RE: Does the award for the greatest evil go to Satan or God?
August 22, 2012 at 9:13 pm
(This post was last modified: August 22, 2012 at 9:14 pm by Cyberman.)
I never got the whole "God/Satan" thing, other than the obvious means of social and political control anyway. After all, it's far easier to convince one group of humans to killl another group of humans if you can dehumanise that rival group (hence terms like heathens, godless, sinners, gooks, whatever's going to turn that other person into a target).
But still, let's take a look at it. What does the Devil do anyway? Tempt humans? To do the things that humans enjoy doing? There was a whole routine on Mock the Week in which Frankie Boyle talked about how Primary School (kindergarten) teachers merely have to get the kids to make pictures out of pasta and glitter: "That's what they'd do if you weren't even in the room!"
And what's it all for? We're told, and I've gone into all this before, that the end of the story is already known and was in fact written out right at the beginning. So we all know, Devil included, how the movie ends. So why bother? All this praying for peace on Earth and goodwill to all Men is just as much platitudinous verbal diarrhoea as "have a nice day" or "night-night, don't let the bed-bugs bite!"
As a means of controlling a population that vastly outnumbers the ruling élite, the carrot and stick approach is second to none. The fact that people willingly shackle themselves in a desperate need for something to cling onto (because life is big and scary) is pathetic and, to me, farcical. In the internet age and beyond, hopefully we can finally outgrow the need for such security blankets.
I apologise for mangling my metaphors like so many cats and dogs coming home to roost.
But still, let's take a look at it. What does the Devil do anyway? Tempt humans? To do the things that humans enjoy doing? There was a whole routine on Mock the Week in which Frankie Boyle talked about how Primary School (kindergarten) teachers merely have to get the kids to make pictures out of pasta and glitter: "That's what they'd do if you weren't even in the room!"
And what's it all for? We're told, and I've gone into all this before, that the end of the story is already known and was in fact written out right at the beginning. So we all know, Devil included, how the movie ends. So why bother? All this praying for peace on Earth and goodwill to all Men is just as much platitudinous verbal diarrhoea as "have a nice day" or "night-night, don't let the bed-bugs bite!"
As a means of controlling a population that vastly outnumbers the ruling élite, the carrot and stick approach is second to none. The fact that people willingly shackle themselves in a desperate need for something to cling onto (because life is big and scary) is pathetic and, to me, farcical. In the internet age and beyond, hopefully we can finally outgrow the need for such security blankets.
I apologise for mangling my metaphors like so many cats and dogs coming home to roost.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
