Pretending

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Eternalism is so obviously wrong that it can’t fool anyone completely or consistently. We always know better, at some level.

That means eternalism always contains an element of make-believe. Every eternalist thought, speech, and act feels like children putting on eye patches and pretending to be pirates, launching daring raids on the cookie jar from a corvette that looks suspiciously like the dining room table.

Eternalist systems often explicitly demand suspension of disbelief (“you gotta believe!”). This is as true of eternalist political systems as of monotheist religions.

Pretending, like hope, is harmfully anti-growth. It causes emotional and intellectual stunting; childishness.

The antidote, as for kitsch, is realism. Just stop pretending.