Evil Rules: Guidelines for Engaging in Armageddon Now (original) (raw)

Radical reframing offering neglected degrees of freedom

Evil Rules
Evil rules
Brother against Brother
Unquestionable declarations and assertions
Questionable reframing of evil
Unasked Question I: which world leaders have (not) been labelled "evil"?
Unasked Question II: which countries were (not) engendered by "terrorists"?
Unasked Question III: when did we last do what we abhor now in the actions of others?
In quest of requisite subtlety?
Self-reflexivity: Armageddon as the ultimate Battle with Otherness
Imposing TTIP-TPP-TISA as the caliphate of normality?
References

Introduction

There is now extensive reference to evil in the media, in political declarations, in commentary on the web, and even in academic literature. Most of these references are very clear on what is evil or who is evil. Some of the commentary endeavours to raise questions about how evil is framed. This tends to be matched by other references which consider that raising such subtleties is part of the problem and effectively just another manifestation of evil.

In such circumstances it is appropriate to recognize that the prophesied battle of Armageddon is not some time in the future. That ultimate battle between good and evil is now. This is a time clearly characterized by the Biblical reference: And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against [their] parents, and cause them to be put to death (Matthew 10:21).

The argument here is that Armageddon is better understood as a Battle with Otherness, with which evil is so readily associated. However that "otherness" is even more appropriately understood self-reflexively as a Battle with Ourselves with regard to meaning, identity, credibility and their comprehension. Viable communication of such comprehension requires a language that calls itself into question, challenging premature closure on particular definitions. In this sense the nature of the "battle" is itself better recognized through the subtlest understanding of the "martial arts". It is therefore not surprising that confusion regarding Islamic Jihad has already evoked confusion with regard to a Christian Jihad and a Jewish Jihad. The fundamental struggle is one of comprehension.

Some comment on commentaries about evil offers further insight. Reference is made to that in concluding sections below -- however irrelevant to the dynamics of the battle in which people are required to engage now. More relevant to an understanding of that battle is a sense of the rules governing individual and collective behaviour in the face of evil. Hence the following checklist.