Rule number one:
The first step to overcoming an enemy is being aware of his
existence.
Over the past one
hundred or so years, our entire Western culture has been subtly
re-programmed. Our behaviors, our responses, our hopes and our
desires have been subject to various and contrived manipulations
by those who stand to profit from being able to control the
behavior and responses of both the individual and society as a whole.
What?
We have been
unwittingly and unknowingly but malevolently crafted and
manipulated into being chronically unhappy and dissatisfied
individuals.
We have been
programmed to be unhappy with our:
Appearance-Weight-Social
status-Possessions-Wealth-Poverty-Home-Children-Job
Family-Friends-Enemies-Government-Church - and, last but not
least – God.
The trick, or should
I say the motive behind all of this is: The chronically unhappy
person is easily controlled and manipulated. Above all, from
the manipulator’s perspective, the key is to keep the individual
unhappy.
Why?
Unhappy folks can be
manipulated because the unhappy individual will always try to
seek consolation and relief from the pain of the unhappiness
that pervades him. The unhappy person seeks to feel better, to
be consoled, to be reaffirmed, to feel whole and complete.
Once the condition of
the unhappy person has been established, it becomes fairly
simple to control the ways and means by which the unhappy
individual seeks comfort, consolation and respite from the
perceived source of his or her unhappiness.
What more convenient
means, then, to make the unhappy person feel better than to sell
them something that they perceive will make them happy.
We observe and
experience ourselves this phenomenon constantly:
“If I go shopping,
I’ll feel better.”
“If I snack on
something, I’ll feel better.”
“If I get drunk, I’ll
feel better.”
“If I quit my job,
I’ll feel better.”
“If I take drugs,
I’ll feel better.”
“If I get that
promotion, I’ll feel better.”
“If I buy that new
car, I’ll feel better.”
“If I buy that video
game, I’ll feel better.”
“If I indulge in
pornography, I’ll feel better.”
The list is endless.
“You will be
reaffirmed with incomparable beauty if you buy this crème.”,
hauntingly echoes the advertisement with all of the allure of
the Sirens of ancient myth.
The only thing is, I
never feel better, I am never consoled and the beauty crème did
nothing to reaffirm my worth as an individual.
It is important to
observe that through it all, however, our programmed responses
never change. We remain in the same behavioral pattern as did
Pavlov’s dogs over a century ago, drooling and slobbering at the
sound of the advertiser’s bell.
We denounce the evils
which seem to so endemically afflict modern society, yet we have
been intentionally programmed to be those very things which we
denounce - ugly, obese, drunken, sex crazed, unlawful, greedy,
immoral, disrespectful, selfish, socially deviant, (did I say
lazy?), individuals. And we wonder how society got this way.
“We have seen the
enemy and they are us!”
Since it is contrary
to the natural law for any of us to seek to be ugly, obese,
drunken, sex crazed, greedy, immoral, unlawful, selfish or lazy,
we are inwardly compelled to divest ourselves of these negative
attributes.
What better way to
realize a sizeable profit than to teach these same people that
they can rid themselves of this negative baggage by throwing
money at it.
Preach to them: “You
can buy your way to happiness.”
So, we begin to think
in distorted and disordered ways, “Since buying that new car
didn’t make me feel as good as I thought it would and the latest
beauty crème really works best when used to clean my whitewalls,
maybe a business trip away from home with my boss’ secretary
will do the trick.”
The subtle but
omnipresent common denominator to all of this unhappiness is the
mechanism in which we find ourselves trying to placate or
alleviate our unhappiness by gratifying ourselves with something
or even someone.
Thus is manifested
the insidious evil that lies therein: There are those in
this world who very much want us to be in a state of continuous
unhappiness because they stand to profit tremendously from us in
that weakened condition.
In other words, we
have been bred to be taken advantage of!
There has been much
in the press of late about the growing obesity of Americans.
Unhappy people
quickly become obese people. Since eating is naturally a
pleasurable experience, the psyche rationalizes, “If I’m really
unhappy, I need to eat a lot in order to feel better.”
The more prevalent
obesity becomes, the harder the media works to project the image
of the perfect body as being borderline anorexic. Thus, the
already unhappy, obese person becomes even unhappier, consuming
even more, and consequently becoming more obese and more
socially ostracized.
In mocking irony of
the motto hung above the entrance to each of the Nazi death
camps, “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work makes Freedom), we cry
“Consuming makes Freedom.”
We seek relief and
escape by embracing the very thing that enslaves us!
The spiritual noose
tightens and the spiral continues downward, much in the manner
in which the pattern of our personal debt begins to reflect
itself as a miniature of the collective national deficit – the
baggage keeps getting heavier, with no relief in sight.
Just as a street
corner dealer gets a new junkie hooked on his drug of choice,
the crafty marketer reasons, “I can sell the obese person a
membership to ‘Curves’, then lead her across the street to spend
another $5 on a Big Mac with supersize fries after a good,
healthy workout, by whispering in her ear, ‘After all, you
owe it to yourself.’”
The sly marketer
takes money out of our pockets both coming and going.
You are here.
You may ask, “What in
the world does this have to do with sexual addiction?”
Answer: EVERYTHING!!!
Sexual addiction is
merely another manifestation of this malevolent and coercive
attempt to make the individual unhappy and keep the individual
unhappy because -
The unhappy
individual is much more easily led into sin. And, as we all
know, there is a great deal of money to be made in sin!
(“The love of money is the root of all evil.”)
We got this way
because a group of people worked very hard over many generations
to make all of us weakened in this manner in order to control
us.
“Make them dumb,
lazy, fat and affluent and I can do anything I want with them.
They won’t care what I do as long as I keep them comfortable”,
chuckles satan as he plans seating arrangements for us in the
bottom of hell.
Warning Signs
If you ever catch
yourself saying, “I owe it to myself,” or “I deserve this.” You
are already in trouble.
The unhappy person
seeks to satisfy him or herself first, without consideration of
the consequences or the effects his behavior has on others.
God created sex. He
meant for it to be enjoyed. Primarily, however, God made sex to
be unitive and procreative – the true union of love in which two
people give themselves to each other in order to become one.
True love is
“self-denying and giving” not “selfish and taking.”
Sexual gratification,
then, simply becomes the selfish act of the lone individual in
search of the illusion of happiness, a false light as it were,
the result of which only leads to more unhappiness and
progressively more searching since this solo act lacks both the
unitive and procreative sharing that is necessary in the true
act of love.
Without true selfless
love, therefore, there can be no genuine gratification or
satiation of desire, which is why the act of self gratification,
once completed, feels so empty and unsatisfying. We continue to
hunger and long for more satisfaction. Thus, the cycle of
addiction becomes self-perpetuating and progressively worse.
The Solution
Whenever we seek
consolation and joy from anything other than God, we are going
to be disappointed.
Only God is capable
of fulfilling and satisfying our inmost needs and desires.
No thing can, no
person can – only God can.
It is for the reasons
described above that the devil works so hard to steal away your
joy and happiness, for both of these are truly divine graces and
gifts from God.
That’s why the
warning has never echoed more true, “Don’t let the devil
steal your joy.”
We must come to the
realization that the satisfaction that we truly need is God
Himself, for God is pure, selfless love. The pursuit of God
leads to happiness.
It is only through
the action of selflessly giving of ourselves to others do we
become satisfied in return. The more we give, the more we
receive, and this is because we can never outdo God in
generosity.
It is in giving
that you receive all the more – and the truly happier you will
become.
That is what the
devil doesn’t want you to realize or understand.
The solution lies in
overcoming our pre-programmed fear of being charitable and
giving.
As previously noted,
we have been configured and adapted to an environment that
rejects true love and replaces it with a false and distorted
caricature that is self-love.
We have been
programmed to be afraid to try new things, especially
intangibles such as charity, kindness, patience and
self-sacrifice.
These attributes are
born of placing our trust in God and not in the world.
Again, the devil
doesn’t like this because it is through the very acts of
charity, kindness, patience and self-sacrifice in your daily
living that he loses control of you.
The first step in
overcoming an enemy is being made aware of his existence.
Things to Consider
-
Examine your life.
How are you being
manipulated through chronic unhappiness?
Which buttons does
the devil push to manipulate and control you?
Honestly examine,
too, how much and how often you demonstrate tacit acts of
charity, kindness, patience and self-sacrifice in your daily
living.
An increase in these
positive behaviors inevitably corresponds to a decrease in the
desire for self-gratification and a loosening of the grip that
sexual addiction has on you.
Let go of the
selfish, self-centered and inward focused “me first” attitude
and behavior that drives you. Look outside of yourself and
start recognizing and acting positively in response to the needs
of others.
Cling tenaciously to
God who is the source of your joy and make sure that you take
time every day to know where He is in your life.
If you do, His joy
will be ever present, your joy will be complete and you will
truly want for nothing, even if you possess little as far as the
world is concerned.
God Bless!
paul, for the Serenellians
