Seven MOD Agents

Seven Agents of the MOD Squad

By John Taylor; 2 April, 2006

Looking back, I find that I have written 29 essays about the Oneness
of God in February and March, an average of about one every other day.
Worse, I feel I have only begun to plumb the depths. I know this is
hardly a topic that will become a runaway bestseller and set my career
skyrocketing, but from somewhere beyond a resistless hand is pushing
my back and I dare not quail or stumble. Just the same, the hand
relents and allows other topics on odd days as long as I keep at
Oneness on even days. So for my day off, I would like to touch on a
local crime, one that took place in Hagersville, a small town that I
feel for, especially since it is under the direct spiritual
jurisdiction of our Haldimand Assembly.

It would seem that some teens got together in a boy's bedroom for a
booze and pornographic video party. Without going into detail (I
avoided reading them anyway) it seems things got out of hand. An
unsuspecting girl was slipped a "date rape drug" in her drink and then
while visiting Lala land was raped with one of their beer bottles.
When the judge sentenced the underage perps, he expressed great regret
that he could not touch the boy's parents, who were morally
responsible because they knew of the party and were evidently even
warned by a concerned adolescent that it had turned ugly.

The Hamilton newspaper printed a letter by the father of the victim,
"Anguish of a rape victim's dad," (Spectator, 21 March, 2006, A19).
His tearful letter is heartfelt and frank and describes his initial
wish for revenge, followed by the grueling repeats of every detail in
court, and finally his arrival at something like forgiveness. Maturely
enough, his desire now is to see that the publicity will help prevent
such "horrid crimes from happening in the future." He put a great deal
of thought into the causes and here is his conclusion:

"The government banned the advertising of cigarettes. I think it is
time to ban the advertising of alcohol. The ads make drinking alcohol
look fun and exciting. No wonder teens think it is the thing to do. If
the parents drink, chances are their children will drink, too.
Drinking has been passed down from generation to generation, and
somehow we have to stop the cycle. I love both my daughters very much,
and I worry about my 16-year-old daughter a lot more now since this
happened. So please, everyone who drinks - and especially teens - be
careful how much you drink, who you drink with and, more importantly,
see that nobody slips any kind of a drug into your drink."

From our point of view his suggestions are very meek and mild. Banning
ads is just the first step on a long, long trip to social sobriety.
Plus ... a word might have been said about the role of pornography.
I'll discuss both, but start with spirits.

According to the WHO, alcoholism on the global level is the second
worst threat of all to public health, after tobacco. Yet most people
are barely aware of the dangers, and each new generation is allowed to
play into the warm embrace of booze advertisers without so much as a
word of warning from their teachers. Of all the many merchants of
death infesting our economy, the alcohol lobby is by far the most
successful. Even the suggestion of a warning label on their product,
the most basic protective measure imaginable, is swiftly stifled by
leaders who are much more beholden to merchants of death than the
living public.

That Hagersville judge who browbeat the parents of the teen rapists
for rank irresponsibility might have spared a word or two for their
teachers too. The reaction of the local high school, by the way, was
in effect, "This incident did not happen on school property, so we are
clean." Hmm. Not exactly.

I think the overall solution is a new and different way of looking at
morals, what could be called "meta-morality." This is what Paul
taught, and I think its power is still unappreciated. He said,

"For it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to me every knee will
bow. Every tongue will confess to God.' So then each one of us will
give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another
any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in
his brother's way, or an occasion of falling." (Romans 14:11-13, WEB)

So he discerns four steps to meta-morality: one, all bow before God --
that is universality in faith. We have to recognize what is common to
all faiths, and work on that actively, first. Two, confess to Him,
recognize in your heart the primacy of your flaws over others, for
only you can expiate them. Three, give a good account of yourself.
Take self into account, and feedback on that. Four, judge not others
but judge and understand the conditions. That is, remove all traps
that catch sinners, the systemic trip-ups. Ignore personal frailties,
individual sin. When a person sins or commits a crime, it is already
much too late. What can be changed is the future.

Do not blame individual drunks, in other words, but consult on ways to
shift aside stumbling blocks, "occasions of falling." That is
meta-morality, never wasting energy moralizing or condemning sinners
but first getting rid of easy availability of booze, ending the
preponderance of alcohol advertising, discouraging youth drinking
parties, and so forth.

The same thing applies to pornography, ruled by Asmodeus, devil of
lechery. He catches his share of innocents but meta-morality goes
first after the primary vices, pride and avarice. Do not make lust
cool or attractive; create a celibate safe atmosphere in society by
cutting off the flow of money to pornography. Whatever makes the
profits less attractive for Mammon has to be a good thing. Once
Lucifer and Mammon are out of the picture, Asmodeus will have less
force.

Advertisers consciously go through all the deadly sins and exploit
them systematically, one after the other. They know how effective
holism is.

They work on pride first, using tactics like the Marlborough Man,
showcasing a handsome, tough, admirable smoker, or similar happy,
carefree drinkers. You never see ugly smokers or shriveled winos in
the media, in spite of their being everywhere on the street. Then
there is Mammon, avarice, whose profits bankroll all the manufactured
images of the MOD Squad, Merchants of Death. Then comes Asmodeus. He
uses sex to sell pretty much everything. This discourages virtues like
chastity, purity, impulse towards God, and love generally; but who
cares, really? Only God.

Next is Satan's bailiwick, anger. Anger is the tool of advocates and
activists, who lash out in fury in so-called "attack ads." This
polarizes issues and worsens what they so ardently want to improve.
Then we have Beelzebub, lord of gluttons. He wants gluttony to seem
normal. He has triumphed now that images of fatty, sugary food are as
common in the media as photos of partly clad models. Proof of his
success is all around. Obesity is epidemic; the vast majority of older
people are grossly overweight, like fattened chattel ready for
slaughter.

Sixth among evils is the grey eminence, Leviathon, envy. Envy brought
down the twin towers on 9-11, and it feeds and breeds terror
everywhere. Advertisers promote it constantly, all day long, in order
to encourage buying to keep up with the Joneses. This is collective
suicide, since the evil eye, the green-eyed monster is to far too
dangerous to be trifled with so casually.

Finally, we have Belphegor, sloth. The example that comes to mind is
the beef lobby. They are well aware that sooner or later the world
will have to become vegetarian. The world's ecology cannot take the
gross inefficiency. For example, it has been calculated that simply
switching eating vegan saves far more greenhouse gasses than more
expensive ploys, like driving a hybrid automobile. As some thoughtless
teens are jailed for cruelty to kittens the gross negligence of this
industry goes not only unpunished, it is actually rewarded. They
indulge in massive cruelty to millions of cows and chickens on the
road to slaughter, but since few are vegetarians this is ignored. I am
sure that the magically successful appeal of these lobbyists to the
laziness of the average person will in future be a case study for
manipulators in training.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com