Reality
A Story of Christmas
In the earliest dawn of time, before history, when the first man awakened to himself, to awareness, he brought with him out of the sleep of the animals, out of that thoughtless, constant present of raw instinct, devoid of consciousness, a female companion, and together they observed the world and knew that it had been…
Read MoreThe Novel as the Foundation of All Art
Check out the new article on Hollywood in Toto on the importance of reading novels in the popular culture to such wide-ranging cultural artefacts as movies and music.
Read MoreHow to attack the Bible
Always thought about reading the Bible, or maybe tried it once or twice, but it was just TOO MUCH? You just couldn’t find a way to get your arms around it? Allow this article to help you take another look at it.
Read MoreFingerprints of the Devil: Human Sacrifice
The other sign of true evil in human society, in the body politic and in individual lives, is the prevalence of and instinct for human sacrifice. What else but a living Satan could explain the tendency of human beings not otherwise guided to drive every problem toward a solution involving human sacrifice? Again, it’s easiest…
Read MoreFingerprints of the Devil: Inversion
There are many evils in the world, but there are a few which are so perfectly perverse that they argue for the existence of Pure Evil, of perfect rebellion against Absolute Good. I call these the fingerprints of the Devil. The easiest of these to recognize is inversion. An evil person–or rather, the evil in…
Read MoreResponsibility by Past Potential
Following on the previous thought, a point needs to be emphasized: If you had the potential to affect what happens, then you have responsibility for what happens. A woman is raped on a train, and the bystanders stand by, a few of them filming it. One calls 9-1-1. None dare intervene. “I’m not trained for…
Read MoreOnly the Children are Innocent
In modern war, the Western world typically seeks to avoid killing “innocent civilians.” Likewise, the people of the West decry the deaths of “innocent bystanders” in situations of criminal violence. This stems from a too narrow assessment of responsibility. In war it is most obvious. In war, all adults of a nation are responsible for…
Read MoreTattoos?
I’ve never really understood tattoos. What is their purpose? For instance, let us say a man has tattooed on his arm some statement or symbol representing core principles of his life, such as “faith,” or “strength.” Why did he do that? Is it because if they weren’t tattooed into his skin, he’d forget about them,…
Read More“Respect” is always relative
“It seems like you don’t respect me.” As what? “What do you mean, ‘as what?’” Well, think about it. If a man is a skilled surgeon, I respect him as a surgeon. If he is also a philanderer who routinely violates his marriage vows, then I don’t respect him as a husband, but I still…
Read MoreIt’ll make you just like them…
You see it in the movies all the time: If the hero stoops to killing the villain, then the hero will become “just like” the villain. Thus the hero inevitably spares his murderous nemesis, or is marked an antihero otherwise. This is, of course, nonsense. It is perfectly possible for a good man to kill…
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