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I Wish I Could Laugh
The recent thread on ecosexuals really disturbed me. I know from the comments that the topic amused many Ricochetti, since, on its face, it is ridiculous that women have intercourse with dirt or snow or trees. Nutjobs are nutjobs, right? Well … no. Not at all. Not even a little. And here’s why:
Ecosexuality is merely the next step in the devolution of society, back to the basic pagan idol worship of the ancient world, back when people sought to live in harmony with nature, finding meaning in worshipping natural forces through rituals that, though they may start with words, sooner or later devolve to promoting baal peor celebration of defecation and animalistic/Dionysian sexual rituals, and then, eventually, end up with human sacrifice. And that is not all, of course. Pagan societies are inherently different from free societies, from Judeo-Christian ideas about morality and private ownership of property and personal and societal growth and change.
Pagan societies see the entire world as cyclical, all things as cycles. Only Judaism and Christianity chart an arc, believe in and are positive actors for the idea of historical progress. A society that worships nature necessarily condemns anything that improves upon nature. And it is thus a society that craves returning to the natural human-as-animal in every sense.
The signs are all around us if we just take a step back and view things with a little historical perspective. Human life only has inherent value to Judaism and Christianity because our holy books tell us that we are made in the image of G-d, that each and every person contains within them a divine spark, unique to people, and in sole contradistinction from the rest of nature. Without the Torah’s illogical and counter-empirical assertion that all human life is valuable, eugenics is a perfectly rational way to order society. What started with abortion leads to euthanasia, and then the ability — nay, the virtue — of culling the herd just as nature does.
You might think that I am being a bit dramatic. Sure, there are pagan nature worshippers out there. But nobody really believes the sun or the earth is a deity, right?
Right?
Before you are quick to conclude that nut jobs really can be safely ignored, remember that even as Greeks made fun of their gods, and were not sure whether they really existed; they still killed and sacrificed people in the names of these deities. Remember that believing in a Star Wars-like “life force” is what drives so many within Asian cultures toward eating or drinking parts of animals so as to obtain their essences, or at least their sexual vigor. To this day, native tribes like Inuit prize still-beating caribou hearts as the ideal spiritual feast and physical delicacy. This is precisely why most native peoples ate parts of their conquered enemies: to absorb their spiritual energies along with their blood or other organs.
And look at the open and massive death festivals, on the rise across cultures around the world, orgiastic celebrations of everything that is dead. More cycles; the cycle of life, even especially death itself. This stuff is not harmless fun.
It is all creeping back. And I wish I could really find it funny. Paganism is dangerous and evil and against everything that Judaism and Christianity have spent millennia fighting against. Left unchecked, it threatens progress and civilization.
Here’s the thing: there is no simple way to fix the world. But I can share what I do personally to fight back against this creeping unholy spiritual revolution, and I mean this in all seriousness:
1: I treat animals like animals. Not people. Thinking that there is a soul in an animal (when in fact any animal is nothing more than whatever spiritual energy we invest in it) makes people crazy. When people care more about pets than humans, the world is in danger. I know people who have mortgaged their homes for a kidney transplant for a 14-year-old cat. It is more than eccentric: this kind of behavior tells us that something is very, very wrong.
2: I deliberately and publicly throw trash in the recycling and vice-versa. Recycling is nothing more than a religious ritual, and I only have One G-d. I buy plastic straws on principle. I avoid all “natural,” “non-GMO,” and “organic” products. I generate as much CO2 as I can (CO2 is plant food, and I am in favor of more life).
2b: In keeping with promoting life, I absolutely adore children, and revere mothers. I am writing this from an airplane seat, sitting next to a five-month-old babe in arms whom I stole from her mother under the pretext that I could make her stop crying. I could, and did: but I really just love kids, and I was glad for the excuse.
3: That Rico-thread on ecosexuality got one thing very right: we must use ridicule as well as logic when we want to defeat stupid ideas. We must laugh at everything that deserves our derision, and we must do it in a way that attracts more laughter and fun. Anyone who cannot take a joke needs to be smothered in them.
4: I treat every new idea, especially things like health scares, natural diets and “new discoveries” with deep suspicion. Society is being swept by popular idiocies, and it is only a matter of time before the villagers with pitchforks start re-enacting classics like the Salem Witch Trials, Edward Scissorhands, and pogroms. “Smear the Queer” is the most popular social game in human history, and all it needs right now is one spin of the bottle. Every new idea is a fad until it passes the test of time. Don’t owl or plank or selfie. Get off my lawn!
Most people do not do something because they think it is the right thing to do: they do it because someone else is doing it. This is because most people are followers, and both crave and need the security of believing that the Right Path resides in the safety of numbers or of authority figures or experts. It is human nature to follow the herd. But seeking holiness requires us to figure out what is right, to understand that we, not our herds, are responsible for our own actions.
It would be a terrible shame to throw away this incredible civilization by letting it be pulled, gripped by humanity’s instinctive need to find meaning in all things, back into pagan earth-worship, back into cyclical conformity with the natural world. Ecosexuality is not just silly – though it is that – it is another step toward child sacrifice and open barbarism.
Published in General
I’m not at all sure that an attempt at humor around this entailed dismissing its destructive potential, iWe. Brian’s post alerted many of us to the danger – hidden in the absurdity. Humor is, at times, lighting a candle to stave off the darkness, perhaps?…Safe travels!
Thank you, @iwe. I know Brian has an ironic sense of humor, but when I saw the nature of the post, I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I couldn’t explain why, but I think your points help to clarify my reasons.
However, the step of child sacrifice to gods of convenience and Independent Woman or whatever–that step was made long before.
A good post.
Islam is with Judeo-Christianity on the uni-directionality of history, but your sentence still seems correct to me: Islam tends to (at least) de-emphasize the effects of individual actors.
Same with Hegelianism, actually. And Marxism.
To be clear, I didn’t post the story to be humorous or to make light of this lunacy but to point out how outrageous it was the University of California actually provides a platform for this idiocy and I think I was fairly emphatic that this was a further indication of the attack on values and on western civilization that postmodernist Leftists were driving. Or essentially what Nanda said. Cheers.
Brian you are right, of course. Nevertheless, the comments and subsequent conversation were quite funny.
Point taken. But it’s a way of dealing with seemingly endless examples of insanity that the Left seems to hit us all with on a day-to-day basis. My comment that Gov. Brown, Gavin Newsom and Janet Napolitano show their support for this woman’s work and participate in one of her workshops was not really in jest. Perhaps someone at the next Board of Regents meeting will have the guts to present that as a serious proposal and essentially rub their faces in this idiocy.
Re: Point 3 – The prophet Elijah addressed Baal-worshippers with ridicule:
25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and (U)cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of (V)the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. (1Kings 18:25-29 ESV)
2 Thess 2:7-14
There is nothing new under the sun, and all the lies are old lies, beginning from the Garden of Eden.
You are right, it isn’t all that funny. But remember: God’s got this. He really does.
But, we do keep trying to take it from him, don’t we, though we’re not in any way ready to handle it?
I don’t think you appreciate that they would probably do it, and with enthusiasm. You assume there is common decency where there is not.
My faith is that G-d gave us the world to finish. So the job of fixing the crazy is ours.
I completely agree. People find my attitude toward euthanizing my pets somewhat shocking. I am a very responsible pet owner and take great care of them. But, when they’re old and might be suffering, I do not hesitate to put them down. They are not people and it’s my responsibility to ensure they don’t needlessly suffer so that I can temporarily avoid the emotional pain of separation.
Me too. It is an act of rebellion against the eco-fascists. When were in Yellowstone in July, every restaurant, lodge, and individual room(!) had multiple bins for sorting trash. Nuts!
Yes.
Ditto. The BPA-free plastics craze? There is no evidence BPA is harmful. In fact, if anything, the components used to replace BPA are relatively untested, where there are decades of BPA plastic use providing data.
I pointed out to someone recently that what it means to be “organic” (everything that ever lived on Earth is “organic”) is that the growers adhered to California’s standard for organic growers (she laughed when I said, “I don’t know what you think about California, but…”). But, “organic” has become synonymous with “pure,” “clean,” “undefiled.” It’s a religious term, and not a religion I care to belong to…
I agree with Nanda. What I saw in the photo, and the lead of the ecosex post was plenty. I did not read it, but no offense to the author of the post.
Human sacrifice and its attending evils was once how things were. We are fools to think it can’t become the norm.
Taking this in a slightly different direction: At Sacred Heart School in Lincoln I learned that anything in your life that is more important to you than G_d is an idol. If your car is more important to you than G_d, your car is an idol. If sex is more important to you than G_d, sex is an idol. If money is more important to you than G_d, money is your idol.
G_d commands “Thou shalt not kill”. Yet we allow murder in our society because whatever the Supreme Court says is more important than what G_d says. Accepting one idol lowers your resistance to worshiping others. Once the basic principle of putting G_d first is abandoned you inevitably become distracted by the all the deities of the world incessantly calling out from every street corner. Many of our problems stem from worshipping that nine-headed gd.
You seem to think that “funny” and “serious” are opposites.
They are not.
The opposite of “funny” is “not funny.”
Something can be serious and quite funny at the same time.
Thank the Lord for laughter for it keeps us alive and sane. When I can’t laugh, I’ll be dead.
Yes!
You are absolutely right, of course. It is how people made fun of evil like Hitler and Mao.
A wit once defined a Jew as someone who can simultaneously cry with one eye and laugh with the other.
I thought that was the definition of an Irishman…
By the way, I stole this shamelessly and unattributed from G.K. Chesterton, who might be so pleased to see that it still is quoted that he would not regard it as theft.
One more comment: @iwe, I am wondering if you are not being a bit prudish about Brian’s humor here? (tee hee)
It was the comments that really had fun with it. Pictures of beavers chewing on trees….
Recycling has always been dodgy except for certain materials like aluminum or other scrap metals, or like glass.
But with the current trade war with China, it’s even worse now. China is refusing to take a lot of our trash for “recycling” at this point. Anyone want to lay odds that China may not have been doing any recycling anyway? And has just been heaving it into landfills? Now that they’ve stopped, that garbage is piling up here with nowhere to go.
Another Trump win!! Employing Americans at our own landfills! { Only half-joking. }
Suits me. Some of them are end users of my products.
Well, the only crazy I have any hope of fixing is my own, and 49 years in, it ain’t goin’ so well!
Well, I don’t know how knowledgeable or objective I am, @spin, but from here, you’re doin’ just fine!
I hide my crazy well…
I love basically everything you write, but I have to strongly disagree with you about not recycling, creating waste, etc. You don’t have to worship the earth to treat it with respect and understand that along with God, the Earth gives us food. We say brachot (blessings) over vegetables and fruits with the understanding that God has given us this gift through the Earth. Conservationism is a deeply conservative and religious principle in my mind.