The Sin of the Angels

Wretchard today:
[T]here is in this ruthless idealism the danger of what St Augustine called the sin of angels. "It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels." Pride makes failure the world's fault rather than a defect in the perfect plan. Pride removes the possibility of error under the guise of good intentions. While most doctors, engineers or a developers know that failure means a bug or flaw somewhere -- and back to the drawing board that's not how ideology works. Ideology works by an imposition of the will legitimized by the purity of intention. A perfect plan is rejected only be because the public is unworthy of it.

6 comments:

Gringo said...

When I look at the left, lack of humility stands out. When many abandoned religion, they abandoned the humility inherent in comparing oneself to the Supreme Being. Disclaimer: I am not a churchgoer.

Joseph Bottum's An Anxious Age: the Post-Protestant Ethic and Spirit of America is worth reading.

Ymar Sakar said...

If wret wants to talk about angelic sins he should talk to one instead of human made up logical works views that have zero divine wisdom.

Part of humanity s hubris is that threy think the elohim think and feel like humans do. Haha

To use augustine s logic, you need an angel to figure out what tbe angels think.

Aggie said...

The left always think they know the right path, and anyone who disagrees is just not smart enough to see it.

Often wrong, but never uncertain.

Or as the British Officer Assessment put it, "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity"

Ymar Sakar said...

Not just the left. At least half the human race. Case in point, that attitude is applied by red and blie tribea vs fe theory.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

We are on the same wavelength again. I swear my post "Direct Line" was independent of this post. However, we do read a lot of the same people...

Grim said...

It’s true that we do. But you can lead a horse to water, as they say; what the horse then does with the water is a function of the horse. We must be more alike than our accidents would suggest.