Potential spoilers, but not really in my opinion.
From The Darkness That Comes Before by Bakker:
"All of you—your kinsmen, your wives, your children, even your foes beyond the mountains—cannot see the true sources of their thoughts and deeds. Either they assume they’re the origin or they think it lies somewhere beyond the world—in the Outside, as I’ve heard it called. What comes before you, what truly determines your thoughts and deeds, is either missed altogether or attributed to demons and gods. What comes before determines what comes after."
"And what comes before?"
"History. Language. Passion. Custom. All these things determine what men say, think, and do. These are the hidden puppet-strings from which all men hang.”
In my opinion, this is largely true of humanity. We often don't think about why we do what we do, like or dislike the things we like and dislike, or people we hate…without knowing these things we aren't really in control of our own thoughts and it makes you question how much free will there really is.
The above dialogue was preceded by:
"The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before? Only the Logos allows one to mitigate that slavery. Only knowing the sources of thought and action allows us to own our thoughts and our actions, to throw off the yoke of circumstance."
All together, this is essentially the darkness that comes before. How much of the darkness in the world we see today is driven by darkness that came before?
by AbleKaleidoscope877
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