Knowledge Protects

Many people, especially people in the Heretic’s family, what good is there in focussing on all this scary depressing stuff. Good question. Actually, there are three parts to this question. The three parts, often articulated by Mrs. Heretic, goes something like, “if all these bad things are going to happen and there is nothing we can do about it, why dwell on it? Why not just enjoy the time we have before the collapse?

Let’s take the first part, “if all these bad things are going to happen.” We don’t know with 100% certainty that rough patch we are anticipating (descent into economic collapse, fascism and world war) will take place. It looks likely, though, but we don’t know until it does happen.

Secondly, “and there is nothing we can do about it:” this, I think is wrong. In a linear analysis, we may be nobodies with no power, but in a non-linear sense “nobody is a nobody.” No one knows what action will tip the scales in a different direction. At the very least we want to be able to say we did everything we could to avoid the bad outcome.

As for “why not enjoy every moment?” I do believe we should do that, that we should proceed with joy. Depression will not help anything as it leads to hopelessness and fatalism.

By coincidence, as I was writing this, I took a break to read George Ure’s site and he posted this in response to a question by someone on a radio show,

who asked something to the effect "So if you see this collapse coming, why are
you so chipper?" Simple: I'm an optimistic kind of person by nature - and I'm
well prepared for whatever comes along.

When you see the "handwriting on
the wall" about the economy, come face-to-face with your own mortality once or
twice, and take serious lifestyle changing deliberate actions to increase your
odds of survival, your stress levels drop dramatically, and you can get on with
what humans are supposed to be - namely be happy, self actualizing, smart/clever
quite social animals.

In Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s Cassiopean material, which is where I got “nobody is a nobody,” (there and in Tolkien), there is a phrase, “Knowledge Protects.” In Martha Stout’s, The Myth of Sanity, pp. 53-54, this is addressed in terms of avoiding trauma creation. Discussing how the same event might cause trauma in one person and not in another, Stout writes:

Meaning is the important thing. It determines whether or not the mental corridor to helplessness and death will open up, or remain shut and disregarded by us, as that channel usually does. And the meaning we ascribe to a threatening event is determined in part by 'our ability to anticipate, protect, and know ourselves,' as McFarlane and Girolamo have put it. The more we can anticipate what is likely to happen next, the more we feel that we can protect ourselves, the more we know ourselves in general, the more inoculated we are against being traumatized by the frightening or the painful.

Finally, we have Matthew 24 where Jesus warns that the knowledge that protects is not just positive knowledge but knowledge that helps the knower avoid being deceived:

1: Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2: But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down." 3: As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?" 4: And Jesus answered them, "Take heed that no one leads you astray. 5: For many will come in my name, saying, `I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. 6: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8: all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs. 9: "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10: And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. 11: And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12: And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold. 13: But he who endures to the end will be saved.