The Devil in the Black Box

By Charles W. Myers

Stories of old were communicated interpersonally, conveying information necessary to our survival. This extraordinary power led to mankind’s dominion over the world. Today, our stories are largely fed to us by way of our devices, our black boxes, which are incredible tools for spreading that same
knowledge and wisdom globally. However, in the wrong hands, they are terrible weapons of misdirection, encouraging those under their influence to indulge selfish appetites and glorify victimhood, leading them to make the same mistakes that inspired those ancient stories in the first place.

These stories shape the human mind to the same degree that we are what we eat, influencing the behavior of individuals and societies alike. Our shared stories, fantastical or otherwise, either reflect eternal truth and wisdom of the ages, or they do not, instead perpetuating a foolishly idealized form of reality. Put another way, they either prepare us for the inevitable obstacles of life, or they lead us to ruin.

Such is the cunning of progressivism, an egregiously duplicitous philosophy that at first glance appears benevolent, but leads to devastating personal and societal consequences when put into practice. This book stands as a grand indictment of the illusion of progress, exploring how the seductive draw of its promises is nothing more than a trojan horse, a devil in disguise that threatens mankind’s hard-won order over a chaotic world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798823013789

Charles W. Myers

After working in the entertainment business for over ten years, Charles observed firsthand how idealistic progressivism is not just encouraged amongst those in the industry, but socially enforced, and how this seductive and unrealistic view of the world has a damaging effect on both the people in the industry and (by extension of their control over our cultural stories) general society.

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© 2024 Charles W. Myers. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  02/26/2024

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1379-6 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1380-2 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1378-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023916258

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotation marked KJV is from the King James Version of the Bible.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

To my family and friends,

for putting up with the endless

rantings that would become this book.

It is the doom of men that they forget.

—John Boorman

CONTENTS

A Prologue in Parables

The Victorious Army

The Rippled Pond

The Broken Pot

Introduction

Part One

Imbalance: Idealism vs. Reality

Chapter 1:     Universal Dichotomies

Chapter 2:     The Hero’s Journey

Chapter 3:     Mass Attention Degeneration

Chapter 4:     Celebrity Idolatry

Conclusion of Part One

Sacrifice Idealism

Part Two

Cause and Effect: Walking a Slippery Slope

Chapter 5:     Divorce

Chapter 6:     Destroying Innocence

Chapter 7:     Idealism, Solipsism, and Damage

A Letter to the Incoming President of the United States of America

Chapter 8:     Atheism

Conclusion of Part Two

The Devil in the Black Box Revealed

About the Author

Connect with Charles on YouTube

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AUTHOR DISCLAIMER:

THE GENESIS OF

INNERISM

The human mind is a balance of both emotion and logic. As with all dichotomies, it is important to maintain a balance of such extremes, because the complete emphasis of one leads to a missing out of the benefits of the other.

However, for the purposes of this book I will be emphasizing logic over emotion when it comes to anything related to religion. This is not for the purpose of minimizing religion, nor for diminishing the validity of the Bible, nor for undermining the authority of the master of the universe. On the contrary, it is for the express purpose of an improved and accessible understanding of religious utility. This is simply because personally I cannot bring myself to religion emotionally. I can get there only by traveling upon the road of logic. And this is actually very important because if I’m being frank, I’m not alone in this.

Most of today’s atheists think the way they think because they too are overemphasizing logic. Therefore writing about religion from an emotional standpoint would have zero influence upon them, and they would shut their ears to what I have to say. You cannot cite the Bible to them because they believe it is all made-up hocus-pocus. You cannot speak to them about a man in the clouds or Jesus Christ because they simply do not believe in God and question whether or not Jesus ever walked the earth at all. For you it may be a matter of faith, but faith is, above all, most egregious to the atheist because faith is the acceptance of something with a complete absence of proof. Put short, faith is most illogical.

For those of you who already agree with me that God is real and that religion has a purpose and is good, you will have to bear with me. For me to properly reach out to liberal progressives and atheists, I need to communicate in their language and on their terms, which I am fully qualified to do because I used to be one of them. I have lived in their world and speak their language. What I have to say may at times make you uncomfortable, but I must ask you to appreciate that I am drawing the same conclusion, even if I am arriving by different means than you might prefer.

Perhaps your avenue is the way of emotion. There is nothing wrong with that. But for me and for those who may benefit the most by what I have to say, we will be traveling on the road of logic. Rest assured that step by step, we will arrive at the same destination together.

That being stated, theists and atheists alike, if you get nothing else out of this book, please pay attention to this section here in which I will lay out the core philosophy of the entire text. This philosophy will act as the common ground on which theists and atheists may coexist, and hopefully, agree.

While these opposing ideologies usually argue back and forth about the existence or non-existence of God and the supernatural, innerism is a philosophy that will cause both to nod in agreement. No, it’s not about inner peace or mindfulness, but it will require your mind. It is simply the proper appraisal and valuation of the most important faculty of human existence: story.

Innerism—a philosophy centered upon the study, critique, and acknowledgement of stories as the foundational elements of the mind, transcending abstraction by generating constructive or destructive behavioral decisions as determined by the individual’s free will within the confines of a temporally linear physical reality.

Put simply, stories build and constitute the human mind and determine, but are not responsible for, behavior.

inner: in·ner | ˈinər |

adjective [attributive]

1 situated inside or farther in; internal.

• close to the center

• close to the center of power

2 mental or spiritual

• (of thoughts or feelings) private and not expressed or discernible

• denoting a concealed or unacknowledged part of a person’s personality

While the above definitions of inner certainly apply to this philosophy, innerism is in fact an acronym: intellectual numinous-narrative existential realism. It sounds complex at first, but let’s break it down word by word.

Intellectual: of the mind

Numinous: having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity

Narrative: a spoken or written account of connected events (a story)

Existential: concerned with existence

Realism: the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly

Putting all of this together, innerism is the philosophical understanding that the mind, which separates humankind from the instinctual animal, has granted human beings the unique ability to perceive time (intellectual). This understanding of time has allowed human beings, and human beings alone, the facility to communicate by way of stories, which are a recounting of events by way of a beginning, a middle, and an end. Embedded within these stories is information that communicates behavior and behavioral decisions that are moralistically good or bad, selfish or selfless, godly or satanic, based on how they benefit the individual and the collective (numinous-narrative). These stories, whether accurate accounts of facts or man-made and abstract, reflect truths about the nature of living in a temporally linear physical reality ruled by cause and effect. Because of our ability to register cause and effect through time, experience enabled specific negative effects to be traced back to their original cause. This facilitated the anticipation of a recurrence of such a cause, and by its avoidance, an evasion of the negative effect that was anticipated to follow. Conversely, actions could be taken to adopt causes that regularly yielded positive outcomes. Over time, this informational knowledge was distilled into story, dramatized into a comprehensible (easily understood), memorable (easily carried in the mind), and entertaining (encouraging cultural dispersal) spirit that inhabits the mind of the individual and the collective consciousness of the species to facilitate mutually beneficial engagement with the trials and tribulations of surviving and thriving in this temporally linear physical reality to effectively anticipate, alleviate, and solve common and complex problems that are routine to life and culture (existential realism).

The Bible is full of such stories, encapsulating wisdom that regardless of historical fact or fiction communicates lessons about making beneficial behavioral choices. The same goes for ancient mythology, Shakespearean plays, Hollywood films, and any other medium of communicated story.

Stories are spirits that occupy very real space in the mind and live within the collective cultural network of minds, affecting behavioral cause and effect. Their possession of such a measurable effect makes them very real. Therefore, according to innerism, God as objectively real and God as a concept or story are the exact same thing. God is a spirit. Satan is a spirit. We communicate with these spirits through story, allowing these spirits to inhabit our minds and therefore to drive the heart. We are literally possessed by them, and therefore they determine our actions, as with the classic story device whereby a character grapples with a decision while speaking to an angel and a devil perched on his or her shoulders.

You theists and atheists can argue day and night for all eternity about the existence or non-existence of God. This is utterly pointless, as either side may never find the ultimate piece of evidence to finally vindicate their position. While these two sides bicker and argue about whether or not Noah’s flood (as described in the Bible) actually happened in real life, the innerist will be enriching his or her mind with the valuable wisdom hidden inside this magnificent story, which is purposed with inspiring preparation for the inevitable crises (metaphorical floods) that arise in life. Set aside the requirement to know with certainty that there is or is not a higher being, and accept the very real fact that stories, and their relative effect on society, are indeed a touch of the divine. Stories are humanity’s salvation, a talisman that enables the conveyance of wisdom from generation to generation so that crucial lessons learned may never be forgotten by the passage of time.

But wait. Who is the arbiter of what makes a story moralistically good or evil? By what authority is morality ultimately determined? The answer is simple. It is the same force that enabled the formulation of stories in the first place: Time. Temporal comprehension allows for both the genesis of a story, as well as the perseverance of that story as judged by its success. Put another way, the stories that continue to survive and thrive within a culture are those that persist in benefitting that culture. When a culture is poisoned by mutually destructive stories, that culture is easily destroyed by internal and/or external forces. That culture’s stories become like the tree in the woods that fell without anyone around to hear it; it is as if they never existed in the first place. In the words of (the storyteller) Jesus, Wisdom is shown to be right by its results (Matthew 11:19).

For half of you reading this, Jesus Christ is the Savior of humanity who died for our sins and rose from the dead to establish the kingdom of Heaven on earth. For the other half, Jesus of Nazareth was just a human philosopher who championed love and peace. For the innerist, these are two versions of the same story. For the innerist, Jesus touched the divine by opening his mouth and enouncing stories. His stories, and his story, are why he lives everlasting.

His power is the parable.

With this philosophy in mind, focus on the significance of story while reading this text. Whose stories are programming your personal behavioral decisions? Whose stories are programming those around you?

A PROLOGUE IN PARABLES

The Victorious Army

V ictory! We did it, everyone! Pat each other on the backs. We have finally accomplished our mission. You should all be very proud. The leader of a great army stands high and mighty, looking out over the conquered landscape. We’ve done it! the leader proclaims. We’ve defeated our enemy. Our resolve being firm and our cause just, this great journey has come to an end. Our ___ has been secured for ourselves and for all generations to come.

The soldiers of the army look around at each other in grand admiration, bearing witness to this grand moment in history when their goal has gone from distant dream to ecstatic reality. As the applause fades and the cheers abate, silence overtakes the hillside.

So . . . can we go home now? asks one of the soldiers.

Yeah—so that’s that, right? another calls out.

The leader looks around into the faces of this grand army, proud in the knowledge that they have truly changed the face of history. But suddenly a dark cloud rolls overhead in the mind of this great leader. What will happen to me when my army disbands? What will happen to everything I’ve built? This great power I have mustered—where will it go? And why shouldn’t I keep it . . .

Listen up! shouts the great leader. We may have been victorious today, but we must remain eternally vigilant that ___ is never threatened again. This fight will continue. In fact, we may never see our homes again. Behold—over there! Our enemy persists! Our mission is not yet complete. In fact, it may never end, for our enemies are eternal and ___ must invariably be defended from ___. We shall maintain this struggle until our dying day and beyond. Brothers and sisters, do not lay down your arms so quickly! Join me once more! And do remember to pick up my litter. I am so very tired from all this marching.

The Rippled Pond

A little girl and her father walk around a pond near their home. The girl marvels at how still the water is, how it reflects the sky like a perfect mirror. The water is so clear that every fish living in the pond is easily accounted for.

The father, for one reason or another, picks up a stone and tosses it into the pond. The mirror shatters as ripples flow outward to every edge of the water. The girl begins to cry, screaming, How could you? You’ve ruined it!

The father tells her not to cry. The ripples will disappear in time, he tells her.

Impatient and hysterical, the girl splashes into the water and slaps at the naughty ripples, trying desperately to freeze them in their tracks. To her dismay, she cannot stop them. In fact, each time she touches a ripple, more ripples emanate from her hand. She cries harder and shouts more loudly, but the ripples only grow.

And now the bottom of the pond and the water are one, churned into a brown sewage by her feet. The poor fish are made blind, panicking as they choke on the silted water. Desperate, one of the fish jumps above the surface of the pond to see what’s going on. The fish watches as the father drags the little girl, kicking and screaming, from the muddy water. The fish splashes back down into the water and reports to the others what he has seen as the last of the ripples fade.

A short time later the fish go back about their business as the pond is again clear and still, healed by itself and the passage of time.

The Broken Pot

A small town in the middle of nowhere has a strange ritual. When a child is born, he or she receives a pot, a life pot, one the child will carry with him or her for life. Over their years the pot is decorated as the child progresses into adulthood. Each pot is the same yet slightly different.

Every day the young carry water from a spring far outside the bounds of the town. The water is slogged all the way back to a fountain in the middle of town, where it is free for the elders to draw from and bring back to their homes. This ritual is repeated every day and is annually rewarded with further decoration for each life pot until it is complete. Upon the pot’s completion, the owner becomes an elder, living out the remainder of his or her days while the next generation carries on with the duties of this very important ritual. When the day comes that an elder passes on, the person’s remains are poured into his or her life pot. The same vessel that provided life-giving water for the town for so many years becomes the person’s final resting place.

There was a girl in this town named Lota who had a pot much like everyone else. One day, however, on her way back to town, Lota’s life pot was smashed to pieces. No one knew how or why, and Lota herself never explained how it happened. Rumors abounded, but there was never an answer. Some thought she did it on purpose. Others blamed bad parenting. Some even claimed that her pot had been broken when she was born and that this new event was simply to mask the truth that the pot had been broken for years.

Whatever the truth was, it didn’t change the fact that Lota’s life pot was in pieces. Poor Lota! How could she ever fit in with the rest of the town? How could she expect to draw from the town well if she were no longer doing her part?

And yet somehow, against all odds, Lota was able to make it work. She took all the pieces of her broken pot and created a mosaic. This artwork was so beautiful that it elicited tears from all who gazed upon it. The town was so in love with Lota’s mosaic that they placed it atop the town fountain so that all could admire it. Lota was so celebrated that she could once again draw from the fountain without fear or shame.

But Lota was still lonely, never truly feeling as though she belonged. No matter how nice everyone was to her, she knew she simply would never fit in, and misery grew in her soul.

Lota didn’t want to feel alone anymore and began encouraging others to smash their life pots as well. And they did. They created artwork from their life pots and were just as celebrated as Lota herself. But while the fountain began to grow more beautiful each day, there was less and less water for elders to draw. And not everybody could be like Lota. They would smash their pots in a fit of ecstasy and yet couldn’t make a mosaic as pretty. For most it was as if they had smashed their pots for no reason at all, and they suffered.

Lota felt better as she was no longer alone, but at what cost? The fountain was no longer being replenished, and many elders passed away in a state of confused horror. Why was this generation throwing their life pots away so willingly? Why were they refusing to do their part?

Realizing the gravity of her error, Lota tore down the fountain, except for the basin. As if awakened from a daydream, the youth did what had to be done. Collecting the full life pots of the dead, they once more made the journey to the spring. One by one they upended their life pots into the spring, and as the ashes they once carried drifted downstream, they were refilled to the brim with water, and carried back to the town.

INTRODUCTION

All true things are heresy in a culture of lies.

—Matt Walsh

Undefeatable Ideas, the Broken Cycle Fallacy, and the Birth of Progressivism

The pendulum of political thinking swings back and forth through time, expressing itself in generational extremes, but human nature itself remains a constant. As long as we remain biological creatures living in a physical reality, this will never change. This truth is eternal.

This is where the undefeatable idea concept comes into play as a mechanism of control. Undefeatable ideas are very profitable because they are ultimately reliable. Because the problem they are attached to cannot be permanently solved, the idea never goes away and therefore can be leveraged indefinitely. The war on terror is the product of an undefeatable idea. Privilege is an undefeatable outgrowth of organized society. It is no different with the gender pay gap, the war on drugs, systemic racism, sexism, implicit bias, and every other supposed specter on society that corporations and politicians can take a side on.

The politics of our time weigh in on every sector of society, creating an ever-growing rift between our people. This extremism benefits nobody, save corporate interests that utilize this divide in order to multiply their profits. Like a prostitute convincing a john that she is actually enjoying herself, these corporations want us to think they care deeply about us and our strife. They want us to believe that they are fixing society’s problems while simultaneously exploiting them. They attempt to convince each and every one of us that they will break the cycle of—whatever.

But the eternal cycle of chaos and order cannot be defeated. Bad things will always happen to good people, and vice versa, no matter how badly we wish it weren’t so. It is an uncomfortable truth that idealists refuse to face, but crime and war and darkness will always exist. There is no escaping the imperfect nature of this existence, regardless of what technological progress may come. But these indefinite ideological wars are simply too profitable for those who seek to cash in on them with pandering and flattery.

The source of such ideas is, and has always been, contained within the stories we tell each other and those we allow to culturally persist.

As a kid I was fascinated by ancient Roman culture, mythology, and the Caesars. It all pointed at an unfortunate reality that has plagued humankind forever, the inevitability that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yet I can recall believing that I was different, that if I were given the opportunity, I would break this cycle, that I would usher in a perfect world if only I were given the chance. Each year I would wish for one thing while I sat over my birthday cake: world peace, an impossible and foolishly idealistic notion that each generation imbibes only because they have yet to accept the inevitability of chaos. Even Rome, in all its grandeur, did not last forever.

But the idealism of youth fades over time as experience rises. When asked if I’m an optimist or a pessimist, I answer, I am a realist—which is something only a pessimist would say. Such an outlook guards oneself from the inevitable letdowns that life delivers. It is by this mechanism that one is always prepared when things slip into chaos—and on a long-enough timeline, they always do. By contrast, it is the optimist who sees a silver lining for every cloud. This is not unhealthy. However, optimism is easily pushed toward radical idealism. This is dangerous, as it is the idealist who cannot even see the clouds. In fact, the idealist refuses to acknowledge that clouds exist at all. But the clouds care not, and when it begins storming, the idealist is soaked by the rain. Meanwhile, it is the realist who carries with him or her the umbrella of preparation.

It’s easy to be idealistic. There is no sacrifice or strife necessary. It’s as simple as conceptualizing perfection and then maintaining a zero-tolerance policy in pursuing this perfect vision of the world. The idealist chooses to see a world that cannot be. The realist strives to understand the world such as it is. The idealist takes the easy road, one that (he or she thinks) requires neither sacrifice nor pain. The realist takes the hard road, accepting the good and the bad he or she meets along the way.

Idealists make a singular miscalculation when it comes to their approach of the world, and that is the assumption that everyone else is just like them. They are nothing more than the naive child using his or her birthday wish to ask for world peace while others are asking for video games and Barbie dolls.

Today’s rampant idealism surrounding undefeatable ideas has been hijacked by corporate and political interests,