Fairy Tales
I commend to you a consideration of fairy tale and myth as bringers of truth, in an article by Kris Yee in the Imaginative Conservative, here. An excerpt:
In his essay “On Fairy-Stories,” J.R.R Tolkien defends a certain type of escape, posing the reader with the question: “Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.”
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In Tolkien’s view, the modern man is indeed trapped in a prison, surrounded by that which is insignificant and transient. He desires to escape because he desires more reality—a desire that is both natural and healthy. It is not delusion but realism that causes him to run.
Mr. Yee goes on to a summary of Plato’s thought by which one is to understand that real and physical things, mundane or no, are things “becoming” rather than “being.” They are all instances of an ideal beyond themselves. It is the idea to which we are oriented, more so than the “real” physical things around us.
I thought it was impactful, rendering this idea through Tolkien. Tolkien gives us stories of fantasy that are deeply compelling. The Lord of the Rings, for example, is escapist fantasy, but it’s not only that. It’s compelling because it reaches back to the deepest atavistic myths of mankind, telling us something about a reality beyond the mundane. In fact, it seems that fantasies like Tolkiens’ – even such poor imitations as Game of Thrones – show us there’s something more to us than an inevitable unfolding of of matter, and of motion, and of electrical impulse begetting electrical impulse in the brain. We’re losing the ability to recognize this unseen reality. The elves are leaving Middle-Earth.
Radical Loneliness
One consequence relates to human governance in this age of naturalism hiding within secularism: the rise of totalitarianism. In Hound of Heaven I quoted Hannah Arendt:
A precursor for totalitarianism is radical loneliness, atomization, and loss of traditional groups and ways of understanding one’s place in society.
I think this is a critical insight. We are becoming more atomized and lonely, in large part because there is an orthodoxy being imposed on us that we can’t subscribe to, if we have some inkling of a greater reality beyond that which is physical. And even for the woke who are all-in, there is a leaching away of connection with actual human beings, such that our only remaining solidarity is with society-at-large or society-as-concept, instead.
Woke Orthodoxy
The top pro rugby player in Australia is named Israel Faolo. He was sacked because he posted online:
“WARNING: Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters HELL AWAITS YOU Repent! Only Jesus Saves.”
This is a reasonable restatement of portions of Romans 1:25, 27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Timothy 1:9-11.
Now this kind of marginalizing of Christian believers happens all the time, these days, but I cite the Faolo example because his thoughtcrime is so clearly orthodox Christianity and nothing else. He had the temerity to quote from Bible verses on social media, and it outraged Molech (if you don’t remember Molech, see Leviticus 18). Molech today finds his expression in the mob.
The spirit of the age approves of Christianity only if it is sufficiently watered down as to be unrecognizable as a truth claim about the scope of reality. “Christianity,” to be accepted, can only mean humanism, and humanism expressed in collective form. The historicity and supernatural elements of the Christian story most be exorcised, along with any moral teachings at odds with collectivist orthodoxy invented the day before yesterday. Dissension results in excommunication.
I mention this to remind you that if you are a follower of Christ, it’s your job to be a bastard of this world. Remember how quickly we, the mob, turned on Jesus. Just because the current persecution is only inch-deep on these shores, so far, doesn’t mean it won’t advance in a tsunami to take you out suddenly. First your livelihood, I expect, as with Faolo. Then with violence, singly and then in groups; even widespread genocide, as we have seen for example in Turkey and Syria and Russia and other places.
Update as of June 24, 2019 on the Faolo situation. There was a GoFundMe campaign to pay for his legal expenses, and guess what? GoFundMe dropped it because of its commitment to “fostering an environment of inclusivity.” Yes, inclusivity means exclusion. You might well wonder how GoFundMe can refuse service if the Christian cake-baker can’t. Now even Faolo’s wife is under attack. The wokesters who say they’re all in for inclusivity and tolerance neither include nor tolerate those unwilling to renounce basic Christian (and Jewish and Muslim and many other) beliefs concerning sex and gender.