Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
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Another from Harper's Weekly, this by Thomas Nast from Dec. 30, 1865. The caption at the very bottom reads "Ulysses the Giant Killer" (that's Sherman on the pantomime horse.) The individual panels and portraits are special works of art on their own, and well worth the patient look and examination.
"On Reason, Morality and the would-be gods" (rough draft) continued from earlier.
Any given person is against what is "bad" (or their idea of what they suppose "bad" to be),"and yet we are far from all being in agreement about evil being a problem; that is, and by the definition we employ here, the ultimate source or fomenter of what is bad. For some evil doesn't exist, or so they say. For others, evil exists and is a problem, but their ideas as to quite what is the cause of evil are uncertain, erroneous, or else confused. For yet others evil is seen as a positive good (in my "New Treatise" I referred to such persons as “Orkons” or "Orkonists"); indeed, there are those who practically make a religion out of supporting and celebrating it.
If we say real evil does indeed exist and it is a problem, do those who complain about what is bad, and yet who deny evil's existence, make any sense? Speaking for myself, I hardly think so; because, for one, if evil exists clearly it can be the cause of various kinds of bad (i.e., the one thing we are all agreed upon is a problem.) Likewise, if we posit there are persons deliberately disposed to evil, and yet we ignore or else deny such persons exist, than how better able are we to prevent or contend against what's bad? Unless and until then we are prepared to admit to and deal with real evil, our efforts to resist or reduce what is bad are severely weakened and impaired (at least in the long term sense.) If an open sewer is exposing the public to contagious germs, it is of little or makeshift help to rely on medicines to counteract the illnesses those germs create.
And if we say further that there are persons who calculatingly and deliberately pursue a policy of evil, we will find them, I would argue, mostly if not always among criminal spirit persons. And yet acknowledging the scientific and empirical existence of spirit persons is, or at least so it would seem, not the majority view. And, at the same time, if there are actually evilly disposed spirit persons, they will, not surprisingly, do what they can to generally encourage the beliefs that a) there is no evil, b) that spirit persons do not exist, and c) that if evil does exist it is to be found anywhere BUT among or coming from spirit people. If then what I have been saying for years now about spirit people has a true basis in fact, then in order to combat both bad and evil, evilly disposed spirit people must be combated. But if (and given our premise) the existence of criminal spirit people is denied, then what hope is there of our own either effectively removing or eradicating bad or evil from our midst in any lasting and meaningful sense?
Some would-be progressives and other well-meaning yet ignorant folk deny the reality or existence of evil; for example, they will explain evil actions as merely psychological. While this approach is not without some value and truth to it, it deliberately fails to recognizes that their are persons and powers who are evil not by accident or circumstance, but intentionally so and as matter of policy.
If then evil (in the sense of something far worse and far more harmful and hurtful than mere "bad") does exist or occurs, it is reasonable to infer that there is someone who is motivated into causing it. What then could possibly be a motive or motives for someone wishing to bring about evil, that is, evil in the conventional sense of great harm or injury brought about unjustly and not by unaccountable accident?
I cannot hope or expect solely by my efforts to conclusively prove to all that are reasonably skeptical of the existence of criminal spirit people. In the course of this and other of my writings I have and will put forth some evidences for what I contend, but readers are, of course, ultimately left to assess and decide for themselves; and we fully respect this. That said, in continuing I will, notwithstanding and for practical reasons, assume the existence of criminal spirit people here; so that it then becomes possible to attempt to describe them and their motives. Again, it should go without saying that final conclusions are for you to make. All I can do in the meantime and otherwise is try to make a plausible and convincing case that might, in part if not as a whole, persuade as to the merit and correctness of what I assert.
I. The persecution with us did not commence with the imperial edict, but preceded it by a whole year. And a certain prophet and poet, an enemy to this city, whatever else he was, had previously roused and exasperated against us the masses of the heathen. inflaming them anew with the fires of their native superstition. Excited by him, and finding full liberty for the perpetration of wickedness, they reckoned this the only piety and service to their demons, namely, our slaughter.
~Dionysius of Alexandria, "the Great"
(bishop c.247-265), Epistles, and fragments of epistles, of Dionysius
"On Reason, Morality and the would-be gods" (rough draft) continued from earlier.
Although there are exceptions, actual ghosts tend to be rather rare in the earliest gothic novels. However, the alternative device of having a seeming ghost turn out to be a human imposter (ŕ la "Scooby Doo") before long became too contrived and unsatisfying to many readers, and by 1820's real ghosts and vampires began appearing more regularly; as in tales of the likes of Sir Walter Scott, John Polidori, Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffman, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and subsequently Dickens, Sheridan Le Fanu, Charlotte Riddell, Guy De Maupassant, and Ambrose Bierce -- to name some of the more well known and popular. Simultaneously with this, the earlier insistence that real life ghosts were all and merely instances of vulgar superstition and disturbed imaginations became pronouncedly more muted.
Yet when the age of spiritualist seances became the rage, in the late 19th century, skepticism became reinvigorated in view of many spiritualists having been proven or inferred to be hoaxsters or else were commonly seen as such; so that to this day it is ordinarily assumed that 19th century spiritualism and the summoning of ghosts by way of accompanying mediums, was unquestionably fraudulent.
At and since that time, alleged accounts of true ghosts appeared in the news every now and then, with two of the most famous being that of the Bell Witch in Tennesssee and Borley Rectory in England. The former concerned alleged attacks by a reported poltergeist in Tennessee, circa 1817-1821, but brought to public light in 1894; with the latter purported hauntings at Borley Rectory taking place on and off from about 1900 to the late 1930s. [Note. The 18th century had its own two quite famous reported real life encounters with the other worldy persons by way of Epworth Rectory (Dec. 1716-Jan. 1717) and Cock-Lane Ghost (1762) hauntings; which, in passing, had been preceded in notoriety in 1661 by the account of the "Tedworth Drummer." Of course, one needs only inquire into the writings of Cotton Mather for other real-life supernatural claims from that more flexibly credulous earlier time.]
By the time movies came into their own, ghosts once more and generally were played down, and outside the very earliest silents, like those of Georges Melies, their appearance in a film story was scarce. The 20s and 30s were replete with houses of mystery reputed to be haunted with a ghost, but invariably by the end of the film the supposed ghost turns out to be someone pretending to be one.
In the 1940s and later, it became however more possible to have real ghosts in a film story. One interesting example of this is the "Topper" comedy series based on the writings of Thorne Smith. The 1942 film "I Married a Witch," also prompted by a work of Smith's, became a precursor for the 60s tv series "Bewitched." In such comedy supernatural films and later tv shows, while the ghost or witch is admitted to, it is understood and taken as a given that such supernatural persons or manifestations are not to be talked about outside of those who are entrusted with the special privilege of knowing them. Examples of such in the way of comedy tv shows that employ this device (and that many are familiar with) are: "Mr. Ed," "My Favorite Martian," "Bewitched," "My Mother the Car," "I Dream of Jeannie," and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."
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The preceding survey or review is, of course, only a very general and cursory summary of what have been some of the predominant attitudes and outlooks concerning spirit persons and related as found in secular culture in the past few centuries, and of course as well one could expound at much greater length and depth on the subject; particularly, and further, for example, how in recent decades ghosts, devils, demons, witches, and vampires have increasingly been portrayed in a supportive and positive light; rather than as evil doers or malefactors; as was more usually the case in the past.
Despite such widespread coverage of supernatural entities in film, literature, and song, consideration of them as real or based in something real continues to be down-played, and honest, rational discussion of their empirical possibility strictly eschewed by main stream science and intelligentsia. In fact, the silence, strangely or not so strangely, can be characterized as deafening. Indeed, outside books of 20th century "ghost hunters" like Harry Price and Peter Underwood, the topic is not taken very seriously, and when covered is examined usually more for purposes of entertainment, thrills and putting on a show than serious science. This is all the more odd when every now and then even the government is openly enjoined to explore and fund research or probing into the possible realities of space aliens, and this by some scientists, reputed journalists, and persons otherwise recognized or taken as public authority. And yet by contrast with the topic of space aliens, serious addressing of spirit people is constantly avoided and hushed aside. What? Are we to believe no one is even a little bit curious regarding a question of such profound implications? True, we have an area of purported science related to the supernatural or "paranormal" denoted parapsychology, but this approach in practice seems in retrospect more to have served the ends of obfuscation rather than clarification, and this, for some of its practitioners at least, is even and perhaps its actual intent and design.
Yet if criminal spirit people are in fact something palpable and real as we here maintain, could it mayhap be that they themselves, including the very fear and dread of them, play no small role in having impartial, rational and objective inquiry about them dismissed and brushed aside? And if we posit a "Faust" or "Fausts," that is persons who, whether to a small or great degree, overtly or implicitly, consciously or unconsciously make deals with such for profit and or hoped for security, could we expect any cooperation or admission of the fact from such as these? The problem becomes even more knotty and difficult when we take into account the possibility that such spirit persons would have the credulous, timid, and unreflecting see and receive them as gods, deities, or superior beings of some kind; including well-meaning religious but who may be duped and fooled by criminal spirit people who are expert at theological sophistry and capable of creating seemingly religious yet deceptive visions and impersonations. But more and specifically on such tricks and devices later and as we proceed.
