Open Letter to Woke Students

[Immanuel Can]

They started much earlier, of course. You could rightly go back beyond the Frankfurt School, even, to Marx, and beyond him, to Hegel, then beyond him, to the Gnostics.

I am aware that Lindsay delves into Gnosticism as a means to arrive at what is underhanded and subversive in Critical Theory, but it has seemed to me (in this) to be somewhat of a leap.

It's not, really. Hegel was a Hermeticist. His ideas were incubated in Gnosticism. But Lindsay has a podcast on that, too. Here's one of his articles: https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/calam ... nosticism/

However, I would agree that generally Critical Theory involves a very cynical and ultra-pessimistic lens through which life and the world are perceived, and it is true that the Gnostics shared that core cynicism and pessimism, so in that sense he could be onto something.

That's one of the features he identifies, so you agree about that. But it's a more substantial harmonizing than just that.

Critical Theories do involve assigning a demonological status to those who oppose it, and on that note one can very easily locate the same accusations used by many of the (seemingly) rabid Lefties who bark and snarl here.

You can only use "demonize" there in the limited, metaphorical sense. What they do is hate, slander and envy anybody who seems to be ahead of them, accusing them of collusion with the existing powers that they deem oppressive -- a thing we metaphorically refer to as "demonizing," but has nothing to do with actual belief in "demons".

We're post-Marx, now, so demonology is out. He was too much a Materialist for that. Marx rejected the metaphysics of Hegel, but basically converted all the same ideas into Materialst form.

[Gary Childress]

The "contemptuous" war romanticist who despises "faggotry" and Jesus's apostle of the 3rd millenium seem to have found a 'connection' for a lovely chat around the coffee table. Maybe there's yet salvation for the Catholics. Certainly, godless socialist pacifists will be damned...the true colors of "Christianity"?

[Alexis Jacobi]

I was lodging a valid complaint.

Nah. To have a valid complaint requires a fair level of background to the issue. It is my opinion that you lack that background. So in my *colorful lingo* you were "talking sideways out of your asshole".

That is a feat, I admit, but still . . .

[Alexis Jacobi]

The "contemptuous" war romanticist who despises "faggotry" ....

I do tend to use colorful terms, don't I?

[Alexis Jacobi]

You can only use "demonize" there in the limited, metaphorical sense. What they do is hate, slander and envy anybody who seems to be ahead of them, accusing them of collusion with the existing powers that they deem oppressive -- a thing we metaphorically refer to as "demonizing," but has nothing to do with actual belief in "demons".

If you keep up with contemporary themes, and I try to by reading and watching what people are thinking and saying about the *world* today, locating and exposing *demons* is not a metaphorical activity. One must *explain* what is going on and to do so one requires a metaphysics. This locating and exposing of demons and the demonic derives from a strict Christian view. You surely can admit that, right? And should you not be able to say what you own view on that topic are?

My view, and it is shared by many, is that religious fervor among the atheist class and the Woke class (though these are not meant to be necessarily the same) is in a sense intensified when the fervor goes underground as it were. The religious fervor seems to remain, perhaps even intensify, even when the structure of view has shifted. Thus the common emblem for Satan is no longer Satan and his minions but Adolf Hitler and the ubiquitous Nazi whose machinations are everywhere.

[Immanuel Can]

...locating and exposing *demons* is not a metaphorical activity...

It's not my hobby. I have no opinion to offer, and it's not relevant to topic, so far as I can tell.

[Alexis Jacobi]

Hegel was a Hermeticist. His ideas were incubated in Gnosticism. But Lindsay has a podcast on that, too. Here's one of his articles: https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/calam ... nosticism/

I am not completely sure if Hermeticism is directly comparable to Gnosticism. But I am sure that different traditions, and different metaphysical concepts, have surely operated in European thought. And as you know I am aware that Hermetic ideas are expressed in Christian concepts and certainly in the Gospel and Epistles of John.

But the thing is I do not feel I can rely on you to sort these things out fairly. Though you can be relied in some areas you have to be supervised in others. All Hermeticism, and any Pagan thought, and any ideas about the world that are not in strict conformity with a Biblical position and interpretation, must according to you necessarily be wrong. But not only wrong, bad. And not only bad but (ultimately) evil.

However I did find this.

Glenn Alexander Magee's pathbreaking book argues that Hegel was decisively influenced by the Hermetic tradition, a body of thought with roots in Greco-Roman Egypt. Magee traces the influence on Hegel of such Hermetic thinkers as Baader, Böhme, Bruno, and Paracelsus, and fascination with occult and paranormal phenomena.

Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition covers Hegel's philosophical corpus and shows that his engagement with Hermeticism lasted throughout his career and intensified during his final years in Berlin. Viewing Hegel as a Hermetic thinker has implications for a more complete understanding of the modern philosophical tradition, and German idealism in particular.

[Alexis Jacobi]

...locating and exposing *demons* is not a metaphorical activity...

It's not my hobby. I have no opinion to offer, and it's not relevant to topic, so far as I can tell.

Hobby? Hold on. What and who does Jesus Christ essentially oppose in this world?

[Immanuel Can]

Hegel was a Hermeticist. His ideas were incubated in Gnosticism. But Lindsay has a podcast on that, too. Here's one of his articles: https://newdiscourses.com/2021/08/calam ... nosticism/

I am not completely sure if Hermeticism is directly comparable to Gnosticism.

Yeah, it is.

Gnosticism's a hydra...it has many heads, but a common body of beliefs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gnostic_sects

[Immanuel Can]

...locating and exposing *demons* is not a metaphorical activity...

It's not my hobby. I have no opinion to offer, and it's not relevant to topic, so far as I can tell.

Hobby? Hold on. What and who does Jesus Christ essentially oppose in this world?

I'm missing your point: what does this have to do with Lindsay's letterr to Woke students?

If you want to go demon-hunting, make yourself a new thread. This one's for Lindsay's letter.

[Gary Childress]

The "contemptuous" war romanticist who despises "faggotry" ....

I do tend to use colorful terms, don't I?

You heartily laugh at your belicosity and biggotry and have contempt for those guilty of posessing "weakness" or "illness". The "Christian" and the "Catholic", saved by their "devotion" to Christ, unlike the wretched and sick who have lost all reason to to believe in their "God". We'll go to hell. (Perhaps we already have, if helplessly listening to the two of you is our fate. )

[Alexis Jacobi]

It's not my hobby. I have no opinion to offer, and it's not relevant to topic, so far as I can tell.

Hobby? Hold on. What and who does Jesus Christ essentially oppose in this world?

I'm missing your point: what does this have to do with Lindsay's letterr to Woke students?

If you want to go demon-hunting, make yourself a new thread. This one's for Lindsay's letter.

No sir, I talk about what I want to talk about and when I want to talk about it. You do not, and you cannot, control the parameters of conversation.

Do you note this odd control-tendency? What I say to you -- to Mr Immanuel -- is that just as you examine others and go deep inside their beliefs to uncover what must be uncovered and exposed to the light of day, similarly I can and I do examine you through my own lenses of interpretation.

You get it? The sort of *investigation* that Lindsay set as his task, the same is applicable to all belief systems.

If you miss the point you do so a) because you deliberately want to bury the point or b) because you are not intelligent and will not recognize what the point is -- through an act of your will which blocks out what you refuse to consider. But c) is more likely: you simply want to avoid being examined at a depth level. It is that simple.

You do not have to say anything back here, Immanuel. I am speaking to a plurality of person who take part in this thread.

The relevancy of demonological assignation (seeing and locating and exposing demons) is extremely part-and-parcel of the contemporary scene, certainly in America. It is a psychological or psycho-religious phenomenon. I do not advocate for it, I try to review it and explain it in the context of the present. And the phenomenon is widespread. It extends even to people without overt religious view.

Lindsay and many of those who follow him are attempting to build, as it were, a clear countermanding ideological stance to Wokecraft (as he has named it). Christians, and you are a very good example and illustrative, refer to Lindsay and use his discourse-terms in the battle they see themselves as fighting in this world. And in this sense you, qua Christian, are doing precisely that.

It is not simply an *ideology* or a dogmatic position that is being fought against but, among committed Christians, that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness".

If that is not, at the core, what you have been on about for years here, then I think I need to go on Meds!

[Immanuel Can]

No sir, I talk about what I want to talk about...

Well, then, I can't stop you...but I'm out. Your proposed topic is not relevant here.

[Alexis Jacobi]

...

I am beginning to think I may be a Lost Cause.

[Alexis Jacobi]

No sir, I talk about what I want to talk about...

Well, then, I can't stop you...but I'm out. Your proposed topic is not relevant here.

My *topic* is part of a larger picture. And its's true: you cannot stop me nor really anyone from pursuing their ideas.