CULTLIKE ECONOMIC OPPRESSION

(From Facebook.)

I referred to this yesterday, but it's been on my mind constantly. I wanted to take you to it now, but then, I can't write anymore, so I'll wait to do the link at the end.

What I experienced as a cultic slave of the WCG was a hell of oppression and soul destroying tyranny by one man and his army of goose-stepping and equally evil and hypocritical sycophants. It took me a long time to fully recognize the true nature of what I was a part of. Getting out when I did allowed me to salvage the latter half of my life.

Herbert Armstrong was an evil despot. He set up a religious empire that totally took over the lives of those who succumbed to his deceptive message. He was an elitist, a totally ruthless religious mafia don. There are many following in the same mold today. They found mega churches!

Armstrong looked down on the average person and viewed them only as sheep for the shearing and chickens for the plucking. He bound heavy burdens on everyone, but as a scripture he and his ilk scoff at, he wouldn't lift a finger to ease the burden. Everything devolved upon him and only incidentally on those who kept his empire going. He would turn on them in a moment if he thought it was to his advantage to do so with absolutely no qualms, and often did. It has been truthfully stated that the path of his life was strewn with the wreckage of men who had served him well.

He hated labor unions. He lusted to be in the company of the wealthy and powerful and spent millions of his dupe's hard earned tithes and offerings to court them.

I endured over twenty years of this religious madness and got free of it. Now, I realize that I'm still in that system of slavery and deception.
Only, now it's not a religious organization that is oppressing me and my fellow humans. (That religious system still exists in hundreds of just as oppressive offshoots and splinters.)

Now, it's a political system with the same hateful and oppressive attitude and the same kind of reprehensible narcissists in control. Reagan, the elitist, started it with his "voodoo economics" and it has snowballed ever since into the madness of republican so-called conservatism and that hateful, ignorant tea party.

The average american is being enslaved and impoverished step by step while the rich and powerful disdainfully relegate them to serf status. I lived it before. That's why I see it so clearly now.

I could say much more, but this account will serve quite nicely:

http://hwarmstrong.com/wordpress/2013/09/12/blast-from-the-past-an-inside-report-on-gods-work/

DISASTERS ARE NOT GOD'S WRATH

Life is so scary, even now in this enlightened age. It always has been and my friend, Dennis Deahl, just published a blog entry on Banned by HWA about the wild-eyed pronouncments of how "god" is punishing our nation for it's sinfulness with storms, fires, you name it -- "god" did it -- to get people to "repent," of course. That repentance, naturally, involves people listenng to the magnificent and only true message being brought by that particular over-impressed with himself narcissist. How that's going to happen is never explained, by them or any other deluded "faith monger."

Same old same old crap.

It can't just be that cold and warm air masses collide on a trajectory that starts thunderstorms whirling or that dry lightning hits dry brush and the brush ignites, etc. Some god has to be behind it all. Disasters can't be just natural occurences or dumb mistakes from a moment of distraction. Some magnificent, and somewhat malevolent, deity has to be behind it all -- a deity who has to take roundabout ways of communicating with us instead of just showing up and laying down the law. If he's too busy, I'm sure all those angelic beings casting crowns at his magnificent feet could be spared for a few minutes to carry out the loving assignment.

Why don't we just go back to setting up statues of Baal the storm god and prostrate ourselves in front of them? It would make as much sense as listening to this antiquated, science denying crap.

A beautiful honeysuckle bush at the back of our property is browning up. It's either the heat and dryness taking a toll or some disease is taking over. I soaked it down and hope that pulls it through for a month or so until some humidity comes our way. No "god" cursed it. There's a natural and logical reason.

When trouble comes, it's natural to look for help, just like little Daisy, our beloved Ponchi, sought comfort in my arms a couple days ago. I was real. I was there. I could do something, and I did. It's time for us to realize there is no watchful big daddy "up there" when troubles are looming. The only help we're going to get is from our own preparedness, quick actions and the charity of loving people. We'd better have good insurance, a storm room or basement, medical coverage (if we can afford it in this "socialism" hating nation), etc.

We should have outgrown our primitive superstitious fears like most of the nations which are leaving us in the dust in just about every way imaginable. We need to realize that no "god" is going to send armies of non-existent angels to deliver us from anything or do some marvelous magic in our behalf anymore than such interventions were in the offing for the inmates of Nazi concentration camps. It was the Russian and other allied armies that delivered what was left of those poor people! No god of any imagined majesty did a damn thing.

Empty mental fluff fluff has no power to do anything! Forget that nonsense about being punished for not falling in line and kissing some narcissist's ass!

FLEE THE NARCISSIST

A friend of mine posted this sucinct rundown on narcissism on her Facebook page.  Those of us who had the experience of being deceived by religious hucksters know all too well how accurate this description is.  Narcissists are to be found just about everywhere, especially in religion, business and politics, but also in personal relationships.  Read this, and I'm sure you will be able to identify someone who exhibits this mental condition to one degree or another.

 

"It is very easy to "break" a narcissist even a well-trained and well-prepared one.
Here are a few of the things the narcissist finds devastating:

Any statement or fact, which seems to contradict his inflated perception of his grandiose self.

Any criticism, disagreement, exposure of fake achievements, belittling of "talents and skills" which the narcissist fantasises that he possesses.

Any hint... that he is subordinated, subjugated, controlled, owned or dependent upon a third party.

Any description of the narcissist as average and common, indistinguishable from many others.

Any hint that the narcissist is weak, needy, dependent, deficient, slow, not intelligent, naive, gullible, susceptible, not in the know, manipulated, a victim, an average person of mediocre accomplishments.

The narcissist is likely to react with rage to all these and, in an effort to re-establish his fantastic grandiosity, he is likely to expose facts and stratagems he had no conscious intention of exposing.

The narcissist reacts indignantly, with wrath, hatred, aggression, or even overt violence to any infringement of what he perceives to be his natural entitlement.

Narcissists believe that they are so unique and that their lives are of such cosmic significance that others should defer to their needs and cater to their every whim without ado. The narcissist feels entitled to interact or be treated (or questioned) only by unique individuals. He resents being doubted and "ridiculed".

Any insinuation, hint, intimation, or direct declaration that the narcissist is not special at all, that he is average, common, not even sufficiently idiosyncratic to warrant a fleeting interest inflame the narcissist. He holds himself to be omnipotent and omniscient.

Tell the narcissist that he does not deserve the best treatment, that his desires are not everyone's priority, that he is boring or ignorant, that his needs can be catered to by any common practitioner (medical doctor, accountant, lawyer, psychiatrist), that he and his motives are transparent and can be easily gauged, that he will do what he is told, that his temper tantrums will not be tolerated, that no special concessions will be made to accommodate his inflated sense of self, that he is subject to court procedures, etc. and the narcissist will likely lose control.

The narcissist believes that he is the cleverest, far above the madding crowd.

Contradict him often, disagree with him and criticize his judgement, expose his shortcomings, humiliate and berate him ("You are not as intelligent as you think you are", "Who is really behind all this? It takes sophistication which you don't seem to posses ", "So, you have no formal education", "You are (mistake his age, make him much older)", "What did you do in your life? Did you study? Do you have a degree? Did you ever establish or run a business? Would you define yourself as a success?", "Would your children share your view that you are a good father?", "You were last seen with a certain Ms. who is (suppressed grin) a stripper (in demeaning disbelief)".

I know that many of these questions cannot be asked outright in a court of law. But you can insinuate them or hurl these sentences at him during the breaks, inadvertently during the examination or deposition phase, etc. Narcissists hate innuendos even more than they detest direct attacks."

From Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self Love -- Narcissism Revisited.

NARCISSISM ON THE ULTIMATE LEVEL

We were sitting in our easy chairs a while ago watching TV. Our two Pomeranian male dogs immediately took up their customary stances of gazing adoringly and demandingly into our eyes, then vaulting into our laps with all their demanding worshipfulness.

This is OK for a few moments, but it gets old rather quickly, especially when one wants to concentrate on the TV. Instead of lying down between my legs and leaving me in peace, Trouble, the oldest one and constantly alpha male-striving one, kept trying to force his way into my face where he could dog kiss me and demand my total attention. It got so annoying that I put the foot rest down and moved forward to force him back on the floor where he could engage in his “worship” from a distance.

It struck me how similar the situation was to the average person's concept of their relationship with their all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything fantasy god.

Think about it for a moment! What does the Bible human narcissists created picture as the kind of god they confidently state sits on that heavenly throne?

THE ULTIMATE SUPREME DIVINE NARCISSIST!

He's surrounded by worshipful sycophants who do nothing but praise him day and night and cast their crowns at his feet – FOR ALL ETERNITY! Many Christians think that is the kind of thing they are going to do for all eternity! They're breathlessly anticipating it!

Maybe our dogs get satisfaction from doing that occasionally when the opportunity presents itself. They're very intelligent creatures, but their awareness and creative needs are rather limited. They don't even know, I'm pretty sure, that their existence is finite. They just know about right now and the fact that their every need and requirement is supplied by Phyllis and me. You might say that we are their gods. We certainly get worshiped.

All the Abrahamic religions have basically the same concept. They are convinced that everything good they receive is attributable to their god. (They like to convince themselves that the bad is due to the “other guy.” But, they're clearly not too sure about that.) Their god is in control. But, like a dog, they have to hound and beg him to make sure he pays attention to their needs and desires or doesn't carelessly allow some horrible thing to transpire.

So, they pray. Most prayer can be characterized as hounding a “god” who is so inept that he doesn't know how to run things without their implorings and remindings. They're absolutely convinced that if they have faith enough, they can change their perfect, all-knowing, but woefully incompetent, god's mind.

Religions were drempt up and primarily set up by human narcissists. They were dead set on being in charge and looked upon as final authorities. They demanded the groveling worship of the populace, and since all gods are created in the image of their originators, the gods they created of course had to be pictured basking in the same kind of groveling subservience. Many of them can never seem to get enough ass-kissing to satisfy their narcissistic neediness. Herbert Armstrong, Roderick Meredith, etc. come to mind. The world is full of them.

We see the same mental sickness at work in politically religious nations like North Korea. The supreme leaders become human gods, and living in such societies would make the fiction of hell look like a summer camp.

So would the average person's concept of heaven, if you carry it to its logical reality.

If I, a mere human, get impatient with a dog's hounding worshipfulness in just a few minutes, what would a super being such as people are convinced their god is feel after millenniums of fawning, bowing, praising, casting of crowns, etc., etc., add the proverbial nauseum.

Even if someone had the marvelous singing voice of a Carusso or Mario Lanza, belting out "How Great Thou Art" would get tedious and boring after just a little while, and even a Kim Jong Anything would soon be ready to scream "Enough, already!" But, apparently heaven is set up to have the needle stuck on the record forever.

And, I'm supposed to look forward to this kind of eternal ass-kissing? I do like to compliment people when they deserve it, but I don't follow them around or sit before them for an eternity doing so. No sane being, omni-something or not, would want me to.

So, if you feel you've lost something if you no longer look forward to that kind of eternity, think again. Think long and hard. Do you really want to be a heavenly pomeranian or poodle gazing into the face of the ultimate narcissist?

For an eternity, yet?