The Occupational Hazards of Exposing Evil
Wisdom from Paul Kingsnorth
The latest post from
, Paul Kingsnorth’s substack, has touched a chord in me. Like him, I see the necessity, even duty, of exposing darkness with the light of truth as he has striven to do with his series on “The Machine.” But, also like him, I have felt occupational hazards of that.
From Kingsnorth’s post:
But writing like this builds up on your back after a while; it becomes a burden. I know this burden well, because I have been writing about the darkness of the times - about collapse, about anti-culture, about the Machine - since at least 2009, when I started the Dark Mountain Project. I don’t regret any of it. It had to be done. I needed to know what was at the root of what I could see all around me. And I know that doing so has been useful to others, because they have told me. The appetite for these essays is just one example of our common need to make sense of these insane times.
Still, it feels like I was on an underworld journey all that time. It feels like fifteen years of staring into the abyss. The danger of doing that, as Nietszche famously warned, is that the abyss will start to stare back into you. Too much focus on the darkness and you can forget about the existence of light. Aldous Huxley summed up the problem in The Devils of Loudon:
No man can concentrate his attention upon evil, or even upon the idea of evil, and remain unaffected. To be more against the devil than for God is exceedingly dangerous. Every crusader is apt to go mad.
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There are times I have felt that within myself. Kingsnorth’s observation pertains all too well to what I am and what I do. So much so that I have to comment. Forgive me if I think out loud a bit.
All Christians are called to oppose evil in some fashion. If you have a proper Book of Common Prayer baptism, the candidate (or the sponsors if the candidate is a small child) renounces the world, the flesh, and the Devil. For some, the commitment goes further. Some, like me, have the very mixed grace of being called to focus on exposing and opposing evil in a more public fashion. Someone’s got to do it! As many necessary jobs, there are indeed occupational hazards to that. Just as being a soldier in a shooting war can and will scar you inside and out, being a soldier for the truth against evil can scar you.
For years now and especially since the 2020 election, I’ve been concerned about the outward injuries I might suffer. Evil regimes and mobs with totalitarian impulses can be quite creative in inflicting misery on their opponents. The current debanking scandal in the U. K. is only one instance. (Revelation 13:17 anyone?) I’ve thought about withdrawing before now. But good friends have encouraged me in the literal sense of the word, to take courage and persist.
Still a time might come when I can say with Kingsnorth, “I take the collapse for granted. I am done writing about it.” And that time might be soon, but it is not yet, at least not in my country. I see enough signs of hope — the growing and bolder and at times successful counterattacks against the predatory woke — that I think this a time to keep the woke and allies on the run.
Yes, I can see a time, possibly soon, when public opposition to the woke and globalist totalitarians may become close to pointless or at least for those more brave than I. There have been many times and places in history when opposition to lies and faithfulness to Truth has had to be practiced quietly out of necessity. I expect such times to come again. But I do not think we are there just yet in my country.
But there is a more inward reason that makes me wonder if a change in the direction of my writing and studies needs to come soon. What I am doing now often has a bad effect on me. There is often too much dread within me. There is often too much anger within me. Being realistic and aware is important, but it can slip into dread too easily. There is righteous anger, but men do not handle anger well within or without, and I am no exception. Far from it.
So even if the Regime does not become as oppressive in the U. S. as I think it might, I may soon have to turn my focus to other directions to keep myself from becoming something dark.
People forget that opposition to evil motivated many behind the Communists and the Nazis as
points out in Live Not by Lies. Centuries of dark oppression in Russia motivated many to support the Bolsheviks. And the evil of the Communists in turn motivated many to support the Nazis. Dreher has warned that the backlash against woke and globalist oppression could become dark and ugly. Opposing an evil for a prolonged time can all too easily twist us into evil. Evil is deceitful and treacherous that way.Sorry this has become dark. I often remind myself that Christ wins in The End and brings about perfect justice in The End and makes “all things new.” That knowledge keeps me somewhat sane and hopeful. I don’t want to know what I would become without that knowledge.
These are among the reasons focusing on God and his goodness is not only good in itself, it is good and necessary for us. Focusing on God and his goodness helps keep us from making idols of the good things of this world. And, relevant to this post, focusing on God and his goodness helps keep us from being dragged down into the evil of this world. So it is that much more important for us public opponents of evil.
I could say more — maybe I’ve said too much already? — but as you see, I very much understand Kingsnorth taking a break and then going in a new happier direction with his writing. As an avid reader of Dreher, I suspect he intends to do likewise in the near future.
Will that time come for me? Soon perhaps, but not just yet. I am fighting in a righteous war and, though comrades are wounded, I am not severely injured yet. So I am not leaving the battle. But even as I persist, I know there are occupational hazards without and within.
Pray for me. Pray for us.
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photo: Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters