we must look through the smoke screen that surrounds Jewry in today’s world. Just the mention I have made here of facts will qualify me for vilification and attack by trolls, real or manufactured, who cannot allow Israel or Jewry to be criticized or examined in any way. In fact it is only in very rare cases that a “goy” can become a citizen of Israel: http://www.visa-law.co.il/immigration-to-israel/
and here? https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/20/why-not-a-probe-of-israel-gate/#comment-257132
Great points. The article used the false word Judeo-Christian, but went further to say mostly Christian! Statistically speaking such assertions is correct since Jews represented less than 2% of the Western civilization. But, you think that the writer envoked how great Hitler was, or that the earth is flat? It is amazing how knee-jerk reactions comes from the programmed robots, which we call American people (sheeple).
Knee jerk reactions are usually a symptom of good reflexes, not good reasoning.
Like the author said, you either don’t understand the history or don’t want to.
There is no Judeo-Christian anything. There is only Christian European culture and ethics. The Jews represented a small insignificant minority. Their effect on our vast civilization was negligible. But of course since they dominate Hollywood, the education institutions and the media, they produced generation of self hating Christians. Now they are busy creating libtards who hate themselves for being white or males.
Like “Me”, I would quibble about the importance of Christianity in fashioning what’s good in society today. But that’s incidental to the point you’re making, which is right on target: we need NOT to be jerked around by guilt-mongers. One could argue that the white supremacist movement exists today because its members haven’t found a better way to cast off the shame they’re supposed to feel for being white and/or male. They should read your column.
Obviously as government educated American you had a built in knee jerk reaction to the word Christianity. Do you ever wonder why the Marxist who control our education, and media wants you reject or even hate Christianity? By the way, I have left Christianity, but, I still think that Jesus instruction of his followers to love their enemies is the most Nobel thing ever known to the human race. Jews and Muslims theologies are mostly xenophobic hate.
Obviously as government educated American you had a built in knee jerk reaction to the word Christianity.
Just as “obviously”, you’re jumping to conclusions. I respect Jesus’ teachings, though I don’t think he was uniquely divine (like Joseph Campbell, I think there’s divinity in everyone).
Respecting Jesus and respecting the “religion” that was founded in his name are two completely different things, however. There’s not much of Jesus in “Christianity” today. If you haven’t read Laurence Vance at lewrockwell.com on what the reality of “Christianity” is today, I urge you to do so. And what’s true today has been true throughout the ages: self-professed “Christians” paying shallow lip service to Jesus’ teachings while stabbing him in the back at every opportunity.
I would agree in the lack of Jesus in Christianity today. Jesus knew His enemies and called them out; The Pharisees, Saducees and Scribes. Today’s “Christianity” is more devoted to worship of The State than it is to the Lord God. The established Church has been bought off by Caesar with the 501(c)(3) tax code exemption. The Church has prostituted itself for the token 30 pieces of silver.
Well you and I have similar points. I was born Christian, and now I am agnostic but I identify as a “Christian” the Christian club type? In a setting we’re identity politics is running things, a white male christian MUST assert his pride of being white, being a male and being a Christian instead of being a Jew or a Muslim.
“Stated differently, we must stop believing that we suck. Because we don’t.”
I never bought into that crap, even as a kid. I always thought that they sucked and time usually proved that I was right.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
–Eleanor Roosevelt
See what Ayn Rand has to say about original sin.
…and the horse they rode in on.