Deepfake World
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- The summer solstice prompts the return of a very old question. How far do we need cut ourselves off from the deepfake anticulture of the Machine in order to perceive the God-soaked reality? Do we all need to become Desert Fathers, or Mothers? How?
You can watch the story of Father Lazarus, who I mention in my vid, at the link below. Everybody should.
• Monk's life
Paul, I am a man in my mid eighties, a christian believer, and I have have found in this new internet technology an increditably delightful source of learning, wisdom, new insights, music, reading, etc., your informative, wise and insightful videos not the least. I agree with you that most of the stuff on it is crap, but searching out the gems is so worthwhile, it has made my life and faith so much richer and deeper, That I wish it had come much earlier in my life. . I count myself fortunate to have lived long enough to experience this phenomena. You too, Paul, are one of the encouragers on this WWW, feeding thousands of us humans with good worthwhile stuff and helping us deal with the crap in each of our lives.
So true. And yes so helpful
Everything you say is lovely and correct, indeed. Respectfully, I also feel it so, but for the majority of the population it is most definitely not so.
Agree.. magnificent things. If his the spirit of man an light.
Are you kidding me? The old internet was better.
I think it’s because you have the discipline to use it as a tool of learning whereas most of us have no discipline to not let it totally dominate us, since we have lost our connection to simply being in the world. I am 40 have never had a smartphone just an old Nokia and still I feel swamped by this technology because it is simply so easy to access and so captivating, but it doesn’t give me peace, we have to be the master and not the slave of these things and it’s very difficult!
I became a recluse in 2015 and am healing from the assault of the world - nocturnal, walking at dawn and dusk, meditating, watching a very small wildflower meadow gradually bloom in my back garden, grateful for my garden and home, sitting in the garden in the dark watching the sky, listening to the animals, the night belongs to them, increasingly cannot bear the clamour of the world. I am blessed. I don't need to work any more. I keep away from it all for my sanity and my soul.
This sounds so lovely... I hope to be able to do the same someday. Am striving for it, this leaving the world behind in a fully intentional way. If you haven't read it, I recommend an older title, Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics, by Marsha Sinetar. I really loved this early book of hers...
It sounds adyllic
May you be forever in a sense of blissful ignorance of the outside world.🙏
The bible (God) talks about sanctifying yourself, being holy-set apart from the world.
This is wonderful!!
I enjoy your work, brother, and am so glad you're in our family now. God bless you!
Jesus did withdraw into the wilderness, but he also was present in the world to touch the hurting and hungry. This is true religion: to be Christ to the broken, lost, lonely, imprisoned, etc. As appealing as it is to withdraw from it all and focus on one's own relationship with God, the end purpose is to be like Jesus: a little Christ to the world.
❤
Amen
Yes. Amen.
@@MrDarkgreen That's fine, you can disagree, but Jesus said it himself. 🙂"Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me." Or consider James: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
(James 1:27)
i often wonder how many talented people, who might have something beautiful to say, have given up baring their souls because the world is now so flooded with ‘content’.i certainly have.
Me too, friend. Well said!
But you should do it! Just because the process is what’s important
Oh, me too. I stopped creating in the middle of the pandemic. Just couldn't do it any more. Still can't. It hurts like hell, but everything feels somehow wrong. Like the world itself got broken.
Same
Paul, your posts are always rich and sometimes when I am writing, I read something you've written and temporary blocks retreat. Even when I'm not sure we agree on every point, the depth and thoughtfulness of your commentary causes me to examine my own views. I've been in what the Puritans called the Valley of Vision and surrounded by sin, I saw His glory in the heights. I cannot retreat into isolation because too many innocents/children are facing dragons and need a St. George, even an old one with rusty armor. The trick is to engage and not be consumed, to withdraw to prayer, to be cleansed by the Word. I admit it is a hard balance to master, and when I fail, I feel the awful price of distance from Him. Carry on, your posts are especially welcomed when I feel I am drowning in the world's shallow water.
Paul. I am 55. I have been in the nursing / medical world for decades. Ive taught, written and loved the creativity of it. And God seems to insist that I stop. It is disconcerting, dinsintegrating and i have found it to date impossible to stop. Almost like addiction. Until I heard a quote from St John of the Cross. About a bird that is tied down by a piece of grass is no more or less free than one tied by a chain (along those lines..) After that and thanks to my spiritual accompanier, (spiritual mother) repeating back to me my own words, today I cut the ties. You only have to listen back to yourself for your own answer. Is it that God is speaking to many if us in our own hearts, the same message? Could we gather in some way?
I enjoyed the woods with Mary's statue between. I am loving your words. I hope that in your freedom in Christ he may draw you to write of the old saints and Celtic spirituality, that is profoundly present in the earth of Ireland. And who knows where else. The pre schism church of East and West. There is something in that I feel that may be a point of renewal. God bless you.
The world might not need more content but it needs more Kingsnorth. Footage looks great BTW.
Thank you for these posts, Paul. I appreciate them very much!
Superb. Thank you Mr Kingsnorth.
Thank you from this desert sister literally living in the Mojave desert in 100 + degrees this summer solstice ❤
my best advice is to stop reading about current affairs and become a functioning alcoholic.
A durable option for many a writer.
Heard Pauls stunning talk in Estonia in regard of Aldous Huxley.
Just brilliant, so far reaching.
Follow this man,hes onto something very big
I left most of my suitcases behind when I retired from teaching philosophy at age of 64, for the reasons you talk about Paul. The Philokalia was an enormous help, as was f Lazarus, that you mention. Prayer is very practical in giving up the deep fake world and I am lucky to be living near the northern lakes and mountains of Sweden, not totally touristified yet. My children wants me to have a phone if I need help, but I don't use it much. I still have a lap-top on which I write this, after seeing your important message. Thank you for posting !
One consolation if you think giving up on the news gives anxiety. One reason we tell ourselves is that we need to know what's going on. Turn off the news and believe, if its important you will find out about it. Someone will tell you face to face, or maybe send you an email, you might see a poster on a lamppost, or maybe you will overhear it in the wind. It's non essential but the important bit of information you might get once every 7 months you will hear about in other ways.
It´s the news that gives anxiety
Loved this! Re being in the world and pulling away, I e been doing that for quite some years now. Years without TV, years without network news. I hate advertising. This year, my biggest move yet - giving up voting. Wow! But I’ve hated fake for so long. It’s time. And by the time God takes me, I’ll be ready. His timing will be perfect.
The same has happened to me. I can’t watch it. When I dabble…invariably my day is not as good. The spirit of the world easily infects.
That pesky Logismoi ! ☦
Mr Kingsnorth, you always do a great job of getting my attention, but my ears nearly jumped off my head when you mentioned Fr Lazarus El Antony! He's my favourite too (not least because I'm also an Australian Copt, but one that made the opposite move to him; from Egypt to Australia). As you say, fantastic man and his story is just epic. I always wonder why he was attracted to Christ and St Mary in such a dramatic way and my guess is he had/has a purity of heart (and body, most likely) that makes him special. Fascinating!
God bless you brother, and may your/our struggle against "the machine" and its distractions be acceptable in God's sight as the psalm says "...let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer".
Yes. I am drowning in content. I watched the whole thing and I appreciate both your zeal and your recognition of the paradox of your situation-creating ever more droplets that add to the mighty River of Fakeness. But God also meets us here, and I would argue that THIS is the desert. The internet. And the work of the modern saint is to ground the wire, which I believe you are doing out of a deep love for the world.
“Entering the new country with nothing”, isn’t that how we come to Jesus in the end?
I'm a Missouri Synod Lutheran. Your talk, Paul, has much to do with vocation. Luther would say that we recognize our vocation often not to much by self-examination but by considering those around us. Thus you and I are fathers and husbands. We have vocations that correspond to these relationships. Many people reading these comments have not yet retired, as I have; they have God-given responsibilities connected with their employment, and some may decide that their employments are inconsistent with their deepest responsibilities; but a "job" may imply a spiritual discipline in regard to the work and to the people alongside whom one works.
So we consider the medieval model, that there are those who work, those who rule and/or fight, and those who pray. Those who work were, primarily, those who worked the land, practicing good husbandry we hope, etc. Some are placed in a position in which they are responsible for the defense of the realm -- there were no police as such then, but probably most people here will agree that sheriffs and other officers are necessary, and, moreover, a trained soldiery may be necessary. The agrarian hobbits depended, without knowing it, on the Rangers who patrolled the dangerous regions on their behalf. Those who pray were the clergy who served in the public ministry of (as Lutherans like to say) Word and Sacrament (the Gottesdienst), plus the monks and nuns who lived by their Rules. I myself believe that some sort of monasticism is increasingly needed (1) to pray and (2) to provide refuge for some of the damaged people who need something more or other than what a local congregation can provide or what a secular counselor is up to. This could include people who have become terribly damaged by traffic with unclean spirits. And there are going to be more and more of them in Europe and the Americas, I suspect.
You can reinforce your resolve to cut off the news by reading Rolf Dobelli's classic article:
www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli
Dr. Liddon on E. B. Pusey:
In our day many ingenious theories have been put forth as to the origin of language. But Dr. Pusey believed that the only one which does justice to what it is in itself and to its place in nature as a characteristic of man is the belief that it is an original gift of God; the counterpart of that other and greater gift of His, a self-questioning and immortal soul. Language is the life of the human soul, projected into the world of sound; it exhibits in all their strength and delicacy the processes by which the soul takes account of what passes without and within itself; in it may be studied the minute anatomy of the soul’s life - that inner world in which thought takes shape and conscience speaks, and the eternal issues are raised and developed to their final form. Therefore Dr. Pusey looked upon language with the deepest interest and reverence; he handled it as a sacred thing which could not be examined or guarded or employed too carefully; he thought no trouble too great in order to ascertain and express its exact shades of meaning…
-- H. P. Liddon, 1884
Thanks for reading.
DN
Thank you for the link to the Rolf Dobelli article!! It's definitely given me incentive to get off of UA-cam, which is where I get my news as I don't have a TV.
@@heatherbee3204 Yeah, it made quite an impression on me too!
In 2014 I found myself without TV for 3 months. I then bought one. I turned it on and several minutes later I turned it off. I have not watched MSN since and I do not miss it.
Paul, thank you for your thought-provoking video. I think you are on to something at least in the sense of walking away from much of what we are told we shouldn't walk away from. I am a Roman Catholic and I have been thinking a lot about the examples of saints such as St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, etc. who all sought God by leaving the world behind. Both St. Benedict and St. Francis of Assisi sought refuge and spiritual combat in caves in order to be purified before they could answer God's call. St. Teresa is a master of mystical prayer because she chose a life focused solely on God. I think we do have to be willing to part with the constant noise of the Machine in order to grow in holiness and prayer. I think of how this week every time I tried to do mental prayer I had a song my daughter was listening to going through my head on a loop. We need silence in order to encounter God, which is why the Machine is hell bent on noise. It is diabolical. I think we need to shut the endless technology off in order to grow in prayer, but then to actually live the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity by serving within our physical communities. Staring endlessly at news we cannot control while our own communities are falling apart is insanity. There are people right outside our door who need us to be Christ to them. We are too busy staring at our phones to see Christ in our midst. The saints are all grassroots sorts of people, not top down reformers. We can't fix politics or what is going on elsewhere, but we can begin in our own homes, churches, and towns. We can begin by fighting the darkness within our own hearts. That is enough darkness to keep us battling until our dying day! God bless.
I too have felt liberated by turning from the toxicity of politics and the information overload. It only lasts a week before I get sucked in. God bless you on your journey.
what a blessing for my fathers book to reach your hands. enjoy :)
Great talk, Thank you for the content:) You cannot live like a monk in the world and you Cannot live with the world as a monk - interesting problem! But maybe we in the world can live a little bit more like the monk, and like you say, seek shelter from the storm of indifference and fakery.
Thank you for this perfect sacred Summer Solstice sermon dear Paul. Just what I needed! This machine ( my cell phone) has taken me into a dark place. It's time to let it go and walk closer to God.
Best wishes to you. It is my phone and internet that has convinced me of God and Christ's existence. Satan over played his hand. If there is no God, then why would such evil exist? Wishing you strength as you move into the light.
Timely thoughts. I've been thinking a lot about this Paul, in large part because I already had a wife and 8 children before also becoming an Orthodox Christian a couple of years ago, so there's not exactly any desert cave path for us at this point. In fact, we even tried isolation for a while on a homestead before Orthodoxy, and we learned a lot, but one of the main conclusions is that children especially do indeed need something like a village and extended family of close loving relationships to feel whole and develop correctly. Thank God that realization led us to Orthodoxy, and it was our pilgrimage to Ireland last year, staying with those blessed sisters near you, that got us realizing that perhaps the model for families is something like a monastery of the home and parish, and we've been trying to model our lives that way, in the ways possible, even while now living back in the city (to be near our parish). I sense this implicit desire in so many of the families of the parish, which are now our extended family and village. It's kind of a modified Benedict Option that doesn't require everyone to retreat to a wilderness enclave (which "intentional communities" have not tended to go too well, at least in recent times here in the United States).
Thank you. I want to retreat. I’m married to a good man who would never think of this. So my home must be my cave.
If you have a back yard you can have a retreat. The essence of retreat is getting immersed in Nature. Feed the birds and make shelters for all kinds of creatures. Plant trees and bushes everywhere, Keep chickens, they are our ancient companions, little dinosaurs who teach us how to be based,, and bridge us to understanding the wild birds. Greet the creatures when you go out your door, so they are not startled, and listen for their replies. And plant a garden and work with your hands.
Paul as a new Christian who is drawn to Orthodoxy and a life close to nature. Please keep making these films if you feel called to make them. It helps us more than you could know
not watching the news will be easier than you think! thoughts soften, a quiet peace comes
How apropos to have Christ's mother "sitting" over your shoulder. I needed to hear this. Thank you.
Yes, I noticed that too.
A timely video for me Paul. As another culture and politics addict, this is something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time. The solstice is in 22 minutes, this time I will change?...
Paul your words ring very true. One of the issues with all this is to not throw the baby (Jesus) out with the bath water. After all he came into ‘the world’ to lead us out of it. So while words and the internet can on one hand “trap” they can also help release (from the deep fake world) .
These are the words you use. Words that emerge from “The Word”.
That’s a whole different kind of creation.
I spent last weekend in Moyvanne Co. Kerry celebrating the life of John Moriarty and his message which I think many are more ready to hear now. It was such a profound experience I cannot find words for it!
The well known people who were there, who’s purpose it seems is to carry messages like Johns forward, are your contemporaries.
Where would we be without the divine words passed down to help us find our way?
There’ll be times and maybe and end point where all words become useless. But for now they are a necessary channel for the silence - the “peace that surpasses all understanding” . Thanks Paul for how you use the gift of the word.
"I remain with nothing, so that I do not lose that which I have been given." Josip Lasta, in the novel "Island of the World", by Micheal O'Brien.
Even as we die as the 'new martyrs' you speak of, we have to write, have to testify, have to sing. For such we were made, as eternal creatures, to the glory of God forever. When we sing and testify in response to who God is, what we give is also eternal, even if in its presentation ot the world is it is indistinguishable from IA, or never reach the eyes and ears of the hungry soul. Continue to worship God, dear brother, by whatever means He offers you in His kindness. He has been so kind to you, and kind to us through you.
Paul your words are better than most......
Amen ❤️
A mental breakdown is definitely a sign of not being able to live in the world you find yourself in. I knew how I felt about the world but how does one disappear from children, a husband, a community that expects you to take part in the upkeep of it’s social life. 25yrs of self inflicted isolation under psychiatric care was the outcome of my yearning not to be, until I found my priorities, built myself up and chose to come back to family and friends. Finding God again was instrumental in giving me the strength to go back, knowing that I was never alone.
nicely put.....now im off to watch the football lol
Thank you for this video. Withdrawing from the "stuff" that agitates and distracts us from beauty and love is one way to interpret Jesus' command that we seek first the kingdom of God. Psalm 46 exhorts us to be still and know that God is God, so keeping silence is another aspect of responding to the "noise." Your visit with us reminded me of Peguy's poem, The Surrender of Sleep. Stay well. Prayers for you and your family.
Beautiful and true. May our good Lord Jesus continue to watch over you and guide you along the way.
I am like you. I gave up my phone for a month because I saw the evil that has come into our world through algorithms and AI . What I learned is how difficult it is to live in the world without your phone! I have it again (obviously) but with a new attitude and avoiding obviously addictive content. There is so much good out there , we need these tools to find each other but we have to be very careful with them.
I got rid of my tv in 1983 but the internet injected it back into my life. You’re wise to reject news. It’s all propaganda now.
Read much Ellul? He’s my top 5. The Humiliation of the Word explains our modern problem better than anything. He also once pointed out the literal definition of the word Satan is “politics “ so your friend who walked away sounds wise. But I got enthusiastic about Robert Kennedy jr and his attack on the machine and that dragged me back in.
Also please read Josiah Royce- The Problem of Christianity, it’s fantastic
Just remember that entry into politics is guarded, and the first requirement is to be different from how you portray yourself. This is just as true and inevitable ( for those who get to the top) however big the myth around them.
Beware of someone mouthing what you want to hear. There are many layers to RFK.
I m Romanian Orthodox.A monk in a Monastery is just a monk.We have had so many,for a millenium or hundreds of years! The real holly monks lived and live in caves,in our deep forests. I wish ppl to understand that they are not protected themselves from this world.And in their profound connection with God,they are praying for us all.Their are not searching for any benefits for themselves.They are giving their lives to God,for us! We call them " pustnic",it' s different from a monk,different from those you meet on Athos or any other Orthodox Monastery.🙏
Profound. Thank you for the invitation to consider how, particular to each person, the desert father/mother emulation is to take shape.
Technical feedback. Consider putting the microphone a little bit lower because swallowing and mouth noises are distracting and unpleasant.
Regarding the "news" and Fr Lazarus' advice: he's right. And the weird thing is that it's possible to take that advice, taking a good amount of time to build up a resistance to the wiles of that fakery and that preoccupation with "this world", and then actually return to the point where you can once again encounter the news in a whole new way. But when you encounter it again, it feels so shallow and kind of pointless (at least in my experience). I avoid political discussions now and largely avoid politics in general mostly because I now feel (after about 20 years as an Orthodox Christian and 12+ years as a priest who has intentionally left discussing and following politics behind for the most part) that those things are not applicable to me, in a weird sense. As an American, I can sense the push of personal responsibility I'm supposed to have for the political sphere, but being a citizen of The Kingdom of God, I find it hard to dedicate myself to that "task". We are in this world , but we are not stuck with it or trapped by it, no longer being "of it", as Christ would tell us. I encourage my flock regularly to simply turn off the news and let it go. There are those who will directly tell me, "No," and then make all sorts of excuses why this is ill-advised or impossible. But I usually retort that if there is anything actually important happening in the world that requires our attention, the Lord will make certain that we know about it. Those who cannot turn off the news, the internet, social media, etc seem to think that these things are giving them more life and more awareness, not realizing the massive blinders that are being imposed on them by these gatekeeping industries.
Oh, my - thank you for this, Paul. I have been wondering about wandering into the desert - what it means to daily depend on the food of God, his sustenance, grace and mercy, as upon manna. For me, themes of but surrendering more to what God wishes for me today, even as I plan and such (Lord, your will be done, not mine!). Your words also bring in the element of leaving behind the things of the world that enslave us and make us crazy, and I ponder now, the many ways I engage with the world that enslaves me, and keeps me from being in prayer with God. The reality I experience is indeed very different when I truly walk out of the world, and into the arms of God. Blessings to you.
Not at all worthless what you write and film and think, Paul. Thank you for sharing that!
Paul, the way you say we're *flooded* -- I'm thinking of how you build a boat, you craft something in order to stay afloat, and you kindly make room for some strangers to get on board, to sail with you. I feel this is what you do. Thank you.
Yes! What you talk about in this video is something that is moving through the air these last months.
Paul, my family came to Orthodoxy around the same time as you. This is exactly how I’ve been feeling as of late. The sheer volume of content is excruciating. But I’m thankful for what you do.
I hear you, brother, I hear you. Fr Stephen Freeman said after he become Orthodox he could not write at all for years. I have had much the same happen.
How will you bring the light of Christ to the world if you walk into the desert?
Great to see you again Paul
Are you not talking about the Rich Young Ruler? We are each him, caught by the things of this world that enthrall us, that we most think we cannot live without. Jesus says that is what we must give up, leave behind, give away so that we can come to Him impoverished, emptied, and therefore ready to be filled with His "things," which is the Spirit of Christ, the Way of Life.
Does the world need more content? YES-this kind of content.
Thank you Paul❣️
Thank you Paul. Your words resonate with me greatly. ❤
That singing bird in the background sounds rather like a blackcap in your lead in Paul 🐦⬛
Enjoy your holiday Paul. Appreciate your writing and videos. I endeavour to limit my time online but it’s voices like yours that make it a value resource for me. Greetings from Cork.
Thanks Paul, your words bring me peace. God bless you.
Comments on the show “Mrs. Davis”?
Very well done, and highly relevant.
The sufferings in this time of fakery .. .for many of us it has been the loss of true contact with family and friends who are entranced, and who despise us if we speak our truth, however so quietly.
I have heard many talks from you since I discovered you more than a decade ago. I always enjoy your words which hold wisdom to me.
I do engage with the machine, albeit for my job or some hobby's that I have to have fun and connect with the world and myself.
I also have so many observations, questions and thoughts regarding this topic and spirituality/religion, I would love to talk about with you (and others).
I'm thankful for this, thank you Paul.
Thank you. In answer to whether the world needs more content, the answer is yes, more like this that points to a world not reduced to "content."
This is where UA-cam bottoms out at the end of the politic…. Welcome Sir Kingsnorth, to this little corner of the internet.
Welcome to thinking out loud and to this conversation.
I love this little film
"Zen spirituality isn't thinking about God while peeling potatoes, zen spirituality is peeling potatoes."
- Alan Watts
Thanks Paul. I have had very similar thoughts myself but equally (at the very least) I find it difficult to turn away from the politics of the election or just the ongoing stream of nonsense that has us all outraged or angry or perplexed or whatever. I hope I can find the wisdom and the strength to simply turn away from it all and return to the more permanent things that actually do matter.
One last time... I think... We have given our minds over to the idea that we can do a better job controlling nature (god?) and have attempted control in spite of very limited knowledge (Really!). Time and again we want to believe (worship?!) technology and science (impossible quest to know all) are superior to the 'unknowable'. Time to get humble and clean up our mess. Start by using less. Good Luck or fortune or fate, wherever your comfort is found.
Thank you so much for sharing your heart it blessed me; God bless you brother
Thank you Paul! One of the gifts of the Covid years is that it helped me see the extent of fakery, and feel motivated to explore what is real and true. It has been a exciting spiritual journey since! I have a question - I’m raising a seven-year-old, we’re in a great Homeschool community, but I do wonder whether you have ideas about raising children to be in the world but not of the world...
Hi Paul. Very glad indeed to have discovered your clips. I do wonder, though, whether there is a way to be in the world but not if the world that does not involve retreat from humanity in all its unwashed state. Humanity needs people with insight whose martyrdom may well be making themselves available to those caught up in the fake. Do keep what you're doing. It certainly helps me. Thank you. Jonathan
Hi P, great upload with profound thoughts. I also fell (ill) after following too much modern media indiscriminately, until I descovered it being todays opium to keep the majority stump. Manipulation by axe/sword, more recent bullit/NBC technology, today electric/tronic/AI every human is 'connected' to exploid on behave of the few percentage privaledged. 99% of what you say I can support. Only to reach optimal self realisation, imho, I kept only one connection pure, which is Nature(Gaya) in spiritualty. Some 'machine' technologies do enhance without at cost of 'life'. Modern, relative new, any scripture, believes are value based and the core of all evil in mankind. One doesn' t need to hide in a dessert.. Seek likeminded, make pleasure but think more before just enslave yoursef! Live between the lines! An old geezer....
❤❤❤
It's the Kingdom of God vs the kingdoms of the world. God is love and life. Pilate represents the kingdoms of the world (the Machine). Pilate has Jesus killed. God raises Jesus from the dead.
The crucified and risen Jesus Christ is Lord of the world. He calls each of us to follow Him and join with Him in the way of true sacrificial love and true resurrectional life by the Spirit in this world....be that in the desert or in the city or wherever you're "sent" or "called."
"Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (Jn 20:21)
Despite the seeming novelty of AI, this is how it has been with pharaohs, kings, and presidents across time; and how it will be with any notional one-world government or intergalactic empires. Deepfakes may seem like the pinnacle of twisted worldly manifestations but because we humans tend to believe our individual experiences are unique, we couple this with novel historical developments like AI and make a grand story out of it. It is a conflation of novelty and a lack of historical perspective. Yet we fail to see that it is not unique. At some point we realize, no we feel in our guts and at the deepest level of our beings, that it is the same pattern stretching through time, at which point the scales fall from our eyes as we understand the definition of “the world.” It is not end times because AI is the shiny object the world is now fixed on. Yes, you live in this, whatever you’d like to call it: fallen, evil, crazy world. Tubal-Cain was the first artificer and AI is only the latest manifestation demonstrating its provenance to his line of creations, no different than a Glock or fighter jet. Excepting yourself from all of this cannot be the answer, but refusing to give power to novelty and pettiness should be the answer for those of us who cannot live in caves, which is the majority. Building something here as in heaven, loving your family, trying to love your fellow human with your necessarily limited and imperfect love, are truer ways to be part of this creation than running away.
Proposition: television was (still is for many) more addicting, passive, and harmful to us than the internet. Even in its current degraded state with its temptations and addictions, the net enables engagement, interaction, call-and-response, spontaneous creativity. You can't get into a dialogue with the TV. THAT was brainwashing.
I see nettles are doing just as well in Ireland as they do over here in Poland.
Nutritious
Your Hiuxley video got my attention to you as a speaker and thinker and it was pleasant to listen to someone else on the planet who refuses to carry a smartphone around. But then, going to this video, you start slipping words like "god" and "christians" and you lost me.
There's definitely a tension. It would be an error to wholly reject and rebuke the world, the world that God so loved he gave his only begotten... Are we better than God? There is an appropriate time for reclusion from the world and some are called for that purpose, but not all. We just celebrated 30th anniversary of the glorification of St. John of San Francisco, he was anything but a hermit.
The world needs urban monasteries just as much as it needs secluded monasteries. Hermeticism is not unknown to the devil as a device of temptation.
Oh dear - you are probably burned out like Graham Greene's hero in "A Burnt-Out Case". This gloomy (but excellent, and very religious) novel ends badly, sort of - except that for Catholics death is not a bad ending (unless it is by suicide, this is "streng verboten"). But I hope for all our sakes that you are only partially burned out and will recover after a good rest. We all need to withdraw from time to time, not necessarily permanently, if only to recharge our batteries. A "sabbatical" lasts a year usually; a "retreat" can be shorter. I don't want to make light of any deep spiritual malaise that needs a longer withdrawal, but 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the desert did the trick for Jesus (He ran into big trouble at the end of this, but that probably would not happen to anyone else).
I think life in all its forms can be enormously dispiriting for men, partly because so much is expected of them and partly because they WANT to be busy and active and get into real or virtual battles, even if it causes wounds, angst and exhaustion. But there is something different about the 21st century. Engaging with the world at any level has now become dispiriting for women too, and even children are suffering from "burn-out".
It would be crazy NOT to feel drained and empty as multiple crises and catastrophes roll around us daily. But I don't think disengaging from the local and international News helps - loads of people I know I have done this, and they are grumpier than ever. You just have to learn how to detach yourself from all the calamities and not feel obliged to try and fix any of them, let alone all of them. Doctors and nurses must do this Detachment all the time or they would collapse. The BIble helps me enormously - it is a litany of disaster from start to finish, tragi-comic in places. Even the Book of Job is funny in places - actually it is a good place to start if you are feeling gloomy, on the homeopathic principle of "like cures like". But all of the Bible takes it as read that Life is awful and humans are full of Iniquity (including our own selves) - so we must just do our best and look forward to the next world - the Hereafter or the Afterlife, as some call it. Yes, some characters in the Bible are spectacularly wicked, or foolish, or both - but it is a sliding scale, and we are all on it.
It is not just highly spiritual people who feel that the world can get a bit much. Every time I walk along a river bank, there are always loads of men of all ages sitting alone at intervals, fishing. They don't seem bothered about catching any fish. Sometimes they chat with nearby fishers, mostly they seem to prefer silence. They ignore passing walkers. I expect they have awful jobs, and live in crowded towns and cities, and this is their way of escaping for a while. A day out with the family is not going to cut it. They need silence, and some wild plants and trees, if possible. One or two look like professional "drop-outs" - impressive faces, these, deeply spiritual. But most are obviously "normal, ordinary" fellows who drive delivery vans, or fix plumbing, or tarmac the roads, or whatever. Some might even be managers and teachers and civil servants - though this seems unlikely.
Slightly more sociable, but still mostly working-class, are the golfers. They don't like crowds - e.g. football matches - so a round of golf with a couple of mates is perfect. By all accounts, loads of men simply slope off to a shed at the bottom of the garden to get some respite from Life. Even Lord Cameron has a shed, it is said. Higher up the income ladder, men still like to get away from it all - my father didn't need a shed, but he liked listening to records, he had hundreds of them, and I think this is a pretty common escape for men of all social classes. Then there are the pigeon-fanciers at the bottom of the social ladder - and the gentlemen's clubs at the top. These entail only minimal socialising, nothing too taxing. The stereotype club is a room full of men sitting on their own behind a huge newspaper with a glass of whisky, occasionally exchanging gruff pleasantries with other club members. I know my grandfather, who was "something in the City" used to come home to six children and disappear into his study with a glass of whisky, not to be seen again until bedtime. His children adored him, all the same. If Turkish Baths had been available in Putney, no doubt he would have gone there occasionally - the bathhouse has been a refuge for men ever since it was invented (well Before Christ, I am sure).
The need to escape is perfectly "normal" and is described in social history throughout the ages. But it has grown exponentially since 1800, like a lot of other things. And exponential growth is not funny. It is really scary. Even if it is something nice, like a doughnut or a potato, it is still scary if it grows exponentially. We are surrounded by Exponential Growth of loads of things, visible and invisible. Eeeeek. Perhaps a permanent Escape would be wise? Who knows? - not me. But some people really would be missed, so they really ought not to be allowed to escape from the Human Zoo, cruel though this sounds. I am not talking about born Hermits like Father Lazarus - these are very unique people. But you can't suddenly be reborn as a natural Hermit - yes, we change throughout life, but not THAT much.
🙏mowed by your sharing ✍ 💦
I just sat down yesterday with my inbox, inundated with newsletters because I made the mistake of starting my own substack and subscribing to several writers I like. Good. God.
I even hesitate to write on my own substack because I don't want to be part of the data-whelm cacophony that assaults us all. I don't want to be an annoyance to anyone taking their precious time to read my words.
I also have stayed silent for most of my life and I feel that putting my voice into the world is (and always has been) a matter of survival and fulfillment. Trying to strike this balance is very strange, and maybe impossible at this time. Through the delineated platforms and machine's means on offer, anyway.
I think it is going to take a very long time before we can’t tell the difference between fake live performance (music, theatre, dance, art, etc). Also the so called art that Ai threatens to make its own is digital. Well, it is always going to be fairly easy to distinguish between an oil painting made by a human and Ai. The same thing goes for charcoal, watercolour and sculptural materials like granite for instance. The way a human interact with these materials is unique due to our superior ways for subtle motions. If Ai wants to claim the digital world as its own, let it! We humans can go back to the real world of art any time we want. In this way Ai can be the best thing that ever happened to the world of art. It may turn out that humanity develops a much higher appreciation for true art, music, dance and theatre due to the fake crap that Ai is spitting out. The digital media was always dead and non-vibrant. Not a suitable media for art. Not quite the same thing with the written word, unfortunately. I’m guessing that we will see an increased interest in live conversations between humans as a direct consequence of all the nonsense we read on-line. Maybe we will start to show more genuine interests in others voices and what they are actually saying (to our faces)?
Unfortunately, it is going to be very hard to discern what’s fake and what’s real when we walk into a bookstore to buy a book in the future though. We will have to become much more intelligent in detecting underlying intentions and agendas in texts we read, going forward. Long before the advent of Ai we already had a fake bunch of writers with sinister agendas spewing out their political propaganda in almost robotic manners. Ai is only going to amplify that very unfortunate side of humanity. Ai forces us to upgrade ourselves and become much more acutely aware of what’s going on our lives and the world around us. If we decide to continue to live a robotic life of non-reflection I’m afraid we will be overrun by real robots soon enough, since they do that sort of thing so much better that we do! If we are human beings, let’s be humans in the fullest sense of the term then. Let’s show the world what human spirit truly is!
Bolstering is important when boundaries are breached. Thank you for sharing this. You may be hiding from " the world," but you are not alone, and your ability to both listen and be guided by your heart is no small thing. In terms of writing as a means to control... I will let Hayao Miyazaki speak for me: " Which would you choose, a world with pyramids, or without?... Humanity has always dreamed of flying... But the dream is cursed... My aircraft are destined to become tools for slaughter and destruction... But still, I choose a world with pyramids in it... Which world will you choose?"
Yes... it's all fake. There is a grand plan, but we can't appreciate it unless we turn from the nonsense and focus on God's truth.
First time I've heard you. Thank you for this
Don't worry. Everything is data to feed The Algorithm.
Please pass Go and please collect 200 dollars.
May God Bless you Paul. You are a godsend to us ❤
written words generally implies the absence of the author. readers rarely meet the authors of the books on the shelf. Likewise the Word is physically absent now. He was here for a short time then departed. We have the written words of God in his absence. Hes here in spirit among his people. He will return and the Author will dwell on earth on the throne of David. Derrida said the spoken word has primacy over the written. Kernel of truth in that as its better to walk with God in the garden rather than merely read his book. But thats what we have now as we wait.
Christ was Mars closer before as in closest of the polar configuration great one eye looming huge in old north sky . . the holy trinity & devil all that old chat
counterfeit, fake, false. ANTI - if u catch my drift.
Thank you for your thoughts. Very glad I sought out your channel and subscribed (even though minimal content) and marked all notification following your discussion with Jonathan Pageau last month 🙏
Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
You should start your own monastary
Catastrophe would very quickly ensue.
@@Peekay72a monastery of truth. Of art. Of beauty. He already has. Look at the wonderful comments on his substack - not many other writers have such quality readers.
the machine has a shape - all machines are the same shape - pyramidal. If you wish to dismantle the machine, you need to 'see' the shape first - acknowledge it's form - it's made of stacked humans of course . I guess if you can remove half of the bottom row, the rest can collapse - ie - inform the newly converted of their error and persuade them to walk away, as they are the least 'programmed'. I find you have to distill everything to the essence - the foundations - to see what's going on. Simplify things. Jesus is the ultimate word for 'good' - and we know the name for 'evil'. We should simply see Jesus as a light beacon - and anything we wish to involve ourselves in, we should hold up to the beacon and let the light shine into every corner. If there's an area that doesn't wish to be 'lit', then we have an issue. Secrecy is the enemy of truth. It's not the same as privacy of course.
It was helpful to hear this. Thanks Paul!
Dear Paul, lovely to see and hear from you again. I wonder if the desert might be one's mind rather than a place. To work towards a mind that is free from the desire for the things of the world (machine), so that one may finally 'know' what remains when the spell of desire has subsided - God.
You are on point, though. But removing oneself from society really is a drastic action. Be a vessel of God regardless of place and circumstance.
You and your voice are a blessing to us. Thank you.
Pretty good Ai genrated deepfake, but your not fooling me 😊
Thank you Paul. Couldn’t agree more.