Cowboys and Aliens - A Metaphor
Recently I put into effect a Google feature that alerts me to items that interest me. I've put in a number of Catholicist Nation items like "Legacy of Cain," "ungrafted church," and "value extraction." Needless to say, these things never come up because no one knows anything about them. Oh they are very truthful and veritable aspects of life, of the critical contrast between the World and the Kingdom. But they aren't in the discourse because so much of the what's out there is of the World System, and bazillions of people who follow Cain right out of the presence of God and into the law enforcement clamps of Caesar don't have the faintest idea.
There is a Google Alert item that does come up every once in a while, however. It is "human sacrifice." It's just that when it comes up, it comes up as that thing people do when they carry out some ritualistic murder of an individual, much like the Aztecs did when they hacked out the pulsating heart of a prisoner of war at the top of the ziggurat temple or wherever they did that kind of thing.
It never comes up as the human sacrifice that happens all the time, all over the place in today's world.
That kind of human sacrifice is when an individual takes someone else's value and hacks it off to appropriate it and make oneself feel better, more whole, more complete. There are dozens of very typical ways this is done, and many are listed here on this webpage.
I don't think there are many people out there who would agree that these things are really human sacrifice. But if one carefully looks at the evidence with thoughtful and biblically sound wisdom and insight, I don't think there can be any other conclusion. The reason too many of even the most wholesome church people refuse to see it is because of their declared devotion to the World System.
I bring this up because I watched the film Cowboys and Aliens last night on video. (Note: there will be spoilers in this post.) I remember when it came out a few months ago and it looked so wonderful, but it got ravaged by the critics. I don't know what they were so pissy about, it was terrific western fare, and I generally don't like westerns. I'm sure they were expecting some pithy, meaningful, revelatory something from it, but hey, it was just cowboys and Indians with the cowboys joining up with the Indians to have gunfights against aliens. Cool.
Now I wouldn't have thought this except that when the aliens went after people, they didn't just stab them with their extra long claws, which they could've done very easily to any of those against whom they were battling. No, for a few of them, the alien actually started eating his victim. The alien even had an extra physical feature: small arms that emerged from their gut, each with three "fingers" with which to further grope or grasp at something. The metaphor: People grope and grasp at others for the purpose of eating them. Maybe not in the cannabilistic sense we think about, but in the sense that anytime someone is trying to schlurp up more for their retirement than they would otherwise get from simple, honest human value transfer, they are still doing human sacrifice.
When the aliens abducted people, they held them in a room, but they didn't have to tie them down or chain them up. The people were just standing there, completely immobile because of the brilliant hypnotic light that transfixed them. They were all in a semiconscious state just gazing at that light. The metaphor: How phenomenally powerful is the light of the World System, keeping people in a state of complete disunderstanding about the true nature of things. How many Jesuses are out there distracting people from coming to the real One who offers them forgiveness, salvation, righteousness, truth, grace, eternal life. They look like they are up and about and with-it people, but they are slaves to Cain -- perfectly reasonable because the agency of Cain was set in motion to keep sinful people from tearing one another apart in days. They still do human sacrifice, however.
The aliens did their gratuituous probing of their captured humans on "tables," which could easily be considered an altar, and what they did to their victims could easily be a metaphor for what powerful people in society do to try to get their value extraction cut. Sure it's all good alien abduction fare, pretty typical for these kinds of movies. Nothing really unusual there.
Except, why exactly do we get all squirmy and feel repelled by the idea of aliens snatching us up to have their way with us on their exploratory tables?
And why don't we feel the same way when people do that with us and our value assessments in real life right now?
I wrote a bit more about this in an old home page piece. It is here. My most recent home page piece is on the ultimate destination for those who spend their entire lives successful in other-sacrifice.
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There is a Google Alert item that does come up every once in a while, however. It is "human sacrifice." It's just that when it comes up, it comes up as that thing people do when they carry out some ritualistic murder of an individual, much like the Aztecs did when they hacked out the pulsating heart of a prisoner of war at the top of the ziggurat temple or wherever they did that kind of thing.
It never comes up as the human sacrifice that happens all the time, all over the place in today's world.
That kind of human sacrifice is when an individual takes someone else's value and hacks it off to appropriate it and make oneself feel better, more whole, more complete. There are dozens of very typical ways this is done, and many are listed here on this webpage.
I don't think there are many people out there who would agree that these things are really human sacrifice. But if one carefully looks at the evidence with thoughtful and biblically sound wisdom and insight, I don't think there can be any other conclusion. The reason too many of even the most wholesome church people refuse to see it is because of their declared devotion to the World System.
I bring this up because I watched the film Cowboys and Aliens last night on video. (Note: there will be spoilers in this post.) I remember when it came out a few months ago and it looked so wonderful, but it got ravaged by the critics. I don't know what they were so pissy about, it was terrific western fare, and I generally don't like westerns. I'm sure they were expecting some pithy, meaningful, revelatory something from it, but hey, it was just cowboys and Indians with the cowboys joining up with the Indians to have gunfights against aliens. Cool.
But a couple things just struck me, and made me think about how much the film was a metaphor for actual real-life modern-day human sacrifice.
For one, the aliens were these ugly (how could they not be), pasty, grey-colored creatures who had a gangly and hunched-over look to them -- They reminded me of the image of Saturn in Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son. I went ahead and included it here.
Now I wouldn't have thought this except that when the aliens went after people, they didn't just stab them with their extra long claws, which they could've done very easily to any of those against whom they were battling. No, for a few of them, the alien actually started eating his victim. The alien even had an extra physical feature: small arms that emerged from their gut, each with three "fingers" with which to further grope or grasp at something. The metaphor: People grope and grasp at others for the purpose of eating them. Maybe not in the cannabilistic sense we think about, but in the sense that anytime someone is trying to schlurp up more for their retirement than they would otherwise get from simple, honest human value transfer, they are still doing human sacrifice.When the aliens abducted people, they held them in a room, but they didn't have to tie them down or chain them up. The people were just standing there, completely immobile because of the brilliant hypnotic light that transfixed them. They were all in a semiconscious state just gazing at that light. The metaphor: How phenomenally powerful is the light of the World System, keeping people in a state of complete disunderstanding about the true nature of things. How many Jesuses are out there distracting people from coming to the real One who offers them forgiveness, salvation, righteousness, truth, grace, eternal life. They look like they are up and about and with-it people, but they are slaves to Cain -- perfectly reasonable because the agency of Cain was set in motion to keep sinful people from tearing one another apart in days. They still do human sacrifice, however.
The aliens did their gratuituous probing of their captured humans on "tables," which could easily be considered an altar, and what they did to their victims could easily be a metaphor for what powerful people in society do to try to get their value extraction cut. Sure it's all good alien abduction fare, pretty typical for these kinds of movies. Nothing really unusual there.
Except, why exactly do we get all squirmy and feel repelled by the idea of aliens snatching us up to have their way with us on their exploratory tables?
And why don't we feel the same way when people do that with us and our value assessments in real life right now?
I wrote a bit more about this in an old home page piece. It is here. My most recent home page piece is on the ultimate destination for those who spend their entire lives successful in other-sacrifice.
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