I Realize This May Be A Tad Out Of Your Ambit, But From My Research, Christianity Has Been Responsible

I realize this may be a tad out of your ambit, but from my research, Christianity has been responsible for a heck of a lot of the authoritarianism that has caused a lot of harm from conservative logic. How did this come about, and why doesn't it show up in (many) other religions? Or at least not as strongly?

so I’m gonna say something Controversial Yet Brave here: the problem isn’t Christianity, the problem is religious fundamentalism + the Roman Empire.

religious fundamentalism is what happens when you mix religion (value-neutral, not intrinsically a force for good or evil) with traditionalism, which…

if you’re playing along with your The Earl Longpost Bingo Card at home, this is the space marked ‘childhood trauma’! But Bret Devereaux’s series on Sparta got me thinking about this, so you get to hear the rant.

people who’ve been traumatized from a young age often only feel safe when they’re in conditions that are similar to the conditions that traumatized them. if you’re used to the world working a certain way, it can be jarring and even painful to discover that in most of the world, it doesn’t work like that. it’s like… if you were used to gravity being upside-down, so you walked on ceilings, and then suddenly it goes back to “normal” and you have to get used to walking on the floor.

I genuinely believe that most political traditionalism comes from people who were traumatized as children trying to force everyone else to live in the world where they feel safest. and unfortunately for all of us, the world where they feel safest is ‘a world where things work the way that they do when you’re a small child being mistreated by your parents’.

most self-described traditionalists want everyone to live by a set of rules laid down by a semi-divine, parental authority figure- whether that’s God, Lycurgus, Odin, or a modern guru. These rules are inherently full of contradictions and non sequiturs- no one can properly follow them, even if they want to.

But the consequences for not following them are as harsh as they are for not obeying an abusive parent, and applied just as arbitrarily. so you must perform the arbitrary and pointless tasks your authority tells you to perform, adore the authority upon command, and- of course- hate the people your authority figure tells you to hate, without question.

there is a reason why most forms of religious fundamentalism look more like each other than they look like the religion they’re based on. a religion based on giving to the poor and breaking down power structures becomes a religion about hoarding whatever you can and begging your authority figure not to smite you; a religion of peace becomes about striking down those your authority figure hates… because it’s not about the religion anymore; it’s about making the world feel safe for people who only feel safe when the world is arbitrary and cruel.

child abuse is, unfortunately, ubiquitous. there are traumatized people everywhere, because there are people who should not be parents everywhere. it’s not unique to the USA or to the Anglosphere or to the Christian world… and so neither is religious fundamentalism.

there are fundie Muslims. there are fundie Orthodox Jews, and fundie Hindus, and fundie Buddhists. from what I understand, there are fundie Confucians and fundie Shinto. there are definitely fundie pagans and atheists, though they’re unlikely to use the label because of its connotations.

the reason that it seems like Christianity is so much worse is that … well… Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. it just so happens that one of the ‘arbitrary rules’ that fundie Christianity tends to keep over its original incarnation is “go ye to all the world and tell them what happened here”… because it’s convenient for both the people who need the world to be trauma-safe and the people in power who need others to do what they say.

The Romans, and the empires that inherited their legacy and worldview, spread Christianity to every place they touched. between Rome, Byzantium, British/French/Spanish colonialism, and American hegemony… there are Christians everywhere, and in the Anglosphere, Christians are a majority.

and of course there’s a lot of factors that go into whether the fundie strain of a religion is the majority. but in general- fundies with the power to do so traumatize their children, creating a new generation of fundies, who seek more political power so that they can feel safe and traumatize their children because It’s The Rules, henceforth and forever. so a lot of the time there are at least a plurality of fundies in any religion, and…

you’re more likely to hear about Christians behaving badly if you live in, well, Christendom, because there are simply more Christians than anyone else. and when fundie Christians specifically are the majority… they have the power to make everyone else live in Trauma City.

I suspect that if the Roman Empire had embraced Mithraism as its primary religion, we’d be sitting here talking about whether Mithraism is uniquely terrible and likely to foster authoritarianism; if they’d stayed Dodekatheist we’d be arguing if worshiping Zeus or Ares was more likely to make you an authoritarian asshole, and if they’d somehow gone atheist, we’d be discussing whether believing in a god makes you less authoritarian.

Because it’s not about the specific religion; it’s about the political hegemony + the fundamentalism.

a guide to be self-taught for all the knowledge lovers out there

1. Listen to yourself. Don’t judge your thoughts and their form. Most people are MUCH more intelligent and creative than they think they are. They just don’t notice it as they don’t pay attention to their thoughts, don’t value them the way they should.

Buy a notebook. Note every thought that has any meaning, however weird, bad or unsignificant it may seem. Don’t make it a diary, a diary is filtered. It gives you an objective, makes you try to shape your ideas a certain way. Screw the dates, calligraphy, aesthetic, screw making any sense. The whole point is to contain an unchanged stream of consciousness, to keep it unedited, so you wouldn’t lose anything. I call it A documentation of existence - you neither have to agree with what you write, nor believe it’s yours, simply acknowledge it exists.

You have no idea how many times I made a stupid note at 4am that everyone else would ignore but that later on got transformed into a whole project.

2. Sleep well and USE THAT TIME. I’m surprised how few people understand and appreciate the power of sleep. Come on, it’s literally the door to your unconsciousness, the amount of opportunities it gives is astonishing!

I used to not get it. When I was a kid I hated sleep so much, I would refuse to go to bed sometimes as I thought of it as a waste of time. In primary school I wanted to reduce my sleep time so much, I started to highly experiment on it and even followed the Uberman Schedule for some time. Now I know sleep is actually a powerful instrument that can help you increase your potential.

Learn about it, research LD, OOBE (be careful with it though) and most importantly sleep programming. They can all be extremely beneficial! Statistically we’re asleep for 1/3 of our lives so don’t waste that time.

3. Mnemotechnics. Find out what way of remembering information works best for your brain and use it. I especially recommend The Mind Palace Technique. You may’ve seen it on Sherlock and thought it’s pure fiction but I assure you it’s very much real and it’s the most effective mnemotechnic I’ve ever used. Seriously, I’m surprised how much I remember thanks to it.

If you use it right, it’s actually so efficient you may remember those things for years, if not forever - so don’t put useless and stupid stuff there. I once did it and I regret it SO much, it’s been years and this idiotic picture has just engraved in my brain... anyway, MNEMOTECHNICS!

4. Read. Read things you don’t agree with. Read things you hate. Read everything that makes you feel something. Same way with movies, plays, music, etc. Consume as much culture as you can, surround yourself with it. Let your knowledge grow, your viewpoint change, allow yourself to be influenced by the world.

5. Use drugs wisely. And yes, caffeine, theine, nicotine and alcohol do count. They have a massive influence on your brain, please don’t let them destroy it. Be especially careful with cannabis, it lowers your IQ significantly, even used only a handful of times.

6. Acknowledge that you will lose motivation and know what to do about it. It’s perfectly normal! Please never beat yourself up for it, it will only make everything worse. It’s important that you find your own way to deal with it, but if you want to know mine: I just romanticize the hell out of everything. Learning is so much easier and more enjoyable when you do it on your own terms and do it with passion.

Working on a maths assignment an hour before the deadline, irritated you have to do so, trembling in fear that you won’t make it on time? terrible, horrendous, worst experience ever.

BUT

Sitting under a tree, birds singing in the background, while you’re doing mathematical equations, thus using a beautiful way of allowing yourself to explore the universe you’re so fascinated by? - marvelous, astonishing, groundbreaking.

Seriously, just love what you do. Love everything.

7. Learn what you WANT to learn about, not only what you have to. Look for the quirks.

Usually the reason why people hate a subject is that the only way they look at it is through the eyes of the education system. Come on, ancient history is boring? Sappho had a fake husband whose name was literally Dick Allcock from Men Island. Most schools teach to stay inside the box and consume only what is useful or necessary, stripping you off any passion. Screw them. Useless facts are amazing.

8. Sudoku and chess. They increase your IQ, improve memory, creativity, problem-solving, reading skills, concentration... even fuel dendrite growth! Great excercises for planning and foreseeing. Also, they’re kinda cool, 10/10.

9. A HEALTHY DIET, REPEAT IT AFTER ME.

10. Never be scared of making mistakes or sounding stupid. Ask for help. It’s crucial, especially when you’re learning a new language. You’ll never speak it if you’re scared of twisting pronunciation or making a grammatical error. Something done not perfectly is still so much better than not done at all.

bonus: Don’t trust Duolingo. I just had to say it.

That’s it, hope this helps! If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask.

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thecaffiend

3 years ago

Cities and Sketches on Instagram

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thecaffiend

5 years ago

The best advice really is to just write. Write badly - purple prose, stilted conversations, rambling descriptions. Don't delete it, pass go, take your $200, save all your garbage in a big folder. Look at how much you've made - it doesn't matter if it isn't perfect, isn't polished, it was practice. Every time you write you learn a little more, and find another piece of your voice.

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thecaffiend

5 years ago

So how do they make that?

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thecaffiend

1 year ago

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thecaffiend

2 years ago

I think about love sometimes. About how it’s taught and seen and felt.

I think about the ‘date nights’ and flowers and cards my parents spoke of and the rigid smiles when it went wrong. I think about the vacations and gifts and parties and how much they fought. Over the kind of flower. Over the venue. Over how hot the hotel was. Over how the party was stressful. It was hard for me to see how much they loved each other over their sighs and sharp words.

I was taught to love in grand gestures, but between each showing was a cutting bitterness that I was told was love. I watched the movies and my parents and tried to learn how to love my partner with disgust between my teeth fixed into a picture perfect smile.

We tried to love like our parents taught us and it almost broke us. Accusations hissed through clenched teeth and voices raised over clenched fists as we tried, tried so hard, to love like our parents taught us. Wilting flowers tossed in the compost and dinner dates spent in silence as we ignored each other over steak.

Love like that nearly broke us, and we had to pick up the cracked bits and figure out how to love like ourselves.

Now, I think of my partner, who was taught by his parents to kill what he did not like. I think of how he instead carefully uses a cup and paper to move a spider to a different area because he knows I love spiders, and he loves me more than he hates spiders.

I think of making homemade hot pockets for my partner, because he doesn’t like to eat in the lunch room at work and I want him to have something good he can eat by himself. He smiles so softly when he sees them cooling on the counter, and he knows I love him more than I hate to cook.

I think of him buying me radish seeds because he knows I like seeds more than flowers.

I think of me moving the wasps away from his workout area because I know they scare him.

When I think of love, I think of my partner tucking an extra twenty into my wallet when he thinks I’m not looking. I think of me mending his socks because both of us hate shopping and if I fix them, he won’t have to buy more.

We buy pizza on our anniversary if we remember it. We wait till after Valentines day to buy discount chocolate. We don’t hold hands in public, instead we bump shoulders when we pass each other in public. Brief and secret and ours.

We can’t love like our parents taught us, but I think… perhaps we love like ourselves, and that’s enough.

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thecaffiend

7 years ago

Honestly something that bothers me more than most things is having my compassion mistaken for naivety.

I know that another fish might eat this bullfrog right after I spend months rehabilitating it.

I know that turning a beetle back onto its legs won’t save it from falling over again when I walk away.

I know that there is no cosmic reward waiting for my soul based on how many worms I pick off a hot sidewalk to put into the mud, or how many times I’ve helped a a raccoon climb out of a too-deep trashcan.

I know things suffer, and things struggle, and things die uselessly all day long. I’m young and idealistic, but I’m not literally a child. I would never judge another person for walking by an injured bird, for ignoring a worm, or for not really caring about the fate of a frog in a pond full of, y’know, plenty of other frogs.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But I cannot cannot cannot look at something struggling and ignore it if I may have the power to help.

There is so much bad stuff in this world so far beyond my control, that I take comfort in the smallest, most thankless tasks. It’s a relief to say “I can help you in this moment,” even though they don’t understand.

I don’t need a devil’s advocate to tell me another fish probably ate that frog when I let it go, or that the raccoon probably ended up trapped in another dumpster the next night.

I know!!!! I know!!!!!!! But today I had the power to help! So I did! And it made me happy!

So just leave me alone alright thank u!!!!

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thecaffiend

5 years ago

What do the Gods care. They breathe aether not air. They drink ambrosia not water. Their blood is ichor and immortal whilst ours is rusting, slow rotting iron. But here’s what they do not want you to know. Without our prayers and tributes, their mighty Olympus turns into just another ruin. Their aether grows polluted with unrest and darkness. Their ambrosia bitters and their immortality begins to feel like a burden. Ask a God to name his weaknesses. If he is honest, he will tell you they wear mortal skin and go by names like yours.

Nikita Gill, Even The Gods Have Weaknesses