INTRODUCTORY

Hello there... How are you? I'm fine. This is the Heresy Hunter speaking...

I. Here you will find the following: Analysis and critiques against the heretical antagonists of the Roman Catholic Church and other enemies of society. Also included will be commentaries on the crisis in culture and the affairs of the day (aka the "signs of the times"). Articles will be short, long and very long (with endnotes/references). A wide latitude of subjects/issues are going to be dissected and disseminated: religion/theology, history, economics, politics, sociology, philosophy, science, environmental issues, technology, morality & ethics, law, literature, art, the media, popular culture, the occult and paranormal phenomena.

II. This blogger argues that gnosticism and neurosis constitute the driving forces of heretics and other enemies of society. Crudely defined, gnosticism means an esoteric, superior knowledge that presupposes the mind to be the locus of all understanding, existence and contentment. Gnosticism has appeared in various manifestations throughout the centuries. From early Christian times to the rationalists of the sixteenth century, right up to the deconstructionists of today. There are, however, mutual traits in the variants of gnosticism that have existed throughout the ages, betraying its inability to change essentially: it is principally cognitive, anti–realist and anti–material; it employs vague, random and arcane symbolism or methodologies; it is non–specific in its vernacular or phraseology; descriptors of events and graphical imagery are always bizarre, blurry, “virtually” perceptible. You can “almost” see it, you can “barely” hear it, you can “nearly” sense it, but never quite enough. Understanding is “just out of range”. Solutions to dilemmas are invariably “beyond reach”. The words clarity and specificity do not exist in the gnostic vocabulary.

III. Modern gnosticism has the effect of directing a followers' thoughts forwards in time to the future, or of magnetizing them to the spatiality of the “out there”. If a subscription is made to this worldview – be it in a personal sense or by an entire nation, the outcome is a waste of hopes on a utopia that never arrives and a horizon never attained. This is owing to that notorious "as if" clause (we must live as if this is going to occur, or as if that is going to happen – becoming, instead seeing and living in the present as is – being), which has been the philosophical trademark of European thought, specifically that of the German kind, ever since Luther.

IV. Gnosticism was not only seen in the twentieth century emergence of the New Age movement, it is also identified in the prodigality of Eastern spirituality and the “self–help” craze. It is noticed in the physicist–turned–philosopher who uses mathematics to prove the existence of God. It is seen in the abstruse language of Political Correctness in most manner of civic discourse. All of these, and more, exhibit one commonality: they are inward looking. The landscapes are purely mental, idealized, Platonically skewed. Generically, they say this:

Look within because it is quiet and warm and comfortable inside. The truth is to be found here, within. Your fantasies and your dreams are here, within. Your healings and the end of the rainbow lie here, within. Avoid that which is outside yourself... escape from the harsh realities of the world… outside it is cold and dark and dirty… too much suffering… too much pain. So long as you ignore the dictates of your conscious, so long as you attribute your guilt and sins to extraneous factors – be they political determinants or economic structures or biological proclivities or historical forces or cultural dynamics, all will be fine, my friend. Your potential and freedom lie within because the world lies within your mind, your self. You are the center of all that was, is, and shall be.

Theologically speaking, this is a wink and whisper that bespeaks that defiance from time immemorial: Non serviam. 

V. Generally speaking, neurosis is the consequence of gnosticism. If all is trapped within the mind, if emotion and judgment are confined within, if existence and the world are said to be a subjective projection of the mind, then inward pressures build as there is no outlet to vent tensions and frustrations. A sense of entrapment develops both at an individual and national levels, and is expressed in many ways: “nobody understands me”, “our country is condemned to this wretched state of affairs”, “there is no escape from” such and such. Accordingly, the terms gnosis and neurotic go hand–in–hand. In the final analysis, neurognosis is the result of the negation of the really transcendent (God, religion, metaphysics, tradition, reason) and an over–enforced assertion of the immanency of the world (materialism, pantheism, hedonism, socialism, emotionalism, psychologism). The dualism that was once in balance has tipped, and this condition now plagues the Western world as it makes its screaming descent into all–out nihilism.

VI. This blogger states his worldview is moderate–realist–traditional Catholic. He is mainly a polemicist interested in the geography of ideas, and applies Roman Catholic epistemology for argumentation. This blogger maintains that: [i] principle has priority over action; [ii] that there should be compliance between word and deed, and that “In the beginning was the Word” (Being, cf. Exodus 3:14), not the deed (becoming, cf. Faust); [iii] that there is a distinction between facts and the interpretation of those facts; [iv] that the intrinsic value of a person supersedes quantifiable physical magnitudes which characterize that person, [v] that the will and intellect are interrelated; [vi] that there is a bridge which connects the intelligible with the sensorial, i.e. there is no absolute disjunction between mind and world, though they are still really distinct; [vii] that knowledge must submit itself to the moral law – I do not subscribe to the moral autonomy of the self; and [viii] that the principle of contradiction cannot be overridden, i.e. one cannot affirm and negate something at the same time. 

VII. Certainly us Roman Catholics – the real ones and not that gallery of antinomians who contorted the meaning of Vatican II – are a kind of amusement park or garbage bin to the media, academics, celebrities, pseudo–scientists, politicians and the like. The Roman Catholic Church is an always open repository where the banes of society can so quickly and efficiently be relegated. I am well aware that his blog will be detestable to some, or else just plain ludicrous. That is fine and good. Therefore I take consolation in the words of the Greek philosopher Epictetus (ca. 55–135): “Do not suppose that everyone will enjoy hearing what you enjoy saying.” The word heretic is an affront to the language police of the radical Left. But, as the excellent Erik von Kuehnelt–Leddihn (1909–1999) remarked: "The road leading to the hell of leftist radicalism is not only broad, it is also fast and steep. Under such circumstances the brakes rarely work". In confronting this seemingly insurmountable situation, I respond this way: A pen must be a bull, and the ideas of the Vulgar Radical Left is but a shop of gaudy china.

INTRODUCTORY