Those That Forget The Past, Blah, Blah, Blah
Anymore, no one seems to agree who said this first:
http://jaywalker.ca/Jaywalker_Magazine/Columns/Publisher's%20Notes/forget_the_past.htm
I know the first time I saw it, it was attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. But it's an absolute truism, honestly.
Some of the greatest oafs have quoted wonderful things--when Ozzy Osbourne got it right with his lyrics to "Suicide Solution", most people thought he was advocating suicide. He was not. He was writing about how suicide was not an answer and he was pulling this directly from an Aleister Crowley poem that ends with the line: "And suicide...is not a way out of it!"
So what do we do with Chris Benoit and the horrific happenings of his having murdered his wife and son? Everyone thought he was a good guy. Everyone knew he was a Christian of some sort, whether Catholic or Protestant has not been made clear to me in my poking around.
However, what happened to Chris Benoit was not something that only happens to Christians, nor was the man either a saint or a monster. He was a MAN, filled with the potential for good and evil.
I'm going to say something terribly unpopular and anyone who likes can tell me I'm full of shite, but I know what I know:
THIS IS HOW EVIL WORKS.
That is NOT to say that Chris Benoit was evil. He was a man in extremity, put there by any number of choices and happenings in his life. Any one of us can find ourselves in that same place, no matter what we believe, no matter how large or small our egos.
Evil is a Presence and just as it's been 'sermonized', it roams the earth "...as a roaring lion, seeking to kill, maim and destroy..." It's not a matter of 'sides'; being a Satanist won't save you. It's a matter of the Nature of Evil and Mankind.
Modern people are too quick to discount the Presence of Evil, because they want to think themselves enlightened and unable to fall prey to the 'superstitions' of believing in a devil. But there IS a Force out there that wants nothing more than to rip you to shreds, and you give it power by thinking it cannot hurt you. That is as ignorant as a teenager who thinks they are indestructable and immortal.
If you check the Book of Job, it's made very clear--this Force, this Presence of Evil, can only HARRY you. It can do anything SHORT of killing you.
So the best attack against most people is to rob them of hope and to make them think that death is the answer. Kill yourself. Kill the person making you miserable. Kill your loved ones so that no one else will ever hurt them.
This is an OUTSIDE FORCE; it's not really part of your internal dialogue or your psyche, but it SOUNDS like "you" when your defences are down and you can't think straight and YOU NO LONGER RECOGNISE IT IS NOT YOU. By thinking there is no such thing as a Presence of Evil, you have given it a doorway to your mind.
Whatever you do, do not allow it into your soul.
Chris Benoit was a man like any man (or woman). He had his own issues and his own problems, likely exacerbated by working in a situation where his ego was constantly stroked, sucked up to, and used to promote an industry that began as a carnival sideshow. Wrestling was all about running the con. It's about illusion and pretension and things not really as they seem.
Whatever was goading him on, the man made the deadly mistake of listening to that little voice that told him there was no hope. That he must kill his wife, who must have been arguing with him about something. Was she threatening to take their son and leave? Kill her, Chris. Get her out of the way. Just kill her and it'll be all right.
But it wasn't 'all right'. With the mother of his son dead in their office, Chris Benoit had to have struggled. It was WORSE, now. Not only had he lost his wife, but now the world would come to take his son away. You can keep your son away from them, Chris. Take your son beyond their ability to steal him from you--he's sleeping. He'll never know. I can't imagine the horror of smothering your own child...but Chris knew that agony. Just keep the child from the authorities and things will be all right.
But they were not 'all right', they were BEYOND worse, now. How many hours did Chris pace through the house, knowing it was madness and not knowing how to fix anything anymore? The Voice was relentless; it was within sight of the finish line. Kill yourself, Chris. That will stop the pain. That will stop the horror. Just do it.
Chris Benoit did it. Not because he was a monster. Not because he truly had No Way Out. But he did it because he listened to the Voice that each of us hears in our desperate moments. That flickering, irrational thought that speeds past when things look hopeless...the 'suggestion' most of us shrug off in our stronger moments.
Chris Benoit was a man in a desperate place, unable to hear the rational mind that he normally owned as his own.
You believe this could "only happen to someone like HIM" at your own peril. It can happen to any one of us, and does every day.
Nechtan
I mourn Chris Benoit's passing, as well as his family. I always liked "Woman". It never had to happen, but it did. All the good Chris could have done in the world is not only not going to happen, but anything good he did before this will be tainted by public opinion and the addled idea that if we somehow DISTANCE ourselves from this, it will never touch us.
Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
http://jaywalker.ca/Jaywalker_Magazine/Columns/Publisher's%20Notes/forget_the_past.htm
I know the first time I saw it, it was attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. But it's an absolute truism, honestly.
Some of the greatest oafs have quoted wonderful things--when Ozzy Osbourne got it right with his lyrics to "Suicide Solution", most people thought he was advocating suicide. He was not. He was writing about how suicide was not an answer and he was pulling this directly from an Aleister Crowley poem that ends with the line: "And suicide...is not a way out of it!"
So what do we do with Chris Benoit and the horrific happenings of his having murdered his wife and son? Everyone thought he was a good guy. Everyone knew he was a Christian of some sort, whether Catholic or Protestant has not been made clear to me in my poking around.
However, what happened to Chris Benoit was not something that only happens to Christians, nor was the man either a saint or a monster. He was a MAN, filled with the potential for good and evil.
I'm going to say something terribly unpopular and anyone who likes can tell me I'm full of shite, but I know what I know:
THIS IS HOW EVIL WORKS.
That is NOT to say that Chris Benoit was evil. He was a man in extremity, put there by any number of choices and happenings in his life. Any one of us can find ourselves in that same place, no matter what we believe, no matter how large or small our egos.
Evil is a Presence and just as it's been 'sermonized', it roams the earth "...as a roaring lion, seeking to kill, maim and destroy..." It's not a matter of 'sides'; being a Satanist won't save you. It's a matter of the Nature of Evil and Mankind.
Modern people are too quick to discount the Presence of Evil, because they want to think themselves enlightened and unable to fall prey to the 'superstitions' of believing in a devil. But there IS a Force out there that wants nothing more than to rip you to shreds, and you give it power by thinking it cannot hurt you. That is as ignorant as a teenager who thinks they are indestructable and immortal.
If you check the Book of Job, it's made very clear--this Force, this Presence of Evil, can only HARRY you. It can do anything SHORT of killing you.
So the best attack against most people is to rob them of hope and to make them think that death is the answer. Kill yourself. Kill the person making you miserable. Kill your loved ones so that no one else will ever hurt them.
This is an OUTSIDE FORCE; it's not really part of your internal dialogue or your psyche, but it SOUNDS like "you" when your defences are down and you can't think straight and YOU NO LONGER RECOGNISE IT IS NOT YOU. By thinking there is no such thing as a Presence of Evil, you have given it a doorway to your mind.
Whatever you do, do not allow it into your soul.
Chris Benoit was a man like any man (or woman). He had his own issues and his own problems, likely exacerbated by working in a situation where his ego was constantly stroked, sucked up to, and used to promote an industry that began as a carnival sideshow. Wrestling was all about running the con. It's about illusion and pretension and things not really as they seem.
Whatever was goading him on, the man made the deadly mistake of listening to that little voice that told him there was no hope. That he must kill his wife, who must have been arguing with him about something. Was she threatening to take their son and leave? Kill her, Chris. Get her out of the way. Just kill her and it'll be all right.
But it wasn't 'all right'. With the mother of his son dead in their office, Chris Benoit had to have struggled. It was WORSE, now. Not only had he lost his wife, but now the world would come to take his son away. You can keep your son away from them, Chris. Take your son beyond their ability to steal him from you--he's sleeping. He'll never know. I can't imagine the horror of smothering your own child...but Chris knew that agony. Just keep the child from the authorities and things will be all right.
But they were not 'all right', they were BEYOND worse, now. How many hours did Chris pace through the house, knowing it was madness and not knowing how to fix anything anymore? The Voice was relentless; it was within sight of the finish line. Kill yourself, Chris. That will stop the pain. That will stop the horror. Just do it.
Chris Benoit did it. Not because he was a monster. Not because he truly had No Way Out. But he did it because he listened to the Voice that each of us hears in our desperate moments. That flickering, irrational thought that speeds past when things look hopeless...the 'suggestion' most of us shrug off in our stronger moments.
Chris Benoit was a man in a desperate place, unable to hear the rational mind that he normally owned as his own.
You believe this could "only happen to someone like HIM" at your own peril. It can happen to any one of us, and does every day.
Nechtan
I mourn Chris Benoit's passing, as well as his family. I always liked "Woman". It never had to happen, but it did. All the good Chris could have done in the world is not only not going to happen, but anything good he did before this will be tainted by public opinion and the addled idea that if we somehow DISTANCE ourselves from this, it will never touch us.
Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it.