There is an old Russian joke about an angel who appears to a peasant and tells him he can have whatever he wishes: wealth, happiness, beauty, the works. However, whatever he asks for will be give double to his enemy.
The peasant thinks for a moment and says, “Gouge out one of my eyes and beat me half to death.”
I think of this as I watch MAGA suffer disproportionately at the hands of the criminals they celebrate compared to the sane people who observe sane health precautions:
The MAGA rank and file are willing to lie to themselves “Promises Made. Promises Kept” about the Trump Administration because the only promise Trump made that they truly care about is his promise to hurt those they hate. It matters to them so much that they will sacrifice their own happiness and prosperity–and that of their children–to see those they hate suffer twice as much as they do.
Lyndon Johnson had their number 60 years ago:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
This is patently a philosophy of hopelessness; a philosophy that sees no chance of bettering oneself and still more, no hope of eternal life despite its loud noises about being Real Christians[TM]. As Jesus said, you will know them by their fruits, not by how loudly they scream “Lord! Lord!”
A person whose joy in life is cruelty to those weaker than themselves, who love it more than their own children, is a person who no longer believes (if they ever did) that they can find joy in losing their life in love for God and neighbor. It is a worldview that sees life as a few short years of punching down at somebody weaker than yourself in compensation for a shitty, meaningless life. It is fundamentally predatory because it sees existence as a nasty, brutish, and short struggle for a few mean resources. It reveals a mind and heart that cannot even imagine the possibility of generosity or love for those outside the tribal circle as anything but contemptible weakness and a ruse for suckers. It thinks it is “realistic”, but in fact, it results in delusion when, in fact, life could be–and has been–better in the recent past.
Jesus promised his disciples that he would be seen in his disciples by their love for one another. Tertullian, a couple of centuries later, notes that his pagan Roman neighbors were moved by just such love and remarked not, “See how they stop bad guys with swords by being good guys with swords” or “See how they guard their property by standing their ground for their rights” or “See how they keep racially pure” or “See how they beat the crap out of foreigners” but “See how they love one another.”
Early Christians, believe it or not, deeply believed that Jesus was God come to earth to conquer death–that he had already conquered death. That all the crap they had been afraid about no longer had power over them. That they were free. That they could be light-hearted and let their possessions go to who needed them and not fret about whether they were being cheated because God would take care of them. They saw themselves as freed from All That and, moreover, as freed to “walk in newness of live” toward love, not toward their former enslavement to All That.
It is still possible to live that way. But it will only happen through trust in Christ, not in a vengeful dimestore antichrist and his cult of greed and cruelty.
Advertisement
