TT #9 - HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEN

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my THursday THirteen #9. I’m still thouroughly enjoying my participation in this meme. It’s good fun. And I’d also like to thank THursday THirteen for featuring me last week as a newbie. It was much appreciated.
Over the last few weeks I’ve dealt with some weighty issues, so this week I decided on an occasional foray into the lighter post. I hope this one gives you a laugh or two. If not, it wasn’t my fault. Someone made me do it

COUNTDOWN

13. Men are not from Mars. They’re from their mothers. So whatever the opposite sex think of them, it’s their fault!

12. Men are far superior to women. This is an undeniable fact, proved by their physical make-up. Men, you see, can aim.

11. All men are super-heroes. This is defined by culture. After all, most fictional super-heroes are men. I guess women look sillier with their knickers on the outside.

10. For balance, a man should always retain an inner child. This makes us fun, and is what women like. I know women complain about this sometimes, but you can’t have it both ways.

9. Men are great lovers. This is patently obvious to any man who looks in the mirror. Maybe that’s why we take care of it ourselves so often.

8. Men do not have a feminine side. The New Man is a myth. It is a fad that could so easily change when women get bored enough.

7. A man is always right. Women will no doubt disagree. You do? As I said, a man is always right.

6. Men are said to start all wars. This is blatantly wrong, as proved by history. Wars are always started by politicians.

5. A man is a perfect handyman. He can fix anything. He proves this by fixing it over and over again.

4. Men are often said to be lazy. This is blatantly unfair. We simply have to rest our brain more often through over-use.

3. Men are immediate experts in whatever they do. This is drummed into children by women through statements such as ‘wait ‘til your father gets home’, and ‘ask your dad.’

2. All men require mothering. All women realize this. That’s why you all had Teddy Bears as children. To practice.

1. Women often dislike their mothers-in-law. Bearing in mind the point above, it is a fact that men seek out characteristics of their mother in choosing a partner. Oh dear!

© Anthony North, April 2008

BAR AT THE END OF THE ROAD

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BAR AT THE END OF THE ROAD

I found the bar at the end of the highway. It wasn’t that I was looking for it. I wasn’t really looking for anything. I just felt so empty, so totally drained.
I got out the car and went in – ordered a drink – drank it down – ordered another. Thought about how easily I could hit oblivion.
The bar was almost empty, too. It reflected back my life, a life ignored, a life abused, a life of boredom …

It had promised so much, had marriage.

She had been wonderful, and we were so perfectly attuned, perfectly as one, and I was so perfectly …
What? Deluded? Not seeing reality for what it was? Not registering the crap that would soon begin to fly?
It had been one hell of an argument …
The third drink went down the same way as the others. Oblivion was coming closer – and I ordered another.
‘And I’ll have one, too.’
I turned round; wondered where SHE’D come from. Unable to believe I’d missed her as I entered.
I bought her a drink. And it was inevitable we would talk – about my problems, about her life, about the meaning of everything. Until, several drinks later, she advised she had a room upstairs …
It was a heady mixture of booze and expectation as I entered her room. Hormones pumped through my body and I was ready as I took her in my arms.
Maybe it was the shock of what I was about to do, but it was then that I burst into tears – torrents of tears, pouring down my face, washing away the stresses and strains of so long, cascading away to …
To what?
To another girl’s arms, at the end of another highway? And as we both said sorry, we cried together, and kissed.

© Anthony North, April 2008

HAUNTED HOUSE

The house is empty, solitary, creepy,
to enter can affect you deeply;
As cobwebs brush your face and hair,
you’ll quickly learn to be aware;
If you had driven down the highway outside,
and through the corner of your eye you spied,
you should have ignored it, or at least have tried

But in you come, you don’t believe in ghosts,
at least that’s what you always boast;
Yet my creepy finger rubs down your spine,
as with your mind my presence will entwine;
Until you’re as timid as a mouse,
no longer denying ghosts you espouse,
especially as this is YOUR house

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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TO BE IGNORED

To be ignored is a terri …. (cough) … Err! Excuse me! Pay attention.
That’s better. To be ignored is a terrible thing. There’s nothing worse than speaking and no one is listening to you. And it isn’t long before you’re seething.
Of course, it could be that you are totally boring; or maybe the person has no interest in the subject at hand. Or worse of all, you are one of those people who appear to be a non-entity.
If you are, you’ve got problems. Your existence can be totally empty, and you negotiate the highway of life alone. In one sense, there’s nothing you can do about it. It is your personality. You are made like that. But it could be that you simply need to raise your confidence – be more assertive, take risks.

I used to feel like that about my writing.

For years I’d bashed away on the typewriter, totally ignored by publishers. I’d play with my style, trying to please them, but to no avail.
Eventually, of course, I’d had enough. Ignored too long, I decided to go on-line. And soon after that, I started this blog. For several months I hardly did anything with it. Then, about March last year, I discovered something.
People were beginning to comment, and I was no longer ignored. And now, just over a year later, I’ve just passed a quarter million hits.
What does this tell me – and you – about being ignored? Simple. Ignore THEM and do what YOU want to do. And pretty soon you find you’re not ignored at all.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

© Anthony North, April 2008

HOW TO BE PSYCHIC

I’ve studied the history and practice of psychical phenomena for some 25 years now, and in that time, certain patterns of behaviour have presented themselves that suggest a typical path to becoming a psychic.
Theories on what ‘psychic’ is vary. Some say it is a power that is being lost, whilst others that it is growing. Some say it is of a supernatural nature, whilst others say it is in the mind.

Such ideas often obscure psychics themselves.

What I’ll try to do here is bring the psychic into the overall idea of what is, and what is not, paranormal, and how it works, or doesn’t.
To me, the paranormal is neither being lost nor growing in power. This is too neat a classification. The more I look into the subject, the more it becomes clear it is dependent upon our, and our culture’s, mind-state at a particular time.

It is all to do with outside information.

If that information is overwhelming, as it is in today’s world of information technology, then we are attuned to concentrate on it more and more, the physical world becoming predominant.
This is why, as technology advanced through history, we became more individualistic, atheist and materialist - which does, of course, suggest that the prevalence of the paranormal goes in line with this technological world. Hence, we are only perceived as being less psychic today because of mass information.

What happens when outside information is less?

History shows that as a culture, we become more religionist, superstitious and open to paranormal influences. Further, in cultures remote from mass information, this situation still exists today.
What is going on here? The answer seems to be that with less information in the outside world, the person becomes more introspective, spending time within their own minds. And it seems to be here that a channel opens to the psychical.

This can occur in the modern world, too.

Alongside our race towards materialism has come a new form of spirituality, best expressed in New Age. It teaches people to find themselves, and helps them into a world of trance.
Doing so cuts off the information in the outside world. And in being cut off, they are more attuned with their inner mind. And whether the paranormal is supernatural or more mind based, it is becoming clear that it is entered best through the deep mind.

This helps us in knowing how to be psychic.

Despite the information around us, the best psychics seem to be those who can withdraw from it and enter their own mind instead. This has been the case from the tribal shaman, to the Spiritualist medium, all of whom rely on trance.
Hence, the best way to be psychic is to have a natural ability to descend into your own mind, or train yourself to do so. For in cutting off outside information, you tune in to information and talents on a more ethereal level.
Over the years, I’ve noticed two particular types who do this best. First, those who are fantasy-prone. And second, those who have had extreme adversity in their lives. In both instances, such people seem to birth a natural ability to withdraw from the world.
And I suspect that, in doing so, they actually enter a world that is more pure and real than we think.

© Anthony North, April 2008

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MM - HOW TO LET RIP

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LET RIP

To let rip is certainly an enthusiasm,
from hobby, to work, to orgasm;
We can take it too far as we dart,
and we end up ripped apart;
Sometimes it can fill us with wrath,
especially when ripped off;
it can often mean fantasy we sprinkle,
on our lives, like Rip Van Winkle;
Go too far and danger becomes rife,
threatening to take our life;
And then it all will cease,
as we lie below the sign:
R.est I.n P.eace

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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COMPLETELY RIPPED

To be ripped away is to be separated from something, or someone. In this sense, it can be sorrowful. To be ripped from a loved one can bring desolation. To be ripped from friends can bring isolation.
The threat of being ripped can have an important effect on our behaviour. Often, it is fear of sorrow and isolation that moderates what we do. In this sense, fear of being ripped away can be an important social mechanism.

This said, the modern world holds problems. It often rips us from what we should be as people. Consider the onward march of globalization, destroying local cultures and offering ‘sameness’. This rips us from our local societies, and we no longer find meaning and direction, sating this loss with placing meaning in consumer choice.

The modern world is also brimming with information.

It guarantees our attention upon the world. Yet, so often the true ‘self’ is found, not in the physical world, but the inner mind. But this is increasingly more difficult to find, ripping us from our ‘self’, unable to complete who we really are.
Being ripped from something denies us ‘completion’. This leaves us forever the wanderer, not knowing who we are, what we want to achieve. Yet in one way, this isn’t too bad.
If we ever get completion, what then? Isn’t this the end of a process? In effect, we are ripped from our reason for doing things. This is an important point. It tells us that, often, it is the journey we are on that is fulfilling, and not the eventual outcome.

© Anthony North, April 2008

TECHNO-ANIMISM

Few of us have not heard of, or seen, The Matrix. A film that mixes the ultimate ideals of cyberspace with religious and mythological imagery, it is seen as pure fiction. But fiction has a habit of coming true.
Many would scoff at such an idea. Religious hog-wash has no place in the modern technical world. But I would argue our innate spirituality will recur in every society and culture – even the most atheist, materialist and technological.

The first religion was arguably the animist.

Seen in ancient tribal societies throughout the world, everything had a spiritual reflection. This included animals, rivers, mountains, and even the weather.
This was so because the physical world had a spirit world running parallel to it. This world was accessed through the hysterical rituals of the shaman, who would enter, and commune, with the spirits in trance.

This is why most ancient gods were animals.

Eventually, however, the chimera appeared – a god that was half animal, half man. This indicates that spirituality had shifted position.
Whereas the first religions were very much nature based, as man’s society advanced, religion passed through to society, with men coming to be seen as divine, first as animalistic themselves, and eventually fully man-gods.

A parallel spirituality was still evident.

But now the man-gods who populated the parallel spiritual world were symbolized in mythology, represented agriculture, and had their homes in the stars.
With the birth of Christianity, this was to change. The physical and spiritual worlds were always interactive. But in Christ, this interactiveness was denied, until death. The Christian had to be very much in the real world, his place in the spiritual afterlife decided upon by his deeds in this world.

Paganism, however, continued the interactiveness.

This developed into the western occult tradition, where the witch and adept continued to access the parallel world. And it was to have mass popular expression once more with the arrival of Spiritualism.
Eventually, intellectuals began to look at the parallel spiritual world. Most famous among them was Carl Jung, who devised the ‘collective unconscious’, populated by ‘archetypes’ previously seen in mythology.

The new expression saw the parallel world in terms of our inner psychology.

It was our mind that was parallel to the physical. And if so, then all peoples of all times share a kind of universal psychology that will always express itself.
Thus we come to today. And as the internet gains ground, and ideas of cyberspace arise, can we see the collective unconscious reasserting itself with a technological parallel world alongside the physical?
We are already beginning to see cyberspace as a fantasy-laden realm separate to the physical, and we are filling it with all the symbolism that traces itself throughout our spiritual history. The parallel world of our ancestors will, it seems, be reborn wherever we have the imagination to conceive it.

© Anthony North, April 2008

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HOW TO THINK GREEN

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HOW TO THINK GREEN

We are increasingly thinking green. We recycle. We do what we can for the environment – to protect the future of the planet. But is this really ‘thinking’ green, or does this require something more substantial?
What we are actually doing is ‘acting’ green – taking specific actions based on what society increasingly expects of us. To ‘think’ green is, however, something much deeper, and it requires us to realize that we are not attuned to think green at all.

Two primary ideals in western society stop us doing so.

The first is the ascendancy of Big Biz – huge multi-national corporations which are, in effect, the main polluters of the planet. Big Biz works on a simple philosophy. This is that to continue to hold their power, ‘systems’ must be so big that only they can afford to run them.
A fossil fuel based economy is one such system. And in maintaining it, Big Biz guarantees that no other businesses – using, cleaner, more easily managed tech – can ever challenge them. Hence, their very existence demands that they cannot be eco-friendly. To be so would destroy them.

The second ideal is religious based.

Throughout the world we know of prehistoric tribes centred on animism – the idea that there is a spirit world running parallel to the physical. This based religion in nature. However, artifacts show a progression from here through the chimera – half animal, half man – to the man-god.
This shows the progression of religion changing from nature-based to society-based, as societies became more complicated, its final expression being monotheism. Hence, for the last 2000 years at least, our entire thought processes have been societal, ignoring the importance of nature, which was fundamental to the first religions.
To think green is, therefore, alien to both our present economic systems, and our very processes of thought. Maybe be need to redress this non-eco mentality before we can truly say we are ‘green’, with the future of the planet uppermost in our minds.

© Anthony North, April 2008

REPORT OF THE INTERGALACTIC COMMITTEE MEETING ON EARTHLY VIRUSES

The delegates chose on imminent actions,
for them there would be no distractions;
as one voice they were all foresworn,
no splinter would there, here, be born;
The ecology of Earth they knew could molder,
unless the decisions made were bolder;
The future for them, it was votive,
determined to wipe out that Earth-bound motive;
Throughout it’s life, a nature hate,
did arise to punctuate,
the beautiful nature of Earth’s plan;
With their desires, they sealed their fate,
for the total
unconditional
eradication
of man

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

OUTRAGEOUS

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OUTRAGEOUS

When I think back to how it was, I can’t believe it happened to me. There I was, a nobody, living a typical life of a teenager. Eighteen years old, a girlfriend, a job – of sorts – but mainly boredom. And then I auditioned for the TV talent show.
I knew I had a good voice. I’d even been told I had ‘presence’. And well, we know how it went from there.
I won! Millions voted for me, and suddenly I was the star.
Oh man, how life changed. It was incredible. The girls, the adulation, the crowds screaming like that!
It’s hard to explain how it is to BE somebody, to have people know your name, to have people aspire to be like you.

The money poured in, of course.

It was hard work, but I deserved that money. And okay, some people think I became rather outrageous, and I suppose I did – a larger than life character, bedding all those girls, the booze, the drugs, the statements on life, the universe and everything …
Oh, what the hell – I enjoyed it! It was great! I was the luckiest man on Earth!
Yeah, right!
Well, mom, if only I’d been allowed to live as me, rather than that soulless image that was created for me, I wouldn’t be writing this suicide note ….

© Anthony North, April 2008

MONSTROUS

Every time I see him, my heart begins to sink,
he pushes me always, right to the brink;
He’s uglier than a troll, that’s very clear,
a monster through and through, that we all should fear;
It isn’t just the surface that turns people away,
he loves to find the vulnerable, on which to prey;
A bully, a villain, a cad, upon anyone he does deprave,
so now it’s time to act, against this nave;
Enough of this vile person, I feel only dismay,
action must be taken, to win the day;
So that’s why I’ve decided,
to throw the mirror away

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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OUTRAGEOUSLY SPEAKING

I often hear people say they are quite ‘normal’. And when I do so I think: what an outrageous statement to make. After all, what is normal? Are YOU normal? If you decide yes, what do you base that ‘normality’ on?
When you walk down the street does everyone behave the same as you? When you watch television, do all the people seem to be like you? I doubt it. You see, ‘normal’ is a ridiculous word.
In a way, it is demeaning. It suggests that ‘normality’ is something to be proud of, whereas it is really an attempt to control you – to make you conform, to make you be part of the ‘machine’ of modern life.

In this respect, many people are beginning to BE ‘normal’.

They are giving in to the stereotype. Becoming nothing but cogs in the machine. This is particularly so in my native Britain, a country that used to be proud of its eccentrics.
No more. This false image of normality is taking over, with everyone becoming increasingly grey. Except, of course, for some. Some people, you see, are ridiculously outrageous. But I don’t think this has anything to do with eccentricity.

Rather, to be outrageous today is to grab the media limelight.

It is not an inborn eccentricity, but a PR lifestyle to become an icon. And guess what, if you make it, realize the fame, then you get everyone copying you.
You know what that means, don’t you? Even in being outrageous in the modern world, you create a ‘type’ that becomes ‘normal’ in itself. After all, if a number of people display identical outrageous behaviour, then they end up fairly routine.

© Anthony North, April 2008

TT #8 - HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE PAST

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INTRODUCTION

Time for THursday THirteen #8, and I’m still having fun. Further, I’d like to thank everyone who’s posted comments over the weeks. Your input is always appreciated, whether with good comments or bad.
This week I’d like to take my somewhat off-beat mind on a journey through history. Like most things, I’ve got my ideas on it. Indeed, I’ve a few opinions on why history happens like it does. Let’s see if you agree.

COUNTDOWN

13. They say you have to know what happened in the past so as not to repeat the same mistakes again. This is quite true, but it leaves out something important. Namely, why things happen. This requires more than history. It requires us to look at the processses behind it.

12. The first thing to understand about history is that it is a terrible guide to what happened in the past. The first reason for this is that ‘history’ is old contemporary events, initially left as a record by those people who had the most power to have their ‘version’ stand the test of time. Hence, history is mainly the version of the victor.

11. The second important point about history is that it tells us more about the present than the past. By this I mean history is constantly re-written by modern historians who place today’s values on the past. Hence, history becomes a continually changing process, forever reinventing the past.

10. So, the first processes we have to understand about history is the process by which history is recorded and analysed. It is, basically, lies. Hence, to understand history, you have to read deeper than what the historian tells you.

9. In order to feel important, the historian delves deeper and deeper into specific events of history, so that we know everything about the characters involved (points 12 and 11 excepted), including the colour of their toothbrush. In many respects, this is pointless. First, their voluminous tomes put people off history. And second, it does not allow the overall patterns of history to become evident.

8. True historical analysis should be about such patterns - processes in history that seem to repeat. Now, this can be a dangerous affair. People like Marx identified such patterns, and it led to communism, totalitarianism, death. So, in searching for patterns, we must realise that it is only a theory, not a reality, and in all things, knowledge should be moderate.

7. One thing to understand about the past is that, contrary to what we think about our advancement, nothing changes except culture. Below culture, we’re all exactly the same. Now, you may say this isn’t true. For instance, we no longer believe in an ethereal, non-existant higher entity like God. No? Okay, what would happen if everybody had to pay off their debts? The world would go bust, ‘cos the money isn’t actually there. Rather we’re ruled by an ethereal, non-existant higher entity called Credit.

6. The con that we think different comes from the science revolution, beginning some 400 years ago - which is, itself, interesting. Prior to this, most of history was worked around the idea of the supernatural, i.e. religion. Science banished religion, but rather than being ‘rational’ today, we’ve simply see-sawed from one extreme to another. To realise this would be a marvellous understanding of the processes of history. It would tell us that we could now have the knowledge to find a true balance betwen these two mentalities.

5. The ‘culture’ of the past has often changed, and when it does, it is usually down to a book - think Bible, Newtons’s Principia, Marx’s Das Kapital. This book will echo the frustrations of the time, and a person, or a movement, will come along and change the way we view things. This is the moment the paradigm changes, and a new ‘culture’ of history will inevitably rise.

4. This new idea will fuel certain personalities, who will become fanatical about the new idea. By force, or theory, they will impose the idea on the people, but by the very nature of their psychology, the idea will be tinged with their own brand of fanaticism. Hence, at every turn of history, the new idea is radical, and as such, it will begin to build up frustrations in the populace - which is, of course, the process through which the new idea eventually rises, as shown above.

3. Does this out a general theory of advancement? I think it does. It tells us that historical change has frustrations built into the system, guaranteeing that every phase of history will end in revolution. Frustration seems to be the driving force of social and cultural evolution.

2. Frustrations begin to be noted by people at a specific point in the process. A new idea can lead to a new empire or philosophy. This gives people meaning and direction. As long as an impulse to further the idea is abroad, the people go along with it. But eventually the momentum ceases. Decisions become based on pragmatism, and mere problem-solving the only ideal. Basically, this period comes at the end of the system. Oh dear. Rather pragmatic nowadays, aren’t we?

1. Am I as bad as the historian, imposing my views on history like this? Yes! But does it make sense?

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

WINDOW ON DEATH

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WINDOW ON DEATH

He was walking, slowly, the weight of the world upon him. It was night, and the dark shrouded him like a veil of death.
He had to stop by the shop window. His legs could have carried him no further. He looked at the window, but not through. What was in there had no interest for him. Only what was happening in his mind. This was of another order. Stark. Vivid. Yet, at the same time surreal.
A picture formed in the window, and reflected back to him.

And a tear formed.

The door opened and she came out. She seemed so full of life, and so beautiful, her long blonde hair, her shapely figure, her sheer elegance, tinged with that mystical sexuality.
The tear ran down his cheek. She had been unfaithful, and always there was eventually a price. But …
He saw it as if a shadow floated and stood close to her. Momentarily, she looked in that direction, but as the gun materialized from the shadow, the shock hit home.
And seconds later, she lay dead, a pool of blood around her.
The image disappeared from the window, but the tears continued to flow.
How long he waited before he heard the door open, he didn’t know, but she seemed so full of life, and so beautiful …
He turned as he raised the gun …

© Anthony North, April 2008

SNAP IT

We do so love our cameras,
snapping that picture true,
wherever we are, it’s taken,
no matter what we do;
They decorate our albums,
our lives laid out thus,
everything about it,
reflected back at us;
But sometimes I wonder what madness,
as we stop and take,
‘cos while we’re playing photographer,
in the event,
we don’t partake

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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THE POWER OF CELEBRITY

I’m often scornful of celebrities. We seem to be infatuated by them, and the more our infatuation rises, the more extreme and bizarre their behaviour seems to become. It makes some people wonder if it will ever stop.
Of course, it all seems so pointless. But could it be that celebrities play a vital role in modern culture? I think they do – and it isn’t an enhancing role. Rather, it helps to tie us up in chains of consumerism.
On one level, celebrities are more ‘perfect’ than the average person. Of course, this isn’t true, but their beauty, etc, makes it appear so. And the upshot is, we spend, spend, spend to emulate them, not realizing that perfection is an unreachable goal.

But they also work on a psychological level.

They are open with their problems, the abuses they’ve suffered, and in this they appear to be repositories for our angst. Like cultural psychotherapists, our own problems are reflected back to us.
This power over the wallet and psyche fulfils another vital function of super capitalism. Whenever they do something you can guarantee the picture is all over the media. Indeed, there has been an explosion in media alongside the celebrity’s rise.
Big Biz likes this. For the bigger the media gets, the more ads Big Biz places. This is, infact, a control mechanism. For if Big Biz withdrew ads from any one media source, that source would be struggling to survive. Hence, the media doesn’t risk it, and only reports on news friendly to our consumer culture.
We seem to be informed a lot about celebrity, but not much else. This is why.

© Anthony North, April, 2008

DOES THE DEVIL HAVE A HALO?

The history of the paranormal has been plagued with the Devil and his cohorts of Demons. Offering a direct link between phenomena and culture, perhaps we need to understand just what the Devil is.
In one sense, he is the fallen angel, forever causing trouble, and in another he is a Jungian ‘archetype’ – the trickster, forever to be found in various cultural clothes throughout world mythology.

He is also the guy with whom we have a pact.

Sell your soul to the Devil and you get rewards – but don’t worry, it will come at a price, eventually. And in this sense, he is part of our psychology. Our urge to do wrong, knowing it is – well – wrong.
In a variation on the theme, the pact can lead to possession, where the Devil or one of his friends takes you over, and you are either influenced to do bad by this supernatural entity, or blatantly possessed, complete with red eyes and green vomit.

And here, too, we can attach a non-supernatural tag.

We can argue, rather than supernatural possession, the person is taken over by split-off elements of his own mind. But this continual fascination with such demonic influences is rarely discussed.
This is a problem with paranormal research. Researchers and enthusiasts often chastise the scientific community for their intransigence – they’re only interested in ‘how’, not ‘why’ – but this mentality exists in this community as well.

The Devil won’t go away.

And for a supposed supernatural ‘force’ to be continually experienced in the paranormal, it must have a reason for its existence. We can, of course, blame culture for this. After all, it is culture that maintains stories of the Devil. But we can go deeper still.
A peculiarity of our existence is the fact that we advance. This is the process of history itself, forever changing the focus of culture and society. If we didn’t do so, we would not have evolved our society in the way we have.

Why does social evolution occur?

I think the central element of change is that we are never happy with what we’ve got. Rather, any social system has in-built frustrations that give us an urge to change what we’ve got.
The things that make us frustrated are the things we label ‘bad’, or even ‘evil’. They represent existence at its worse. And in seeing such bad things around us, we can learn to act in the opposite, thus being good.

In this sense, we need to see bad around us in order to BE good.

Without this influence, there would be nothing but amorality. And in aiming to be good, we see the light that becomes the advancement of our humanity, our society, and ourselves.
In this sense, we require temptation and adversity. It is, in essence, the ‘fuel’ of our social change and advancement, working on both the individual person and society as a whole.
Thus, the Devil is outed for what he really is. He is the engine of change – an essential element of ourselves. And in this sense, he is also an influence above us – not of the supernatural, but of evolution itself.

© Anthony North, April 2008

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