Sleep of reason spawns monsters

"What had been in his far-off youth a merely aesthetic repugnance to realities that were crude or vulgar, had deepened and darkened, year after year, into a fixed refusal of everything that was in any degree other than himself... He had willed with his whole heart that there should be no reality and no truth, and now even the imminence of his own ruin could not wake him. "

C.S Lewis- That Hideous Strength

I would maintain that those who worship power believe in only those things that further their ambitions. There is not some objective reality to which they are beholden, merely an ever shifting calculation of what would be of greatest benefit to their situation. At a basic level their fear, cowardice, pride and hatred override all other considerations.

Ignorance, arrogance, and COVID-19

Ignorance and arrogance make a dangerous and deadly combination.

Right now the nation faces the worst epidemic I have observed in my life.  New cases are soaring, hospitals are full to the bursting; and the economy is becoming overwhelmed.  Where a month before the flames seemed to be diminishing, now we face a wildfire raging through nation.  The rush to rekindle the economy has set the plague roaring back with a vengeance; now the nation is ablaze with pain and fear. 

This is an inferno of our own making, ignited by ignorance and stoked by arrogance.  Where nature sparked the initial contagion, it took a willful ignorance to fan the flames; and a frightful arrogance to create a conflagration capable of torching an entire nation.  

The spawn of Smaug

There is a place that worships all the dragon attributes- greed, power, sloth, vanity and cruelty.  It is not so much a place in space or time; rather it is a place within one's self.  The fear and cowardice hidden beneath hatred and rage; the core of selfishness that seeks only to rule.  Rule others, rule situations, rule the material world through pain and violence; this desire for control over others overshadows the lack of self control needed to rule oneself.

 Not so much a desire to possess, but a desire to prevent others from possessing; this dragon mindset hordes the status quo like mountain of treasure.  The current situation may be at times uncomfortable as a bed of stolen gold, and of little use to further any happiness, but let the slightest bit of privilege find another's hand; and the wrath of the great worm explodes in a fiery spew.

Those that would adhere to such a set of values are the true spawn of Smaug; the secret of such reproduction lies not in an entwining of two entities, but in the foul parthenogenesis from a creature unwilling to share anything but hate; unable to give anything but pain.

Score

The passage of time in gainful employment marks one in different ways; some beneficial, some damaging, and some utterly devastating.  While the monetary enrichment and personal relationships grant one both security and growth, and the physical degeneration from years of toil take their toll on the flesh; the moral degradation derived by exploitation of self and others can provoke the greatest changes to an individual.

For twenty years, I worked for the same company; through success and failure, hope and despair.  Observing the changes in myself and others proves difficult, as the incremental shifts in mind and body may seem stark in retrospect, but nearly invisible on a daily basis.  As I look back, I find it disconcerting to note the scars scored upon my personality, and the responses I have made.  Perhaps my reactions to the work environment display a weakness in character, or a failing of will; but how  does one best respond to a system of toxicity?

   Hatred we can manage. The tension of human nerves during noise, danger, and fatigue, makes them prone to any violent emotion and it is only a question of guiding this susceptibility into the right channels. If conscience resists, muddle him. Let him say that he feels hatred not on his own behalf but on that of the women and children, and that a Christian is told to forgive his own, not other people's enemies. In other words let him consider himself sufficiently identified with the women and children to feel hatred on their behalf, but not sufficiently identified to regard their enemies as his own and therefore proper objects of forgiveness.


But hatred is best combined with Fear. Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful—horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember; Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation by which a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of Fear. The more he fears, the more he will hate. And Hatred is also a great anodyne for shame. To make a deep wound in his charity, you should therefore first defeat his courage.

C.S. Lewis-The Screwtape Letters

In the times where fear runs rampant, and courage runs the gauntlet; hatred becomes the sustenance of cowards.  To face fear with courage creates the ability to love.  Facing fear with cowardice spawns the debauchery of malice.   

If the manipulation of other people for the sake of control  becomes a means to success; exploiting fear by inciting hatred tastes not only palatable but delectable.  The bitter flavor of rancor is an acquired savor, but once a tongue becomes accustomed to it, a ravenous hunger for hatred consumes without remorse or regret.  

Thine owned self

Here is a given; it has taken everything I had to lose myself.  What is left does not feel right.  I compose my decompostion in a rotten place, and delay the sense of decay by my putrid behavior.

Things fall apart, the center can not hold anymore.

I rail against willful ignorance, but ignore my own.  Part of a bargain made long ago; based on the presumption that things are unbearable as they are, and changing things is beyond my ability to bear.

Unacceptable and inalterable co-exsist in the cloud of obliteration; clarity obscured by design.

On a clear day

“The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it is not enlightened. People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question. But they are more or less ignorant and this is what one calls vice or virtue, the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything and which consequently authorizes itself to kill. The murderer's soul is blind, and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clear-sightedness.” 
― Albert Camus, The Plague

The fog of fear hangs heavy over the land.  People's vision seem obscured by the the dread of a changing America; their "good life" threatened by a shifting composition of neighbors and values.  Rather than embracing the evolution of society as a welcome opportunity for improvements and exploration, it has become a flashpoint for anxiety; change threatens rather than inspires.

This is no accident; it is a deliberate strategy devised to perpetuate the rule of the powerful at a deadly cost to the nation.  Feeding the flames of resentment, the corrupt masters of this universe seek to divide and keep conquered those upon whom their livelihood depends.  Portraying tribal warfare as a moral imperative masks the truth of this conflict; it benefits the few at the expense of the many, and tears the fabric of community.  The provocateurs transmute moral cowardice into virtue by proclaiming those who differ as deviant; and those who are not with us are unworthy of respect.  Attacking and debasing opponents becomes a sign of strength rather than self-serving weakness;  hating a badge of honor proudly displayed as proof of righteousness.

Willful ignorance does not become us; it envelopes and we become its minions.