THINQon : What if the devil could be killed?

The Living Room Psychology and character What if the devil could be killed?

THINQon is a platform for a more intelligent web. It aims to replace the ruling paradigm of the web – that of sharing and gathering information – with a sharing and achieving of understanding. Instead of the Q&A model it offers an experience. A platform for discovery of ideas, people, and yourself. Continue >

Hugh Dupin

What if the devil could be killed?

Latest Post: February 23, 2011 at 5:06 PM

27 followers

I had a strange dream tonight where there was the devil, obviously disguised, and a guy who recognized he is the devil. The guy wanted to shoot him in the head, but first in order to prove he is the devil to put a cross on his forehead (no religious connotations – simply taken from vampire movies). The people in the party stopped the guy from killing and the devil escaped.

What would happen if the devil would actually be killed? He could have immediately shot him. What if there was no more The Devil? How would life be? It’s hard, or impossible to imagine. And that is exactly the problem – we don’t kill the devil because we don’t believe it is possible (or at least that is part of the reason… :-) ).

How many things in our lives do we withstand only because we don’t believe it could be different. We accept being in horrible relationships. We don’t fix many parts of our relationships. We accept big companies controlling our lives. We accept, so many things. How different would life be if we didn’t accept bad situations but rather tried to do something about them. How different would life be if we tried more often to do the impossible.

What if the devil could be killed?

This post is referenced by the following other contributors:

Dana Samuel	in "Where do you go to be alone? What do you do? / Where do you go to be alone? What do you do?"	(AAAhhhh... I'm going out of my mind)
John Stevenson	in "You stand in line in the bathroom even in your dreams"	(The Living Room)

Reply to:

Linda OReilly

June 15, 2010 at 9:21 PM

88 followers

On the one hand I wouldn't like to kill my devils--they are 'the best thing that's in me'.
And that brings to mind that there's more than one devil--there are many and they are in us.
Fear
Greed &
Envy to name a few.

Although they all really come down to fear, don't they?
Anyway, if I and you and everyone hadn't a devil or two we'd be walking around smiling and deadened like lobotomy patients.
Dull.
I complain about the bad and the stupid but the contrast and tension that devils create are what make life good.
Chiaroscuro.

Caravaggio had it right. He would know.

Reply to: or

ted berryman

June 17, 2010 at 12:04 AM

23 followers

Oh, how fun. It reminds me of my ill friend who couldn’t wait to be in Heaven to go deer hunting again with his brother. I wonder how excited the deer are about Heaven. I suppose they would run out into the open with glee, kill me, kill me. Everyone happy. But if we suppose Satan to be the negative pole of a duality that allows the mind, allows comparison and choice, allows history as well as hunger and satisfaction of the appetites, then truly it would require a radical transformation, one we are incapable of imagining. Because even our bodies in experiential space stand opposed to their backgrounds. No, I’ll take the Devil for a little while longer.

So, would someone please tell me what's going on with that gibberish before proper names when I copy form Microsoft
Word

Reply to: or

Dana Samuel

June 17, 2010 at 5:49 PM

16 followers

Like Linda, I think that what makes life interesting is the struggle. You often hear that it is not only the result that counts but the path which leads to it. The number of devils to fight in order to get certain achievements takes an important place as to how you feel about yourself. In my imagination, I see the devil as one who has the power of reproduction, of splitting and multiplying, just as much as it can decrease in number and stop being there (maybe). It is the opposite of fixed.

Isn’t it up to us to lead this battle, and kill them one at a time till there is not one left? We must think that the devil can be completely killed, in order to always aim for a better life. To actually achieve it is of lesser importance as the situation is not inconvertible, they can always come back, so permanent struggle is always maintained.