Heroic or Not

The “hero” of antiquity was evil on the inside but excellent on the outside. His evil was not “evil” to the ancients, but rather normal. Sin was acceptable, so long as the sinner was loyal to the tribe and nation.

As a Christian ideal, the HERO is excellent inside and out. He is morally superior, not just a better warrior.

The “villain” of antiquity is someone against the tribe and nation. Good and evil have nothing to do with it.

As a Christian concept, the VILLAIN personifies evil. Even if he is sympathetic, his agenda is unfriendly to the innocent, regardless of the tribes and nations.

The “antihero” is the hero of antiquity from the modern perspective. The very idea of an “antihero” is entirely Christian, even among those who are not Christian.

Samson was a hero of the Old Testament as an antihero since the New Testament. He was not a villain, though he committed murder out of anger or to pay a debt.

Jesus favors heroes and villains. He prefers antiheroes to those who do nothing. Be fired up for him or cold against him. If you are lukewarm, he shall spit you out of his mouth.

Imagined Value

Art is meaningful if it has something to say. It is assumed a political message is most important, but that is untrue. We are most effected by what makes us think about our own lives.

Grandiosity is not what you are about. The Big Picture is not your portrait. It is the common things that define you. The most important things in your life are the least important in the world.

You are lost in the crowd. Your friends and family are lost in the crowd. When the world needs slaves, you are enslaved. When the world is at war, you are its cannon-fodder.

The people in your life are special to you, not to the world. You are special to them, not to the world. STOP fretting the world!

I write books and illustrate the covers. The stories and pictures are always about the unimportance of people. It is usually in the context of heroes killing nameless baddies. It is often about antiheroes or villains committing the recreational murder of strangers.

The heroes and villains are the main characters. Unlike us, they are important. We are their easy victims. Losing ourselves in the crowd is our only way to survive them.

LOVE and FRIENDSHIP are what make YOUR life meaningful. They are the meaningful themes of art and fiction accordingly. None of the others matter without them. They distinguish pornography from romance, for example. They make violence heroic and death tragic. They can sublimate anger and hatred into morally satisfying drama.

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Goodness Personified

What is wrong with the world?

Poverty? Famine? War? Disease? Inequality? Racism? Sexism?

NO!

The results of the problem are not the problem.

Evil is in the heart. It is nowhere else. An evil thought is in the mind but only as a thought. The actual evil is within the person as the person.

The very idea of “social justice” is the notion that good and evil are external. They are thoughts affirmed by those who do the thinking for you.

Actual justice is entirely personal. It is indistinguishable from freedom except as a concept, which is neither, for concepts are thoughts. If our opinions decide good and evil then those in power decide what is good or evil because only their opinions matter.

How do you treat people when you have power over them? Do you brag about your power? Do you use it to control these people? Do you expect them to acknowledge that you have power over them?

Unlike you, the Holy Spirit does not have power. He is power, all of it. He is the Lord of Spirits because he is very thing that effects everything. He is also goodness itself.

It is assumed by this world of sin that evil is stronger than good. This is because the sinners rationalize their evil as goodness. They have a right to be thieves and murderers, for whatever reason.

The Holy Spirit is unreasonable. Your wages of sin are death whether you had a right to sin or not. You shall burn for your wickedness, because you are flammable for it. Blaming others shall not avail you, for the Lord of Spirits does not hear you. He does not see you. You are not even a “blip” on his “radar” for he is everything and you are nothing.

The Son of Man is your only hope. He is goodness as a man. He is the Holy Spirit as the one who sees and hears you. He is the Ancient of Days as your friend.

Heaven and Hell on Earth

A fear of nuclear weapons is sensible. They are the only technology in all of history that can destroy civilization. They can render humanity extinct. They are not why war is horrible, however. It was horrible when the weapons were sticks and stones.

Dozens killed in a war between villages of hundreds is just as bad as millions killed in a war between nations of tens of millions. Huts being burned to ash is as horrible as cities being bombed into rubble.

Wars are not worse than they have ever been. More people are killed and more things are destroyed, but proportionate to how many people and things there are.

You can argue statistics. You may say I am wrong because a greater percentage of this or that during then or now, blah, blah, blah. My claim is true regardless.

If your world is your village, is its destruction not the Apocalypse?

One man stabbed or shot does not feel less pain than many men stabbed or shot. His few loved ones are not less sad than the many loved ones of the many.

The Great Tribulation shall be the worse time ever. It shall end with a war worse than all others. Civilization shall be in ruins and humanity on the verge of extinction. What makes this moment hell on earth is not the death and destruction, though they shall be hellish.

GOODNESS is the peace beyond all understanding. It shall be taken from the earth. The god of this world cannot take over this world until goodness is taken out of the way. Wo unto you if you are still here when that happens.