Bruce G. Charlton's Blog, page 60

Cutting-edge fashion items in La Gomera (Canary Islands) c.2016

From a display stand in a toy shop - eight years ago... 

FSAHION GIRLS SERIES!
MYTH THE FAIRY STORY! COMLLECT US ALL!
the beautiful girl brings aboutinfinite happy havegiven awayto you happy childhoodfor you

***ncinnityThis is the bestgift that gives children!the beautiful girls!favourite fashionlovely

"Depth" in life doesn't come from regarding it as symbolic of something else; but from conviction of purpose and resurrection

I believe that the symbols through-which people used to relate to Christian reality have all-but lost their power; but, whether or not you agree, the public and shared world of symbols has now been taken-over - trivialized, subverted and inverted - by the totalitarian mainstream of government, media and institutions. 

If we are not to life consciously futile lives - then we need to know life as deeper than the mundane surfaces with which we are bombarded 24/7. 

The depth of life goes "deeper" than perceptions and emotional responses; because it entails knowing (believing) that there is purpose to life - which which knowing there is purpose to "the universe", to "reality". 

And, of course, this purpose must be something we regard as Good, to which we personally which to affiliate our best efforts. 

But beyond purpose - if the depth of life is to be robust to its ills - we also need to know that we (ourselves) will continue eternally beyond death. 

If not for this personal and everlasting life; then the evils and entropy of the world will - sooner or later - destroy everything we value: everything that gives present life its purpose. We will get sick and ill and die; so will those we love; and all that we most value in our societies and communities and nature itself will change, degenerate, dissolve...

We therefore need a purpose which we personally endorse and that extends into forever. 

Such is the basis that may underpin a solid sense of depth in life. 

    

 

"Depth" in life doesn't from regarding it as symbolic of something else; but from conviction of purpose and resurrection

I believe that the symbols through-which people used to relate to Christian reality have all-but lost their power; but, whether or not you agree, the public and shared world of symbols has now been taken-over - trivialized, subverted and inverted - by the totalitarian mainstream of government, media and institutions. 

If we are not to life consciously futile lives - then we need to know life as deeper than the mundane surfaces with which we are bombarded 24/7. 

The depth of life goes "deeper" than perceptions and emotional responses; because it entails knowing (believing) that there is purpose to life - which which knowing there is purpose to "the universe", to "reality". 

And, of course, this purpose must be something we regard as Good, to which we personally which to affiliate our best efforts. 

But beyond purpose - if the depth of life is to be robust to its ills - we also need to know that we (ourselves) will continue eternally beyond death. 

If not for this personal and everlasting life; then the evils and entropy of the world will - sooner or later - destroy everything we value: everything that gives present life its purpose. We will get sick and ill and die; so will those we love; and all that we most value in our societies and communities and nature itself will change, degenerate, dissolve...

We therefore need a purpose which we personally endorse and that extends into forever. 

Such is the basis that may underpin a solid sense of depth in life. 

    

 

Daydreaming of paradise: for it to be real, we would need to change ourselves, as well as our environment

I suppose many people daydream about some idyllic, pastoral kind of Paradise - and when we are young, perhaps we believe it may potentially be attainable on this earth and during mortal life?

Over the years I have had several such daydreams - including The Shire, and Lothlorien from Middle Earth; being a married writer with kids in a rural retreat among friends; and a particular era in Concord, New England at the time of Emerson and Thoreau.   

Such daydreams have a fuzzy quality, are often little more than a snapshot - or a particular mood state; and are utterly detached from the practicalities and realities of the situation - such as how it might arise, and how it could be sustained. 

As I have said before; paradise implies not only an ideal place, but our-selves changed such that we would be able to enjoy it. I could not experience The Shire as in my daydream unless I was also a hobbit; nor Lothlorien unless an elf; not Concord c1840 unless I was a man of that time, place and class.  

In another sense, we would have to become a better person (better in the sense of better-fitted to the daydream); and when young we tend to assume that this can and will happen. But anyone who is realistic and honest soon realizes that this doesn't happen. 

We change, yes; but we don't really get better overall. 

Even when we eliminate some besetting sin, or some horrible antisocial trait; this always comes at a negative cost. 

That cost may be necessary, and worth paying - but there will always be a significant cost...

In his Exegesis: After listing 24 ways in which he has been changed and improved by his religious experiences of February and March 1974 - and writing some year and a half later - Philip K Dick concluded [from page 226 onward]: 

The only problem is, I am in no customary sense - maybe in no sense whatsoever - spiritualized or exalted. 

In fact I seem even more mean andirascible than before.  

True, I do not hit anybody, but my language remains gungyand I am crabby and domineering; my personality defects are unaltered. 

In theaccepted sense I am not a better person. 

I may be healthier (maybe not that;vide the blood pressure). But I am not a good person, even though my emotionsand moods are better under control. 

Maybe I just have a long way to go... 

In the end, if we pursue this to its conclusion; we will realize that paradise can only be post-mortal; and that any "paradise" that does not entail the retention of our-ultimate-selves is not a paradise at all (because it would be somebody else enjoying it) - yet the ultimate selves must positively and qualitatively be transformed, in a way that never truly happens in our experience or knowledge of this world. 

 

A conjectural, detailed map of the The Shire - and beyond its borders

 

By Tom Maringer, in 1991 - apparently used for a kind of postal "game" in which participants exchanged letters. Can be found here and . 

"Charity" = strategic evil; and this applies to All charities, whatever they call themselves

Nowhere has the "convergence" of institutions into a single strategic programme of totalitarian, bureaucratic evil, been more evident than among "Charities". 

I've just had inflicted on me (by YouTube) an advertisment for the organization that calls itself "christian AID" - the "c word" is nowadays in lower case and forced into the background of the logo. 

Their globalist totalitarian perspective is encompassed by their mission statement: Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. 

(Which was, after all, Christ's main message... Errr, well, maybe...)

And their number one current campaign (linked with the Satanic-themed Paris Olympics, is "Join the race to beat the climate crisis"... 

You get the pun on "race"? And the in-built assumption that there actually exists a thing called the "climate crisis" which is the number one threat to the world today - and is specifically the primary cause of poverty. 

And that climate is a thing that can, and should, be "beaten". 

But my point is that all charities (of any size - increasingly even very small and local ones) are the same in this regard. 

It does not matter what their name is, what they were founded to do, or what they pretend is their core concern. 

The bottom line is that all charities really do is global totalitarian leftism; and therefore, there are no Christian charities. 

Whatever may be claimed otherwise: all charities have Satan as both patron and chief executive. 

Folco Boffin: NPC or lacking an Equity Card? A Loose End in Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson claims that this image is of Folco Boffin - Personally, I doubt it...

The unsolved mystery of Folco Boffin is described over at my Notion Club Papers blog. 

Was his fate too sinister to be mentioned, or did Tolkien "nod"? 

Never say no to a panda...

This is one of the finniest TV advert sequences I've seen - seven shorts, each about thirty seconds; made in Egypt for Panda brand cheese. 

What makes them, is the comic timing; and the panda himself. 

Enjoy.

A Fresh Spate of Laeth's Aphorisms

Selected from the current iteration of Laeth's "blog": Trees and Triads 

the ease with which those of above average intelligence are manipulated into unfounded and dumbfounded optimism is a confirmation of my pessimism. and there isn't even pleasure, or pride, or fun in being right when the ruse is so obvious. 

any sufficiently serious optimism is indistinguishable from brain damage. 

never trust a man who proudly owns a 'smart' car 

hoping for the best is the primary sign that one is in fact a pessimist. otherwise, what need does one have of hope. 

many cannot fathom that there is such a thing as supernatural evil and that it has no master plan beyond defilement and destruction. a willful blindness. 

love is when every single one of your particles becomes quantum entangled with her particles. do you want to be quantum entangled with me, this is how i proposed to my wife.

"Spiritual activism" versus Lifestyle Hacks

I think there is too often a self-gratifying conflation at work when individuals are (implicitly) bragging about their "lifestyle hacks" that are (after all is said and done) ultimately rooted in the same value system as the  mainstream leftist ideology; in other words, hedonic utilitarianism. 
The conflation occurs when it is stated or implied that such activities constitute a programme of resistance and reform directed against the evil System of our Western world and towards the positive construction of a better alternative world. 
My criticism is that (while pretending to spiritual Christian significance) such discourse is actually being held at the level of selfish, worldly, goals  - tips for living a safer and more comfortable life for "me and mine" (with the political spectrum mostly being about who qualifies as "mine").
People naturally seek ways to combine "what is good for my personal enjoyment" with "what is good for civilization" - but I believe that there is a near-zero link between these when it comes to positive good. 

(I mean by the limitation on "positive good" that our personal material lifestyle choices can much more powerfully make things worse at a large scale; than they can have a positive benefit. We are more likely to do general harm than net-good, and that harm is likely to be greater. This is probably due to a combination of the entropic nature of this world, and the current - unprecedented - degree of dominance by demonic evil.)

When I come across people expounding the "worldly-wisdom" of lifestyle hacks as if these were a programme for The Good Christian; it is my strong impression that this confusion and false-connection is a consequence of failing to realize the depth and breadth of The Problem, especially as it affects The West. 
Anyone who thinks that their hacks, tips, and social or business schemes are addressing The Problem is living in a state of self-gratifying delusion  (or maybe trying to manipulate and exploit us for their own goals - whether consciously, or not). 

Therefore; while I don't think we ought always to be harping-on about The Problem - i.e. the scale, scope, breadth and depth of pervasive evil in our world - and neither should we be brooding upon it continually; it nonetheless seems obvious that this awareness must be our starting-point. 
A Christian can only orientate himself correctly in the world, from a situation in which he recognizes the pervasive "normalization" of extreme evil. 
This recognition reveals that our personal-level material lifestyle choices are all-but powerless to have a positive effect on things-in-general. 

More to the point, lifestyle discourse displace attention from where it properly lies - which is the spiritual, not the material. 
The delusional futility of seeking material solutions to The Problem ought to provoke an attempt to shift from material life-hacks to "spiritual activism" at the individual level. 
An honest recognition of the the hope-less-ness of incremental lifestyle fixes, can point at our best (and only) realistic source of hope; which is in addressing our own spiritual motivations and aims: starting now.