Submitted by Gayle
A friend of mine, aged 59, lies in the hospital in what is probably the end stages of coronary artery disease. The long and winding road to this status is marked with a plethora of bad decisions. Born into the chaotic world of two alcoholics, his young life was characterized by emotional neglect and was devoid of any role modeling of perseverance, integrity, or wisdom. Launched into adulthood without a high school diploma and only military experience as any sort of preparation for a successful life, he opted for heroin addiction and the comprehensive pathology which it ensures.
Unable to hold a job for any length of time, he nevertheless married and fathered three children who were soon removed from him and adopted by others. Numerous incarcerations at the county and state level littered his prime adult years, interspersed with homelessness or minimal living conditions. In his mid-forties he finally got clean and cobbled together the semblance of a normal life. He still could not sustain employment, however, and physical problems began to plague him. Between the VA and SSDI, he has had literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of surgeries (including a triple bypass), procedures, and rehabilitation efforts. The criminal justice system provided glasses and dentures and job training. He has had four failed marriages and has not succeeded by any other measure of manhood.
I tell you his life story not to invite judgment, but to use him as an example of the difficulties in assessing how to extend mercy (both individually and collectively) to someone. After his bypass, he was ordered to quite smoking. He did not quit smoking, and so more expensive treatments are needed to save his life at the present time. This is on top of a lifetime of abusing his body in other significant ways. When is it appropriate to cease being merciful and who gets to decide? Where is the line where mercy morphs into enabling?
I know a very young unmarried couple, poor as church mice, who had a baby recently. The baby had severe malformations of the heart. This poor child has spent the first three months of its life in Neonatal Intensive Care, undergoing surgeries and endless procedures, and at last report was classified as “stable”. At times she has required one-on-one nursing care. The parents come and stare at her every day – no touching to speak of – and then go home. The medical bill for this baby must be in the stratosphere. Where is the line where mercy twists into torture?
Another young couple -married – I know are pregnant. Ultrasound has just revealed their daughter will be born with a heart having only one chamber instead of four. The series of surgeries she will need to construct some sort of working organ will begin almost immediately after birth. If all goes well, she can be expected to live until her early teens. Where is the line where mercy becomes a usurper of the proper natural order of things?
Mercy is a beautiful word. We all need mercy to some degree some of the time and are glad to get it. The one who extends mercy is rewarded by expending time and resources to help another who cannot return the favor, at least not now. Unless mercy has boundaries, however, it is easily abused and becomes something else. At a societal level, for example, we see the cruel results of extending unending mercy to women who choose to have multiple children without benefit of a committed father on the scene. Good mercy requires some system of accountability, but the lines for that are as elusive as a wisp of smoke. Good mercy produces positive results, and stupid mercy produces disaster.
I have an example of good mercy. In my extended family, a daughter was born with severe spinal bifida. She spent her life hunched over in a wheelchair, helpless to do much of anything but use her bright mind. Her parents and older siblings extended prodigious amounts of love and mercy to her, but I know it was tempered with accountability because of her unspoiled nature and the good humor with which she lived her life. She had many friends, and was actually popular with her classmates. In seventh grade she was allowed to get her hair dyed blue. In eighth grade, she was invited to a Halloween party, and the keen sense of irony she had developed about her circumstances was evident when she chose to costume herself as Lady Gaga. A few months later a swift case of pneumonia took her. She is sorely missed for the joys she beamed out to those in her orbit, the results of good and appropriate mercy.
I am no proponent of arbitrary medical rationing. I am all for a society that has structures to offer compassion to those who need it. But mercy demands intelligent definition and distribution. Mercy is easily apprehended by those who use it for devious ends and by those who don’t recognize some of the naturally occurring deficits in human nature, like laziness. Bad mercy is outrageously expensive.
I am about to go down to Mexico for the weekend to offer some mercy to some really destitute people. Is it good mercy? I think so, but some might argue.
Justice is the opposite of Mercy.You show the world your foolishness.If we all got real justice we would all be dead and in hell.Mankind is evil and we deserve no mercy .What we deserve is justice and that would mean hell but God in his common grace gives us time to repent.Repentance takes time.We
First have to realize how evil and sinful we really are in mind and body.Any of you want to find out how evil you are ?Take a good look at the 10 commandments or moral law.This is the real reason the ACLU
and other groups try to keep the moral law out of schools , the state and now society at large.They don’t want people to realize they are going to be held accountable for their words ,actions , deeds and motives….hey butter I’m still waiting ..
JIM Q ,says I cant stand BB.Well then ,thank you for showing me mercy and not kicking me off.I Plan to stay around as long as you let me.bb
T4C says:
” hat are you?……his Defense Attorney??”
No, but have you ever watched the pair of christian gladiators who didn’t like each other but had to team up to defend themselves in the arena against the heathen roman horde? Whether bb knows or not, I was also doppling him back then but only in the spirit of fucking with him. I noticed the comment you complained about, (I suspected admin did it as a joke since bb was messing with him that day, when I went back to re-read it, it was gone).
As for remembering the comment, sometimes I have good recall and other times I mess it up. My memory is like that. I read somewhere that as we get older, the boundaries (filing system) of our memory become hazy and then memories exist in lagoons, blending in with no regard for temporal incongruity.
Ha – back to you, you misspelled ‘allude’
Stucky says:
El Coyote, El erudito bíblico extraordinaria You’re just not going to answer the question, are you?
I don’t have a bible in front of me so excuse me, this is all my opinion, what was the question?
I seem to recall that angels complained that there were weeds or something mixed in with the wheat. the plan was to leave the weeds in place until the harvest, as disturbing things now would ruin the crop.
Your ‘One Big Fuck You for everyone else’ is hilarious. There was a small article I read, it said most Americans expect to go to heaven. (Perhaps it is in the Constitution but we know now that is a wish list with no legal power.) Let’s face it, the road to heaven is a strait and narrow road. We are on the wide path that gently slopes downward. But was it Winston that reminded us recently, while there’s life, there is hope? And that hope, my friend, is Mercy, because if we got Justice we’d be fucked.
T4C , damn all this time I thought it was Stucky ,now admin and El coyote admit to this terrible deed.Now hot lips I demand an apology .Say you are sorry for judging me this way or at least send some nude pictures of yourself….Did you know that I and Billy have the same German DNA and IQ.Tell everybody.!!!!
El coyote ,says now he doesn’t like me either.Damn ,where is the mercy? That’s ok cause I got a friend from Brazil and he is loyal friend unlike some on this site.
bb, I like you. I was jus fuckin wit you. anyway, T$C complied with your request a long time ago, check out her icon, man, she is HOT, you got good taste, bb, when’s the wedding?
this moment calls for that pic of the dude slapping that bitch.
Stucky says:
” … you confirm my idea that the words are hidden and given only to a few.”
———El Coyote, El erudito bíblico extraordinaria
WHY??? I want to know WHY “the words are hidden and given only to a few.”. That pretty much goes against everything else Jeebus taught and did.
I want to know WHY. C’mon … help a brother out.
.
.
BTW, you spelled your name wrong above.
He did say that he came to preach, healing and miracles was just a side job. He said he would speak clearly to his disciples but only in parables to the mobs, lest they hear and convert and be healed or saved. since he said elsewhere that he does not reject any that comes to him, and that no one comes to him anyway unless the father called them (besides, many are called, few are chosen)
The idea you get is not one of many sequential portals gradually diminishing in size but rather many doors, I don’t like putting it this way because it sounds like the heathen, many roads to god. there is only one path and he says whether you come in through the door or break in through the roof is OK as long as you come to jesus.
john called the Pharisees who came to be baptized, generation of snakes. he asks them who told taught them to avoid the coming fury. jesus is more conciliatory, he says he will not reject them since they would not come anyway if they weren’t called.
the bible is not for everyone so that negates asshole’s theory that the bible is a tool of universal control. this was my original point, bb and the wheat and chaff question were diversions.
“john called the Pharisees who came to be baptized, generation of snakes …………. JESUS IS MORE CONCILIATORY …. ” ———– The Big Burrito, who gets his theology from a Taco Bell menu
Good Lord!! WHERE do you get you info??
In Matthew 23 Jeebus calls the Pharisees —- “fools, hypocrites, blind guides, whited sepulchers, murderers, a generation of snakes,”
Oh, yeah, that’s real conciliatory. Can you at least TRY to be accurate once in a while?
I read your excellent post several days ago, but didn’t exactly know what to think.
I’ve seen everything your described, x100, from a different viewpoint obviously. Medical technology has gotten away from people (like every other form of technology). We’ve been saving lives for 50 years without wondering if we should be saving these lives. “Just because we can” has imparted more pain and misery than anyone can imagine. Somewhere along the line, things have gotten to be what I can only consider to be insane. Nobody wonders should a baby have 5 surgeries and put through hell, running up millions in costs. It simply has to be done, there is some type of moral imperative there. Meanwhile, millions of babies are killed off every year via abortion. Can you see the insanity there? Some babies are wanted, to be kept alive at any cost, while millions of innocent babies are murdered. It’s insane. It’s about abortion rights, it’s just the reality of the situation.
As far as seniors go, I’m ashamed at doctors and hospitals. They torture geezers, put them through tests, procedures, surgeries, many with dementia and can’t even express their wishes. And you know why? Because the family wants it, and it’s not costing them a dime, and they’ll sue you if you don’t “do everything” to keep their parent alive. It doesn’t matter if the geezer had a living will or advanced directive, the families hide them, destroy them, refuse to present them to the hospitals. And the hospitals and doctors get that sweet Medicare money. The only way to solve the problem is to put a cap on hospital Medicare expenses, at $20k or $50k, and make the family pay the rest. This would result in people dying a dignified death, instead of the suffering they go through the last 2-3 months of their lives. And the last 2-3 months of life represent almost 45% of Medicare spending.
Mercy isn’t the problem, mercy would be to let people, from unborn babies to 95 y.o. geezers, to die with dignity. Instead, we prolong their lives as long as possible so they can suffer for the benefit of others. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Aggressive and abusive family members with no skin in the game, no financial responsibility, spending other people’s money so they can feel better about themselves that “everything possible was done”. Mercy is being able to let go, with respect and love. Nobody knows the meaning of the word in the USSA.
“The only way to solve the problem is to put a cap on hospital Medicare expenses, at $20k or $50k” ———-AWD
In other words, a 3 day stay at a hospital? Not too sure about those caps.
Other than that, I wish I could log in 10 times and give you ten thumbs up.
Looking forward to your post, T4C. AWD, thanks for summarizing that all so well. I, too, have been reluctant to post, because I’m torn… I don’t believe in extreme end-of-life measures (hell, I’m not sure I’d even treat an illness like cancer if I were diagnosed), but I cannot fully support a government who tries to get involved in those decisions or who rations care. That’s too much like “judgement” to me.
The ACA’s so-called “death panels” were about establishing a body of healthcare professionals to work with families to make decisions on end-of-life care, with the intent being to cut unnecessary cost. How do you, as health care professionals, feel about that? Do you support it in theory, but think the decision should be driven more by the patient? By the family? Should everyone be required to have legal directives established before they face a serious illness?
I don’t have any answers, but I’m interested in hearing your perspectives on how these decisions can — or should — be made.
“ … he said elsewhere that he does not reject any that comes to him” —– The Big Burrito
Very nice answer! To that I would add the following;
1) Jeebus often ends a parable thusly; —- “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” I take that to mean that those who WANT to understand, eventually will. We know that many followed Jeebus around simply to trap him with his own words, or simply to receive a miracle and uninterested in His message …. to those the truth remains hidden by their own choice.
2) The “hidden” meaning of the parables was only a very temporary phenomena. There is no “mystery teaching” in Christianity. Almost immediately after the resurrection all was revealed …. That Jeebus is the risen Lord went out to ALL people, not veiled in parables, but in clear teaching.
That is what I would say if I was a Christian. But, I’m not. I’m a Denier and going straight to the Pits Of Hell, forever and ever.
Stucky says:
“ … he said elsewhere that he does not reject any that comes to him” —– The Big Burrito
Very nice answer! To that I would add the following;
1) Jeebus often ends a parable thusly; —- “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” I take that to mean that those who WANT to understand, eventually will. We know that many followed Jeebus around simply to trap him with his own words, or simply to receive a miracle and uninterested in His message …. to those the truth remains hidden by their own choice.
2) The “hidden” meaning of the parables was only a very temporary phenomena. There is no “mystery teaching” in Christianity. Almost immediately after the resurrection all was revealed …. That Jeebus is the risen Lord went out to ALL people, not veiled in parables, but in clear teaching.
Preach it, Stucky. I like the part where you say the truth is hidden from those who are so blind, they will not see. I said I was going on memory, faulty memory. And it was a syntax error i made that seems to imply he was conciliatory to the pharisees. But my point was that he was nice to folks who sought him out, even the roman heathen and the samaritan woman. As for the veil removed from before their eyes universally, I have heard it is in this passage: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;…
I will have to relinquish my ‘big burrito’ name unless I go for ‘burrito’ which means – dumbass.
I have seen a living will on the chart that was very clear and concise, no extraordinary measures are to be taken, DNR, no advanced life support whatsoever. A Child of the patient from a distance state comes in and wants everything done. The doctor does not honor the living will on the chart he goes with what this child wants related to the fact he does not want to be sued by this Johnny come late to the show. The Doctor knows his patient won’t pull through and sue him so the poor patient against his will ends up on a ventilator with IV pressors hanging, seen it more than once, it’s usually the spouse that pull’s this shit, it’s an act of cowardly bullshit on the Doctors part.
Listen to me people, if you have a living will and want it enforced have your Attorney call your attending Physician upon hospital admission and inform the doctor that the living will is not to be ignored and that a lawsuit will be filed on your behalf the moment your wishes are breached. That’s the only way to make damn sure your wishes are carried out, this shit happens everyday, patient beware. Oh yea, make sure you’ve made arrangements to pay the attorney.
Thank you everyone for all the comments. I have crossed the border so now have internet access again. I had a great weekend except I lost my wallet somehow. Don’t know if I was “picked” or careless and dropped it. My compadres showed me mercy with financial contributions to ease my plight.
AWD I was hoping you would add to the discussion from a doctor’s perspective, and you too, T4C for the nurse’s view.
I suppose what I have taken away from my own thinking is that I would rather be generous with my mercy than stingy, but to pay attention.
Thinker poses a good question for the doctors on the site. I have some I would add.
Does it actually establish these “Death Panels”? I was under the impression that the ACA created a new payout under Medicare for “end of life counseling”. That it was one more thing that Medicare paid for and doctors could bill for. If they do exist, are they actually interacting with families or issuing guidelines for the conversations between doctor and patient? is this an important distinction or irrelevant?
Unfortunately, Gayle was posting on TBP on her iPod and missed this sign;
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Ms Freud’s mom had a DNR — Advanced Dementia and other debilitating physical ailments …. they revived her …. and Ms Freud won a hefty lawsuit.
There’s a whole lotta of things worse than dying. Watch a patient lay in a bed ICU bed for a couple of months while decubitus ulcers eat away at his sacral area and you’ll understand what I’am saying.
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If you don’t believe me, just read Sensetti’s comment. This is what happens 90% of the time. Some offspring or relative of the geezer shows up and demands everything be done. Usually an offspring or relative that hasn’t visited grandma in the nursing home in more than 10 years. Advanced directives are worthless when a family member shows up. As I said above, they literally throw them in the garbage, withhold them. This should be a felony (or worse). If a geezer took the time to have one made, and didn’t want to be tortured at the end of their life, the family should respect it, but they don’t. The threat of a lawsuit drives medicine. It goes hand in hand with spending obscene amounts on outcomes that always result in death. But you let one thing slide, or don’t do a procedure the family thought you should have, or say “no” once to the family, they are on the phone to a lawyer before you leave the room. You can’t bargain with families, you can’t reason with families, you can’t “work together” with families, as Thinker mentioned, you do what they want, or you will get sued, and they’ll get a massive pile of money for nothing. The specter of a lawsuit always hangs over your head 24/7. The free shit mentality at it’s worst. Unless you’re a Federal doctor, then you can’t be sued and can do what is correct and right in any situation.
And foreign doctors. About 50% of the doctors in the US are foreigners. They are here to make as much money as they can, and many are specialists that do unnecessary procedures. The surgeons call them “fleas” because they fly around the carcass of an old geezer, running them through the procedure mill. This also makes hospitals a fortune, and the hospitals glorify these “fleas”. In business terms, they “add no value”, do nothing to prolong or improve life, but they cover your ass if the family sues you. Foreign doctors, for the most part, have had their ethical brain chips removed. Anyway, enough on that subject. It’s one of the main reasons I don’t do hospital work anymore.
As far as Medicare is concerned, there has to be caps put in place to prevent abuse, both by greedy doctors and hospitals, and by families that don’t care about expenses because they aren’t paying. If some of these abusive and aggressive family members had to pay for grandma’s treatment, they’d be pushing her out of the hospital themselves. Again, out of the hundreds of billions spent by Medicare, almost half is in the last 3 months of life. Many are comatose, in pain, blood transfusions, every manner of procedure done on them, every specialist in the hospital consulted and getting their cut. And, in my opinion, it’s all wasted money, the outcome is always the same: death. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and force the families to pay if Medicare ran out. But Medicare never runs out, right?
The Medical and Healthcare system is still living under the delusion that the USSA is exceptional, and can take whatever exceptional measure are necessary to prolong and save life. Like the government, the attitude is of unlimited cash to pay so grandma can be around another month or two. Our country is already bankrupt. The government doesn’t pay it’s Medicaid bills now, and Obama is adding 26 million more people to this system. Hospitals are closing and doctors are closing the doors and leaving town without a forwarding address. Well, doctors aren’t doctors anymore, that’s not PC as it offends “mid levels”, so they’ve changed the name to providers. I didn’t go to med school to be called a fucking provider, but they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I can tell you one thing, as soon as I’m able, I’m getting out of medicine. And so are tens of thousands of other doctors. But not to worry, you’ll have an Obamacare “provider”. It may be a witch doctor trained in the Congo, but it’ll be a provider.
Stucky said, “That is what I would say if I was a Christian. But, I’m not. I’m a Denier and going straight to the Pits Of Hell, forever and ever.”
The duality of God’s nature is another zoroastrian teaching that the Jews borrowed and then fucked up. In the zoroastrian use, there is no heaven or hell but rather good and evil and the whole point of it is to help guide man towards goodness, not to threaten him with retribution if he doesn’t get it right. Good and evil are like light and darkness in that there is nothing to darkness except the absence of light. Thus the states of goodness are achieved by the absence of evil.
The Jewish god reflects Jewish culture…he is insecure and vain, malicious, fights dirty and places himself on a pedestal, but on rare occasions shows traces of generosity, which we are supposed to admire all the more because of the rarity its occurrence.
NOBODY better EVER tell me I posted some disgusting pics.
That award now belongs to sensetti!!
Informative? Probably. DISGUSTING? Yes x 1,000,000.
That’s a stage 4 sacral decub ulcer. That’s exposed bone. The correlation between getting one and being dead in 6 months is almost 100%.
Yeah, and I almost went into Stage 4 vomiting seeing it.
Jeezus, what a baby.
I could show you some genital infection pictures from people with AIDS that would scar you for life.
AWD, I’m squeamish at the sight of blood myself, which is why I never considered medicine as a career interest.
Punk, here’s some background on what the ACA actually says… I misunderstood that it forced conversations between a panel of doctors and family members, though I could swear I read that somewhere. Granted, this piece is conservatively biased; MSNBC and the LA Times called out Howard Dean for suggesting issues with IPAB.
ObamaCare ‘Death Panel’ Faces Growing Opposition from Democrats
Cool. Thanks, Thinker.
From the article…
“The IPAB is designed to kick in when Medicare cost growth grows above a specified rate. It is charged with making recommendations on how to reduce Medicare spending, and its proposals are required to be fast-tracked through Congress.”
So… Medicare cuts are inevitable. Hiding them in two thousand pages of garbage is a way to keep your hands clean. Pretty sneaky. These “Death Panels” are a way to moralize the issue, ultimately preventing any real cuts. Pretty stupid.
Holy shit Stucky that’s not even a bad one, you otta try cleaning/debridement and redressing one of those if you think looking at it’s bad.
Make sure your lazy ass nurse rolls your sorry carcass every two hours, and you’ve got some nutrition running, that will go along way in preventing such an ulceration.
AWD is spot on, getting your attorney involved is to protect you from your loved ones. The fucking kids will try to keep you alive so they can continue to cash your monthly Government checks while your body’s rotting away. It’s worse than Dick Cheney waterboarding your ass three times a day, trust me, that’s no way to go out.
PS if you’re loaded with cash don’t worry about it. The kids start counting the chips they’re going to rake in and will let you go at the very first opportunity, dying with money in the bank usually ends very humanely. Funny how that shit works out.
Thinker and punk, Doctors are losing control of what can and can’t be done for a patient. As AWD has ranted about in the past, Administrative managers with lap tops are driving the care, it’s only begun, it gets worse from here. As this tsunami of Boomers age the type and extent of care will be declining, it must, the numbers don’t work, it can’t be paid for. Get in shape and exercise, see your Primary Care Physician every six months and have labs drawn. Stay Healthy
“So… Medicare cuts are inevitable. Hiding them in two thousand pages of garbage is a way to keep your hands clean. Pretty sneaky. These “Death Panels” are a way to moralize the issue, ultimately preventing any real cuts. Pretty stupid.”
I’m pretty sure I read that in the first TARP bill that Obama signed in 2009 there were provisions in there that puts the federal govt first in line with claims against your estate if you rack up Medicare/Medicaid bills. I never looked it up but I believe the article said it was buried back on page 891 or so. If true, I would imagine that once that kind of crap becomes widely known it should have a mitigating effect on how long people keep grandma hooked up to the technology when they fear that big brother will be taking her house and other assets. Makes sense too…….when the govt starts getting between people and their greed they (the people) will opt to solve the problem themselves.
I_S
I heard that too, IS. Didn’t know it was in TARP though. The gift that keeps on giving, that one.
sensetti, I’m more of a don’t go to the doctor unless there is something sticking out of me kind of person. Also, I distrust our medical system. I’m fairly healthy and don’t get hurt often. Without health insurance I’ve had to consciously mitigate risk on my own.
“Good mercy requires some system of accountability, but the lines for that are as elusive as a wisp of smoke. Good mercy produces positive results, and stupid mercy produces disaster.”
—-Gayle
I have read only this article by Gayle and NONE of the comments. Honest.
I have NO answer for the quote from Gayle above, with which I agree. And neither does anyone else on this forum. But I hope she finds some good mercy from her trip to Mexico.
SSS
Migrant worker settlement, indigenous people living in mean 3rd world.conditions. A little faith-based enterprise whose primary purpose is to feed and educate the children and teach them the principles of Christianity by word and example. A small school has been established and the Mexican government uses it as a kind of student teaching assignment for the final year of teacher preparation. Perhaps the cycle of extreme poverty can be impaired or broken. I observed several of the little kids reading aloud. The mothers are silent, holding the latest babies, and the fathers are at work in the fields. One building badly needed exterior painting, so we trooped in and scraped and painted. The administrator insisted the kids be allowed to help with the task, so small boys armed with rollers and handles worked very seriously, no playing around. A chili dog lunch for about 75 kids and moms followed by lots of games and a Bible story rounded out the day. The facility looked much nicer when we finished. It felt like a little bit of pretty good mercy.
Gayle, I hope to see you’re back safely. Certainly would like to know more of this place. Indigenous people in Mexico tend to be at the very bottom of the world. Godspeed.
Stucky says:
“At least Satan makes sense.”
The sense that Stucky claims is that if this world is all there is and there is no other world, no afterlife or resurrection, then taking Satan’s offer is a no brainer. The only limit seems to be the limit you place on your imagination. The sky is the limit. You could have the power to lord it over others, to regulate their lives and restrict their movement. Perhaps you want to be a prison guard or the warden. Maybe you’d like to be a police officer or a mayor with the power to restrict soda sales.
Satan’s Offer
The promise of Satan in the Garden of Eden is that if Adam (man) disobeys God and eats of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he will be as God. He will know the difference between good and evil. The unspoken message is that God lied when he warned man not to eat of the forbidden fruit lest he die. Satan asserts that disobeying God has its advantages and that being as God is to be desired. Knowing the difference between good and evil is a means of achieving power. Power is to be desired in the world; it can make the world much more than perfect. Satan seems to suggest that man can tweak and perfect god’s work.
In Mat 4 we see Satan tempting Jesus with food, heavenly salvation and power over the great cities of the world. Satan offers his potential followers comfort, security, freedom from want and the enjoyment of the senses if only they will worship him.
The Rationalization
Perhaps you think the world needs a savior right now. You are a good candidate; you’re good humored, kind, selfless, altruistic, and honest beyond reproach. You could save the world at the mere cost of your soul but it seems like more than a fair trade; a small price to pay for peace of mind, worth spending eternity in unquenchable hellfire while comforted by the fact that you righted the world’s wrongs, saved the suffering and enriched the poor.
The Devil in the details
In any contract, if you read the small print, you will find certain unpalatable terms, which is why they are in small print. Some of these are: the possibility of eternal damnation in case there really is an afterlife, the possibility of hurting the ones you love (in case you actually have anyone you love more than yourself). There is the possibility of unintended consequences, it is possible you may not attain your goals or that you may be thwarted by unforeseen events. According to Hollywood practice, a good contract is one that forces the other party to default. Maybe you can trust the devil, maybe the one you should worry about is you; can you keep the terms of the agreement? If so, there may be nothing to worry about.
Works of Satan
If you are convinced that this is a good deal, considering all you have to gain versus the miniscule cost involved, perhaps you ought to be aware of whom you are dealing with. The bible has very little to say about the devil but it does not paint a picture of someone you should trust. He is called, liar, deceiver, murderer, sinner, thief, blinder, obstructionist, schemer, accuser, disobedient, lawless, tempter, imprisoner, betrayer, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, sifter, blasphemer.
He has the power to give false signs and wonders. He is the one to be judged, the ruler of the bottomless pit and the ruler of the world. He is disguised as a servant of righteousness. He causes shame and practices unrighteousness. He is the enemy of all righteousness, is full of deceit and villainy and is the leader of mediums and necromancers, the spirit of divination and confusion, the spirit of torment, of the synagogue of Satan.
He is the father of the weeds. He is without self-control, brutal, not loving good, he promotes sexual immorality and unnatural desire, he is a thorn in the flesh, the snare of the devil, a teacher of the deep things of Satan. In short, he is the power of the darkness.
Satan’s Offer is tempting but it there is no guarantee that he will deliver as promised. Perhaps if Jamie or Sergei were to give an endorsement. It does not make sense to take a deal where you are guaranteed to lose.
“Satan is called, liar, deceiver, murderer, sinner, thief, blinder, obstructionist, schemer, accuser, disobedient, lawless, tempter, imprisoner, betrayer, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, sifter, blasphemer.” ———– booger eater
On the bright side, at least they didn’t say ‘Cocksucker.’
That list sounds like a description of Oreo. But Oreo is a Neegrow. I think Satan is all red. Right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9p88Rh3C_rQ
Stucky says:
“I think Satan is all red. Right?”
No, that’s LLPOH, although Clamato would say he’s the very same one.