Consider this extract from a piece by Anthony Daniels in The New Criterion:
In his essay, The Empire of the Ugly, the great Belgian Sinologist and literary essayist Simon Leys recounts the story of how, writing one day in a café, a small incident gave him an insight into the real nature of philistinism.
A radio was playing in the background, a mixture of banal and miscellaneous chatter and equally banal popular music. No one in the café paid any attention to this stream of tepid drivel until suddenly, unexpectedly and inexplicably, the first bars of Mozart’s clarinet quintet were played.
“Mozart,” Leys says, “took possession of our little space with a serene authority, transforming the café into an antechamber of Paradise.”
The other people in the café, who until then were chatting, playing cards, or reading the newspaper, were not deaf to the radio after all. The music silenced them, they looked at each other, disconcerted. “Their disarray lasted only a few seconds: to the relief of all, one of them stood up, changed the radio station and re-established the flow of noise that was more familiar and comforting, which everyone could then properly ignore.”
Here is the conclusion Leys draws:
At that moment, I was struck by an obvious fact that has never left me since: that the real philistines are not those people incapable of recognizing beauty — they recognize it only too well, with a flair as infallible as that of the subtlest aesthete, but only to pounce on it, and smother it before it can take root in their universal empire of ugliness.
Thus philistinism is a positive, not merely a negative force.
In the article Daniels mentions other examples including that of Liberian rebels sawing off the legs of the only Steinway grand piano in the land, thereby rendering it useless. Now maybe this is just about snobs objecting to the blue-collar tastes of regular folks. But let’s take Ley’s thought about philistinism seriously for a minute and then apply it to psychopathy. So,
IF real philistines are not those people incapable of recognizing beauty — they recognize it only too well, with a flair as infallible as that of the subtlest aesthete, but only to pounce on it, and smother it before it can take root in their universal empire of ugliness,
THEN real pychopaths are not those people incapable of recognizing good — they recognize it only too well, with a flair as infallible as that of the saint, but only to pounce on it, and smother it before it can take root in their universal empire of sin.
I have never bought the idea that psychopaths cannot empathise with others; that they’re radically other, either brain-damaged or animals. To me the psychopath’s exquisite ability to know exactly how to hurt others suggests that he is brilliantly attuned to the inner worlds of others. Nor does the idea that psychopaths can’t tell the difference between good and evil stand up. Their infallible nose for doing wrong is evidence that the psychopath is an anti-saint.
One definition of saint is “persons eminent for holiness….those who distinguish themselves by heroic virtue during life”. Turn that on it’s head and you have the psychopath.
In my humble opinion, that is.
As far as the P con artist in my life….His last communication with me was a Christmas Card…and here is what it says:
You are a Wonderful Reflection of God’s Love. You are one of those reare people who keeps the spirit of Christmas glowing brightly through the year, because your life is truly a reflection of God’s love…The caring things you say and do bring Christ’s peace, hope and joy to everyone around you….Everyday you show what Christian love is really about through your smiles and laughter, your compassion and concern, your warmth and kindness. God has blessed me with knowing you and, this Christmas, I pray that He will bless you with everything good and that His love will always light your way. Merry Christmas…Then he writes…The only thing I can say to you is I’m sorry for the way things went. I just hope than we can agree on everything and we both have to be open minded. Have a Merry Xmas and may all your dreams come True. Sincerely and always Sill your friend Love Dennis.
This was after I had found out that he had refinanced everything…there was no money to be found….I had gone to an attorney…I had gone to the prosecutors office at that time….and I stopped talking to him!
This man goes to church every week and lets you know he is a good Catholic….It disturbs me….Is it part of the Con….does he want to fit in….He definitely doesn’t abide by the 10 commandments or the Christian or Catholic way for that matter.
I was so desperate at one point I was looking to my priest to a christian minister and to Landmark education for answers and help….I brought Dennis to a christian minister I liked to talk to him…to no avail. I brought him to an introduction to the forum…all about integrity….I think I wrote about it on here….no avail…..because he had his own agenda…he came to apease me….not to do what was right!
The damage is done! I can never get it out of my mind….not without shock therapy! And I don’t want to do that! It hurts so much!
Dear Trish,
I hear your pain, your anguish, your betrayal. I do see one thing though you said “I can never get it out of my mind…”
YES you can! Yesterday I received proof that before he was arrested last august, the Trojan Horse P (who had vandalized other things around my house and property) had apparently poured something into the crankcase of my expensive lawn tractor adn “froze up” the engine–and other things here that had motors—OH
Trish,
Mine is in Church every week.
And more, he pours it on…you should see his look of piety….
Yeah,makes one want to barf.
We know, they know….and it sucks we have to watch the world be oblivious. It is a burden,this knowledge, but it frees us too.
I don’t know that they fool that many- I don’tknow how many people actually consider them pious, I think it’s more laziness.
The P hasn’t attacked them yet….That’s the way peopleare,in and out of church, if it’snot their problem…whatever.
The best we can do is commiserate and learn to avvoid Ps in the future.
To eyesopened,
Thank you and ditto! For me it’s like someone else is doing the writing but they are using my thoughts and life’s examples. I was telling a friend today that all this just shouldn’t be. What a grand life we would all have if we were of one accord. My children and I don’t argue and play games. I have other friends that I get along with and we don’t fight. I still wonder the correlation between a man’s(woman’s too) sex drive and the rest of his life. That’s when the weird started for me. I was fine before sex ever entered the picture. After the “sexual awakening” is when the awful started. Prior to that time, everything was cordial and consistent. Once sex entered the picture, everything became distorted. I never knew how I was perceived.
I think in my case, my husband didn’t want wifed. He wanted mothered. I really don’t know because he’d never admit to anything. So I speculate, but from a distance. I know what I endured wasn’t much compared to the awful physical abuse so many endure, but we were supposed to be a real Christian family and all we were doing was playing house. I felt so alone until someone came along and told me I was being abused. And now I really don’t feel alone as I’ve found other “comrades” who’ve been there. If only they could be stopped before the damage is done. I believe there are a lot of really nice people who have redeeming qualities if only they were re-educated. I just don’t want to be the teacher! The surprising part is when the tables are turned, how upset they become and act hurt that they would be on the receiving end of what they’ve done. My response is, “how do you like me now?” Really sucks to be them. I’ve finally realized that I really am not responsible for what others do. Boy, I sure was carrying a load of guilt for a long time. I remember those days and I can smile now. I was probably the saddest, most woe-be-gone woman ever. Now I smile a lot so people wonder what I’m up to and I don’t give away my trade secrets. Silence really is golden.
OxD,
Having been raised the granddaughter of Iowa farmers and then married to a large hog producer then moving to wild hog hunt country in Texas, I too have an — intimate!? — knowledge of hogs and they are no more evil than any other animal, instinctive and can be deadly.
Not to belabor the discussion of hogs but to clarify the passage, the reference speaks to the waste of the Word on unclean and unappreciative gluttonous behavior devouring anything in its path, your time and energy, but the analogy to swine is smelly hogs being hogs, not to evil in this passage, but then this is a good point in calling attention to different perspectives of the Word based on personal experience.
Talking about hogs, now I’m hungry for an “Iowa” chop!
Benz
Trish,
You do know that the P is reflecting & exploiting your very own righteousness and goodness by sending you that card, don’t you?
I think that’s what it means in the 10 Commandments..”Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in VAIN”….is precisely what that man is doing. He is USING our beloved Creator for his own sinister manipulations. Sickening, isn’t it?
And him writing…”The only thing I can say to you is I’m sorry for the way things went.” Is a blatant non-apology. He never takes responsibility/accountability for any harm he’s done to you. He never will. He is incapable of humility.
And…”I just hope than we can agree on everything and we both have to be open minded.” He wants you to see things HIS way. He is still trying to manipulate you, deceive you. Don’t let him. Throw that piece of garbage card away.
And I agree that the world is pretty scary place right now. The scope of nefarious, wickedness is beyond overwhelming, entering into surrealism. There’s a spiritual war going on right now as I type this and we, all of us, need to be aware that it is happening. But I suggest you keep your faith strong and rely on the compassion & love of the Lord, through bible study and prayer, and simple, yet kind acts, words, and deeds to those who suffer as we do.
I must say that my ex was a sociopath born of an extremely religious sociopath. Both knew how to use religion for bad ends. I know lots of people in here are very religious, and have nothing against this, but I do not believe in God. I’d describe myself as a humanist.
However (just in case others like me are in here), I recently re-read Dawkins’s ‘The Selfish Gene’ and was so unexpectedly moved by its exploration of good and evil and how they may have emerged. It made complete sense to me and made me believe in love and the goodness of most of mankind more than ever. (And thankful for it).
The best thing about the book, though, is the analysis of Game Theory, where they test a selfish strategy over lots of generations. The result is that selfishness is NOT an Evolutionary Stable Strategy! THAT’S why sociopaths are only 4% (ish) of us! It doesn’t matter to me that it’s all borne of randomness – the products of it alone are beautiful enough for me.
So – The Good Will Out!
Trish,
Only part of my blog posted, what I was going to say was that though for one day I was really blasted, angry, enraged at finding this out, it (the anger, rage etc) didn’t last 3 months like it WOULD have last year at this time when I was NUTSO from rage, betrayal, fear etc.
These things dont effect me like they did, as I have gained strength, I AM GETTING THESE THINGS OUT OF MY MIND, they are not hurting me like they did.
YOU will get there too, as you heal, and you are a VERY strong woman and just to have survived this far proves it to me. Hang in their girlfriend, you will get there too! (((hugs))))
Benz, I know the analogy with the swine wasn’t 100% on, but was just trying to show that when we give “gifts” (like with the pearls) to “swine” (in human form) they don’t appreciate the gifts’ value, and become angry that you didn’t give them what they wanted (in the case of swine, food) and will “turn and rend you” for your trouble.
No, I don’t think ANY animal is inherently evil or bad, even the ones that, like hogs, CAN and WILL “rend you”—-I’ve got a childhood scar on my leg to prove it!—and I think Jesus’ lesson was about trying to teach people who are NOT INTERESTED any more than the swine would be to being “preached to” and that if you try to continue, you will just make those people mad.
But I also see the way WE try to “preach love and peace” to the Ps and they don’t appreciate it any more than the hogs would apprecite pearls, and my Ps have surely “turned and tried to rend me”—so there is a lesson in there for ME at least.
Sometimes I find in the Bible’s teaching more than ONE lesson in the same passage, depending on the circumstances you apply it to. That to me is the BEAUTY of the Bible in showing wisdom in so many differnet ways. Even for the person who is not a believer, there are some good life lessons there. There are also life lessons in the texts of many religions of which I am not a believer in the religion itself, but the wisdom it imparts in philosophy is still very valid to me.
EnnLondon, I believe IF 99.9% of the world WERE evil people (and I don’t believe that, but if I did,) I would still think the 0.1% of the good people would still be the “winners” BECAUSE we CAN LOVE. Not to be able to love or bond has got to be an “evil curse” if you can perceive it–I’m not sure the Ps can perceive it, but even still, how lonely it must be to not be able to love.
I find it very interesting that many of the N’s, P’s, S’s hide behind the cloak of religion. Religious institutions are storehouses for people who want to do good, are giving, caring and loving people…perfect prey for the predators. However, it seems as though these institutions also harbor the infidels who only wear the mask of religious piety.
The N in my life was a practicing masked infidel. He insisted that we go to church every Sunday. I was not a “church goer” but did feel a deep spiritual connection to God. Of course I agreed to sit by his side in church. He was Catholic and I am Lutheran, but I had no objection to worshipping in his church. Every week he would approach the alter to receive communion with his hands held together in a praying gesture and receive the sacrement. Once I became curious and asked why he felt he could receive the sacrement without first going to confession and also because he was divorced. He justified his actions by stating that he felt he had the “right to take communion because God would not punish him for wanting to partake in the sacrement. I found this strange and perplexing. How could a person believe so deeply in the laws of the Catholic church (which is never missed an opportunity to tell how much his religion and the church meant to him) and then bend those laws to meet his needs? He once asked me to take communion with him. I refused. He asked why I would not take communion with him and I told him I would not pretend to be a Catholic and lie in a holy sanctuary. He said no one would know, so who would it hurt. I said it would hurt me and that the act of receiving the sacrement under false pretenses was something I was not willing to do. Of course he retorted in a smug, slimy way “I would not force you to do that”. I told him that when I felt the need to take communion I would attend my own church.
I think this is a clear example of an anti-saint. I don’t know the reason the N felt compelled to attend church weekly. I can only surmise it was out of fear and also to be seen by those in the community as a “good man”. Perhaps he also was trying desperately to get some kind of spiritual fulfillment from the weekly service. I did notice each week,while in church, he was antsy and restless as if he couldn’t wait until the service was over. We never talked about the message in the homilies. We simply left the service and went about our day. He would always have daily bible reading books strewn around his house and would call my attention to them on a regular basis. What a phoney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe N’s, P’s, S’s do possess a deep attunement to the “inner world of others”. Often the N would say things to me about my inner world that would make me shudder. I call it the sixth sense, the ability to tap into the psyche of another person. It is like radar and gives these individuals the ability to easily spot prey and “pounce upon” them to snuff out their beauty.
I believe the examples written in the article are acts of envy and jeolously. My take on these examples is the philistines stomp out beauty not because they do not want it to enter their universe of ugliness but because beauty and goodness can never enter that universe evil. The Philistines are not capable of emoting real, true goodness and love. When faced with these qualities the N’s, S’s and P’s are repulsed and must take a hard look at their inner cores that lie empty and wanton never to feel anything more. So in order to maintain equalibrium the N’s etc. must stomp out anyone/anything that reminds them of what they truly are………empty.
Oh boy—mine was reverse..he’d not receive communion b/c of his “state.” I am afraid to go into details, but he was clever. He knew that’d he’d look serious about his faith…etc.
But I will tell you he let it slip a few times, how “seriously” he took being a Christian. But to know those facts one would have to be around all the time- his act sufficed for his audience. But he can’t keep it up all the time- just recently he blurted out something obscene.
I see himnow, hands folded, head down, soooo serious, and I wonder how I ever believed it. Knowing what I know…his sanctimony reeks…. and I see him as a snake.