The Invisible Enemy
There exists an invisible enemy. I’ve been fighting it my whole life. It’s taken everything I’ve ever cared about. It threatens to do the same again now. No one else even seems to sense it. But I know that it’s always been there. It exists everywhere there are people, thinking and feeling minds for it to lurk in. It’s always looking, waiting for its opportunity to strike.
It starts in the way you see people you know start treating you differently. Their behavior is suddenly quite uncharacteristic of them. They treat you worse than they should be capable of treating you. Something about them suddenly changes that makes it permissible to disregard you.
That’s when you start to wonder if you even know this person anymore or if you really knew them at all. The person you know would never act this way. Perhaps they are just in a bad mood. Maybe they’re going through a rough time. Maybe they’re dehydrated or didn’t sleep well last night. Yes, it must be something simple like that.
Then, perhaps, the version you know comes back for a bit. You try to shake what happened off as a small bout of temporary insanity. They just “weren’t themselves” for a little while. It happens to everyone. Doesn’t it? But you will soon start to recognize a pattern that makes it evident this isn’t the case.
The whole world is infected by this enemy and susceptible to its influence. Most of the time, the disease shows no external symptoms. But then, under just the right conditions, it activates and takes over. The person you thought you knew goes passive, and some ugly force emerges in their place. It’s everywhere. You can never know where you might encounter it next.
This invisible enemy is the amalgamation of personality traits that results when people let their insecurities get the better of them. That’s why they can so quickly escalate to behavior that would have seemed beyond their character when they were confident and in control of themselves. You are not witnessing the person you know. You are witnessing the part of them you did not know. You only knew the strength, which is the part they prefer to show the world. Now you are seeing the part they keep hidden from view in the basement of their soul.
But no. You believe that there is a fundamental “self” to the person you know, the person you might even love. That’s what you think they have deviated from. Are you sure you’ve correctly identified what that self is, i.e., who they really are? Perhaps the ugly person who took over is more real, and the person you’ve known all along was actually the imposter, the pretender to the throne.
What defines who a person is? Everything a person is capable of is part of who they are. The better or worse traits come out in response to changing emotional states. Sometimes the most extreme emotions are spurned by externalities they have never dealt with before. Sometimes they just brew inside until they reach a boiling point; then, they spill out into the world in what seems to be a sudden mutation.
What you are witnessing are manifestations of this person’s fears, weaknesses, and insecurities. Under those conditions, this invisible force seeps in and takes control. It operates whenever a someone is desperate enough to give up conscious self-analysis. Another entity comes along and offers to relieve them of the responsibility of choosing, resulting in a complete systemic reversal in someone’s attitude and values. Somehow, what used to excite and intrigue them now triggers deep discomfort—a fear of whatever goes against established comfort.
When this happens to someone you care about, the initial inclination might be to distance yourself for your own safety. There is a very real danger in their behavior now. In the worst cases, the former friend can even become physically violent toward you.
Alternatively, you can journey into their underworld in a rescue attempt. Is this advisable? I suppose the answer depends on how dedicated to this person you are. Would you expect the same from them if the situation were reversed? Would they face down your demons to save you? Would they brave hellfire for your sake?
We must also ask if the fallen is self-aware enough to recognize that there is something wrong with the way they are acting. Do they revel and take delight in the ugly way they treat you? Or is it clear that it is a desperate defense mechanism? Do they display signs of conflict from not knowing how they are supposed to see and deal with you? For salvation to be possible, we must, at all costs, stop them from totally identifying with this weak part of themselves before its control becomes habitual. The insecure must be made to feel secure again if there is to be any recovery.
Someone I love is in hell right now. She is burning, though she tries to pretend she is not. Will I just turn my back on her when she needs me? I could if I believed that the sudden ugliness she is showing me was genuine—if I believed her disregard for demonstrated values to be an authentic expression of her soul. But I know that is not the case. She has lost control of herself. She has given it up to the enemy because doing so is so much easier than facing the burden of a self-directed life all on her own.
When you love someone, you identify with them. Their concerns become your own. Part of your duty to them is to never lose sight of who they really are, even if they seem to lose it themselves. You can never let socially enforced illusions replace what you know is the truth, which is what they become when they are fully expressed. When they are beaten by the world’s influence and susceptible to being controlled, you are meant to remind them of the beauty of which they are capable.
If someday I should become weak and let the enemy inside, hope is what will save me. Hope will have to be held onto by those who know me. That is what might pull me back from the depths of the darkness’ control. Hope is a rational belief in positive change. It comes from experience of the best of someone. It’s a mental reminder of what things should be like. Hope for someone you love to get better means that you know in your soul the good they are capable of because you have seen it. You know, even when they do not, that their negative condition is not a fixed or predetermined state.
We all need a reminder to hold us to the mark sometimes.
Consciousness and self-determination are the only defense against the enemy. They are the sunlight that sterilizes the virus. Making peace with emotional weakness is the only vaccine. To consciously assess what you are capable of at your worst raises your endurance against ever unconsciously acting that way. Accepting that you can lose control and be ugly means you will be less likely to lose that control. Knowing that it is in your power to be ugly to others makes you less likely to ever let yourself become that way because the truth is so much more important to you.
No matter what you do, it should be you that is doing it, not the invisible forces that would take the burden from you if you let them. The greatest sin is to abdicate control of your mind to the unseen other. The temptation to do so is great because it removes responsibility from our shoulders. It will always be the easiest exit from the burdens of self-control. Every weakness and liability must be exorcised from demonic incursion. You must become a fortress unto yourself if you are to have any chance of doing what others cannot and saving them from themselves. That is your role here if you are strong enough to do it.