Decentralized Holiness

A fundamental threat to humanity is the aggregation of power and wealth in few hands. Not because such is inherently evil, but it opens the door to all that is already evil in the fallen natures of men. The nature of Biblical Law is restraining sinful impulse, and concentrations of wealth and power inevitably lead to breaking restraints. Among humans there is a natural cycle of ebb and flow in centralization, and all attempts to delay the devolution of power and wealth is inherently evil.
Tony Cartalucci describes three current trends notable on the Internet which serve to disrupt the power of concentrated wealth and influence. Organic and natural food information is destroying the old guard multinational corporations seeking to gain a monopoly hold on all human nutrition. He doesn’t mention how various types of alternative medicine is breaking the bondage of allopathic dominance, too. I’m a big fan of alternative health strategies. Then he brings up file sharing, the whipping boy of the censoring industry, more commonly referred to as the intellectual property guardians. Since I tend to share all my writing freely, you don’t have to wonder where my sympathies lie. Finally, he talks about alternative media itself, all the new ways we share information through commodity networking. This blog is an element in that very thing. I participate in challenging the lock of religious authority in Christian faith.
Granted, there are human needs which cannot be met by these methods. For example, though I love Open Source software as a concept, it doesn’t always produce happy results. At this point, it has created a new tyranny of the coders, on the principle they have control by virtue of the huge investment in time and talent necessary to get a seat at the table. That your average Open Source developer is out of touch with average computer users is manifestly obvious. I’ve lately felt oppressed and constrained running Linux or anything similar. One man’s freedom is another’s chains. So in my case, the simplest answer is using Windows as it comes with the hardware, and installing things like Cygwin to broaden what’s possible on these machines — the best of both worlds. Microsoft doesn’t love average users, either, but is wise enough to accommodate a wider range of interests than Open Source project leadership does at this point in history. Yes, I take full advantage of my technology training and experience to make my computers stable and secure, but it’s never been easier, in spite of challenges never having been greater. It’s all a very conscious choice.
Disruptive technologies and philosophies in general help to dethrone the abusive powers-that-be. So rare is anyone not abusing their position, it becomes worthy of remark. Cartalucci is not perfect, nor do I claim any hint of perfection, but neither of us are trying to steer the results from sharing our perceptions. Our only urging is for folks to disconnect and think for themselves, and to do what little is possible to weaken the abusive powers we all face every day. I’m not trying to get you spun off and out there alone and vulnerable, and I certainly don’t want you dependent on me. Rather, I’m asking you to seize the independence which is manageable, and to leave the rest to the one authority you can trust: God Himself.
How you go about employing your freedom to choose is on you. Holiness is by its very nature a decentralized affair at our level of existence.