It is often said that hindsight gives us 20/20 vision. That understanding past events only becomes a clearly focused vision and a complete picture in the mind's eye, because we are able to analyze them with insights and perspectives gained through experience and knowledge gained over time.
While there is certainly some truth to this, I'd say it really depends on what lens you choose to use to view the past with. Many of us believe we have 20/20 clarity in our hindsight ruminations....but attaining new information that contradicts previous assumptions will oft reveal that our hindsight was not as clear as we once thought it to be.
Being the conspiritard prophet and seer of food magic that I am, out here in the fringes of my own little corner of the fever swamps of teh Interwebz, I've had more than a few paradigm shifts of understanding based on gaining new information that caused me to refocus my hindsight lenses, allowing me to paint a clearer picture in my mind's eye...
One of those paradigm shifts that inspired a refocus of the lenses for my hindsight ruminations, was my return to belief in the faith of my forefathers. As a member of Generation X who was raised as a Christian, but fell away into agnostic hedonism by embracing the packaged rebellion of mass media programming in my early adulthood, I now understand the full scope of the inter-generational progressive conspiracy of anti-Christ subversion via gradualism that got us to where we are today.
Those of us who are of Generation X, and who were, like me, raised in a family that was still largely influenced by the moral code of Western Christian Civilization, had a firsthand experience with this transition from a Christian-based society, to our current Luciferian Age.
It's 2015, and he's coming out in teh PrimeTime! |
In the late 70's and early 80's, I was raised by familial tradition and my cultural heritage for this:
By the late 80's and 90's, I had fully turned to this:
"Bang your head against the stage like you never did before...." |
Embracing evil as my primary entertainment paradigm, it consumed my entire world view. Nihilism, hedonism and a full embrace of barbarity and savagery became in my extended-adolescence mindset, the penultimate definition of "COOL."
The fact is that at this very moment, despite not having listened to many of these albums in well over five years (if not more), I can still easily recall every line of these songs without a moments hesitation. I believe this speaks to the staying power of such programming I willingly and repeatedly subjected my young and impressionable mind to.
Here's the chorus from the first song on the first album of one of my favorite bands back in the day:
Evil - My words defy!
Evil - Has no disguise!
Evil - Will take your soul!
Evil - My wrath unfolds!
Evil - Has no disguise!
Evil - Will take your soul!
Evil - My wrath unfolds!
I used to laugh at the denunciations of metal music by mainstream Christianity as "Devil Music." I used to think "what a joke." No, I take that back. How I would normally think back then would have been more like this:
"What a fuckin' joke those fuckin' idiotic, brainwashed dumbshits don't even realize it's just cool, fun fuckin' entertainment! Fuck! Fuckin' nerdy, square, uptight dumbfucks and prudish pussy-ass faggots!"
By constantly consuming evil, vulgar media in the music I listened to, the books I read and the shows and movies I watched, the uglier and more debased my every regular every day thought processes had become.
I began to view beauty, elegance, gracefulness and all things edifying and uplifting as boring, stultifying, prudish and sickening....but most of all, "uncool." Worst of all, it influenced me to turn my back on my own cultural heritage.
In my evil-possessed mind, the idea of going to a Hawaiian luau with Hawaiian music performers playing for graceful, flower bedecked hula dancers in beautiful dresses dancing to soft, rhythmic melodies to compliment beautiful choral arrangements of songs about the beauty of Hawaii, was something I considered worse than torture. If I was forced to attend such events due to familial obligations, I'd always make sure to have my walkman on hand so I could put on the headphones and immerse myself in my chosen musical filth.
While watching this:
I was blocking out the accompanying music with my headphones and listening to aural garbage like this - "NO APPARENT MOTIVE, JUST KILL AND KILL AGAIN, SURVIVE MY BRUTAL THRASHING, I'LL HUNT YOU TIL THE END...MY LIFE'S A CONSTANT BATTLE, THE RAGE OF MANY MEN...HOMICIDAL MANIAC!"
And if I wasn't simply looking at the beautiful wahine dancers performance of a graceful, elegant and beautiful art form of hula 'auana with only lustful, pornographic ideations in my debased and corrupted mind, I would close my eyes to living, breathing, dancing beauty right in front of me, and envision degraded filth during my favorite songs on my headphones. It was the soundtrack of Hell and it ensorcelled my mind to ignore the graceful, elegant beauty before me and focus on ugly visions within such as this:
huhhuhuh...demons devouring corpses...huhuhuhuhuh....COOL! |
In hindsight, I finally realize that I was quite literally POSSESSED with an obsession with evil.
To hell and back...been there, done that, and got the t-shirt to prove it.
This used to be one of my favorite shirts.... |
...this was the vile blasphemy emblazoned on the back. If I had this shirt now, I'd burn it. |
But it wasn't just the music and it's satanic sub-culture that caught me in it's web of deceit. It was also the immersion in Tell-A-Vision programming, all the horror fiction books I was reading, and the warped visions of Hollywood Babylon's Silver Screen that held my young mind enthralled with a fictional landscape of hyper-violence, sadistic depravity and psychopathic blood letting as my primary focus for experiencing "awesome entertainment."
The Komissars of Desensitization |
In many ways, the whole "it's just entertainment" justification for consuming murder porn of the horror film genre, was the rationale that helped induct my addled and confused mind into accepting and eventually celebrating and reveling in the degrading, morally filthy music, demonic imagery and debauched lifestyle.
Unlike other folks who have their Come-to-Jeebus-moment testimonials of how the dark spell of embracing evil that imprisoned their minds and shackled their souls was broken...I got to this much different place by an entirely different route. In short, confronting real death and witnessing real world violence up close and personal shocked the "cool" factor right out of my previous absorption in mass media fantasy world violence and mayhem.
Becoming a hunter in my early adulthood and learning the reality of what it is to kill and butcher flesh of living creatures took away the glamor and entertainment value of gratuitous gore depicted in a multitude of variations on the tell-a-vision and theater screen. But embracing the hunt and the realities of bloodshed was only a small part of it...for the kill and butchery has always been only a small part of the hunting experience.
It was the continuous immersion in the natural, God-gifted beauty of Hawaii's mountains, valleys and rainforests and moments of quite contemplation in the serenity of the natural world that served as a badly needed salve for all the ugliness and evil I had embraced as my "genre" of choice in "My Generation."
One thing about hunting, as well as with fishing, is these sports can usually described as 99% boredome punctuated by 1% sheer adrenaline. While there is some truth to that (eventually catching your earnestly sought after and difficult to acquire game is definitely an adrenaline rush), it's that 99% "boredom" part of the hunting experience that truly drove me to embrace the outdoorsman way of life. Just escaping the concrete jungle of the Babylon system and spending an entire day walking through the beauty of God's creations did something for my mind and soul to counteract all that satanic entertainment programming I had inundated my eyes and ears with for so long.
Spending hours upon hours trekking through the great outdoors leaves you with quite a lot of time spent in quiet contemplation.
Repeating music, songs and lyrics in the mind is one of the natural things one does when you're walking for hours or struggling with the burden of carrying a kill out of the mountains.
And I found that more time I spent hunting, the more time I spent gravitating away from the music that celebrated evil, destruction, chaos and mayhem, and and more towards the traditional Hawaiian music that is now my all consuming musical passion of the present day.
The cognitive dissonance of beholding scenes like this...
....while humming tunes and melodies to songs with lyrics like this:
Gates of hell are old and cracked
They tumble and they fall
Out rush a bloody wall of death
To kill anything at all
Their sole mission is to kill
Strip your bones and flesh
Rip out your eyes tear off your face
An agonizing death!
They tumble and they fall
Out rush a bloody wall of death
To kill anything at all
Their sole mission is to kill
Strip your bones and flesh
Rip out your eyes tear off your face
An agonizing death!
Just didn't work.
Every day I look back on my former obsession with the devil's vice as entertainment and I realize the Truth of Jesus' warning about how one can become enslaved by your sins and your vices, and that ONLY the Truth will set you free.
E hele makou i ke alo o Iesu
Let us all go to the presence of Jesus,
E `ike i ka nani mau loa
To see the eternal beauty,
E hele makou i ka poli o Iesu
Let us all go to the bosom of Jesus,
I ka mehana a ke aloha
To the warmth of his love.
E hele makou i ke alo o Iesu
Let us all go to the presence of Jesus,
E `ike i ka nani mau loa
To see everlasting beauty,
E hele makou i ka poli o Iesu
Let us all go to the bosom of Jesus,
I ka mehana a ke aloha
To feel the warmth of his love.
Let us all go to the presence of Jesus,
E `ike i ka nani mau loa
To see the eternal beauty,
E hele makou i ka poli o Iesu
Let us all go to the bosom of Jesus,
I ka mehana a ke aloha
To the warmth of his love.
E hele makou i ke alo o Iesu
Let us all go to the presence of Jesus,
E `ike i ka nani mau loa
To see everlasting beauty,
E hele makou i ka poli o Iesu
Let us all go to the bosom of Jesus,
I ka mehana a ke aloha
To feel the warmth of his love.
14 comments:
Thank you, Keoni.
You just gave me another reason to believe that beauty in daily life is important, and can be a tool to spread the love of our Lord. It was a most delightful Christmas gift. Thank you.
At least with metal, the satanism was out in your face in an extreme and cartoonish way. You knew exactly what you were getting. But with popular top 40 music, the stuff is all hidden in a veil of beauty and glamour. Over at Vigilant Citizen, all the major pop stars with the top watched youtube videos are all exposed to be owned by occult forces. That actually scared the shit out of me way more than anything Slayer could ever put out just because pop music is being passed off as benign saccharine happy time dance/trance music.
@ Hearthie -
Mahalo for reading! Mele Kalikimaka 'ia 'oe!
@ craig - Yes, that is true. Disney and pop music is definitely far more influential and subversive on a wider scale. But that doesn't mean I benefited from avoiding that while embracing "cartoonish" satanism. I'm actually quite amazed at the open satanism on display by what is now considered "mainstream" pop music.
That being said...I still listen to metal...probably always will. I do prefer it when I'm stuck in bad traffic, commuting in general, or while doing yard work (can't really hear/appreciate beautiful soft music over a 2 stroke engine whine.) But I still avoid most of the truly degrading and vulgar songs and anything that is overtly satanic.
Very thoughtful. Thank you.
Hello Keoni,
Once again you hit a nerve.
I just moved to a new life, and sold my tv and big screen laptop.
For two weeks now, I only watched one episode of a series, otherwise there is no movies or series, even though I want to see the end of that one other one I was watching.
I am coming to the realization that restricting tv is as important the soul as quitting porn. Its like a fog is slowly lifting, and you get more in touch with life.
I also used to be a heavy metal fan, but the lyrics started to bother me, so I moved to instrumental metal, and once again, music is good for training, or getting into enlivened mood, but the lyrics are mine.
Thank you
Heavy metal fan here. As a rule I stick to the classics,symphonic and progressive metal genres for the sake of quality,beauty and evasion of the evil music you described as well the saccherine effeminate pop/trance crap dance crap techno and crap rap music that pervades our culture today.
I am also a classical music fan. Mahler is one of my favorite composers by the way.
It strange (or not) that a Gen X yute in Hawaii can have a story very similar to a Gen X yute in Texas.
We went to Hawaii last year for the first time, truly a beautiful place. I remember listening to heavy metal when I was a teenager and thinking it was so cool. Now I'm much more thoughtful about what I put into my mind, it messes you up.
Same experience for me mostly, though I started off in hardcore punk in the early eighties, then moved into metal.
These days listening to something called post rock. This will destroy you and explosions in the sky are two of my faves. You can check them out on Pandora. I really like the genre. No words, and quite a range in the music from light jangly tele's to massive wall of sound. great stuff.
I will concede that you listening to the likes of Slayer, Venom, Cannibal Corpse, and Morbid Angel when you would be at a luau with many attractive hula girls around is very fucked up and anti social. I reckon it must have been a difficult time of life for you ie to be going through traumatic events like parents divorce, death of close friends in traffic collision, being dumped by a girlfriend, being friendzoned by all the hot girls in school etc... at least that was my first reaction. If I'm completely way off base, I apologize.
I do know that many teenagers do tend to mix with the wrong crowd in attempt to be socially adept, and in so doing end up regularly abusing drugs and alcohol... especially alcohol. They call liquor and alcoholic beverages "spirits" for a reason. I was one of the many that found that out the hard way. I don't know what your experience was like back in the day, but from what you have shared here, I am guessing it was similar to mine in some shape or form.
If you still listen to metal, my husband does too... he likes Disciple for Christian metal, and Sabaton for militaristic metal without much in the way of swearing or secret messages. (My bet on the latter's god is Odin, they seem very fond of war and warriors).
@ Hearthie.
I listen to metal as well. Red and Devour the Day for Christian with some Thousand Foot Krutch thrown in for a bit of a change.
@ Keoni
This.... this piece read like I'd written it. Just like you, left what little Faith I had as a teen and dove headfirst into the Christ-hating culture. There are lots like us that see this culture, this society and run straight back to Christ where we belong. More and more daily are seeing the errors and the Adversary's ways.
Have a Merry Christmas, brother, and rejoice in Him.
Good post man, I used to jam Pantera like there was no tomorrow, but got turned off in my late teens. Now I listen to demon hunter and a few other christian bands to get my metal fix, and have started getting into my peoples music, texas country and gaelic music are my two big ones right now
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