The Devils Catch - YOU?

FIVE FISH FOR THE DEVIL'S HOOKS
by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen 

As one makes a study of those who have been caught on the hooks of the Devil's fishing line, or, those who hide behind their freedoms in order to destroy the very source of that freedom, and who are thus particularly gullible for the Devil's bait, we find they can be reduced to five classes....

1. Haters. 
Bigots use their heads, though wrongly; haters, however, use their spleens, though overmuch.
Hate may come from being ridiculed, for having lost a job, or for being unsuccessful and feeling owed. In order to exonerate themselves of their hate, they fasten the blame on others, and develop an unholy hate against a class, a race, a government, a party, a business organization, a group, or a Church.
But, since their individual hate has such impotence, they search about for some conspiracy that will socialize their resentment. Finding a group which collectivizes and intensifies their hatred, they swallow satan's hook, not because of what they admire in the group, but because of what they hate outside the group which socializes their hatred.

2. Socializers.
Not everyone in our modern world develops social interests because he loves his neighbour in God. Far from that.
There are some who enter into, "social activities," in order to escape the incessant accusing repartee of their own consciences.
Failing in promoting individual justice, themselves, they compensate for it by espousing social justice; they escape the need of personal reformation by going hog wild about social reformation; they meddle with everyone else's morals, in order to be too busy to correct their own.
If their behaviour were better, they would be truly religious people and do much good for society. Instead, they look for causes which will leave them alone with their individual vices. They swallow the Devil's line also, because its anti-religious character satisfies their desire to expunge from the world all ideas of morality and virtue, the infractions against which have made them so uneasy in the dark.

3. Bored Intelligentsia.
Their education should have given them a goal or a purpose of life. Having failed to do so, their knowledge is nothing but a crazy quilt of unrelated facts and undigested bits of information. The want of unity both in their moral life and their knowledge makes them desirous of unity, but not a unity from within which demands moral stamina, but a unity from without.
Certain sects provide that for them. They no longer have to think; the sect does the thinking for them.
They now have a mission, a sense of belonging to a totality, and one in which they are no longer bored by their freedom, having surrendered it to the collective ant hill of the sect.

Intelligentsia do not become members of a sect for intellectual reasons, although they may think so. That is why when discussing the sect with them, they never seem to understand it. Instead of a "reason" for becoming a member, they have, "intentions", namely the desire to escape boredom. Their motives are alien to the rational.

4. Neurotics.
Every neurotic is anti-social. Normal persons are linked to society; the neurotics, uprooted through their delusions, are daily confronted with the absurd. They are "naturals" for any anti-social movement opposed to culture, morality and peace.
In fact the more absurd a system is, the more it appeals to them. The connection between the neurotic anti-social traits of a person and the neurotic anti-social wars and revolutions which we see around us in the world today is extremely close. As flies go to honey, so neurotics gravitate to anti-social behaviour. They are easy targets for the Devil's bait.

5. Satellites.
These are the dupes in every movement, the, "dopes". They may not be obedient in action, but they are obedient in thought. They see only what they want to see; they love to be seen in the light of a justice warrior. This limelight, which certain causes give them, blinds them to analyzing historical situations.
They are professional signers; they will put their name to anything that seem to identify liberty with licence.
The Devil uses them because they are naive and credulous.
They belong to every, "politically correct" organization, but they are nothing but stuffed shirts - with a tail which the Devil twists to his own good pleasure.