CONTRA FATUM

”To exercise force and wield power is not at all permissible for any Christian who would glorify his Lord. For the Kingdom of our King stands solely on the teaching and in the power of the Spirit.” (Conerning true love 84.30-31)

”For persons who walk after the flesh all good is impossible. But those should know that they are in falsehood and not truth. In truth the understanding, will, and power of all creatures are God's own and united. Whoever desires a special or another understanding, will, or power contrary to God's will, might well suppose he has what, in truth, he does not have and think he lacks what all creation possesses. And, on account of this lies alone, it is true that the Holy Spirit witnesses through his own that something in man, as understanding, will, power, or whatever, is against God. Let whoever understands this take heed that he truly be nothing against God. Indeed, even this illusion, about which has been spoken, is nothing. But the situation of him who thinks thus is no better. For the more he wishes to be something that he is not, the more God is against him, although He truly never was against anything. Thus it transpires that something which is impossible is, neve

”If man would but hold still, there would be time and place for the Spirit of the Lamb to bear witness and declare that this is the singular way to blessedness, namely, losing oneself. For, since God and all his works are the very best, therefore his breaking, which is so contrary to our nature, must necessarily be infinitely better than all that happens in heaven, on, and under the earth. Yes, because blood and flesh are so contrary to God that our activity is before God a passivity, our making before God a breaking, our something before God nothing, therefore, we should at all events hear what the Spirit in us says: God's breaking, as it appears to us, is the best making, and God's Nothing (which we cannot comprehend) would be the highest and noblest Something.” (Whether … 33.15-24) ”Wenn da der mensch still hielt, da were es zeyt und statt, das im der gaist des lambs zeugknuß gebe und sagete, das diß der ainig weg were zur seligkait, nemlich sich selb verlieren. D

Sometimes the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) is understood as implying that you should also love yourself, or that you cannot love others if you do not love yourself first. Hence the  door is opened for a mediocre bourgeois morality: I cannot love others if I don't love myself first, which means I at least need a place to live, a good bed, food on the table, a job, a car, and... The result is that we forget our neighbor.

An old post that was never posted: The so-called double-bind theory was developed by Gregory Bateson in the 50s as an explanation for schizophrenia. It explains how a certain kind of communication leads to a breakdown of personality, rendering the subject completely dependent upon the communicating authority.