In The Mouth Of Madness, Part 1

I am a blog addict.  I tell people this, and often they don't know what I mean.  It's really pretty simple; it's not that I post all the time.  It's that I voraciously read the posts of others.  I get the vast majority of my information online.  I follow links like a blood hound.  I want to know what is happening, and what others are thinking about it.  I spend about a half an hour every morning, and several hours every afternoon gleaning what straw I can from the 'tubes.  The problem is that leaves me reading a bunch of stuff I really ought to avoid.

H.P. Lovecraft pioneered and God-Fathered a strain of horror pulp-fiction that posited the existence of horrible and terrible beings, so awful that their mere visage could cause insanity in the viewer.  As I read more of the ramblings online, I find myself confronted by such pestilence that by Friday, I feel madness coming on.  Certain someones have suggested remedies, some good some really bad.  Respect the madness inducing?  Never.  That is to capitulate, and I've no reason to do it.  Change my thinking to accept the reason bending?  Not really my style, and it aids the work of the horrors.  No, not likely.  The best advice has come from my beloved.  Misdirect the awful into a safe, mundane and useless place.  More on that in a bit.

I believe in reason.  I believe that reason gives us dominance as a species, and affords us unnatural long life.  But here's the kicker, I also believe that Aristotle was correct.  Man is a social being, and our reason is useless and counter-productive outside the bounds of interaction with others of our species kind.  That being said, there are diseases within our reason; diseases that favor the ones who seek our agreement in madness, unreasonable  portraits so vile that the sane may become ... not.   This is what bends my humanity such that by weeks-end, I feel enraged, furious, inhuman.

There is a way to defeat it, the disease.  And that's to expose the sickness to the light of reason.  None of the insanity inducing can stand the potency of our acceptance that light and knowledge give us power over them.  So, in what will likely become a series, I will expose these foul mind-worms to the light of day, and see if they go elsewhere (knowing full well that they will.)  Not a single claim or argument I will expose here can't be described in terms of logical fallacy.  But the insanity of the Old Defense of the Old Ones defies any reason, and any logic, so I will proceed with my own terms.

Mark Tokarski posted a rather good pre-emptive screed about the claims that silence rational debate.  He calls them "debate stoppers".  He's right, to a large degree, though I, like many, think of 'Godwin' more as an online joke than anything to take seriously.  He really doesn't clearly see the insidious tentacles of lunacy that drive such tactics.  That's to his benefit.  Perhaps, in this series, I can clarify.

The first lunacy we must deal with is the "All Seeing Will".  It's a lunatic arrogance that says "we all know what the other is about and desiring".  So claims the worshiper that they can spread a blanket of palatable manure and ask you to devour the fine shite, with a clever smile and no regret.  Having encountered this, and pulled back from the edge, I offer warning of it's graceful nature.  A man, a good man, no doubts well dressed and sociable, offered me the feces just recently.  He claimed that 'we' know more of the Middle East than those who live there.  Here is the vile seduction, and I warn you, don't be fooled by its tasty visage:

we have had to deal with the Iranians who are looking for a free hand, although I think that they misunderstand the distrust that Arabs have for "Persians."

That appears reasonable, doesn't it?  Don't you long for it's truth?  Of course.  But it's a vile harlot of arrogance.  A guy from Missoula Montana, not a scholar of anything related,  has just told you that he knows more of the land surrounding others than those ones know themselves.  I would say that such hubris inspires awe, but it really forms a rift between any reason and any reality.  This is the goal for those who serve at the will of the Old.

This is but one example of the bent idea that we can know more of the unknowable than those who create the fantasy that will devour us.  I cannot abide such things.  I pray that you, gentle reader, cannot accept such insanity yourselves.  'Til the  next installment of the series, I bid you a good day.

Comments

[moorcat]

I definitely give you Kudos for the best use of Lovecraft in the polical topic...

10 points...

Moorcat
(A Lovecraft Fan)

[moorcat]

P.S. Thanks for the links. There were a couple of Lovecraft movies I hadn't seen yet so I put them on netflix

As far as the actual subject of your post, you have once again nailed it. You always were pretty good with the logic stuff...

On a personal note, I will call you tonight with an update...

Moorcat

[Dr. Kahn]

This is a good beginning, “Wulfgar.” It is very important for a patient to confront his mental illness openly especially when the first symptoms of suicidal behavior appear. I have made a printout of your post so that we can discuss it in detail during our Friday session.

By all means, keep writing. We will work our way through this!