As we have been discussing in comments in the last post, an uncomfortable truth is that men and women are capable of doing some pretty dastardly deeds to each other and to themselves.
Not just other people, or just bad people, but all people. Even me. Even you. From the beginning of time to the final days it’s a part of humanity that’s always been there and always will be. Thinking we can rid ourselves of society from it entirely or find a person completely immune to it is about as realistic as fried ice.
And yet it is only by acknowledging our worst selves, or our potential worst selves, that we can also understand and hopefully avoid sinking to that lowest bar — the cheating, lying, theiving, betraying, dishonoring, using, or destroying self.
Within each of us is the capacity to do and cause great harm, as well as great good. And all the various shades of grey between.
Looking at it isn’t pretty, or fun, or comfortable and yet within each of us it’s there – a primal selfish rebellious part that if we deny it or repress it can sneak up on us, surfacing in sudden and unexpected ways.
Thats when things like, “I just don’t know what came over me,” or “I never thought I could do that,” or “it just happened” are said.
I doubt anyone likes this part of themselves, well all except perhaps the most deviant and sociopathic. And yet there it is, part of us, part of what makes us vulnerable, part of the less than perfect.
Knowing its there is actually not a bad thing. In fact doing so can help one conquer the dark night of the soul when and if it comes, facing it, knowing its a choice to succumb or rise above. And a choice only we alone can make. Day after day after day.
Some days one will do better than others. But those trying to do better surely are ahead of those blindly being driven by parts of themselves they don’t understand, can’t face, or know.
It’s part of being human. Not the best part maybe, but a part. The best we can do is work to keep it as small of a part as possible.
What do you think? Please share in the comments!
Notes From a Red Pill Girl 
One of the big differences between watching a character in the theater or on the screen, versus reading about one in short stories or novels, is that in novels and short stories characters get to be seen from the inside as they see themselves. They get to make excuses, and explain themselves. In theater and film they are viewed objectively, from the outside, as others see them. That difference made a few things clear to me.
In film those characters are the sum total of what they do. What they think about themselves can color what you see but it is really just their actions that count. I try to take that as a life lesson. You are what you do. You are ONLY what you do. If you don’t like who you are, then DO different stuff. If you don’t like what you did then make up for it with actions. We all make mistakes but we are completely in control.
It’s amazing how many people I’ve run into (particularly, but far from exclusively, women) who rebel against this idea. They want to be who they THINK they are. Externalizing their version of their identity with action is unimportant. I suspect this might be called “hamstering.” Of course, you cannot hide. If that is what you are doing then you are what you do.
I certainly haven’t always been a good man, I don’t know that I care. I do make it a point now, however, to get out of my head, not make excuses, and DO who and what I am. It’s not easy or comfortable, and it leaves you exposed … but that’s kind of the point.
That’s how I see it
Very few women say yes I am just like that so here is my anti *just like that plan*. In part because of the naute of women, im part becuase a fem-centric culture has most women high on their own vagina fumes.
Because of the cultural beat down most boys go through, boys/ men these days are to pussyfied to do much so their *just like that* has shifted from the various old school sins to being a complete pussy. Sooo most men need an anti pussyfication plan. Once he grows some fucking balls he might need a new plan but that’s another issue
‘And yet it is only by acknowledging our worst selves, or our potential worst selves, that we can also understand and hopefully avoid sinking to that lowest bar — the cheating, lying, theiving, betraying, dishonoring, using, or destroying self.’
It’s not just about understanding to avoid sinking to that bar…it’s realizing we need a Savior. Without that acknowledgement…we either think we can do it ourselves or deem ourselves self-righteous with no need for improvement.
Because in reality our worst selves is the sinful parts of our nature. Sin isn’t talked about as much anymore and you can tell who it really touches a nerve with when you bring it up.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The “heart” Bible verses are MANY and very interesting.
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matt 5:8
David was a “man after God’s own heart,” and yet he committed adultery and murder and cover up.
Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
So clearly… there can be some people who are NOT trying to have a “pure heart,” and frankly don’t care about it, and then there are some who do care, and are asking God to do that in them.
Intentions are worthless.
Actions are worthy.
“Oh I love my pony!”
So why am I, the barn hand, the one going out in the ice storm to check on them?
“I feel for the homeless”
So how many hours a month do you volunteer at a charity?
“I love my country”
So how many combat\peacekeeping tours do you have?
I have no social media accounts.
Anyone who wants to know the real me meets me thru the stuff I DO.
But yes! Wholeheartedly agree with this post, Bloom. Something I watched recently because I’m nerdy 😀 actually just talked about this!!
I think this was it… on virtuous people – how they aren’t “harmless” how they are aware of how evil they could be, but choose NOT to be.
In Toaism a central theme is being aware of causality.
It flows from the desired state of grace, effort and humility.
Everything you do creates the potential for future events.
By not doing bad things today you reduce the possibility for reprocussions in the future.
It is not hermiting, more if I do this, this may happen and is that what I want.
A cosmic Pence rule.
These things I do not want in my life so I do things so they cannot happen.
“If all I do serves the good, then only a good future may come of it.”
Alan
Astute observation.
Jordan Peterson – Are you a good person
The Ton- fuck no snake
‘Intentions are worthless.
Actions are worthy.’
That’s why the old saying, which I just made up, is ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’
‘Everything you do creates the potential for future events.
By not doing bad things today you reduce the possibility for reprocussions in the future.’
‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.’ Galatians 6:7-8
The worst side of man is the only thing that differentiates him from his dog. His innate need to conquer, exploit, build, understand all things, and master them is part of his deep desire to gain his place at the side of his God. At which point has he become so proficient at this that he is now more god than human? It’s powerful, and fascinating.
That sad truth is why it is predominantly only dark triad personalities that tend to have had what it takes to achieve greatness in this world. From the greatest conquerors to most wealthy business tycoons. One could say that it is actually our worst selves that have kept humanity from eternally being little more than cave dwellers. In some respects, the evil of humanity is its greatest tool of success and yet will also be its greatest factor for potential total meltdown.
It’s the competitive nature that made modern society progress so quickly within only the past few hundred years. The drive for resources, land, war, etc. To not value the worst part of humanity would mean that we would accept undoing all of that. Only, recently do we live in a castrated society where people are taught to not be competitive and to focus only on empathy and some absolute “false” equality by way of law; A means of sustaining the weak. All of the feelgood nonsense is for people who have never actually had to work at achieving greatness. They will wither and die with nothing.
These people that don’t like that truth are actually the real worst part of humanity. The dregs of society who normally would have been sucked into the undertow and weeded out of the gene pool. You know which people I’m talking about. They’ve got loud mouths but contribute nothing to society, yet want more and more; They simply are like vampires of your own freedoms and tax money.
Don’t get me wrong. Empathy and remorse are important emotions, but not applicable all of the time. Maybe not even most of the time once you are outside of the home (where they matter most).
I think that we all would like to believe that we could survive off of only being our “best selves”, but it really is just a pipe dream. The best that you can do is be your best self to the people that you love; family, close friends, etc. Because most people will need this to survive as well. But there are also times that you will have to suck it up and slay metaphorical armies if you have any hope of succeeding in this world. Build your empire or get sucked up in the undertow. When you die, you will be forgotten within a generation or two, and even then only a few people might care about who you are and what you did.
Also, it’s fairly fascinating that people are more selfish than ever now that they hardly need to lift a finger to survive. They thrive off of their own vanity and an inflated ego, narcissism and the desire to peddle their own self-important existence through social networking even though they are nothing more than an accidental shit-stain on this Earth.
Earl
Agreed.
These are cosmic truths so they appear in every religion.
True Earl re: needing a savior. Ironic, isn’t it? The only way to save ourselves is to admit we can’t
A dad
Because in older times occassional “things had to be done”.
Dark triad personalities are better able but those traits were controlled.
How many city boys could put a raccoon with distremper out of its misery with a shovel? Its not pleasant but it needed to be done.
How many managers can fire the useless non performer who has a family to support. The clients need it to be done.
How many businessmen can decide which plant to close killing an entire town. The survival of the business needs it to be done.
How many soldiers can take out the enemy overwatch without warning.
The lives of the squad needs it to be done.
Before there were the appropriate but controlled outlets for dark triad.
Now with the soft life and female tingles they have no appropriate outlets and are not restrained.
There are certain objective truths pretty much all humans can determine.
The only differences in religion is who they determine the savior is.
I was thinking that too, a dad. How it’s this part that drives so many advances. Maybe instead of thinking people are good or bad, better to realize all people are BOTH? We may not like this part of ourselves but we also depend on it to survive.
I do not like the dark in me. But it is there, controlled and when called upon it allows me to do what needs to be done.
“Don’t you feel bad about doing That?”
Nope. It needed to be done, its over, I don’t give it a second thought.
If I did it just ’cause then I would feel horrible…
…or you could shoot me for being a sociopath.
Earl
Astute.
‘These people that don’t like that truth are actually the real worst part of humanity. The dregs of society who normally would have been sucked into the undertow and weeded out of the gene pool. You know which people I’m talking about. They’ve got loud mouths but contribute nothing to society, yet want more and more; They simply are like vampires of your own freedoms and tax money.’
Socialists and feminists.
‘The only way to save ourselves is to admit we can’t’
And that’s why any woman staying on the feminist train will eventually crumble. She’s basically making herself (and to a larger extent the state) her savior.
“I was thinking that too, a dad. How it’s this part that drives so many advances. Maybe instead of thinking people are good or bad, better to realize all people are BOTH? We may not like this part of ourselves but we also depend on it to survive.”
—
“Good” and “bad” are just subjective parts of the human condition. Light and dark. Masculine and feminine. Positive and negative. Strong ans weak. Calm and chaos. Yin and yang and all of that stuff that we think is nonsense.
Everything in the world is binary in spite of what fools will tell you. It’s just aspects of each that make up unique characteristics which we perceive is an intermediary in our analog senses. We see, hear, and feel in a variety of ways but emotionally only tend to perceive most things in a positive or negative way with little indifference since most people react on their emotions. Do we tend to remember the pleasant and painful experiences, or the things that were inconsequential? I couldn’t tell you what I was eating on this day 20 years ago. I could probably tell you who I was having sex with. I couldn’t tell you what I wore on the day I got greatly injured when I was 10, but I could tell you how much it hurt.
“Socialists and feminists.”
—-
Aren’t these one in the same?
If you are talking about good being like a particularly successful day and bad as a day you failed at something…that’s subjective. People can often times find their greatest successes came after their worst failures.
Changing it to ‘good’ and ‘evil’….that’s not subjective. Evil does nothing but bring your downfall and death and good as in virtuous deeds (fruits of the Spirit) helps to bring eternal life.
‘Aren’t these one in the same?’
If you really wanted to simplify it…those who make the state, god.
Glad to see someone put up Jordan Peterson. His discussion of Jung is right on.
From a Red Pill perspective, the key point is that our culture constantly hammers home the message that women do not have a dark side. Men are jerks, but women are all love and sweetness. Men lie, but a woman never would. Men cheat, but women are monogamous and loyal. Men are violent, but women are gentle.
Reality — mothers are more likely to inflict violence on their kids than fathers. Wives commit domestic violence more than husbands. While men, because of their greater strength, are more likely to put their wives in the hospital, the ratio is nearly even (43-57 IIRC).
Women lie more than men. They are much better at it and get away with it more.
The dishonest narrative is so prevalent that we marinate in it every day. In the end, it sabotages marriage. It makes it nearly impossible for a woman to live humbly. Humility is essential to wisdom. Perhaps this is why we so rarely see wisdom in modern women. [Not that we see very much in men]
I don’t know if this heresy has ever existed before…but it seems a lot of modern feminism separates good and evil by the sexes.
I made up a saying that many others have expressed in different ways; so it’s not very original but it is succinct: “Every true thing contains it’s opposite.”
On Socialists and Feminists and the way they go together: I’ve been thinking that the huge opposing forces in society aren’t really men and women or the left and the right exactly. More accurately it’s points of view, cultures or ways of interpreting the world that on one side are inherently Subjective (emotional, typically feminine, artistic, manipulative, idealistic, oriented toward luxury, and the new take on “socialism,” — rather than old school doctrinal communism –) and on the other Objective (dispassionate, typically male, scientific, oriented toward survival and realistic or cynical).
Every life and society needs a balance of these things. Many of our problems today come not from the issue that these elements are out of balance (though they are) but from the fact that far too many people have forgotten that there needs to be any sort of balance to begin with. These had become “sides” in a culture war that thinks the eradication of the other group will equal victory. In reality (or maybe just in my own mind) the victory of either side equals defeat for everyone.
I can back that play Alan as it plays into my deal on there being two sorts of morality
One for dealing with out groups
One for dealing with you in group
Women, being creatures designed for harems/ getting traded off to other family groups, play the game in the opposite manner men do….. the opposite way required for civilizations to thrive
Effeminate men and certain tribes without any claim to an ancestral home, play the game like women
I would agree Alan, it really has gone towards this idea that one side must be eliminated when in reality both sides are necessary to create balance.
The other day one of my chickens was injured in a fight with another. I won’t go into detail but I was able to get it out of the pen before the other chickens killed it (chickens are canibals but it’s a slow and not good way to go) but sadly it was too injured to rehabilitate. Anyway I know I “should” have been able to finish it off but I couldn’t so Dancers boyfriend did when he dropped her off. Then he left and she got a pot, boiled some water, cleaned and defeathered it, and took it over to her oldest daughter’s for supper. As she was cleaning it I felt bad for not helping. She just said, “don’t worry about it, somebody’s got to be the gentle one around here!” And she laughed. But I think it’s true, we need to softies AND the ones who can do the not soft stuff. A world of all softies would not work, nor would the opposite. However if one had to choose, the non-softies would be the ones eating and maybe providing food to some token lucky softies so there’s a real advantage to it that’s not as valued today as it should be. Like horseman said, they do what needs done.
This time I watched, next time I am going to help bc I want to learn just in case…
Speaking of having some combination of good and evil in each of us:
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matt 5:8
So shall the evil in heart, if they have a change of heart – even if it is at the last minute, after having lived a life of (all those things that are called sin).
The hardest thing to understand and deal with is the issue surrounding the thief on the cross. We can guess it was something other than a pure heart that put him there. But he had an “aha” moment, and gave in to it. At the moment of death, after behavior that put him on the cross, with no time available to rectify or atone for all of the hurt he had cause, he called out: “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” (Luke 23:42) And Jesus responded “no can do”. You haven’t led a good-enough life. Maybe next time around.” Right??
My thoughts go to the fellas here and at Spawney’s and elsewhere in the manosphere – whose hearts have been sliced to pieces by the long-knives of their wives or significant others. For each person reading, put your significant other up there in place of the thief. They call out to Jesus in the same manner as the thief did. Jesus immediately looks at you and says “how shall I answer them?”.
First: How do you respond? What are you made of? How do any of us respond if placed in that same position regarding those in our lives who have hurt and/or damaged us badly?
Second: Since Jesus isn’t going to ask our permission to forgive those who have hurt and/or damaged us, he is just going to do it – can we look Jesus in the eye at the Judgement? Or will we be tempted to say, while avoiding his eyes: “How could you? I was the innocent one. Look what they did to me and the kids. And yet we are both going to end up in the same place?? That’s not fair.”
And Jesus answers us: “well … they did ask for forgivenes (can’t say they repented, because that means they turned and went the other way, and they didn’t have time for that). What, then, would you have me do – send them away into utter darkness, separated from me forever??
How would we answer? What are we made of?
The Christian world is about to celebrate the birth of one whose death made it possible for all who ask for forgivness to be granted it. What are we made of? Can we be happy for everybody that this truth applies to?
RPG: “A world of all softies would not work, nor would the opposite. However if one had to choose, the non-softies would be the ones eating and maybe providing food to some token lucky softies so there’s a real advantage to it that’s not as valued today as it should be.”
One of the things that the modern “soft” left seems idiotically blind to is that in order to get their way they will need someone to exert force on the non-believers for them. Even today they seem less and less interested in trying to convince their opponents or even those who haven’t made up their minds, so coercion is in their future if they actually ever have a shot at running things. But they are mostly too gentle or too fastidious to dirty their hands with any coercion themselves, which means that they will hire/bribe/seduce to get it done.
Then the hard asses who do it for them will immediately take over using the softies’ political movement as cover … and those hard asses will then be in charge. This is the way you make a Russian omelet, this is the way to the guillotines. The left gives in to it’s own right wing elements because to get the dirty work done it must, and then those elements consume it. On the other hand the right tends to go manic over its own power and flame out by pissing off everyone around it who still has any strength. Our founders knew what they were up to, a balance of forces and qualities. Everything in moderation and a minimum (one would hope) of people telling other people what to do.
As you may have gathered I don’t agree with but I do respect the ferocity of the old, hard, “commie,” left. At least they lived in a world a natural relationship with power. Today we are overrun with those they would call “useful idiots.”
Richard, yes that is a perplexing thing – how could one who lived a life of sin who confesses and asks forgiveness on their deathbed enter the same as one who lived wi the lines most of the time (but let’s face it, still fell short bc all do)? Well to that I say better they repent last minute than never. The Angels celebrate the return of all lost. If I deny others “deserve” grace, how can I expect it myself?
I think the story of the thief proves that God gives us every chance to repent from our lives of sin, even on our deathbed…but there will come a time we make a final decision.
A new post at Spawny’s there is
https://spawnyspace.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/tingles-again-naturally/
“The hardest thing to understand and deal with is the issue surrounding the thief on the cross. We can guess it was something other than a pure heart that put him there. ”
You know it never bothered me about that thief, because you could tell he was genuinely repentant. There are verses in Ezekiel that tell us how God does not take pleasure in the wicked dying… that even He wishes they would have changed at the last moment.
My husband wasn’t really a “good guy” until the year I met him (before I met him he started changing on his own). He always asked me in the beginning and still does sometimes, why I overlook his past, but it just never bothered me because he was a TOTALLY different person by the time even I met him.
One of his favorite songs is about that thief on the cross – being able to identify with him –
I never once thought I should be bothered by the story of the thief hanging next to Christ.
It’s the Almighty’s ball game and He gets to make the rules etc as he sees fit.
“perplexing thing – how could one who lived a life of sin who confesses and asks forgiveness on their deathbed enter the same as one who lived wi the lines most of the time (but let’s face it, still fell short bc all do)? ”
Only perplexing from a human perspective where we try to establish relative goodness between fatally sinful, unholy people. Once we try to imagine from HIS perspective, nothing perplexing at all. He must smile as we foolishly strain to distinguish one sinful zero as “better” than another sinful zero.
Humility. Embrace it. There can be no wisdom without it.
– how could one who lived a life of sin who confesses and asks forgiveness on their deathbed enter the same as one who lived within the lines most of the time (but let’s face it, still fell short bc all do)?
Only people who don’t get that living within the lines doesn’t make them righteous make that mistake. Unfortunately, it’s a very easy mistake to make. I know I have been guilty of it. I didn’t even live my whole life in the lines but when I compared myself to the majority of those around me, I felt I was both “better” and “good enough”.
Interestingly, it was my own husband’s unmistakable conversion that shined a light on my veil of religiosity.