The Rise of the Anti Hero and the Triumph of Solipsim in a Godless World

This beyond dark imagery is becoming more and more prevalent. Just the imagery associated with some of the movies and television shows--for example, the imagery from American Horror Story--today repulses me. However, the imagery isn't always so repugnant.  From Dexter to Walter White to Tony Soprano to Frank Underwood to Jack Bauer the world is awash in antiheroes who sell sex, death, destruction and moral corruption as easily as...well, as easily as the devil sold the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The antihero rapes, tortures, kills, corrupts, etc. in service of his or her sense of what constitutes “the greater good.,” and not only do we root for them, we love them--some, of course, more than others. With the exception of Dexter because I can't stomach the idea of a "heroic" torturous serial killer-- I've watched them all and as much as I hate to admit it, to this day, I miss Tony Soprano and Walter White.  What that says about me speaks volumes. So I'm preaching to myself (and hopefully to my children if they ever read my blog...I'm certainly not holding my breath) because I'm as easily seduced, if not more so, by  the anti-hero.  As the saying goes: People teach what they need to learn.

In order to define antihero, you must first define hero because anti simply means “against,” or “opposite of.” So, what is a hero? He or she is one whose virtues and good works greatly outdistance those of ordinary good people. To take it a step further, heroes are "souls already purified from all attachment to things worldly, and solidly anchored in the love of God."  To put it very simply, an antihero is a central character or protagonist in a novel, play, movie, TV show, video game, etc, who lacks heroic virtues: temperance, fortitude, prudence, and whose virtues and good works greatly outdistance those of ordinary good people.

“Virtue consists in the following, or imitation, of God [Jesus Christ]. Every virtue, like every other thing, has its type [exemplar] in God. Thus the Divine mind itself is the type of prudence; God using all things to minister to His glory is the type of temperance, by which man subjects his lower appetites to reason; justice is typified by God's application of the eternal law to all His works; Divine immutability is the type of fortitude. And, since it is man's nature to live in society, the four cardinal virtues are social [politicae] virtues, inasmuch as by them man rightly ordains his conduct in daily life. Man, however, must raise himself beyond his natural life unto a life Divine: 'Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48). It is, therefore, necessary to posit certain virtues midway between the social virtues, which are human, and the exemplary virtues, which are Divine. These intermediate virtues are of two degrees of perfection: the lesser in the soul still struggling upwards from a life of sin to a likeness with God — these are called purifying virtues [virtutes purgatoriae]; the greater in the souls which have already attained to the Divine likeness — these are called virtues of the purified soul [virtutes jam purgati animi]. In the lesser degree, prudence, moved by the contemplation of things Divine, despises all things earthly and directs all the soul's thought unto God alone; temperance relinquishes, as far as nature allows, the things required for bodily wants; fortitude removes the fear of departing this life and facing the life beyond; justice approves of the aforesaid dispositions. In the higher perfection of souls already purified and firmly united with God, prudence knows nothing but what it beholds in God; temperance ignores earthly desires; fortitude knows nothing of passions; justice is bound to the Divine mind by a perpetual compact to do as it does. This degree of perfection belongs to the blessed in heaven or to a few of the most perfect in this life. -- St. Thomas (I-II:61:4)

The rise of the antihero is establishing a new social order completely independent of nature and totally at the service of human will.  Whereas, literary heroes used to be good people who did good things for good reasons, in contemporary literature, antiheroes have begun to outnumber heroes.  However, the anti-hero is getting harder and harder to discern as all moral boundaries are consistently and seductively blurred.  In other words, anti-heroism is a response to modern man's uncertainties about moral code and value judgements as modern anti-heroism captures the sensibility associated with modernism. The reader, spectator empathizes with characters who are immoral.

“The moral inversion of suspense is when the spectator empathizes with characters who are immoral, who are not necessarily presented as morally preferable in the narrative and may thus otherwise have been perceived as unsympathetic, and feels suspense in relation to a situation where it seems unlikely that this character will succeed. Empathizing with the character makes the spectator root for this character wanting him or her to succeed--more traditionally seen -- (The Antihero in American Television by Margrethe Bruun Vaage)

The devil, it turns out, with his disarming mix of charm and wit on the one hand and darkness and terror on the other, rules the day ...All you want to do is join the party, be his friend, sit next to him, make him smile. 

“Through Wisdom is a house built; and by Understanding it is established: [But] by Knowledge shall all the chambers be filled." (Proverbs 24:3-4)

Instilling fear--because when fear dominates our thinking, love is absent--and the transvaluation (reversing the meaning of traditional and accepted values) and inversion of the predominant moral system of the Christian world are the operating principles of modernity and the postmodern ethos, which has successfully seized the moral high ground...not all that hard, considering the levers of power are in their hands to not only  'do what thy wilt,' but to convince us that 'to do what thy wilt is the whole of the law,' that is, unless you step out of line.

Links:

The Rise of the Antihero

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The Ultimate Deception: Scientism Exposed

Is the ultimate agenda to take God out of everything? Counterfeit the creation through science? All signs point to exactly that.

Many Christians today are taught to compromise Biblical Scripture with the ever-changing theories of what's claimed to be "science." But is it really science? Because true science is simply the scientific method or empirical data. It is a method of inquiry and the knowledge acquired by that method. The scientific method involves hypothesizing, experimenting, observing and drawing conclusions.

Central to the method of science is that no theory is ever considered final. All theories are subject to scrutiny and reexamination, and it is assumed that all will eventually be proven false by a more comprehensive theory. Yet try to question Evolution, Relativity, Big Bang, the heliocentric universe, gravity, dark matter, dark energy, black holes, etc., and you will be mocked, called names, and/or ignored for your stupidity and utter ignorance, no matter how much real evidence you provide, or how well articulated your argument is.

What is commonly called science these days is actually religion of the world. Full of fabrication and anti-God agenda. The failing of science is not about the scientific method; it is about a largely unrecognized epistemology that developed as a result of the successes of "science". This faulty epistemology can be called scientism, and we should make a sharp distinction between science and scientism.

However, in order to accomplish such a feat, they, the global elite, must systematically create an entire paradigm/”reality” without God, that is anti-Christian, anti biblical, and that dehumanizes, and discredits that you are special, loved, uniquely made in the image of an all-loving, all powerful God. Is it possible that this deception started long ago, maybe even as far back as Pythagoras?



Again, science is nothing more that metaphysics if we simply proclaim it true without confirmation. Science requires repeated confirmation by testing predictions. A clever theory does not solve a problem if it can't confirm the prediction. Where is the confirming example?

"It’s when we allow the world to provide the lens through which we look, that we lose our 'deception perception'."

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man from you seemeth to be wise in the world, let him become a fool that he may be wise For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men” 1Corinthians 3:18-21

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Happiness vs. Joy.

Because I've often wondered how, in the words of someone far more articulate than I, "joy can be effervescent in a person whose circumstances look bleak and how joyless a person can be in spite of great blessing. How many times have we seen a person in a wheelchair just beaming, and a wealthy, healthy person just plain miserable?"




From disciplegideon's blog:

Happiness comes when things go your way; joy flows despite things not going your way.

Happiness comes when circumstances are favorable; joy comes regardless of circumstances.

Happiness is fleeting and based on emotion; joy is permanent and not based on emotions.

Happiness is a never-ending pursuit; joy is a never-ending rest.

Happiness comes from natural, tangible sources; joy comes from supernatural, intangible sources.

Happiness comes when you are loved; joy comes when you love others.

Happiness feeds the soul; joy feeds the spirit.

Happiness is in finding what pleases you; joy is in finding what pleases another.

Happiness is a goal; joy is a gift.

Happiness can be earned and strived for; joy cannot be earned.

Happiness is a personal quest with diminishing returns; joy is a selfless quest that is ever-growing.

Happiness can come at the expense of another; joy comes as we pour ourselves into another.

Happiness is temporary; joy is permanent.

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US Policy of Terror: Attack Rescuers and the Grieving.

Many of us have asked why the Germans didn't stand up to Hitler. Why they allowed him to get away with the unspeakable. Well, here we are, almost 75 years later, and the elite's military industrial complex wages illegal war after illegal war, killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent civilians, based on nothing but packs of lies, in order to guarantee their massive power and profit. But what about us? The 99%.

What explains the lack of outrage and discourse regarding this insane and immoral policy? What explains the apathy? How long before the terrorism and crimes against humanity, starting with the Native Americans, and African Americans, that we've inflicted on others visits upon us?

Glenn Greenwald reports on the slaughter of grieving friends and family, and the murder of first responders.

In February, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented that after the U.S. kills people with drones in Pakistan, it then targets for death those who show up at the scene to rescue the survivors and retrieve the bodies, as well as those who gather to mourn the dead at funerals: “the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals.” As The New York Times summarized those findings: “at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile” while “the bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals.”

This repellent practice continues. Over the last three days, the U.S. has launched three separate drone strikes in Pakistan: one on each day. As The Guardian reports, the U.S. has killed between 20 and 30 people in these strikes, the last of which, early this morning, killed between 8 and 15. It was the second strike, on Sunday, that targeted mourners gathered to grieve those killed in the first strike

At the time of the attack, suspected militants had gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during another US unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack. The Pakistani officials said two of the dead were foreigners and the rest were Pakistani.

Note that there is no suggestion, even from the “officials” on which these media reports (as usual) rely, that the dead man was a Terrorist or even a “militant.” He was simply receiving condolences for his dead brother. But pursuant to the standards embraced by President Obama, the brother — without knowing anything about him — is inherently deemed a “combatant” and therefore a legitimate target for death solely by virtue of being a “military-age male in a strike zone.” Of course, killing family members of bombing targets is nothing new for this President: let’s recall the still-unresolved question of why Anwar Awlaki’s 16-year-old American son, Abdulrahman, was killed by a U.S. drone attack in Yemen two weeks after his father was killed.

I ask this sincerely: what kind of country targets rescuers, funeral attendees, and people gathered to mourn? If a Hollywood film featured a villainous King ordering lethal attacks on rescuers, funerals and mourners — those medically attending to or grieving his initial victims — any decent audience member would, by design, seethe with contempt for such an inhumane tyrant. But this is the standard policy and practice under President Obama and it continues through today. Recall the outrage that was sparked when WikiLeaks released its Collateral Murder video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter during the Bush era firing on unarmed rescuers, who had arrived to retrieve the initial victims who had been shot and were laying wounded on the ground. That tactic continues under President Obama, although it is now expanded to include the targeting of grieving rituals.

The War Prayer. By Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.

It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came-next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their faces alight with material dreams-visions of a stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender!-then home from the war, bronzed heros, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation -- "God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was that an ever--merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory -

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there, waiting.

With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal,"Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said

"I come from the Throne-bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd and grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import-that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of-except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer-the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it-that part which the pastor, and also you in your hearts, fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory-must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause)

"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits."

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

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Making Sense of Suffering in a Post Modern World

Life is filled with suffering. That's a given. Despite the fact that some of us suffer more than others, there is no escaping it, and this - evil and suffering - present the greatest obstacle to faith in God, especially in modern and post-modern America.

And let's face it, most of us lose more than we win. But what if there was a way to win by losing? Well, in the audio version of the book below, Making Sense Out of Suffering, by Peter Kreeft, you may begin to look at suffering and pain in a very different way.   I know I did. And you don't have to be Catholic or Christian to read as he - albeit with 100% Christian bias - compares and contrasts all the different religions, philosophies, ets.

If you find that hard to believe, too good to be true, know that even the atheist Ivan Karamazov understands that hope. He says,

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.

Why then does Ivan remain an atheist? Because though he believes, he does not accept. He is not a doubter; he is a rebel. Like his own character the Grand Inquisitor, Ivan is angry at God for not being kinder. That is the deepest source of unbelief: not the intellect but the will.

Often using the Socratic technique of dialogue between himself and a very skeptical prospective reader, Kreeft brings together a variety of novelists, poets, prophets, philosophers and scriptures and he gives, what I think, is one of the best answers - if not the best - to the question for all time, if God exists, why is there so much suffering?  He masterfully exposes the fallacious thinking of modern times in a thought-provoking chapter on why it is most, if not all of us cannot understand suffering. He urges us to view ourselves as protagonists in the midst of our own life stories, where, maybe not in this world, good finally triumphs, as Christians believe.

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True Genius, No Evidence Needed.

The ultimate mystery of life is beyond our limited capacity to perceive. We cannot begin to comprehend the incredible vastness of what exists beyond our tiny planet, moreover, beyond our infinitesimally small lives, purely from a logical and reasonable point of view.

Fundamentalists like Richard Dawkins who basically calls anyone who believes in anything without scientific proof, an idiot, is as much a hypocrite as Christian fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the like.

Having said that, I'll take an arrogant atheist over an arrogant Christian any day of the week, because twisting what Jesus said and what He lived, to get what you want, and then persecuting those who don't live up to that twisted "belief" system is far worse than not believing at all.

I am not an Opera fan and I've never heard of Klaus Nomi until now, but this hauntingly beautiful performance of Henry Purcell's "The Cold Song" from the English 17th century baroque opera King Arthur, is all the proof I need that there is far more to life than science can tell us. Unbeknownst to anyone watching, Klaus Nomi was very sick at this time (1982). He died of AIDS six-months later (1983).

From anTONYM2M2:

"Klaus had made an impact on new-wave music in the late 70's and was working to break into the pop mainstream just before he died. His first love however, was Opera.

In this video, Klaus sings Henry Purcell's strange aria The Cold Song from the English 17th century baroque opera King Arthur

The composer Henry Purcell died in 1695 from incurable T.B. aged 36, while in 1983 Klaus sadly died succumbing to complications due to Aids, aged 39. Both men were remarkably talented but died so young.


---------- Purcell's Cold Genius -----------

What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow
See'st thou not ( how stiff )2) and wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold,
I ( can scarcely move or draw my breath )2)
Let me, let me freeze again to death.3)

-------------------------------

The Lyrics to this old aria are strangely prophetic. Watching it now, knowing what a difficult time Klaus was having, just adds to its intensity and sadness."

Of course, trying to convey the genius of this man on a youtube video is like trying to give expression to Michelangelo on etch a sketch:

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True Faith.

“Where is my faith?” “Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. … If there be God — please forgive me.” -- Mother Theresa

Faith is not so much about how we feel or what we say as it is about what we do. Mother Theresa's actions and behavior spoke louder than any feelings or words could ever convey. It's easy to act accordingly when your feelings are in sync with what you believe, but almost impossible to do so when feeling the opposite, which is why Mother Theresa's faith is not only strong, but transcends human nature.

How many times do we see people who claim to serve God, cry, shout, and preach about how strong their faith is, only to find out their conduct and lifestyle only serve themselves. Many of these people may even convince themselves the high they feel comes directly from God, when in reality it comes from power, greed, and the perception of their own "superiority".

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