Our Israeli correspondent MC sends this meditation about the deracination of the West, and the consequent empowerment of destructive evil, such as that manifested by the Islamic State.
Id, Ego and the Bible
by MC
Many people purport to love God, but we must ask ourselves: Do I love God with all my ego? Do I love God with all my id? Or do I love Yahovah with all my heart?
Let us delve into this, because it is quite vital. The Bible asserts that man was cut off from Yahovah in the Garden of Eden because, by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he too became a God in his own right and independent of Yahovah.
Man’s godship can thus be a godship of the ego (self), a godship of the id (intellect), or a godship of Yahovah where one seeks to restore the perfection of the pre-fall Adam.
Most people are worshipers of their own ego and build ‘God’ in their own image and likeness, others build intellectual ‘gods’, usually from a model ‘God’ defined by a ‘prophet’(who may be an ego-worshipper). One can also be inclined to both, in a grey area of constant see-sawing between me and my God as opposed to my God and me.
We must consider the question: Who or what created all things? We do not have a rational answer to this, and many people just don’t care one way or the other. These are people who have built their God around their own essence; their God is themselves and the world exists to serve that God.
Others look around for a more logical explanation, seeking for the wisdom of other men to absorb into their lives. This is an id level of godship where a human or group of humans have defined a discipline with which a searching intellect can identify comfortably.
Of the two, the former is mostly harmless to everyone but the egotist himself. But the latter can be malignant and evangelical at the same time. Over time this latter group has caused death and destruction on a grand scale, and as weaponry becomes more effective, so they become even more dangerous.
The ego-driven person exists in his own bubble of awareness, not at all independent of the other bubbles around him, but in a symbiosis with them as is required for survival and comfort. On the other hand, the id-driven person lives in a group bubble, having to share and to conform to the ethos of that bubble or be cast out, dead or alive.
Judeo-Christianity is based upon an old book, written a long, long time ago and which purveys a claim to be a text of a Creator God. Now it is not the purpose of this essay to argue the truth (or not) of the Bible, but what I will do is argue the effectiveness of the Bible. Bible-based societies prosper as no other societies do or have done. The Bible produces ‘civilization’.
At worst, Bible-based societies are just ‘id bubbles’ with a ‘good’ formula. At the other extreme, the Bible is the Creator’s ‘workshop’ manual and gives us the nuts and bolts of Creation and how to make it work for us.
In this world today, we can see these influences at work, but there is something else going on as well. There is a spiritual force which is seeking to tear down the Bible influences and reduce Judeo-Christianity to just another id-istic pile of rubble.
If I were to call this destructive spirit ‘Satan’ in line with Judeo-Christian tradition (it is not so much a Jewish tradition), many would throw up their hands in disgust, so let us call it ‘nihilism’ instead. Nihilism seeks to break down all man’s endeavours and return them to dust.
Of course nihilism camouflages itself behind a set of altruistic devices that appeal to the ‘now’, so when fools rush in and grab a concept, regardless of its history, there is every likelihood they will be stuck with a lemon. If we look at the lemon which is Socialism, we see a history of failure, because socialism pivots around a justification of theft, and, quite naturally most of us want to receive the benefits of that theft rather than be the ones who are robbed. Socialism kills incentive, and the phrase ‘from each according to ability (and effort)’ cannot stand the test of time. In human terms, the motivation to spend all one’s effort for no relative benefit; either physical or emotional, and whilst also having to watch others live well off one’s toil, is a diminishing entity. However when this motivation does wane, then the gulags have to appear pour encourager les autres.
Another lemon is Islam, which revolves around a concept of loot. Muslim men are deemed to have the right to all things material (and female) on the planet. Thus they are encouraged to ‘kill and take’. The criteria here are those of the bully. Bullies only exploit those weaker than themselves, and for several centuries Islam was a spent force when a self-confident Judeo-Christianity thrashed them at the Gates of Vienna, on the shores of Tripoli and in the sands of Omdurman.
‘Radix malorum est cupiditas,’ said the Pardoner on his way to Canterbury. He was quoting Paul in the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible (1 Timothy 6:10), and indeed the West’s love of money has re-invigorated Islam. The Western encapsulation of Islam was weakened by greed, and by the loss of Judeo-Christian self-confidence. It centres around Saudi Arabia and the Arab-American Oil cartel brought to us by Standard Oil. Ignoring the malignancy of Islam, the Saudi oil was extracted and the Bin Saud family became a force majeure in economic circles. But the Bin Sauds were of the same Wahhabist sect as the Barbary Pirates of Tripoli and the Mahdiists of Omdurman and Khartoum.
And now they had untold wealth.
Islam was back in the driving seat once more, bullying still, but using money where they had once used the sword. Islam is no longer encapsulated and it is re-arming rapidly. But it is still a lemon, it is a lemon because it cannot focus the wild passions it engenders, which results in endless internal factional fighting and turf wars. Historically, when Islam meets a focussed foe, it crumbles. Israel has demonstrated this several times, Young Israelis have nowhere to run and hide. If they give way, then mothers, sisters, wives and daughters become loot for the animals of Islam. Israel is also a bastion of Judeo-Christianity; as such, Israelis are less vulnerable to the nihilist cancer. But the new Caliphate changes the scenery!
Mohammed was an egoist who attracted a crowd that admired the brute instincts lurking in men. Brutal nihilism has its attractions, and Islam removes personal responsibility. If Allah says I can murder, rape and pillage, then on his head be it. Insh’allah!
In the front of the Bible, it commands us:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
In this verse lies the essence of what has gone wrong. For most people in places of power and influence this verse now reads :
“Switch on the television and listen o sheeple, the lord thy State is many equal States, and thou shalt love its diversity with all your effort, and with all your wealth and with all your votes, or else the FSM will get thee…” (Flying Spaghetti Monster)
Whilst we, too, have no focus, we cannot stand against the bullies of Islam. We are not yet equipped with the hate and the sheer ruthlessness required to fight back as individuals in this kind of asymmetric warfare, but neither can we stand together for what is right because we are no longer able to agree on basic principles. We will argue relentlessly about creation and evolution, God and Satan, Torah or Grace, choice or life whilst the burglar is already in the house stealing our very underwear from around our boobs and our bums, while our (Saudi) oil-fired central heating means that we don’t notice the cold draughts.
History shows us that the Judeo-Christianity of the Bible works. Let us therefore defend its values, even if we reject its spirituality. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25)
MC lives in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. For his previous essays, see the MC Archives.
A beautiful little essay. Thank you MC … and GoV for presenting it.
An interesting look at where things are. I applaud the objectivity of MC (master of ceremonies?)
Adam’s fall did not render Adam and us (his offspring) other gods. It cut us off from the previous fellowship that existed between man and God. The promise that Adam would be “like God” is one reason why the Christian tradition speaks of Satan as the Father of Lies. The lie that man could be God for himself is the original lie.
Still, I appreciate your mention of the “Judaeo-Christian” tradition. At one point, I thought it a sort of PeeCeeEmCee dishonesty; but after living in the Far East where the Jewish presence is miniscule and the spiritual life of most people is quite alien to what Bible-reading cultures know, I can recognize that the kinship of Judaism and Christianity is a very deep thing, a set of tangled roots that includes not only the shared Tanakh, the ethnicity of Jesus the Messiah and his disciples, and the sense of continuity between Old and New Testaments that permeates the Reformed Christian tradition to which I adhere, but also in the kind of piety and the inseparable bond between faith and ethics informing both.
See Genesis 3 v 22:
And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand, and have taken also of the tree of life, and eaten, and lived to the age,’ —
The text string “id” is used to mean something entirely different from what the word means in standard English and in psychology and psychiatry. There, the “id” is the primitive part of the brain/mind, the part that generates desires and fears, and just wants what it wants. The ego contrives to get it for the id, and the superego reins in the ego. The superego’s job is to get the person to cooperate and obey group norms.
So maybe we should start referring to Islam as Idlam. It’s an apt description.
Does that mean that all good muslids practice jidhad like mohammid?
Yes, of course, and it’s the task of Islamic apologists to convince the sheep that the opposite is true. I think that you would agree that the other alien feature of Islamic culture is the absence of the concept of a ‘state’, or the rule of law, it’s not really the rule of the primitive Id, the clan or family is the defining characteristic of Muslim culture, such as it is. “IS” is an oxymoron.
Even though I’m not religious I agree completely that Judaeo-Christian culture is the foundation of Western civilisation.
Dear MC,
I appreciate this and your other reflections.
I am 1954 vintage and grew up in a remote and rural semi-desert area with the ‘benefit’ of no other communication to the outside world except books.
And the time and space to reflect.
If I have understood your intent correctly then I say that nihilism is the root of all evil. It is the apex of the supposed dichotomy of the ego/id.
Like you, once again if I have interpreted you correctly, I say that “Judeo-Christianity is based upon an old book” and reflects a progression from nihilism to the beneficial future of ‘the family of man’.
To put it another way, nihilism is destruction and Judeo-Christianity is creation.
Or another way, arab peoples are fleeing there thuggish ‘masters’ because they cannot grow enough food to provide for their kith and kin and they are envious of the creators.
MC, I trust that you and yours are well.
Excellent MC, thanks. You’ll not be surprised if I have some reservations about the alleged “lemon” of socialism; entrepreneurship is one thing, exploitation another.
A peaceful Rosh Hashana to you and yours.
Roman Empire was doing great by the way, until it was destroyed by the Christianity from within.
Just saying
If an empire whose economy was based on slavery and unwanted conquest (and the odd pogrom) can be said to be “doing well”, Hell Awaits. Sounds a bit like Islam to me…
1. Slavery — well, it was ancient times and things were different, means of productions were not really advanced, were they? By the way, slavery as a means of production flourished in Christian countries long after the fall of Romans. I won’t put any fingers here, though it was USA, for once, Russia, with its class of agricultural workers who lived under near slavery conditions, they literally belonged to their landlord up until 1865
2. Unwanted conquest — come on, Christian countries practiced “unwanted conquest” just like everybody else did.
So yes, Roman Empire was doing great: exploration, geographical discoveries, libraries, science, law, roads, castles and cities, management of state. Romans laid the foundation of civilization as we know it.
Mark H — doesn’t sound to me, doesn’t ring any bells
Ignore the last line of my post please. My interpretation of the previous poster’s words was not quite right.
Liked some of the text, but don’t like religions
Thank you for this well written, thoughtful piece.