Nov 23, 2022
“It’s God’s Will . . .”
Man’s Excuse to Explain Away Bad Behavior
On the occasions he wasn’t misquoting “Is it lawful law?” or declaring his sovereignty from American society, the perpetrator of the Waukesha Parade Massacre — with a Holy Bible perpetually at his side, no less — bastardized the philosophy behind the phrase of “God’s Will” as a defense for his indefensible act.
“Necessity or chance approach not me; and what I will is fate.”
— poet-philosopher John Milton
What is “God’s Will” as it applies to Man?
Who questions, who influences, the motivations behind one’s passions to commit good or evil against their fellow Man? Is it the infection of wanderlust — be it angelic or demonic in purpose? Why are we, the spiritual-physical creature of Man, perpetually fear and loathing on our geographical bubble-islands, bumbling about our lives as errant, mischievous Huckleberry Finns? Why, instead of looking within to improve ourselves, do we delight in tearing down the other’s accomplishments to raise our own egos? Why are we so concerned with everyone else’s “outer space,” yet ignorant to the frontiers of our own “inner space”; obsessed with the exploration of the other as the key to our survival? Where is the pleasure in destroying another life?
“Narcissists evolve a defensive armor around their damaged inner selves.”
— Heinz Kohut
That exploration, however, isn’t the problem, but where we explore . . . it’s been said that magic, religion and the occult are excuses for those who choose not to understand or accept the logic of science or engineering.
That’s because Man loves his excuses: we relish in passing the buck to God or Satan; however, make no mistake: there is no outside deity influences on the sociopath; the narcissist and Machiavellian are deliberate agents of chaos maneuvering with a purpose formulated in their own mind. They are not mentally ill; not in a DSM-5-TR clinical sense: they simply enjoy “stirring the pot”; they enjoy pulling the pin then tossing the grenade to relish the “fire in the hole” they ignite.
Man needs to understand: when one refuses to accept tangible logic they will eventually commit the illogical act of impeding the freewill of another individual. But that’s okay. One’s sinful act of impeding the other’s free will is easily explained away: For God “willed it” and it is not ours to question. God has a “plan” for all of us, after all: even if our loved one was brutally maimed or murder by one of those will-vessels who clutches the Bible in one hand while downstroking a backstabbing knife in the other. So, don’t worry. There’s a “light” to be found through all of this. . . .
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” — The lesson of The Mote and the Beam, Matthew 7: 1–5
Yes. Our Pastor, Priest, or Minister, in our times of need, will turn to the Holy Bible’s passages of Daniel 2:44, 1 Corinthians 10:13, and 2 Peter 3:9 to advise us that “God’s Will” is to use us to advance and glorify His kingdom and that all of His children, each and everyone us, will find salvation and sanctity through His son, Jesus Christ.
While the correlation of those passages used to assuage one’s spiritual hurt is of noble reasoning, it does not help one to understand the acts of a morally-defective individual who deliberately carried out a hate-fueled attack-by-automobile on the dusk of a cold, wintery evening in the city of Waukesha on November 21, 2021.
“No man is an island.”
— John Donne
Philosophers Nikolai Gogol and Johann Wolfgang von Gothe expounded on Man’s failed, perpetual quests for satisfaction: for there’s always that one, elusive desire that weighs us down like Prometheus to a rock. For Man is always searching for something else, something better; so busy looking down into our foolish, electronic devices that we never see the answer right in front us. We never realize that, while we may not have everything we want, we always have everything we need: each other. And it’s as easy as lifting our face and lighting the other’s world with a smile or the use of a kind, uplifting word.
In the year 1623, in his essay “Meditation 17,” English poet John Donne compared humans to countries and continents to God as an argument that Man can not exist without a connection to each other and with God. No person ever suffers alone and, as we cope with our own pains and care during the tribulations of others, we discover an inner strength that draws us closer to God (i.e., the Universe). And a piece of God exists in each and everyone of us (i.e., our souls). That entity exists in every creature. Every plant. The sun on your skin. The air breathed into your lungs. Look around you. Look up. Look into the eyes of others. You’re looking at, and feeling, God (and not the man-made religious-based one).
For our folly — in addition to seeing ourselves as islands at the mercy of another entity’s “will” — is that we see ourselves as physical beings inhabited by a spirit; a soul. Wrong. Our true essence is a spiritual being inhabiting a flesh and blood transportation device. We are part of an eternal, universal puzzle. It’s time for all of us — every race, greed, color, and religion — to plug into a new mainframe: We must unplug from the big irons overlorded by the Jack Dorseys, the Elon Musks, and the Mark Zuckerbergs of the cyberverse. We must plug into the “musica universalis,” that is, the ancient, mathematical harmony of the celestial bodies that balances the Universe’s natural order: an inaudible music that is heard not by ear, but felt; heard by the soul.
Until we see ourselves as the spiritual-latter and not the flesh-former, we will never, ever escape our ignorance in writing off our bad behaviors as “God’s Will” . . . or “Satan’s influence,” for that matter.
“When sexuality fails as a means of communication and provides only physical relief, then Eros is sick.”
— Michelangelo Antonioni
When it comes to cinema, no one understood Man’s relationship to each other and to God better than Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni with his films L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L’Eclisse (1962): his trilogy-statement regarding the alienation of Man in the modern world; each dealt with the failure of the self and their relationships.
So, here were are, six decades later, more alienated than ever before, Man’s islands even more distant to another. For in today’s Kardashian-driven digital epoch: one’s identity is based not on quantitative-quality accomplishments, but in one’s cybercloud virality. We are selfish, 21st century technonauts who think our personal lives are larger than the lives of others. As result, we’ve developed a new, existential condition: the dangers of prolonged technological exposure that leads to the negative cognitive, psychosocial, and psychological effects on one’s psyche: for the gluttonous creature of Man knows not moderation.
Why do we eschew physical contact for technical contact? Why do we stare for hours on end into plasma, but not into the eyes and hearts of the other? Why does one gratify their self by the “idea” of another self — a fantasy of digital identity? When did we cease to exist as spiritual creatures, transforming into foolish biomechanical engines; flesh-driven, uncommunicative perpetual motion machines?
It was Antonioni’s belief that Man’s technological development did not cause his alienation, but his failure to adapt to his changing environs caused his neuroses. And here we are today, with man’s current state of illness: an illness caused by our multi-media environs; digital environs where we coordinate attacks and organize riots, economic pillaging and social discourse that destroys the lives (i.e., the free will) of the hardworking and law-abiding others. The new and most dangerous “pandemic” we face isn’t an organic disease, but an inorganic sickness. And the inorganic sickness exacerbates our (current) organic pandemic through rumor and falsehoods. Do not blame the machines as you do God. We do not function properly because we’ve transformed: we are islands. It’s our fault. Man’s fault. Not God. Not the Devil. Not the machines. It is time to dry out our Gulfs and reconnect to the mainland.
“It is the men who don’t function properly — not the machines.”
— Michelangelo Antonioni
So, if we are to believe in “God’s Will,” as told by a self-righteous, sovereign man: On November 21, 2021, God decided to gather a multitude of people along a city street in Waukesha; these people would be “sinners” deserving of punishment. What “sin” did an 8-year-old boy commit, you ask? Was this child’s murder to atone for sins in his past life (if you believe in the concepts of reincarnation, or that we chose our next life and outcome)? Perhaps the child’s death was to punish his family members for their sins: past or present? What could the child’s family have possibly done to displease God to the point He would proclaim crushing said innocent child under five-thousand pounds of metal as a righteous response?
So, on that day, God chose the instrument to carry out “His Will”: a man rife with hate, anger and fear towards others — as well as himself. God selectively “willed” the citizens of Waukesha He deemed the worst the town had to offer to the parade. Then He “willed” this individual’s mother to loan her red Ford SUV so that “God’s Will” would be carried out: murder eight “sinners” while “sparing” another 62 “sinners” since their “sins” were not as egregious as the others: God decided to only maim them; give them a “reality check” to their sinful existence. Oh, and let’s not forget God instilling “His Will” in the minds of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm for creating the policies, and for Commissioner Cedric Cornwall approving the low bail suggested by prosecutor Michelle Grasso and her boss, assistant DA Carole Manchester, which put a monster back on the street in the first place. . . .
It is said that sickness and illness, death and murder, and ecological destruction (hurricane, earthquakes, etc.) is either a form of punishment rained down from God or a form of torture sent up from the depths of inner Earth by Satan. Perhaps it was “God’s Will” to let His own guard down on November 21, 2021, so as to allow Satan to enforce his evil-will on Man.
“A man is a god in ruins.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
What powers does God have over Satan and Satan over God — and each over Man? Are we spiritual creatures connected to God? Are we the fallen followers of Lucifer who chose to defy God? Are we folklore-believing fools?
For those answers, we’ve toiled and troubled the Holy Bible’s 1,281 pages (give or take, based on the edition) . . . over and over, across its 993 pages in the Old Testament and 288 pages in the New Testament. Perpetually lamenting and pontificating across its 66 books and 1,189 chapters . . . searching for truth . . . for answers . . . for the mysteries behind “God’s Will” for his spiritual creation: Man.
Truth be told: For all the ecclesiastical bellowing heard over time, The Holy Bible isn’t that difficult of a book to understand; in fact, one can simplify the Holy Bible to one, easy-to-comprehend word: free will.
From the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation (including the excised deuterocanonical-apocrypha books), parable upon parable after parable gives us examples of the same lesson over and over again: Man using his free will . . . for good or for evil. That’s it. It is simple as that. The Holy Bible — once you take away the Man-interpretation of the Holy Bible, i.e., religion — one will discover the text is a simple, life lesson plan. You don’t have to be a Christian (the three main branches: Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox) to gain from the lesson plan. In fact, you can be a practitioner of any of the world’s 10,000 religions (since any and all Holy Texts are philosophically analogous, one never needs to crack open a Holy Bible if they do not want to). One can be an atheist. One can be an agnostic. One can be a Satanist. (Each are religions, as well.) The Holy Bible is simply a guide on how to live one’s life, right. And one does not need any “Ten Commandments” to get there. Only one rule is required: Use one’s free will to support the other. And know that when one uses their free will to impede the free will of the other — be it by murder, grievous bodily harm, or simply bullying another person with words, or “righteous” rioting and pillaging from others: it results in forfeiture of one’s soul. Inflict anguish and one will receive ten-fold anguish once the final destination on the other side is reached. Then, on that other side: one must live through the direct and indirect anguish they’ve inflicted on others. And there’s no joy in that thought, only pain. No one should free-will wish that fate upon another, regardless of their evils; no matter how spiritually birth-defected their tainted soul.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:11
It wasn’t “God’s Will” that caused the Waukesha Parade Massacre. God didn’t plan it. Satan didn’t orchestrate it. The mind of one individual did it: he used his special, unique gift from God — his free will — to slaughter the free will of his fellow spiritual brothers. The murder of the free will of others — even by bullying, itself the killing of others with unkind words, jealousy and scorn — that is the ultimate sin, and that alone. I’d rather one not accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior — and experience their use of their free will, judiciously — than a hypocrite who quotes scripture while they reap the minds and destroy the souls of others. Then they confess. Then repeat. Then confess.
The question we are left asking: Who do I want to be?
We must use our free will to the best of our abilities in our support and not the suppression of the free will of our spiritual brothers. Then maybe, just maybe, if we unify our free wills as one cohesive being— our intended existence — we can prevent another Waukesha.
Sadly, by the time you read this: another has already occurred. . . .
“You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us,
and the world will live as one.”
— John Lennon
— R.D Francis
