Thread by @thetrollbar

So here we are at half time in our thread on Temptation, Sin, Addition, the Narrative, and the Intelligence Agencies.

/our guy/ has just turned traitor and just agreed to work for the Enemy. Beyond 'fraternising' and gotten positively contrary to nature

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1487310…

We now reach a stage called 'predisposition' (to Sin) -- prolepsis. This is an important term that comes to us from Stoicism as well, and we will need to spend some time here.

Prolepsis is all the TV you've watched and news articles you've read that predispose you to sin

Your mind is scarred-- you need brain bleach to remove all the stored up images, many of them of past sins of your own, but also of suggestion and temptation, all of which can come into play AT ANY MOMENT and torment you.

You now have become a bit like an animal -- you have an

INSTINCT for sin. You are your own worst enemy. Temptation and provocation aren't needed -- heel, like a good boy, say the devils. You're well trained in Sin.

I call this the 'occupation mentality' in the political sense -- the Right Wing has an INSTINCT for FAILURE.

The only way out now is lots of prayer and hard work. Laborare et Orare.

LOOSE THE DEFEAT MECHANISMS WITHIN, PLEASE

You *can* take up your mattress (your sins and the bodily results of them) and walk, you see.

You have Free Will still -- USE IT.

There are some insights here we need to pause over ... this 'prolepsis' thing.

iep.utm.edu/stoicmind/

Prolepsis is 'holistic analysis' -- cognitive bias. It means 'going with your gut' when your gut is SICK. Bad move.

If you had a firm GRASP on reality, you would not resort to instinct, so necessary to animals and children, and so harmful to MEN.

You would use Katalepsis...

Quoting the link

The idea of katalepsis as a firm grasp reappears in Zeno’s famous analogy of the fist. According to Cicero, Zeno compared the phantasia to an open hand, assent, to a closing hand, the katalepsis, to a closed fist, and knowledge to a closed fist grasped by

the other hand. Zeno’s analogy however may be a little misleading if the reader assumes there to be a temporal succession and a series of discreet processes. Other evidence indicates that this is not the point of the analogy.

Do read the rest of the passage at the link to understand that a GRASP of reality (and True Science - Episteme) is what you want. Not the hand 'open' to the Narrative, but closed around the hard, graspable truths of Nature. And held firm by the other hand of Science.

Rather than follow the Stoics more, I'm going to go with a Christian writer here -- in fact the beginning of the Gospel of St John, 1:5

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The word 'comprehended' there is, in Greek, related precisely to katalepsis, and means GRASP. The Apostles lived in the Hellenistic world and some wrote in Greek, so it shouldn't surprise us the COMMAND of language they possess.

Let's think about that -- Evil only has 'instinct' -- it has its own cognitive biases. It can only teach you to 'think' in an animal way.

But the Christian, the follower of Jesus, who will one day enjoy Free Speech (parrhesia) with God Face to Face, like Adam in the Garden...

... that man can GRASP the Truth, and hold on to it.

It is this step that raises us from Soul (Psyche) to Intellect (Logos, Nous). The Memory Circuit of Breathe or Spirit in our blood -- which we call Anamnesis -- can reach our Kardia, our Heart, which is where Nous is.

We come at last to the final stage of Temptation, in our discourse, is which is Passion.

The modern world pretends that Passion (great emotion) is something we should WANT. Well, the word itself it somewhat neutral -- it means being done to, rather than doing. Passive verb vs.

Active Verb. Often enough, it means having something BAD done to you, that HURTS, and causes you to SUFFER.

The Stoic (and Christian) ideal is A-Patheia (Apathy) -- and that means literally non-suffering [ through agency ] and Wise Assent using the Logical Faculty of your Mind

This is why you MUST reject the Delusions, the wandering and inconstant sinfulness of the Narrative, presented to you by the Enemy.

In the passionate state, the Will is 'forged in chains' -- like a living version of Marley's ghost.

So we must learn to 'Guard our Heart' (Mind, Intellect, Nous) -- to protect it, so we may have direct, Spiritual Knowledge (gnosis), rather than Science (episteme)

Science is part of the Logistic Faculty (of Brain). It's good for calculating things, and figuring out what the best course of action is -- GIVEN THAT YOU KNOW IN YOUR PURE HEART WHAT TO DO.

The issue with the Narrative is that the Logistics - I want my fucking country back!

The Logistics doesn't know what to do, without the Spiritual Knowledge of True Gnosis, which can be found only in the Spirit-led Heart.

So, Christian Men and Women, gird yourselves. Be ready to carry on the Battle of the Greater Jihad, which the Greeks call Askesis -- to run the good race, fight the good fight.

Because it is fought in the Temple of your Body, at the very gates of your heart.

And our Enemy...

... has a Narrative, against which you must be vigilant, and use the tools you have been given.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour

'Your' in Elizabethan English is y'all.

@threadreaderapp unroll