Corrupt the leaders and the followers will follow.

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Manipulation is most effective when the manipulator is silent, invisible, and better yet, widely believed to be mythical. There is such an entity. Most of modernity is convinced there is no such creature. Dismissed as delusory nonsense, he is free to work his will, undetected - how convenient.

I speak of Satan.

Oh, I know, howls of protest, “What are you saying. What an antiquated belief. The world has moved beyond superstition. Only bible-thumpers believe such craziness”. But, what if the bible-thumpers have it right and the rationalists are mistaken?

An understanding of Satan as real, would explain a lot of otherwise indecipherable conflicts.

Indulge me in my primitive view of the matter.

Satan is the great deceiver. He orchestrates deceit to manipulate the free-will of souls; without freely given acceptance, he is powerless. Therefore, he must intrigue humans into believing the bad ideas he inserts spring from their very own compassionate, rational, and righteous intellect. He must also arrange his intrigue to suit the times.

In our time, Satan has worked to convince individuals their individual desires will be best met through membership in a group; political, social, esoteric, any group will do.

Satan's target is the individual human soul. The human soul is sovereign. Groups are an abstraction. A human soul bound to a group is no longer sovereign. Souls enmeshed in group abstraction no longer think for themselves. The group thinks for them.

Now, Satan's work is made easier. When souls are welded together in groups, Satan has only to concentrate on the leaders. The sheep follow where the shepherd leads. The flock is no longer a concern. Predation follows smoothly once the shepherd is corrupted.

It's a brilliant strategy, a grand intrigue, worthy of Sun Tzu: break the enemies resistance without fighting. Corrupt the leaders and the followers will follow.

The daily News testifies to how successful the current intrigue is unfolding.

In former times Kings led warriors into war. Satan was happy with that, but it was limited success. Women and children didn't participate, some warriors deserted the battlefield, and too many in the mayhem didn't really have their hearts in the destruction.

The new intrigue is more inclusive.

Various groups in lock-step commitment to their various concerns, are 100% committed to the obliteration of competing ideas, in all the other groups - a perfect world war.

Better yet, no group believes they're destroying anything,

Each group is persuaded they are laying the groundwork for a better world.

Individuals laid-waste in the process of making a better world are regretfully dismissed as an unfortunate necessity in the pursuit of the greater good. As Stalin said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs".

When group value is thought more important than individual value, the individual is no longer sovereign. Satan knows full well that only the individual human soul really matters.

Groups aren’t lifted to Heaven. Only individuals have that opportunity.

The world-wide reach of the internet has facilitated world-wide conciliation of group-think over individual-think. Satan loves technology, it's so much more efficient. All those rascally individuals get in the way of progress. Technology has rendered individual belief as no more than marginal nuisance, finally!

Conversion of souls to Evil remains Satan's prime objective.

The present world-wide invasion of illegal-immigrants is a virtuoso stroke that is certain to create world-wide disarray, all of it righteously defended as a necessary step in fulfillment of the obvious moral imperative of inclusion.

Who can rightfully deny entry to poor immigrants seeking a better life. How petty to obsess on the illegality part. There must be something wrong with those who insist on cruelly demanding legality.

How delightful. How subtilty manipulative - really the artistry of a master.

Of course, that’s just my foolish imagination. There’s no such thing as Satan.

What will Ol' Scratch think of next.

By K. L. Shipley

Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com