"The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke, or somebody
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is good men."
Pablo Smog
I was contacted recently by some new-age gringos I met a few years ago, down here in Mexico. They're friends of mine. They also inject new-age spirituality into literally every conversation and/or correspondence, to the point that it's unbearable. My patience for self-righteous nearsightedness is notoriously low, and the relentless barrage of new-age faux-wisdom forced me to respond to one of their messages with an email titled "Manly P. Hall is in Hell." Things were quiet for several months.
Then they hit me up again, a couple weeks ago, and it was great to hear from them. Apparently, they missed me. It was mutual. But unfortunately, they missed me so much, with such adamantine unwillingness to rejoice in the possibility that they can be instantly forgiven of all their sins forever, that they had to immediately use me as a wedge, some kind of battering pillow with which to defend themselves against their own conscience.
I was painfully disappointed. The girl responded to one of the messages below with all kinds of Bible verses, as if to say, "I've heard it all before," which is of course untrue. Being able to recite something does not indicate a belief in it. Apparently, she was abused in some way, long ago, by some people in a church somewhere. I sympathize, I really do, but welcome to the club. The professing Christian who uses the Bible as a manipulative tool, and who makes you want to go to hell to get away from him, is nothing new. It's easy to see past that guy. All you have to do is want the truth, which is to say, to consider the possibility that you're wrong. If you don't want to see it, you're never going to see it.
No other person can do anything about it.
This is my end of the correspondence, with personal info and gratuitous chit-chat edited out. To my own surprise, I'm at the point where I believe the gratuitous chit-chat is the wisest part of the message. Not really, but if the core philosophies aren't in synch, and you enjoy each other's company and respect the free moral agency of every individual, the lost art of appreciating other people's right to live their lives as they see fit, even if you only ever talk about the weather, is a lot wiser than engaging in philosophical fisticuffs, to the aggravation and degradation of us all.
It's alright. Even if it isn't. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is good men. There is no tool more effective in the battle of evil against good, than self-righteousness. Which is to say, righteousness defined by the self. Since the age of minding your own business is a period in history we seem inclined to want to dismiss, these exhausting exchanges of irreconcilable ideas are probably inevitable.
So it goes.
1. Paradox
I don't mind the long emails. But I'm going to skip past all the literal responses, and shift gears entirely and simply say, "All evil needs to prevail is one good man."
Whether we're listening to Manly Hall, a hellfire and brimstone preacher, or Taylor Swift, the fact remains that something is true. It's possible that more than one thing is true, but it's also TRUE that 1+1 only has one correct answer. Almost nobody gets straight A's in every subject, from Kindergarten through 12th grade (or beyond); it seems inconsistent to think that we're all going to get straight A's in the spirit realm, for no other reason than that we take care of each other (or would like to) and we're not Adolf Hitler.
Kinduva low standard, when you think about it.
That's what's so great about the Jesus story. The flip side of the ostensibly "negative" idea that "we can't pay for our sins," is that we don't HAVE to pay for them. The sin question is fundamental. We either have it, or we do not. We can't smoke, dream, will, chant, screw, puke, or sing our way out of it. If we don't have sin, then who cares to call themselves "Good?" What difference does it make? Why be good? What is good? My sinful side will play the so-called devil's advocate and say, "incentivize me."
If we do have sin, then how do we dare call ourselves good?
Yadig?
"There is none righteous, no, not one:”
Romans 3:10
But for argument's sake, let's ignore the livestreaming horror story of world history that has been playing for millennia and say we're all good. You're good, I'm good, everybody's good.
Does that mean we're RIGHT?
I've asked the question a lot. It's humbling, and even though it sounds paradoxical (it's not), it's why I'm a Christian. There are no "good people" in the true church. There are a lot of "good people" in the church building, and they write books called "The Lie of Christian Rock & Roll" and don't have my back any more than the new-age scenester gatekeepers who check all the PC social-credit boxes on their virtue cards. I crossed a dangerous international border to get away from all of them. And I seriously considered staying in the U.S., when I was there for a month at the end of 2022. But the call was clear: Get out now, and don't look back. It's not running away if the ship is going down. I would love not to believe that something harsh is coming to the U.S. (which will affect Mexico and many other places adversely beyond belief, as well). I would LOVE TO BE WRONG, and come back and start a band in Texas and "make the world a better place" one song and live show at time.
But they didn't let me. Neither the institutional church people, nor the institutional booking managers. Punk-rock, new-age, potheads, rockabilly, gay, didn't matter. None of 'em.
Thank God for that, I can say in hindsight. If my work had been validated any sooner than it has been (still pending, as of the writing of this article), I would surely be tempted to believe that what I do is fundamentally important.
How horrific.
Anyway, I hear ya. We were all created for something better, I really do believe. And I do mean ALL. 20 years ago (and beyond), the idea of selling a song to a hardcore corporate product for an ad would have been abhorrent. These days (and for awhile now), unless it was Big Pharma, I would seriously consider it. Better yet, the money from a TV show or movie. But it's a blessing in disguise. I seriously doubt the validity of my own life's work, to the point that even if God decided to bless me with an audience in this life, I'm not sure I'd ever believe in my work again, the way I used to. Art/music/etc. can be a major idol. Van life beat many things out of me; living in oblivion (same difference) has had a similar effect on my view of my work. I'm not even aware of my songs anymore, and while looking through my discography when I feel like making a music video, sometimes I'm actually repulsed by what I find. I wrote this garbage? Really?
It sounds bad, or negative, but it's not. It means I'm moving on.
Thanks for writing. Dios te bendiga,
N
2. Universalismo vs. Ego Death
I didn't know this guy personally, but for awhile a Canadian guy, older, from the Vancouver area, would repeatedly send me long messages trying to convince me of "universalism," the idea that everybody goes to Heaven. I told him what I thought about it, and he kept sending me 2000-word emails trying to convince me I was wrong. I told him, "you're not trying to convince me, you're trying to convince yourself, and if you can get me to switch from the Bible to the clouds, you will feel better about yourself. You are convicted about your own sin, but instead of facing it, you want to hide from it by using me as a human shield." He didn't like that, but was never disrespectful, and we never were harsh or rude to each other. But he wouldn't let up. It became aggravating, to the point that I had to block him. Getting his messages was ruining my day. One of the reasons I left the U.S. is that I'm tired of repeating myself.
For what it's worth: You're never going to change my mind. I've been through it alone with no one BUT Jesus for too long to ever throw Him overboard for something else. I have come to understand from much personal experience that true Christianity begins when you come to THE END OF YOURSELF. It took me a long, long time. In many ways, I feel like I'm just starting out.
It's a tangent, but one of the great disappointments I have about humanity, which tempts me to my own high-horse, is that people don't just appreciate psychedelics for the amusing, perspective-changing light show. They have to make it important. They have to ritualize it, and "use it to achieve something higher." This has always disappointed me, and is perhaps one of the reasons that God called me away from even weed. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that Heaven has some "psychedelic" properties, but while we're here, it is necessary to come out of ourselves, and not commit the paradoxical new-age mistake of losing our ego by focusing more intently on ourselves.
"A fool hath no delight in understanding, but
that his heart may discover itself."
Proverbs 18:2
I don't have any Christian friends, for what it's worth. I'm down here for literally EVERY reason, good and bad. All the fun, shallow cultural reasons, and deeper, heavier stuff that is unpleasant, too.
Here are a couple videos I made, one in response to the Canadian guy, and the 2nd one, in response to an old friend of mine from college. My college friend, who is probably the angriest person I have ever known, obviously felt that he was hurting me in some way, by rejecting the gospel message. I mean, I'm not happy about it, but it doesn't really have anything to do with ME. Yaknow?
It's nice to hear from you, but you're never going to convince me that anything I can learn from a 33rd-degree Freemason (secret satanism) like Manly Hall is going to be somehow more important than being forgiven of my own sins, which, again, I'm so glad I don't HAVE to pay that price, but you're never going to convince me I'm not a sinner. If you ever come to the end of yourselves, which, I know how that sounds, and I'm sorry I can't think of a better way to put it, but know that I'm saying it from a place of coming closer to that event horizon myself. It's like a black hole, and you don't think you're going to survive. It's the beginning. All energy work and ego-focus is a huge distraction, and will pull the ship apart when the horizon is reached. We're getting close. I didn't come down here for the weather (though it's nice). I came down here because God told me not to stay in the U.S. Perhaps because it's beyond saving. Perhaps because no one listens. Not even the Christians. My own ego is so strong that I have to be reminded of that almost constantly myself, when I am tempted to feeling aggravation toward them for whatever shallow, unimportant reason.
Fortunately, I am coming to the end of myself, to the point that at some fundamental, necessary level, I feel BAD about my own disappointment in the cultural myopia of my brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not the most important thing. My music, writing, or anything else is NOTHING in comparison with how glad I am that at least they're Christians too. If they ignore me and malign my work as evil for cultural reasons, okay. Great. That's their problem. God bless them. God forbid I hold onto anything that is even remotely unloving toward them. Take my guitar and throw it on the fire. I don't care. Let's just get to Heaven. That's the main thing. I am only NOW at the very beginning of understanding the absolute necessity of conforming your own heart/mind/soul to that of Christ. I know how it sounds, but it's amazingly true. And it's the beginning. It's the true end of the self, so that we might come closer to that which God created us to be in the first place. I'm saying it for my own benefit; it's a new one on me, and I'm horrified to miss that train, I really am.
But I'm grateful for your friendship, whether we're on the same spiritual path or not. If you ever come to the end of yourself, or are willing to consider the possibility that it's necessary, hit me up. Hit me up anyway, but hit me up. I would love to have some Christian friends.
As they say in Spanish, "To God,"
N
p.s. Thanks, I will definitely keep you guys in prayer. I don't want to talk about it either. I don't believe spiritual matters are ABLE to be debated. It's a yes or no question, between every individual and God. People have to make up their own minds, or their faith isn't real. We've entered an historical grey area, when everybody thinks other people have to agree with them, convert them to their political/gender/spirit ideology JUST TO GET ALONG. This makes me very, very tired. It's the stuff genocide and persecution are made of. There's no way that everyone is right, but there's NO REASON everyone shouldn't be able to get along.
Tell 'em I said so. If you want to keep it light, I'm all for it. God bless you both on your journey.
N
