Did anybody else see and thoroughly enjoy The Chronicles of Riddick? It starts off with a particularly awesome quote:
“Sometimes the best way to fight evil is not with good. Sometimes you must fight evil with another kind of evil.”
I don’t know if I believe this necessarily, but it certainly made for a pretty fun sci-fi flick. And as our world slides further and further into a surreal caricature of what should be, I wonder whether we will see this play out in the days ahead of us.
In my recent post: The Coming Rise of Catholic Fundamentalism, I suggested that the rise to power of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - will see a major shift in that religion back towards orthodoxy.
In a way, I wonder if it’s a necessary counter-balance to everything else going on in the world right now. In my original investigation into Ratzinger’s sordid background, I mused:
To me, it only makes sense (though I don’t like it by any means) to bring in somebody who is a Fundamentalist Catholic, since the world right now seems to be caught between the Fundamentalist Christianity of America, and the Fundamentalist Islam of the Arab world. A moderate or even - dare I say - progressive pope would be awash in a sea of hard-line all-or-nothing stances and ultimatums.
I still pretty much stand by this, although who knows, Benedict may turn out to be awesome (?!). Even though I dislike people who are extremely restrictive like Bush and Ratzinger, in some kind of creepy poetic irony, it only makes sense that you’ll have to fight a monster with another monster. Godzilla versus Mothra or something like that.
The fallout, I expect, will not be pretty though. Prophecies are already flying this way and that about the end of days, and a bunch of other shit (I’ll go into those more soon). I don’t necessarily believe they are literally true, so much as they are psychological necessities though.
As I said, I don’t want to necessarily call Ratzinger evil until we see a bit more of what he does in the world. The best approach I’ve heard to the whole question of “good vs. evil” in the world goes back (I think) to Rudolf Steiner. I’m having trouble finding the original source again, but I remember it being something along the lines of: Rather than trying to fight against evil, you should spend your time creating good. It’s rather similar to Philip K. Dick’s assertion “To fight the empire is to become infected by it’s derangement.” If you start getting pissed off or freaked out, then you’ve already lost and gone over to the other side.
- END -
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4 Comments
take into account the term prophet , priest ,and King wich is stated in the KJV.1611. wich could posibly mean: a false preacher or prophet (prophet),the pope (priest), and satin (the king). these three will join and create a one world government, religion, and peace . but this will be a false peace lasting for 7 yaers, after that the true GOD will come to defete satin once and for all. juat somthin to think about!!!!!*****
Its very easy to destroy satin, all you have to do is over press it! But what satin has to to with the pope and god i have no idea, perhaps the new pope likes to wear satin? Please enlighten me more to the cause of destroying satin!!!!!!!*****
Oh, come on, “anonymous”, I think you know the other person MEANT satan, not satin.
I am willing to bet, when we die, we won’t be judged on SPELLING.
But, we will be judged on how we treat others……just something else to think about.
You mentioned Rudolf Steiner’s assessment of evil. He elaborates on this in
The Spiritual Foundation of Morality: Francis of Assisi and the Christ Impulse .
Important to his conception of evil is that it is twofold, represented by the names “Lucifer” and “Ahriman” (an old Persian name for Satan). Man finds himself in the field of tension between these two adversarial forces and must find the upright posture and forward moving impulse to walk on his own between them, so that they become his servants rather than he theirs. Steiner’s great wood sculpture, “The Representative of Humanity” pictures the central figure striding upright between them, not opposing but rather walking out of his own essential being. The “Lucifer” figure becomes, as it were, an instrument for his vision, but Lucifer himself, possessed by pride, casts himself down, breaking his wings before the power of the central figure. “Ahriman”, on the other hand, becomes chained to the earth, in a cave beneath his feet, and becomes, instead of a force that would drag him down, the firm ground on which the central figure walks.