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- P A S S I V I T Y - L E T H A L L U L L A B Y
- ---------------------------------------------------
-
- "Once there was fine warren on the edge of a wood, overlooking the meadows of
- a farm...
-
- "One day the farmer though, `I could increase these rabbits: make them part of
- my farm- their meat, their skins. Why should I bother to keep rabbits in
- hutches? They'll do very well where they are.'... He put out food for the
- rabbits, but not too near the warren. For his purpose they had to become
- accustomed to going about in the fields and the wood. And then he snared
- them-not too many; as many as he wanted and not as many as would frighten them
- all away or destroy the warren.
-
- "They grew big and strong and healthy, for he saw to it that they had all of
- the best, particularly in winter, and nothing to fear-except the running knot
- in the hedge gap and the wood path. So they lived as he wanted them to live
- and all the time there were a few who disappeared. The rabbits became strange
- in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was
- happening. But even to themselves they pretended all was well, for the food
- was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear..."
-
- (excerpt from WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams)
-
-
- A story of rabbits can easily be translated to men. Our warren, too, is plush
- and secure, safe from danger, and insipidly deadly.
-
- The typical would view of passivity is that is constitutes a positive force; a
- person who is passive is often described as "restrained" or "reserved." Both
- terms, if not carried too far, are supposed signs of strength in character.
- When passivity is seen in a negative light, it is often confused with
- indifference or apathy, neither of which are synonymous, but are often
- passivity's symptoms.
-
- According to Webster's [Sixth] New Collegiate Dictionary, passivity consists
- "Not [of being] active, but acted upon; affected by outside force[s] or
- agenc[ies and] receiving or enduring without resistance or emotional
- reaction..."
-
- A person "being acted upon... affected by outside forces" is one who allows
- circumstance and environment to dictate his state of mind. The question is
- what the individual really is doing when he allows himself to assume a passive
- stance. For that, we must look at some of passivity's fruit.
-
-
- DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
-
- Psychologists agree that "the most prominent symptom of depression [is]
- passivity." (Psych. Today, June 1973, p. 45) Paradoxically, there is also a
- reversal of roles. Depression can become a symptom of passivity: "I existed
- in a state of complete nothingness. My world was one in which passivity
- played the major role. Depression was the stat I most often was in, because I
- felt unable to make and effort to overcome the barriers in my life."
-
- In extreme instances, even suicide can be traced to passivity. The most
- graphic examples come from the insane world of the rock and roll star or film
- personality. Freddie Prinze, of "Chico and the Man" fame, and Robert Lamm,
- from the group Chicago, both shot themselves in a seemingly irrelevant and
- unplanned manner. It was report, however, that Prinze used to hold the gun he
- later shot himself with to his head and tell his startled friends that he was
- going to kill himself. Then, laughing, he would put the gun aside. In his
- life, fantasy became reality.
-
- Janis Joplin, too, was a study in passivity. At one point, when a friend
- confronted her about her heavy heroin usage, she offered this defense: "I
- just did it to see." "To see what?" "To see if I wanted to do it anymore."
- (Janis Joplin, Buried Alive, Myra Friedman, pg. 388)
-
- Keith Moon, the drummer of the Who, is the most recent possible suicide
- related to passivity. He died by taking two handfuls of sleeping pills by
- "accident." The Rolling Stone commented that, "It was in any event, and
- uncharacteristically passive end for one of rock's most flamboyant figures."
-
-
- PASSIVITY AND THE CULTS
-
- A major area in which passivity is encouraged is religion, especially the new
- religions of the East, as well as spin-offs from Christianity. Men such as
- Sun Myung Moon, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Edgar Cayce all encourage a passive
- mind in the search for God. In a recent issue of People magazine, a young
- high school journalist penetrated the "Moonie cult," and described various
- techniques used to break down potential member's minds until they reached a
- state of uncritical passivity.
-
- In Hare Krishna, on "is urged to act without seeking the fruits of his
- action." (Those Curious New Cults, William Petersen, p. 167)
-
- Zen Buddhists have a poem that expressed the same idea:
- "If you want the truth to stand clear before you
- Never be for or against
- The struggle between `for' and `against'
- Is the mind's worst disease."
-
- Along more occultic lines, Edgar Cayce was perhaps one of the more famous
- mediums. He was called "the sleeping prophet" because of his allowing his
- mind to go blank and his apparent unconsciousnesses during "prophetic"
- utterances supposedly uttered by the denizens of the spirit would. As cult
- expert William Petersen says, "Anyone who puts his mind in neutral should
- check to see who is behind the wheel. Whenever Cayce went into a self-induced
- trance, he was at the mercy of outside forces." (Those Curious New Cults,
- William Petersen, p. 58)
-
- And it is ironic that out of six types of seances practiced by spiritualists,
- one of them is call "passivity."
-
- Finally, there are the thousand and one forms of meditation being peddled by
- an assortment of gurus and psycho-analysts, from TM to Yoga. Almost all of
- them rely on a mantra or some other form of chant to reach what TM calls
- "total relaxation." This chant is extremely repetitious, often only one word
- and serves to slow down or even stop the mind's thought processes. (see
- Psychology Today, February 1978, p. 84)
-
-
- PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE INDIVIDUAL
-
- Many psychologists support meditation techniques such as TM, claiming that
- they're beneficial. Also the school of behaviorism (as taught by B. F.
- Skinner) teaches that men are controlled by their environment, which precludes
- any escape from one's lot in life.
-
- Most (almost all) of modern philosophy encourages passivity. Existentialism,
- harsh determinism, and even end-of-the-road nihilism, all leave little option
- as to passivity. Consider one scholar's comments on Jean-Paul Sartre, the
- father of existentialsim: "He says that we live in an absurd universe. The
- total, he says, is ridiculous. Nevertheless, you try to authenticate yourself
- by an act of will. It does not really matter in which direction you act as
- long as you act.
-
- "You see an old lady and if you help her safely across the road you have
- 'authenticated yourself.' But if you choose to beat her over the head, and
- snatch her handbag, you would have equally have 'authenticated yourself.'
- ...you just choose and act." (The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer, p. 24)
-
- The normal individual is reduced to bumbling along, making up his own ethics
- as he goes. For many this task proves a bewildering one, and so ethics goes
- in the garbadge along with absolutes. Of all the myriad paths open to the
- individual, passivity is by the far easiest and safest one to travel.
-
- Passivity's greatest damage is done within the mind of the individual who is
- ruled by it. Thus, what starts as a self protective mechanism to avoid injury
- or perhaps just an easy out from responsibility turns into a bondage that
- ultimately destroys the human personality, crippling the individual's ability
- to love or to care.
-
- "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will
- certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of
- keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.
- Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all
- entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of coffin of your selfishness.
- But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless--it will change. It will not be
- broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable." (C. S.
- Lewis, The Four Loves, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, p. 169)
-
- OVERCOMING PASSIVITY
-
- Can passivity be overcome? The emotions that may lead to passivity
- (depression, insecurity, apathy) are themselves debated; are they integral
- parts of each person's makeup, or are they forces that can be separated from
- the personality? Some say the latter. "Unlike a spectator during an
- abduction, we do not seem to have the option of abandoning our pasive stance
- and getting involved; for what would it be like for us either to help hinder
- the depradations of our moods and our unconscious processes?" (Mind, July
- 1978, p. 393)
-
- Is this really true, or are human emotions sxtraneous to human behavior? The
- ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato believed the mind was of
- ultimate importance and emotions not even secondary, but rather a hindrance.
-
- Both of these views end in passivity. The first claims it as an inescapable
- fact of life, while the second denies passivity's existance. neither actually
- deals with it.
-
- We must put on that "renewed mind" and our thoughts must be transformed. This
- goes beyond Norman Vincent Peals and his "Power of Positive Thinking," and
- into a realm involving cost.
-
- The Bible points to commitment as the vital ingredient and to attain this
- commitment we need God in our lives, and Jesus Christ, who was God on earth in
- human form, is the lone gateway to Him. Passivity is only logical if we have
- no reason for life or hope, but if Jesus is a changer of lives, we must face
- that fact and accept or reject His offer.
-
- THE PRIME MOTIVATER: SATAN
-
- Just as there is a real, living God, the Bible also points to the existence of
- Satan. Not symbolic, not imaginary, but a real spirit orchestrating evil
- through the whole world, Satan is the one who perpetrates and encourages
- passivity. It gives him an opening through which he can pour all the thoughts
- he pleases, paralyzing our will and leading us by the nose into bondage of
- sin. Passivity itself is sin, for it is the door that allows Satan entry.
-
- Rather than allow Christians to attempt answering Jesus' challenge of
- discipleship, Satan uses passivity to encourage our gliding along on the
- circumstances of the moment and evading the issue. He wants no struggle to
- understand or grasp the truth, but rather a submissive acquiescence to "things
- as they are."
-
- Rebellion and passivity go hand in hand. So often, we "turned off" our
- parents, teachers, or evan our friends by retreating into its embrace. In
- situations that put pressure on us to grow, or problems that challenge us in
- their complexity, passivity becomes the best non-narcotic escape to "tune-
- out." If passivity is linked to rebellion, we must realize the seriousness of
- this in God's eyes. "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." (I Sam. 15:23)
-
- Many who are under passivity's bondage attempt to escape through prayer,
- fasting, or reading the Word. This is missing the point. "There I was, at a
- Christian college, and my spiritual life was at a complete standstill. I
- wasn't even conscious of any passive stance within...I suffered from a
- spiritual malaise, a deadness that tormented and frustrated me. I read the
- Word trying to break free of something I didn't even understand. I would sin,
- but rather than repent and simply obey God next time. I attempted through
- 'being spiritual' (reading and praying) to come around. Part of it was that I
- didn't know about passivity, and part of it was that I wouldn't have chosen
- simple obedience anyway." (See I Sam. 15:22)
-
- We need to gain a true hatred for passivity; not just an intellectual assent
- to its destructive qualities, but a heartfelt revulsion for the role it plays
- in subverting any fruitful relationship to Christ.
-
- Martin Luther, when being actually visibly confronted with Satan, understood
- this hatred perfectly. He hurled an inkwell across the room at the devil, and
- although Satan obviously suffered no harm, the point was made. Martin Luther
- loved God and hated the king of the fallen angels and fallen men. Just as
- Luther made his point, we must make ours. This crucial, for without an
- understanding and hatred of passivity, it will continue to reign in our lives,
- perverting our personality and causing our soul to agonize in its emptiness.
-
- In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see illustrated perhaps the most titanic
- struggle a man has ever waged against the numbing paralysis of passivity.
- "And being in agony (of mind) He prayed (the) more earnestly and intently; and
- His sweat became like great clots of blood dropping down upon the ground."
- (Luke 22:44, Amp.)
-
- Even when motives are right, a person can fall prey to passivity. "Many
- people who truly desire to follow the Holy Spirit and who have given up self-
- will and personal ambition are people who can get into a state of a passive
- mind because of misunderstanding. They don't want their own will, the don't
- want their own thoughts, and so they God to do their thinking for them. But
- God doesn't do your thinking for you." (Jack Winter, Dimension Tapes, SIJW 7)
-
- Ultimately, every man will meet with passivity. He can either deal with it
- through a living relationship with Jesus Christ, or he won't deal with it all.
- He will become passive and he will be overcome in the end. Consider what C.
- S. Lewis writes in his book "The Screwtape Letters:
-
- "You will say that these are very small sins...It does not matter how small
- the sins are provided that their cumulative effects is to edge the man away
- from the Light and out into nothing...Indeed the safest road to hell is the
- gradual one--the gentle slope, sof underfoot, without sudden turnings, without
- milestones, without signposts..."
-
- Whether it is to be this road or the hard but exhilarating mountain of reality
- in Christ, we choose it. And sometimes not choosing is the worst choice.
-
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