Too Much System; Not Enough Distance

4/9/2022

Too much System; not enough distance.

That's my assessment of about eighty percent of the blog posts and articles I read these days. Unfortunately, this includes many Christian blogs and sources as well.

Inadequate system distancing results in something I can only describe as system hypnosis. Many bloggers and writers appear unable or unwilling to pit themselves in opposition to the despotic, destructive, and damning demands of the System at the only level that truly matters -- the spiritual.

Don't misunderstand -- I see plenty of aversion and animosity when it comes to the System's glaring evil. At the same time, I don't see much spiritual revulsion and resistance to the concept of system itself.

The writers and bloggers who are so adept at recognizing the "problems" within the System are the same writers and bloggers who remain committed to the idea of solving these problems at the system-level.

I could be wrong, but it appears most writers and bloggers remain firmly convinced that the System and the System alone provides people with freedom and reality.

The System -- which is now synonymous with "society" regardless of where you live -- continues to wield extraordinary power over people in this regard. This includes writers and bloggers, the vast majority of whom remain firmly committed to the possibility of system-level solutions to system-level problems.

However, system-level solutions are impossible for the simple reason that the System is openly waging war against itself and God – which entails that it is openly waging material and spiritual war against everyone and everything.

The only “solution” the System comprehends and pursues now is physical and spiritual annihilation. Within such a framework, nothing at the system level – be it an election, a financial overhaul, a social reform, a geopolitical event, a military conflict, legal measure, or any other System-level development – is truly “good” in this time and place.

To acknowledge such a thing appears nihilistic, but the opposite is true. Such an acknowledgement opens up the possibility of overcoming System hypnosis through the creative exploration of our inherent spiritual nature and submerging into the depths in which our true selves are rooted.

Instead of enslaving ourselves to the externalized, objectified given world of the System, we begin liberating ourselves to the possibility of spiritually overcoming the main cause of System hypnosis -- fear.

Spiritually overcoming fear involves overcoming both the fear of life and the fear of death. When we overcome these fears, the reality of truth and love -- which no system offers and all systems conspire to deny -- becomes evident and undeniable, in both this life and the next.

12 Comments

Adam link

4/10/2022 05:10:17

I had a discussion on Gab yesterday with someone who was proudly announcing how he had plans to turn around his local school and justice department from their crazy turn towards the System. In brief, I told him that his plan was lose-lose; you lose by playing their game and you lose when they beat you with it as they know that you will play by their rules.

After I told him to withdraw from the System and set up his own little school he got upset with me when I didn't have a five point plan for him to follow. But if it were easy then a lot of people would be doing it.

Francis Berger

4/10/2022 10:24:34

@ Adam - I agree and lose-lose is a good way of putting it.

bruce charlton

4/10/2022 09:40:57

Yes.

Some of this is that not many people, not many Christians, really believe that there is a spiritual realm more important than socio-politics.

They are absolutely desperate to be part of some Crusader-like group-movement that is 'fighting' a socio-political 'war' - and therefore they must draw (selectively) upon the System in order to try and organize and prosecute this war (e.g. by trying to reform institutions, create new institutions, oppose institutions).

They regard individual spiritual activity and personal forms of resistance and positive living as futile and dangerous evasions.

Yet somehow this sociopolitical movement never seems actually to happen... While meanwhile, these rebels expend considerable time and energy on engaging with the System, pondering the enemy's strategies, discussing possible tactics etc etc.

They find themselves engaging with supporting people and institutions who are on the side of the System and part of it - but who have said one or two true and critical things (people like Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, or Viktor Orban).

In other words, System involvement is maintained and solidified - supposedly as a means to the end of conquering and reforming the System.

Meanwhile people are actually being corrupted by this 'active' engagement, and as a result wave after wave of Christians keep on falling away into affiliation with evil.

4/10/2022 10:34:25

@ Bruce - Harboring notions of System reform was somewhat comprehensible and forgivable pre- 2020 coup. I sometimes harbored such notions myself and occasionally held out hope for individuals like Peterson and Orbán.

To engage in such thought and activity post-2020 is not only terribly misguided but also incredibly harmful, for the very reasons you touch upon in your comment.

We are all within the System to a greater or lesser degree, but this doesn't entail that the System needs to be within us.

Christians need to de-systemize their thinking, and they can look to Jesus as a guide. Christians should spend more time considering how much Jesus actually cared about systems. Moreover, they should also consider how un-systematic His teaching is.

Ingemar

4/10/2022 16:39:25

The latest contrived crisis is the war with Russia. The alt-media and elements of the right see in Russia and Putin a means of salvation from American hegemony, which they call GAE (global American empire). I, on the other hand, see the System creating a partition and pretending that it's something outside themselves (see also--China).

4/10/2022 17:36:34

@ Ingemar - I agree. In terms of best case scenario, you could make the argument that countries like R, Ch, Hungary, etc. are a lesser evil, but even then, lesser evil does not equal good.

The birdemic is quite telling in this regard. All countries in question followed the same playbook. None of the leaders of the "lesser evil" countries have acknowledged the evil of the birdemic. Nor have they publicly repented the evil actions they have taken -- and in Ch's case, continue to take in the most draconian manner possible. Makes you wonder if lesser evil is even a valid position to take.

https://www.francisberger.com/blog/until-the-birdemic-is-acknowledged-and-repented-there-is-no-good-only-lesser-evil?9

The System does not deserve a shred of our faith or hope. And even if it did, that is not where Christians should place their faith and hope.

John Venlet link

4/10/2022 18:30:13

Stopped over after reading your comment at Dr. Charlton's post. I gave up on The System, as you refer to it, a number of years ago after being actively engaged in blogging simply its ills. Your thoughts in this post somewhat mirror Charlton's thoughts in his recent post wondering if Christians can build a counter-culture, the answer to which, is no. Though there is no way for a fully Christian world to come into being by simply our human actions, if Chrisitan individuals desire a more Christian world, the only thing we can do is be an example by living The Word, and by attempting to make disciples of all men. And in truth that can only be accomplished by planting a seed in others and prayerfully asking that the Holy Spirit will water that seed so that it will grow.

4/10/2022 20:57:04

@ John - I agree with the living the Word part, which is why motivations to work within the System, or with the System, or for the System will not succeed here and now. The System is opposed to the Word. Conversely, the Word is opposed to worldly systems.

System distancing is a spiritual imperative -- it recognizes that we are all a part of the System to some degree. At the same time, it also recognizes that the evil System cannot be a part of us if we choose to live by the Word.

Todd

4/11/2022 15:17:41

Great post!
The only "institution" we have a prayer of dragging out of the system, at least spiritually, is ourselves. We can start with that church of one, and see how many other individuals we can rally to a life of spirit as we live our lives each day. I imagine this would be an amorphous, ever-changing alliances of "churches of one" that would eventually make a difference where such individuals practiced this system distancing in earnest. And it would have profound effects on the world.

4/12/2022 08:03:31

@ Todd - Sorry for the delay in publishing your comment. It escaped my attention until now.

I agree. The System ends at the individual level of Spirit. From there, spirit can form relationships with spirit, but these relationships should not be system-based or system-motivated (even if we are, inevitably, within the System to a greater or lesser degree).

lea

4/12/2022 13:30:27

The system has outgrown its practical benefits anyway, but it is naturally deeply invested in convincing people otherwise; just in time delivery of disposable goods is something entrenched into the so called international order. In reality, a few more regional microchip factories would be required, some resources still need to be traded somehow, certain substrates from the oil business at large cannot be sidestepped immediately. However 80% of the things REQUIRED for regular modern life can be set up locally; water, energy, food, basic building blocks for housing and development of almost every essential infrastructure.

The great victims of modernity were city-states and guilds, two concepts we should never have let go of. There is a constant stream of deliberate choices for ineffective solutions going on, much more so then actual incompetence or lack of alternatives. People seem to have a hard time facing this reality but it is very real.

4/12/2022 20:13:10

@ lea - Your comment about the System and the international order reminded me of that plastic container of pears that is labelled "Grown in Argentina; Packed in Thailand".

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Too Much System; Not Enough Distance

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