[sane values] there'll still be cakes and ale

The Christian ethic has underpinned western civilization for millennia, building on the Jewish ethic, with one purpose in mind - to put the relations between humans into some sort of order and to provide an ideal which, though seldom attained, could still be aspired to.

Though parts of the text of the scriptures were constantly, cynically hijacked and twisted by the intergenerational western leadership to justify wars and all sorts of human misery for eons and though hardly anyone observed the ethic as it really was, nevertheless it was there. It was taught in schools and at home.

Even the Kray brothers helped old ladies across the street and slipped them a quid or two.

Vader - the lure of glitz, power and exclusivity - come join us.

The whole basis, the true basis of Christianity has now been successfully suppressed and children are self-taught [in lieu of any values] to worship the bitch goddesses Success, Avarice and Me-centredness; the divorce figures, credit card debt and general weariness with everything in life skyrockets, as there is less and less leisure time, despite the new technological advances and because of the necessity to work two jobs and plunge into debt.

The whole basis of the other side is to ape and twist values such as compassion and tolerance and to apply them to all sorts of deviance from the norm, desperately rushing into legislation measures against any who would speak out but true compassion and tolerance, that is towards one's neighbour, is swamped in the the other side's maxims "Me, me, me", "Do as you will" and "I can do anything".

Humanity, who very much "can't do anything" without food, water, shelter and a system of social and moral mores to regulate it's dealings with each other, is now running around rudderless in palaces of expensive glitz, its mooring lines to values which really do produce an orderly and happy society severed and perverted doctrines instead consuming schools and colleges of higher learning, the arts, law and medicine [the multi-billion dollar drug pharmaceutica, for example].

Humanity is excreting and polluting it's way to some sort of heady dystopia.

There is no satisfaction for anyone.

The real Darth Vader, behind the mask

Though you've made deals and devoted your life to self-fulfilment and by extension, to your chattels, the more and more you acquire, the less and less satisfied you become - the law of diminishing returns.

Middle-aged ladies doggedly stick to feminist humanism and assure themselves they're far happier alone. After all, all the current literature assures them, through surveys, magazines and the internet,that it is so. Self justification and rationalization are rampant. Young couples break up all over the place, incapable of holding the family together in their "onwards and upwards" mentality and when one part of "me", their partner, acts independently of the "me" they have in mind, the conclusion is foregone.

Single people are everywhere, telling themselves it's far better than with an understanding, respectful, compassionate and supportive partner.

How we'd like it to be

Unfulfilled longing and being let down are the core values of the new religion, this non-religion of Self; jealous competitiveness and ambition, strutting about like a peacock and defining itself through one's BMW, Mercedes or air flights for the calendar year is one of the criteria.

"Only the little people pay taxes," intoned Leona Helmesly, New York, 1989, as she showed precisely what the new values represent.

Into this, young ladies are in shock when the man they pinned their faith in turned out to be a cheating ne'er do well. Not six months ago there was such a lady, a friend of mine and the two of them made a big deal of the atheistic, swearing f--- and c---, self-fulfilment thing. Yawn. There's one girl, a friend of mine, now doing just this.

Fine but why the huge surprise when the relationship falls apart? What else could it have done? And what are my friends left with? Bitterness. Gall. The girl six months ago wrote that she hated all men and trusts only hats. The current friend writes that she trusts no one. Same thing.

When sex becomes the end goal

And him? Looks great for him, bedding all the women in the city, except that inside his empty shell he is getting meaner and meaner and less and less satisfied, demanding greater and greater kicks to stay "satisfied". As the Emperor in Star Wars wanted Anakin to do, he's given way to himself, the baser instincts run riot whilst he himself thinks he's aspring to higher things [the Grand Babel Delusion] but the truth is he's let his moral core become as soft as butter, despite what he might look like on the outside.

Drink takes away a lot of it for a time - plus the substances. Nothing wrong with either when they're just an adjunct to a summer's afternoon with friends but when they become the day to day life - there's trouble on the horizon.

I don't ask why it is so. I know exactly why it is so and I'm no guru or adept in these matters. I'm just one little man. Anyone with half a brain can step back from life and see it for him or herself, if willing to do so.

So, where to?

All right, continue to reject the core values spelt out in the Sermon on the Mount and in other places and continue the inevitable downwards spiral, as sure as night follows day [though they're working on that too]. There are values waiting on the shelf for you, right at hand, entirely free, no strings attached and if you adopt them - sharper enjoyment, comfort, fulfilment and rest are the consequences.

And another thing - adopting sane values does not mean there'll be no more cakes and ale, no more bawdy jokes. The notion that sane values equals high morality is a furphy. "Capital M" Morality does not mean the same as "small d" inner decency.

If you think this, then you've been hoodwinked by the vocal high-moralists of the Christian Right who love to mix politics and religion in a lethal cocktail which inevitably will lead to a godless, humanistic over-reaction, which was the idea in the first place. You've been hoodwinked by the drip, drip, drip of cruel, cold decades of corrosively stuffed values of the left as well.

So, having been rejected equally by the writhing serpents of the godless pagan left and by the high moralist Christian Right, where does that leave me, your humble blogger here? Undefended? Does it hell!

Read Ephesians Chapter 6. Though I'm not crazy for the guy who wrote it, there are some good ideas in here, particularly verse 12.

If that's a bit gung-ho for you, no matter. This excellent piece by Wolfie puts the matter in perspective for the miserable sinners like you and me.

Into the sunset, with nothing but our values. Take no thought for what you'll wear ...