The life of the spirit is at odds with the social-science mentality. The economist never considers the cultural effects of the economic policies he advocates. What he or she deals in is mechanistic: one does what satisfies their personal drives for material goods, sex, food and so forth.
Thus you have Materialism, which occurs alongside Unspiritualness. Unspiritualness is the inability to self-abnegate or empathize. By self-abnegation, Estase means doing without or self-denial. Empathization, of course, means being able to imagine the suffering of others. The third factor is Darkness, the relentless glamorization of evil. Visible through the fact that many horror movies are torture-porn, much music extolls negative emotions, and popular books are often fantasies of immorality.
Taken together, you have MUD (Materialistic Unspiritual Darkness). Similar to what Pope John Paul II called "the culture of death," MUD is to be seen in the self-absorbtion of modern life. One American political party says that women should have government-funded contraception and abortion. Sex as MUD. The other, not to be outdone, contends that even the most basic social programs are unacceptable. I don't want to pay for someone else's food stamps! Economizing as MUD.
Keeping MUD out of our lives may be as impossible as keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Perhaps the best way to fight MUD is to be aware of it. MUD is the noonday devil, the encouragement to put Number One first. It permeates the policy positions of both parties. As we progress towards Marxism, it becomes an immense danger, as MUD is an enormous part of Marxism. In that case, MUD justified mass murder and the gulag.
Thus you have Materialism, which occurs alongside Unspiritualness. Unspiritualness is the inability to self-abnegate or empathize. By self-abnegation, Estase means doing without or self-denial. Empathization, of course, means being able to imagine the suffering of others. The third factor is Darkness, the relentless glamorization of evil. Visible through the fact that many horror movies are torture-porn, much music extolls negative emotions, and popular books are often fantasies of immorality.
Taken together, you have MUD (Materialistic Unspiritual Darkness). Similar to what Pope John Paul II called "the culture of death," MUD is to be seen in the self-absorbtion of modern life. One American political party says that women should have government-funded contraception and abortion. Sex as MUD. The other, not to be outdone, contends that even the most basic social programs are unacceptable. I don't want to pay for someone else's food stamps! Economizing as MUD.
Keeping MUD out of our lives may be as impossible as keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Perhaps the best way to fight MUD is to be aware of it. MUD is the noonday devil, the encouragement to put Number One first. It permeates the policy positions of both parties. As we progress towards Marxism, it becomes an immense danger, as MUD is an enormous part of Marxism. In that case, MUD justified mass murder and the gulag.
