One might say with some justification that the pages of the Opus Diaboli website have not thus far dripped with the milk of human kindness.  Posts such as these:

http://blog.opusdiaboli.info/2008/12/25/orangutans-bannanas-basketcase-economics-and-the-death-of-christian-compassion-the-opus-diaboli-christmas-message.aspx

http://blog.opusdiaboli.info/2008/10/24/scum--the-face-of-britains-welfare-culture.aspx

http://blog.opusdiaboli.info/2008/12/06/the-faces-of-compassion.aspx

point towards the harsh path needed to rectify our descent into filth and squalor. They also point out how compassion can produce monsters.

However, while I have written at some length about the abuses of compassion, there is another and balancing perspective. A recent post by Jharma   at Satanism-Today gave a view on compassion from the point of view of someone who uses left-hand-path energies and presents a useful opportunity to look at this opposite view:

This recent post from Jharma is a lengthy one, so I have edited it (where indicated), although it can be read in full here: http://satanism-today.ning.com/profiles/blogs/unconditional-love

As I have stated before, I work as a Caregiver for Alzheimer’s patients. While I am not yet a CNA, I am hoping to get recertified soon. I love my work. I love being able to help these guys in their last days. And I am practicing different techniques using witchcraft to see what works and what does not. Granted I am guided every step of the way, as this is something I am still learning. *smiles* Ways to help them, to ease their discomfort. There's no reason I cannot ease their pain a little. Which I do, but I also want to ease their minds.

<snip>

It is my wish to find a way to help these guys not fear death, to ease their last days. I love my work. I always come home sore, tired, worn out, but I also come home from work with a sense of accomplishment. I know they have been fed well, cleaned up and dressed for bed, they are cleaned up and dressed for bed and by the time I came home they are sleeping, and I was one of three people who helped to make that happen. This may seem like a small thing, but I know first hand how much power can be had in the daily details. The little things DO make a difference, often it’s those little things that bring these folks out of their Alzheimer’s created worlds. There are many patients who, once I’ve fed them, cleaned them up and dressed them for bed, wiped the shit off their ass, tucked them into bed, and I’m standing over them smoothing back their hair as I surround them with Serene energy to assist their sleeping, they will come out of their worlds and look at me and say “thank you.”

<snip>

Even if they don’t know all that I do, even if they don’t fully understand why they are thanking me. It’s still a gift worth treasuring. It is one tiny piece of Unconditional Love returned to me, and it's darkness is as brilliantly beautiful as it's light

While the obvious point to make is that this is Jharma’s path and not my own, there is also one other immediate thing to say about Jharma’s post and that is: that a Satanist should fill every aspect of their life with either pleasure or something which fulfills them in some other useful way.  How we earn a living should not be a chore we do grudgingly. Jharma clearly works hard and enjoys her career on many levels.

Her work in honourable – it forms part of the social contract: we look after the elderly and sick, and in return, we will be looked after (also called reciprocal altruism).

The pleasure Jharma gets from helping people is sufficient to completely justify the ‘rational self interest’ required for Satanic compassion – i.e. 'what’s in it for me if I do something for you?'.

In the dour north of my country they have a saying – ‘if tha does owt for nowt, tha does it for tha sen’ (trans: if you do something for nothing, you do it for yourself). It can give us great pleasure to help friends and loved ones, knowing that you can rely on their help.  But what about the times we give help or compassion with no prospect of a return?  I can spend a whole evening scratching behind my cat’s ears – and he doesn’t feel in the least indebted to me… but I still do it.

The truth is that we enjoy the feeling of helping others – it confirms to us that we have the power to change other people’s lives if we choose. It would be as wrong to deny ourselves this pleasure as it would any other form of enjoyment – or if we were compelled to help those we have no interest in.

So if it is right to help people because we enjoy doing it, when does compassion become a bad thing?

•         When compassion causes harm: some people cannot accept that by acting in a compassionate way, that they can ever cause harm. One example of this is western aid to corrupt African states, which has kept these regimes afloat and greatly increased suffering.

•         When anyone tells you that you have a duty or obligation to show compassion, or lays some other kind of guilt trip on you – it’s a bad thing: period.

•         Organised compassion: compassion is a naturally flowing emotion and is not handled well by institutions. Did the homeless shelter opened by your local church solve the homelessness problem, or did it create a magnet for bums, winos and junkies from other areas? The welfare systems set up by the UK government to alleviate poverty following WW2 have instead created a semi-feral underclass abstracted from reality.  Did Live Aid feed the world?

•         When compassion isn’t the answer: people need to help themselves.  A trillion dollars in aid have been showered on Africa in recent years, and both charities and our governments tell us that we need to give more, and more and more.  In reality, until Africa helps itself, there is not enough money in the world to make Africa a better place.

•         When we give compassion to those that don’t want help – just attention.  We have all encountered people who we have tried to help, but when it comes down to it, they don’t want to give up their suffering (it’s what makes them feel special and interesting), so they don’t change their lives, and just become a bottomless pit of attention seeking.

In short, when our compassion stops flowing spontaneously, and giving us the simple and natural satisfaction that Jharma describes, and moves towards, duty, obligation and giving others an 'entitlement' to our good intentions, then it stops being an enriching and enabling force, and becomes a drain and a system for coddling weakness and excusing depravity.