Memorial Day, 2021

 On this day, each of us has a story.  We've seen the price paid that we all freely agreed to go ourselves.  Each of us has witnessed the tragedy and suffering that resulted.  This day, we put quarrals aside and deal with loss.  That is proper, and I offer the following.

The concept of "sacrifice" is a deep one.  Men have written thousands of pages about the idea.  It can be glibly described as "putting off immediate gratification for future gain".  But those of us who've been so close to this particular fire knows that it's so much deeper than that.  Our brothers endured that fire for us.  Being a part of that has certain moral imperatives that are unfamiliar to many in this modern society.  

Having seen what we've seen, that imperative is that we each get our own sacrifice right in recognition of their larger sacrifice.  The things we do every day, the setting aside of proximal comfort in recognition of future potential.  We have to live our lives in such a way so as to earn what they have freely and finally given to us.

And so, as I sit here and get morosely drunk over a period of several hours, I will ask myself questions: "Is my sacrifice deep enough to honor them?  How should I change my behavior to make that sacrifice good enough to justify what they gave to me?"

I haven't found the bottom of that particular well, but I dig at it as much as I can.  This is the day to do so, and these Americans are the best reason to do so.  I urge you to kick it around on your own, apply these things to what motivates you to become better.  Throw that burden on your back and own it as you walk your path, with as much grace as you can muster.  That is the lesson that they've left for us, and the best way to represent ourselves to their memory. 

Momento mori, my friends.  

"The Wanderer"

"The Wanderer"

[A poem from the fifth or sixth century A.D., written by an Anglo-Saxon warrior, contemplating his life after "many winters".  I urge you to read it as deeply as it deserves, and then read it again.  As the author concludes, faith is the only saving grace we are given.]

Often the lonely receives love,
The Creator’s help, though heavy with care
Over the sea he suffers long
Stirring his hands in the frosty swell,
The way of exile. Fate never wavers.

The wanderer spoke; he told his sorrows,
The deadly onslaughts, the death of the clan,
“At dawn alone I must
Mouth my cares; the man does not live
Whom I dare tell my depths
Straight out. I see truth
In the lordly custom for the courageous man
To bind fast his breast, loyal
To his treasure closet, thoughts aside.
The weary cannot control fate
Nor do bitter thoughts settle things.
The eager for glory often bind
Something bloody close to their breasts.

“Wretched, I tie my heart with ropes
Far from my home, far from my kinsmen
Since a hole in the ground hid my chief
Long ago. Laden with cares,
Weary, I crossed the confine of waves,
Sought the troop of a dispenser of treasure,
Far or near to find the man
Who knew my merits in the mead hall,
Who would foster a friendless man,
Treat me to joys. He who has put it to a test
Knows how cruel a companion is sorrow
For one who has few friendly protectors.
Exile guards him, not wrought gold,
A freezing heart, not the fullness of the earth.
He remembers warriors, the hall, rewards,
How, as a youth, his friend honored him at feasts,
The gold-giving prince. Joy has perished,

“He knows how it is to suffer long
Without the beloved wisdom of a friendly lord.
Often when sorrow and sleep together
Bind the worn lonely warrior
It seems in his heart that he holds and kisses
The lord of the troop and lays on his knee
His head and hands as he had before
In times gone by at the gift-giver’s throne.
When the friendless warrior awakens again
He sees before him the black waves,
Sea birds bathing, feathers spreading,
Frost and snow falling with hail.
The wounds of his heart are heavier,
Sore after his friends. Sorrow is renewed
When the mind ponders the memory of kinsmen;
He greets them with joy; he anxiously grasps
For something to say. They swim away again.
The breasts of ghosts do not bring the living
Much wisdom. Woe is renewed
For him who must send his weary heart
Way out over the prison of waves.

“Therefore in this world I cannot think of a reason
Why my soul does not blacken when I seriously consider
All the warriors, tested at war,
How they suddenly sank to the floor,
The brave kinsmen. But this world
Every day falls to dust.
No man is wise until he lives many winters
In the kingdom of the world.
The wise must be patient,
Never too hasty with feelings nor too hot with words
Nor too weak as a warrior nor too witlessly brash
Nor too fearful nor too ready nor too greedy for reward
Nor even too feverish for boasting until testing his fibre.
A man should wait before he makes a vow
Until, like a true warrior, he eagerly tests
Which way the courage of his heart will course.
The good warrior must understand how ghostly it will be
When all this world of wealth stands wasted
As now in many places about this massive earth
Walls stand battered by the wind,
Covered by frost, the roofs collapsed.
The wine halls crumbled; the warriors lie dead,
Cut off from joy; the great troop all crumpled
Proud by the wall. One war took,
Led to his death. One a bird lifted
Over the high sea. One the hoary wolf
Broke with death. One, bloody-cheeked,
A warrior hid in a hole in the ground.
Likewise God destroyed this earthly dwelling
Until the strongholds of the giants stood empty,
Without the sounds of joy of the city-dwellers.”

Then the wise man thinks about the wall
And deeply considers this dark life.
From times far away the wanderer recalls
The deadly slashes and says,
“What happened to the horse? What happened to the war-
    rior? What happened to the gift-giver?
What happened to the wine hall? Where are the sounds of
    joy?
Ea-la bright beaker! Ea-la byrnied warrior!
Ea-la the chiefs majesty! How those moments went,
Grayed in the night as if they never were!
A wall still stands near the tracks of the warriors,
Wondrously high! Worms have stained it.
A host of spears hungry for carnage
Destroyed the men, that marvelous fate!
Storms beat these stone cliffs,
A blanket of frost binds the earth,
Winter is moaning! When the mists darken
And night descends, the north delivers
A fury of hail in hatred at men.
All is wretched in the realm of the earth;
The way of fate changes the world under heaven.
    Here is treasure lent, here is a friend lent,
    Here is a man lent, here is a kinsman lent.
    All of the earth will be empty!”

So spoke the wise in heart; he sits alone with his mystery.
He is good to keep faith; grief must never escape
A man’s heart too quickly unless with his might like a true
    warrior
He has sought a lasting boon. It is best for him who seeks love,
Help from the heavenly Father where all stands firm.

Passive Non-Compliance.

An instruction manual.

Okay, so you've been told to do a number of things which are impossible to do simultaneously by a number of different governing organizations that are staffed by incompetent people.

Ah! So I see that you've run up against the US federal government.

Well, I've been in the service of this organization for almost 27 years, and I'm here to help you parse this out.

First, stop doing something that you've been trained to do like a lab rat since you were young: stop assuming that they know something you don't. They don't. In fact, by virtue of the fact that you care about various issues and have access to an internet, you probably know more than they do about this random subject. Make your own decision and stop caring about their outrage.

Next, stop assuming they want the best for you, they don't care about you. They care about their job. Not only are they ignorant, they're also incompetent despite being provided cogent data. Do your own research, come to your own conclusions, and live your life as best you can.

Next, learn to not give a fuck about their outrage. You're smarter and more capable than them. You've done your research and have decided to act in a specific manner that may be counter to what they have imposed on you by some fiat. Their fiat does not trump your intelligence, competence, or ability to decide what is the best course of action. Do whatever the fuck you decide, and ride out the consequences.

This is not limited to the current pandemic bullshit. This includes everything in your life. Stop being a lemming. The idiot at the front of the lemming formation is just as clueless as the rest of the lemmings and will lead us all off a cliff if we let them.

Fortunately, your unique ability as an individual to decide how to act in a manner that serves your long term self-interests, and those of your family, your community, and your state, allows you to do whatever the fuck you want to do. Allow me to quote James Madison, who wasn't a lawyer either, but wrote the fucking US Constitution:

"Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Passive non-compliance is awesome. I've been doing it since I was a 1st Lieutenant. It's fucking liberating. Fuck 'em. Do what you want to do.

Religion, Part II

[Find part one here: Religion]

"Conscience" is the revaltion of morality.

"Transcendence" is the hyper-resolution of an experience that elevates one above mere existence.  It is the swift, sharp kick to the head that alters our perceptions and informs our morality.  So, to tie that concept into my last post, one can translate that as "transcendence realigning one's priorities."  One can see from this that transcendence can be of critical importance for us.  The search for transcendence seems to be relatively constant across cultures, across demographics within cultures, even though it takes on many, many forms. Transcendence is different for each of us.  Some find it in music, others find it in cooking, some in mathematics.  As far as I can tell, few of us have not found something transcendent.  It is as universal as truth or morality.

So, how do you prioritize your life?  What truths do you find meaningful?  How does the employment of those truths in pursuit of your morality manifest itself?  That is your religion.  It doesn't matter that you identify as an anarcho-communist-nihilist.  That doesn't mean that you have no religion, because that state-of-being actually defines the religion that you're acting out.  The a-priori structure that you're demonstrating simply belies the fact that you are expressing the exact same solution-set as a priest or pastor does.

This solution-set, completely independent of belief structure, is the answer to the ubiquitous question: "How should I behave?" How one pursues that behavior set is a religion.  One who steadfastly maintains that there "is no God", and "believes in nussing", is just as religious as the most zealous pastor, priest, rabbi or imam.  That individual is pursuing a morality, based on accepted truths, and conducts himself according to a corresponding ethical code.  How could it be any different?  Despite that individual's "identity", he has DNA and that genetic code has been passed down for several million years in a very specific manner.  This a-priori structure is ubiquitous within the human experience.  

So I believe that Christ is the "way and the life", why is my religion good?  Because pain equalizes us all.  I dare you to argue against it.  If pain exists, then something opposite has to exist.  That "opposite" is transcendence.  The elevation above the pain.  What is described in the Bible is the story of how to live, stories told many times over and from various perspectives.  If one accepts that the most awesome superhero is a guy who did nothing wrong, but who consciously volunteered to be betrayed by his friends, denied by his church, and tortured to death by his government, so that he could sacrifice himself to atone for the inherent fallibility of all mankind, then one might be aiming at an example that is worthy of following.  If one understands that each individual is made in the image of the creator, then one might be able to judge each individual according to his character.  If each individual should act in a manner in Christ's example, then society becomes enriched incrementally, as each individual lives up to his potential.  I can't see a downside to that, and societies that have encouraged those criteria have been wildly successful in providing their citizens with the resources that are required to remain free.  

On the other end of this, each society that has chosen to disavow God or fail to live up to Christ's example have resulted in corruption of its leadership, wholesale slaughter of its citizenry, and the destruction of truth and ethics, while attempting to redraw morality in a manner that doesn't recognize the inherent divinity of the individual.  In those nations, transcendence is only possible by becoming an enemy of the state.  See: Solzhenitsyn, Gandhi, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  

Moreover, individuals who choose to pursue a morality that is counter to the tenets of Judeo-Christianity generally find themselves bereft of meaning (unable to identify truth, or deny that any truth exists).  If there is no truth, no ethics, and a denial of morality, then how does a goal-oriented individual function?  For what does one aim to achieve? 

That last question, to my mind, gets down to the bottom of this.  If you are not striving in a manner that serves your family, your community, while you grow by your sacrifice for something other than yourself, then how does the "religion" that you're serving improve anything? To quote Tyler, "Those things that you own, end up owning you", unless those things serve some overarching purpose to drive forward and assist you in achieving your purpose, that reinforce the meaning of your life, that allow you to transcend the suffering of this mortal coil in that pursuit of purpose and meaning.  

"Religion" involves picking up a burden, and carrying it, with as much grace as one can summon.  It isn't about your "inalienable rights".  It is about your inescapable responsibility to yourself, to your family, and to your fellow man.  

Such is my perception.

Unclean

Religion

So here we are at last.  The central question.  

I spent many years, mostly in my 20's and 30's, in a state that can most accurately be described as "agnostic". I had some fundamental issues with the idea of the Christianity that I had learned as a child.  I think that, as I look back through the years, that idea was communicated to me in a very inaccurate and ham-handed manner.  "Believe this or you're fucked" is not the right way to perceive the teachings within the Bible, nor is it an effective way of communicating the lessons of Christ.  Yes, He did say "no one comes to the Father except through me", but that wasn't the explicit threat of damnation that was sold to me by my parents and some of my pastors coming up, and I wish they had framed the problem in a more realistic manner.  I seek to do so now, and I apologize with all my heart for not having resolved this sooner.  

Before I go any further, we need to define a few things, at least as far as I've been able to deterimine their definitions:

1) Morality: The thoughtful layout of what one prioritizes in thought and action.  

2) Truth: An idea that, if one strictly adheres to, results in meaning or purpose. A tool by which one structures the reality that one perceives.

3) Ethics: The method in which one employs truth to realize meaning, and thus live as a moral human being.

So one can see the interplay between these three concepts.  If one's priorities are fucked, then one is not aiming at a target that will be either fulfilling or meaningful.  If one can't discern the truth, one can't shape reality in a manner that results in a satisfactory purpose.  If one has no ethical structure, then one cannot therefore use truth in a meaningful way to reinforce or realize those things that one has identified as important in life.  

I can't believe that I've not thought deeply enough about these things to understand them in this fashion.  It has literally has been under my nose for almost thirty years.

Consider Aristotlean Ethics.  It's not a moral code.  It simply instructs how to employ the truth in such a fashion as to mitigate harmful behavior while increasing the chances of using truth to perceive reality in an unbiased manner.  Kant's "universal imperative" is very much like this.  I think that's why I've gravitated towards those ethical paradigms since I first heard them in my early 20's.  It's the same reason that Christianity strikes me as truth, and it's very much why I took to listening to Dr. Peterson several years ago.  

There is an a-priori structure within us that is so deep within our neurology that it's almost autonomic.  There are concepts that are so basic that we don't even question them.  "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."  What the fuck does that mean?

"Always make a good first impression."  Well, no shit.  But why is that so important?

Well, in the first example about "playing the game right", we're teaching our children that it's not important that you're skilled at something, but it is critically important that you treat your peers in a respectful manner, so that you'll be chosen to play as many games as possible throughout your life.  

The second example is truly a throwback to how deeply seeded our initial perceptions are.  It's not higher-brain functions that comprise a "good first impression", it's so much deeper.  If you haven't seen this, go on a web search-engine and look up "cats and cucumber videos".  You'll see that cats have a primal reaction to cucumbers because they initially perceive them as snakes, and they're scared shitless of them when somebody puts one on the ground behind them, even though they've never seen a snake.  Lab studies of common rats will show that one can waft the odor of a cat through a rat cage, even though that rat has never encountered a cat, and the rat will go back into his den and scream for two whole days (which, when considering the life span of a common rat is like you or I doing that for a solid week.)  First impressions are lasting for this same reason.  A species of "featherless bipeds" (AKA "Homeo Sapiens") did not consolidate its hold on the top predator rung for the past million-or-so years unless we had some next-level instincts.  Among those instincts is the ability to spot an asshole on first sight. So there you go.  There is your a-priori structure.

So what are the implications of this a-priori structure?  Aside from threat-identification, I really think that we have a proclivity to manifest our behavior in such a manner that we are drawn toward truth, and we tend to structure our morality in a manner that draws us to purpose and meaning.  I don't think that it's an accident that our perceived-reality is structured as "chaos" and "order", while the left and right hemispheres of our brain are manifested to process reality in that exact duality.  

I think that what I've argued thus far is enough for one sitting.  It lays the basis for the instanciation of religion.  The implications of that instanciation will be the next chapter.  Please stand by.

Unclean  

Isaac

Did some listening today.  And some thinking.  About old things, things that have driven our society forward for thousands of years, things that laid the foundation of this civilization.  

One of these old stories has to do with the father of Judaism, Abraham, and what happened between him and his son (by Sarah), Isaac. 

After a lengthy tale of hardship and toil, Abraham was told to sacrifice his son to God, and he willingly prepared to do so, to the point where God stepped in and told him "meh...nevermind".

Or so I've always perceived.  No explanation, no sermon has ever really satisfactorily satisfied me as to why this is crucial knowledge that would make sense within the canon of the Old Testament.  I've never liked that story, never could get my head around it.  For like 35 years.  It's bothered me.  

Well, I was "today years' old" when I finally figured out the lesson that I believe is behind the story.  It is indeed tied to the idea of "sacrifice" but I think "sacrifice", in this case, was meant in a much broader sense.  

Abraham was told to "sacrifice" his son to God, which seems a bit severe, seeing as how Abraham and Sarah were 100 years old when he was born and the mere existence of Isaac was a frickin' miracle to begin with.  

But in what sense was the concept of "sacrifice" used here?

I think the lesson here is to understand that "sacrificing" one's own progeny is to forthrightly send them out into the world, thus exposing them to the cruelties that are manifest there, after teaching them to act in a proper manner, to strive to become as righteous as one is capable of, and to expect them to live up to those lessons while the parents themselves live up to the example that is inherent in those lessons.  

If one does so forthrightly, then the lesson taught to Abraham, and to us by extension, is that God will care for our children in a manner that will be better than even we, the parents, are capable of and in ways that we haven't really considered.   

It is necessary for every parent to do as Abraham did, to instruct our children properly, to demonstrate that behavior set, and when it is time, expose our children to the cruelty and malevolence of mankind with serenity and calmness.  Because it is incumbent upon each of us to have faith as we do so; that God will care for them in ways that we haven't even thought about.

Thus is the lesson of Abraham and Isaac, as I've come to understand it.  Let me know what you think.

Coriolanus

There seems to be a war on, and I don't perceive that it's the same kind of war that most of us have trained for.  This isn't a war against an external threat that threatens the borders of this nation.  Nor am I referring to some shadow obviation of our fiat currency or technological security.

 

I am referring to the war that is currently being waged against the warriors who defend this nation. 

 

It is, without a doubt, the most subtle battle that I've ever experienced, but there is a battle there nonetheless.  I mean, I got the sense in February 1992, when the first edict out of the first Clinton administration was to "don't ask/don't tell" became a compromise to the wholesale legitimacy of homosexuality within the ranks of the military, that the actual ability of the military to suppress, close, and rip the throats out of our enemies was a secondary consideration in the upper-levels of the government. 

 

I thought, as a young Captain, that the Clintons wished to weaken the military culture that they had despised since the 1960s.

 

I was so wrong.  They didn't want to just "diversify" the military culture, they wanted to end it.  The military culture in the United States is perhaps the oldest.  It has hoary cultural traditions that are scary to this society, where any mode of behavior that is not closely supervised by some government bureaucrat is inherently dangerous and possibly suicidal.  The dichotomy is kinda big and deserves it's own section...

The Difference 

It's not dishonorable, just thoughtless.  All of us who have returned home face the inevitable... "Did you hafta kill anyone?" 

Unfortunately, the sheer numbers of those who choose to enlist/commission, against those who won't, will not sustain a sufficient number of people to allow us to maintain the culture that we've managed to sustain since the nation was born.   As a result, those who've had "skin in the game" become increasingly rare.  As with Rome, fewer and fewer understand what it means to bleed for one's oath, for one's nation.  As with Rome, once you've alienated those willing to bleed for you, you've lost the soul of the nation, since the willingness to do so is what binds us together as citizens.

Martius (AKA "Coriolanus") teaches us that we should fight for what we believe no matter what.   

 

 

 

[Brutus] There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.

 

[The people]  It shall be so, it shall be so.
 

[Coriolanus] You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

-Coriolanus, Act III, Scene II

 

 

 



Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness...

I remember feeling like I do right now back in 2012.  I was in my rig (a white gov't 4x4 pickup truck), listening to AM talk-radio following the presidential election.  

"Fuck 'em", I thought.  "If this is the will of the people, let 'em come on and do what they're going to do.  We'll see what happens after."

Trump happened after.

So now we have this here.  One of the most instructive utilities of the Trump administration is the true exposure of how deep the establishment "swamp" runs. 

Definitions are important, so let's get into the "Swamp" in this context.  "Swamp", can be defined as the established global corporations who funnel billions of dollars worth of lobby money into the legislature, and even more billions of dollars worth of graft into paying off bureaucrats in the executive branch to serve their interests at the detriment to the electorate.  While I have no readily available data indicating that such remarkable amounts of money are making it into the pockets of judges, to think that those worthies are immune to such graft is to deny a reasonable appreciation of human frailty in the face of overwhelming corruptive influences.  Suffice to say that I will conject that the judiciary is in on this too, if only because I'm not naïve, and I've observed judicial behavior.

The Swamp could not allow a second Trump administration.  They've pulled out all the stops since the day he was inaugurated.  On that day, numerous sages in the corporate media actually compared Trump to Hitler.  You can't do that again.  That's "11" on the volume knob, and they went there on DAY 1.  They created a Russia narrative.  They weaponized both the DoJ and the Intelligence Community to convince us that Trump was a Russian Asset, or to impeach him for doing something with the Ukraine which was actually true of his accusers.

They've emptied their vaults.  They got in bed with China, allowed China to cultivate a virus and destroy the working class, and covered for China at every turn.  This was the only course of action available to them in December of 2019.

In December of 2019, the GDP was somewhere around 3.9% (remember, we were told by the last President in 2011 that 1.8% growth in the GDP was "the new normal").  Working class wages, job availability, and minority unemployment were at the best that they ever had been.  We have not deployed in support of a new war since Trump took office.  The inner-cities were blooming unlike anything we'd seen since Eisenhower.

Then it all turned to shit.  Wuhan Flu, George Floyd, manufactured crisis, anarchy and war in the streets...

And yet the Dow/Jones still thrives.  Daily trading hit 30,000 in one day several weeks ago.

Small businesses crushed.  Whole towns effectively destroyed.  Local governments allowed their citizens to fend for themselves while being attacked in their homes and businesses.  District Attorneys in every Democrat-majority city are allowing criminals to go free for almost anything short of class "A" felony. An electorate denied their relief through the social contract.

Yet Silicon Valley thrives.  Amazon crushes all-time shipments.  Netflix and streaming services flourish.  Wal-Mart and Home Depot are killing it.  Local stores are dying.  Local restaurants and bars, bakeries and gyms, all of them are being crushed by government fiat.  Think about that.  Not because the people don't have the money or the desire to go there, but because the government has not favored them.  How pissed would you be if that was your business?  Where is the social contract here?  Why did you pay taxes and pay for licenses for decades, if this was your end?  

While the rich and powerful dine in comfort in trendy restaurants, I can't go with my wife when admitting her to the hospital for an afibrulated heart condition. She and I have to wait while she sits in the ER with no food and no rest for more than twelve hours, until they take her to a room. So that I can then talk to her through a closed window as she cries and suffers.  

I walk through a small town that I've lived in for almost twenty years.  I know it well, and yet I can't recognize folks whom I've known for years because we're all in masks to protect us from a virus that is fatal in less than .05% of those effected under the age of 60.  (We joke at work that you're more likely to die from a shark attack in a port-a-shitter at Checkpoint 35 in the Prospect Training Area than from this.) Social distancing holds us aloof from one another.  Masks rob us of our individuality.  We default to suspicion of one another, resentment, mistrust.

Yet China had one of the best quarters in the past three years by exporting masks and medical equipment to the world that they infected.

There is one public figure who brought this about by pointing out that America was being cheated of her potential.  To bring him down, they have crushed the working class, again, the same as they've done since China was allowed into the World Trade Organization in the early 1990s.  

On my news feed, I see Bill Gates, Tony Fauci, and each talking head (employed by one of the multi-national corporations that own every news outlet) telling me that all of this is necessary.  Just like NAFTA was "necessary".  Just like JPCOA, the Paris Accords, and TPP were "necessary".  Just like everything the establishment has ever done to us to sustain the impression that they know better than us, while taking what we have and are capable of making and sending it overseas.  

That illusion was destroyed in 2017.

Say what you want about the man (but do it somewhere else, though.  I've heard it all, and your narrow-minded disapproval of his reported flaws will not move me.) Trump showed us just how corrupt this establishment is.  He demonstrated that we didn't need to make war in SW Asia for oil, because we have all we could ever need here, thank you very much, and all we really needed to do was to explain to the Middle Eastern potentates that we're done fighting their wars for them, and then come home and get rid of the internal regulation that was holding down petroleum extraction within the United States.  Guess what?  We became energy independent within two years of Trump's inauguration, and they've been fighting their own fights over there without us.  We'd been lied to for fifty years.  Now we know different.

What else have we been shown?  Well, here's something.  We don't need China, China needs us.  The President dealt with China exactly how a sane businessman would, offering deals that would give mutual advantage.  We were killing it.  In December 2019, China had the worst sustained GDP development, bereft of our purchases, since the 1950s.  The main reason for that downturn was because the President had created a normalized trade agreement, so of course their GDP would take a hit.  Since they couldn't reap the profits off the backs of the American working class, the Chinese Communist Party came to the solution that they preferred to turn this around through actual biological warfare against the rest of the world.  The Swamp signed on for that one, and it's still using it to attempt to convince us that China is blameless.  

In light of this information, and given the reasonable doubt as a result of recent investigations that there is much to be in doubt with regards to the legitimacy of this election in at least five states, I think the working class is being sold down the river yet again.  When Big Media, Big Pharm, Silicon Valley, the US Chamber of Commerce, the vast majority of Wall Street, and the Large Global Banking Interests all agree in their opposition to a single man, I start wondering: what is their unifying common interest?  Further, those who claim to be part of the traditional left, in opposition to the "Man", the "Establishment", the "Reactionaries", why are you siding with the common interests of these mega-billionaires?  

Jesus wept.  Rage Against the Machine actually advocated using their lyrics to the song "Killing in the Name Of" as a mnemonic to recite while washing one's hands during COVID restrictions.  (So you sing the chorus... "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me"... while you comply with the wishes of the WHO)

So that's the world right now, as it seems to be arrayed against us.  

What can we do in the face of this, you ask?

Get in the books.  There's a ton of things that I don't know that I should know.  I watched about a hundred MLB games per season since I stopped deploying.  I have had roughly 300 hours between March and October given back to me to get smart on things. Over the past five years, I've read the "Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn, "A Brave New World" by Huxley, "Maps of Meaning" and "12 Rules for Life" by Peterson, "Camp of the Saints" by Raspail, and "Winter in Moscow" by Muggeridge.  I recommend all of them, though you'll need to hit me up if you want a copy of the last two.  Amazon has paperback copies of "Camp of the Saints" available for $148 and those of "Winter in Moscow" available for $758.  Good luck finding them in a library.  (I managed to find a copy of them both on an online abandoned book auction for less than $100 each.  Check those places out.  That's the only way this information will survive.  Silicon Valley is trying to kill it.)  Read the Constitution, and know it.  Read the Federalist Papers, where the founders explained their reasoning of arranging the government in the manner that they did.  Those things are your responsibility as a citizen, a steward of this Republic.  If you don't know these things and can't articulate a defense of them, then your children and grand-children don't have a chance in hell of living under such an arrangement.

Get local.  You've heard me say this before.  If Trump can't maintain office, and the incoming admin succeeds in packing courts and adding DC and Puerto Rico as States, this is not going to end well.  Get local.  If and/or when Federal and State governments start trying to flex their extra-constitutional muscle, the fella on the dime to enforce that bullshit will be your local leaders.  When that happens, you're going to have a bunch of nervous bureaucrats, who have access to statute law and armed men to enforce it, at odds with angry armed citizens who don't like it.  There needs to be a means of mediation that involves people talking to one another, and those people are us.  Go find a VFW, and American Legion, or a Marine Corps League.  If you're not former military, find a civilian group like the Elks.  

In 2004, when J. Paul Bremer [spits between fingers] fired the Iraqi government and every member of the Ba'athist party (i.e. "every Iraqi who had a job"), what resulted was something that I'd read about, but never, EVER, thought that I'd see in this world: A Hobbesian State of Nature.  Without a government to hold "All under awe. Where life will be nasty, brutish, and short."  Hobbes predicted that, in such a state, men would hole-up and defend their shit while slowly reaching out to their neighbors to effect "mutual protection associations".  This is a contract.  "If they come for your shit, I'm gonna roll in and help.  You'll do the same for me."

That gets bigger and bigger.  In Iraq, we saw the resurgence of the tribes in this manner.  For us, the tribes will be communities, and the leaders will be those who can mediate between the bureaucracy and the citizens.

Get in there.  Get ahead of this.  Hope for the best and assume the worst.  Noah didn't start building when it started to rain.

Folks, the Supreme Court just turned down an opportunity to resolve a case between states for the election of the Chief Executive.  It's getting cloudy, and a flood is increasingly likely.  By virtue of your experience and your training, you are the instrument in this situation.  Get busy and start building those arks.  

Unclean  

The Alternative Preamble --OR-- The Inherent Right to Your Pain.

The Alternative Preamble

--OR--

The Inherent Right to Your Pain.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

Life, liberty, and the mitigation of individual suffering?

Life, liberty, and the inherent responsibility of the individual to accurately identify and deal with our own pain?

Three manners of saying the same thing. Folks, 99% of life isn't dedicated to "pursuing happiness". It's dedicated to threat mitigation, so that each of us can identify those things that will most likely kill us.

I think Jefferson/the Framers came up with a nice bumper-sticker, but I think they elided over the true function of the utility of freedom. Sure, we'd all like to be unrestricted in our mobility up the hierarchy, but each of us is much more interested in accurately being able to identify the things that will result in our demise, and be free to overcome those threats, (specifically those who were on the American Frontier in 1776). Whether those threats are British occupying forces, hostile Natives, feral predators, criminals, robber-baron creditors, monopolistic oil or railroad interests, invading carpet-baggers, Jim Crow Democrat political machines, or Silicon Valley Utopians, our response to these potential threats should be as unrestricted as possible. Because, once those threats are mitigated, the "pursuit of happiness" is much easier, by several orders of magnitude.

As we are frequently reminded by Karen shaking her finger at you: "you can't know his pain." This is true, and it's actually the basis for why the government, and you (yes you) should leave me the fuck alone so that I can deal with it in an integrated manner. Go back and reread the Declaration of Independence with this mindset, rather than the shiny "pursuit of Happiness" prelude, and tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.

Here's the deal. Whether you read Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Victor Frankl, or Martin Luther King, the commonality that runs through the narrative of all three is that tyranny began at precisely the point where individuals were lumped into groups. Cordoned off into sub-categories of humans. Each one of those sub-categories had something terrible done to them. Yes, their "pursuit of happiness" was limited, but what does that even mean?

No, something more onerous was done to them: Their suffering, their pain, was taken from them, combined, and then dictated to them by someone who didn't even know them, whom they had never met, who cared nothing for them, and to whom their individual identity was nothing more than an entry on a demographic spreadsheet. Groups don't suffer. Groups can't feel pain. Individuals suffer, and the pain of the individual is his responsibility to mitigate. It is only possible for that individual to do so. Nobody can take your pain and fix it. You do that.

That is the danger of a tyranny, and the very manner of its consolidation around the necks of a given nation. Tyranny attributes the degree and effect of those grievances to groups of people, and refers to them as "the downtrodden". Those people, grateful that they seem to have gained a sympathetic ear, buy into a narrative that tells how their group has uniquely suffered along this mortal coil, this panapoly of suffering. Blame is assigned. Pejoratives are assigned ("Kulaks", "Juden") Those groups are persecuted.

Ask any lower class Ukrainian in 1927 to identify who was persecuting him, and he'll respond "The Kulaks!"

Ask any lower class Chinaman in 1958 to identify who was persecuting him, and he'll respond "The Intellectuals!"

You see my point. Each of these examples demonstrate how the pain of the individual was subsumed into the resentment that was convenient to people who could give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut whether these poor, benighted individuals lived or died. The pain of these individuals was their own, it was taken from them, mandated that they be outraged by it, and then was subsequently forged into a weapon to enslave all of them.

Many of you don't share my race, creed, religion, national origin, or age, but each of you has value because you're an American citizen. That was the deal. I don't want anyone to come around and assume your pain and take responsibility for it from you. It is yours, and your individual agency is tied specifically to how well you choose to deal with that pain, that suffering, and grow past it, through it, and to ultimately transcend it. It is the immutable responsibility before every human to do that, to teach our children how we managed to do it, and to derive satisfaction from having beaten it. Tyranny wishes to take that process from you.

What is at stake here is our very soul. Each of us is indelibly marked by the pain that we've overcome. Each scar marks something that we've learned. These scars are precisely what identify us as individuals. Different from every other person. Worthy of being considered as an effective contributor to this society. Not your race. Not your religion. Not your national origin. Not your age.

Don't let them assume your pain. It is not theirs, it is uniquely yours. Overcome it. Learn from it. Allow that process to specifically identify you, not some arbitrary trait that someone else wants to rope you into. It's who you are. Don't let them take it from you.

The Flood, Part Three

Completed Unclean Thawts (At least for now)

So, I outlined the universal apriori basis of "The Flood" in part one, here:
https://fearfiles.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-flood-part-one.html

Then, last night, I explained it's implications within society and politics here:
https://fearfiles.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-flood-part-2.html

So there's your context, which is important in predicating what I think is the most important aspect of this archetype.  Tonight, I'd like to try and articulate the implications of preparing for "The Flood" in the life of the individual.

I think the Bible does an effective job of describing a proper way to perceive the relationship between the individual and reality.  It does this through a narrative that tells the story of how man evolved the instinct to sacrifice.  As I mentioned last night, these points are echoed in fables and parables that have been handed down from the recesses of time.  They are ancient in origin.  Mankind became aware of the difference between him and God: limitation.  The implication of this difference is suffering.  To be mortal is to suffer.  There are two natural reactions to this: 1) Become bitter at the nature of reality, believe in nothing, and slowly detract from the fund of potential energy around you by maintaining a severe affect; 2) Deal with reality on its own terms.  Enjoy what you can, while you can.  Find a purpose that is rewarding and believe that the purpose that you serve in enduring the pain justifies the struggle.  Understand that this sacrifice, this denial of gratification in the short term, will serve that purpose in the long term.  This idea of "sacrifice" is what is portrayed by Abel, and Abraham, and Noah.  It's reflected in the ant, the tortoise, and the frog.  We see the story everywhere we look.  In "Neo" from the Matrix, in "Cool Hand Luke, in "Obi Wan".  It is a recognition that the unfairness of the reality that we experience can only be mitigated by our effort in accepting the burden of responsibility for our fellow man, for the people that we love.

It is the recognition that The Flood is imminent, and that each of us has a duty to build a vessel within us that is capable of withstanding the worst abuse that can be dispensed by nature and by the malevolence of mankind.  None of us have a "right" to that vessel, precisely because nobody on Earth has the duty to build it for you.  It takes work.  It requires that we deny ourselves gratification so that fewer will suffer in the end.  It's an ominous responsibility that lies before every human being.

So, how do we get there?

If we accept what I just described with regards to the nature of the reality that we find ourselves in, I believe that we have a duty to tell the truth to ourselves, and to be aware of how malevolent each of us is capable of being.  When mankind first came to understand his own pain, it was a small intuitive leap to understand how to inflict pain on others.  This is another unfortunate implication of mortality, and that understanding is critical for each individual to gain an intimate familiarity with.  The alternative is a lie: "I could never do THAT."  "People are genuinely pure, it's the world that corrupts them."

In the biblical narrative, a good example of this is outlined when Christ was tempted by Satan in the desert.  He was shown, it is described, the successful ends of his efforts.  It was all within his grasp.  All he needed to do was to bow and accept the pure malevolence of reality.  He turned his back on that, understanding it at its core, and chose to go forward as he had: suffer betrayal by his friends, banishment by his church, and be tortured to death by his government so that it would be possible for God to look upon mankind favorably so long as they acted in a similar fashion.

Go back and read that again.  This is what preparation of the individual for the imminent Flood entails.

"But it's just a story, right?  That shadow, that temptation to submit to the cruelty of the world, it's just a parable.  Those implications don't apply to me.  I'm just a fat old white dude in the Mojave Desert." 

Such are the lies that we tell ourselves, seeking a justification for not taking up the burden that is rightly ours.  The denial of that burden leaves us vulnerable to the inevitable Flood.  Lies are just our futile attempts to bend reality to our advantage.  It doesn't work that way.  The Flood is coming.  It will expose your lies and leave you without shelter, emotionally unfit to continue.

I was talking to a dude the other day, a good man who is under criticism from his professional community because they refuse to accept his explanations for why they can't do something that they want to do.  I told him, "Tell them the truth unapologetically. The truth doesn't warp your reality, it warps the reality of those who are full of shit because they lie to themselves."  I had inadvertently walked into something that applies across the human experience and is one of the reasons why I've taken up the pen this weekend.

Accept as much responsibility as you can manage with dignity.  Challenge yourself at every opportunity.  Become familiar with your malevolent nature and hold that nature at bay, while also recognizing that malevolent potential in others.  Tell the truth to yourself and those with whom you interact. Do this every day.  Remain cognizant of this as you do all the little things.

The Flood is on the way.  People will be counting on you.  Be worthy of their faith in you, and be worthy of your faith in yourself.

Shalom, my friends.
Unclean

The Flood (Part 2)

So, expanding upon last night's argument (which can be found here, for those who need context: The Flood, Pt. 1

It is established that the threat of "The Flood" applies to societies worldwide, and this threat is viewed as having two causes: 1) sin, (defined as sustained apathy, incompetence, or corruption); and 2) entropy, (defined as the inevitable deterioration of everything). At first blush, it would almost seem as if the sustainment of a working system of culture, society, or government is impossible, given what we know in our apriori structures about the futility of these things.

Well, it's a good thing that we have memory, which allows us the opportunity to not make the same mistakes over and over again and thereby suffer stupidly. We've spent hundreds of thousands of years watching one another, noting what works and what doesn't, and then passing these observations genetically and verbally to our progeny. This has resulted in a number of utter fucking miracles, when you consider the odds, that I will deal with directly.

When contemplating the threat, "the Flood", that is represented in our collective memory, one might ask how we can mitigate it. Well, to use this metaphor to it's most effective ends, it would seem to be a moral imperative for us to prepare adequately for its inevitable arrival.

Holland, a country that has much of its arable territory located inconveniently beneath sea-level, has built a system of levees to protect against the eventual flood. Their engineers did so in a serious manner, planning their construction while accounting for the effects of the worst possible storm that could come about once in 10,000 years.

We can readily contrast this wise planning against the experience of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers, when planning the levees to protect that city, calculated the effects of the worst possible storm that could come about once in 100 years. Meanwhile, corruption within the administration of that city took advantage of a system ripe for the taking, thereby corrupting the initial construction and subsequent maintenance of those levees. They were shown to be every bit as effective as the effort and thought that were evident in their creation and maintenance, and a whole city drowned as a result.

We should not be surprised. The fables that have been handed down to each generation for thousands of years give truth to this story. The "Ant and the Grasshopper", the "Tortoise and the Hare", and most depressingly, the "Scorpion and the Frog" all deal with treating reality seriously, not taking anything for granted, and preparing for the worst.

So, what should we do? Well, as nearly as I can tell, the solution for a sustainable society runs in exactly these areas. One must prepare a vessel capable of withstanding the worst abuse that the world and mankind can manifest upon it. Once that is done, it is imperative that the vessel be maintained appropriately, to be able to continually withstand this abuse.

Among the miracles that I referred to above, we can count the modern manifestation of a Lockean Republic as perhaps the best example. Locke put into words something that is truly fantastic: The idea that a government doesn't exist to enrich the throne, but rather a government exists to defend the liberty of its people, who will then prosper as they are allowed to exercise their own free-will in the furtherance of their own self-interests within the confines of the rights of their fellow men. Consider how unlikely it is that Locke should derive these specific ideas, that he could be able to articulate them effectively, that those articulations should prove to become popular, and that English exiles would then use those ideas and build a nation on another continent based upon them.

The founders of this nation are to political philosophy what Dutch engineers are to disaster mitigation.

In the way that the Constitution is laid out, and its rationale explained in detail by two guys who didn't even like each other in the Federalist Papers, they weren't planning out a Utopian society like post-modern flapnoodles such as Ocasio-Cortez, Warren, or Sanders. No, the founders were planning for the worst of times, the 10,000 year flood.

I think they succeeded fantastically.

With the vessel (The Constitution) having been effectively constructed by serious people to stave off corruption and apathy, while also mitigating the effects of incompetence, what is left to us is to maintain that vessel. How does one do that, exactly?

First, it depends on a competent citizenry. It is necessary for us to understand and articulate the machinations of the protective scheme that was handed down to us. This also requires us to understand the composition and strength of the "flood" that is inevitable. Only through reading and comprehending these things will we be able to maintain the worthy structures that were gifted to us to maintain. Since part of this protection involves freedom of expression, we must take each opportunity to remind one another of the coming storm, whether it be just off the coast or imminent sometime in the next 10,000 years.

Therefore, maintenance of this vessel looks something like this:
Learn about our government. Learn about the alternatives that we've chosen not to exercise and why we've made those choices. Talk to one another about the utility of what has been prepared for us and the threat posed by these alternatives. Teach our children about these things. Pray the entropy doesn't undermine our efforts. Everything else is in God's hands. As He described to Abel, your sacrifice must be genuine and sincere.

And that gets into tomorrow's bit...

The Flood, Pt. 3

The Flood (Part One)

Most societies have a "flood" mythos that fits into our story. It is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is there for a reason. It is a warning.

Mircea Eliade, in his book "History of Religious Ideas" says that the commonality between most "flood stories" across the narratives of many societies is a manifestation of a combination of "sin and entropy". Each of us can learn a lot from this, both individually and as a perspective on our culture.

First, I think it's necessary to delve into a few definitions.

The etymology of the word "sin" comes from the Hebrew word "chatta’ah", which translates "to miss the way". Whether you admit God or not, each of us knows what it is to do wrong, and that description of "sin" is instructive, I think. To "miss the way" implies that the "way" was there, but you missed it, through apathy, incompetence, or malevolence.

Entropy is the inevitable deterioration of everything. It's a fundamental law of the physical world around us. It implies that everything, an atom, a molecule, a structure, or an ideal is running to ruin constantly, right before our eyes, and we are helpless to stop it.

So it would be logical to say that the destruction of reality, i.e. the world around us (the flood) is brought about by the apathy, incompetence, and malevolence of people (sin), accelerated by the natural tendency of reality to dissolve over time (entropy). This would seem to be the lesson of this story that is common among cultures, warning us against a "flood" in our society and a caution to each of us in our personal lives.

Viewed thusly, it would seem to be an important lesson, given to us from time older than time. What is implied in this lesson, then? What are the moral implications that have been handed down to us, individually and as a culture, to avoid this disaster?

I've got a few ideas about these remedies, temporary as they might be, to stave off this inevitable flood. I'll get into my ideas about the societal implications tomorrow night, and the individual implications on Sunday.

Unclean

Part 2 can be found here.

The Context of a Free Culture

Last night we talked about the "Great American Stew Pot" and why that's awesome.

Tonight, we need to break down reality a bit. Because, let's face it, despite the shiny happy story we all want to believe, every religion agrees on one central point: we are mortal, which means we have limits. The cost of limitation is suffering. Therefore, to be mortal is to suffer.

I leave whatever coping mechanisms you've developed over the years to deal with that realization, but what has specific implications for us as a nation is this: if everybody suffers, then no suffering by any group can be said to be more important than that of any individual. In this manner, the law that protects us all under this social contract recognizes the rights of the individual as the accepted unit of measure. Thus, we've arrived at an agreement with each other that "I will live my life and defend my liberty and property in such a manner that it will not interfere with you doing the same thing."

It really is that easy.

What complicates it ties in a little bit with what I was saying last night. We're not a "melting pot", we're a "stew pot". You bring into the equation your identity, with all of the oppression and suffering from your line, and I bring all of mine, and we stand and bitch at each other about whose ancestors got the shittier end of the stick. The basis of suffering as the primary condition of mortality would seem to negate the basis for that conflict. Let me explain.

My family is Scots-Irish. A quick summation of my tribe: Two thousand years ago, the Romans slaughtered 1/3 of the Celts, enslaved another 1/3, and taxed the shit out of those remaining who were lucky enough to survive, farm, and reproduce. After the Saxons conquered Britain and intermarried with the Angles enough, many Scots moved to Ireland. The Anglo-Saxons then bought up a lot of the land and eventually started forcing Scots-Irish into debtors' colonies in the New World, which was great until Sherman burned it down. So a bunch moved to Texas and lived up on the plains, fighting with Comanche with no expectation that the government could protect them. It was rough, but enough of my ancestors reproduced and here I am.

None of that matters now. Every single race or creed can trace a similar path of woe and oppression. The woe and the oppression is the default position of the human race. It's not the "Man" or the "System" that's kicking my ass, it's the limitations of mortality. As near as I can tell, there are two possible reactions to this realization: 1) Become bitter and cynical of the reality in which I find myself, and accept a nihilistic representation of the world around me and just make it worse; 2) Accept reality on its own terms and seek to conduct myself in a manner where the suffering is justified by challenging myself to become better. Voluntarily accept responsibility for as much as I can and try to follow Christ's example to make the world around me a better place.

By a miracle, I've been blessed to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. One where my natural rights are protected by law and I have the latitude to make these choices. The fact that this latitude exists for every single individual citizen should overshadow all of the ancestral baggage that we're dragging around. The potential that lies within the individual, when added to the chaotic potential that exists within a free society is enough of a challenge for each of us to master without kicking each other in the shins about the fact that you are of Italian or Belgian or English or Yankee or Comanche descent and our grandfathers fought once upon a time. -Unclean

Nation of Exiles (AKA "People Stew)

Okay everybody, let's talk this out. Let's admit some hard truths that might be hard to admit. Let's look at all of this realistically. Any who disagree are always more than welcome to challenge this, and I encourage you to do so in the spaces below this.

I'd like to carve this up into two or three pieces, but I'll try to keep each one relatively short.

Tonight: WHAT IS AMERICA?
First, America is not a "melting pot". It's a stew. In a melting pot, everything combines. That doesn't happen when you throw together the descendants of almost every global society into one single system. A "stew", on the other hand, has a completely different connotation. It indicates that, even though your family has been here for hundreds of years, the big chunks of identity that they've passed down to you still haven't combined into some sort of...sauce. However, contrary to what the media is desperate for you to believe, this is NOT a nation of immigrants.

We are, my friends, a nation of EXILES.

It's an important distinction. "Immigrants" are like cattle, who wander for better pasture and cleaner water. No, our ancestors left their homes and came here. Generally, because they were malcontents who didn't like the conditions in the motherland that had nurtured their ancestors SO MUCH that they told everyone they knew to get bent, picked up all they could carry and came to this country. Or the government took notice of them and sent them here to shut 'em up. Or, in my case, they had enough debt on the books to be sent to the debtors' colony in Georgia. Or they were impressed into slavery and sent here. Why is this important? Because, this created an environment where they were protected from all of the shitty propensities that governments have, by virtue of them being citizens of this nation.

Oh, and they could buy all the guns that they could afford.

So, instead of a "melting pot" of people sauce, you've got a people stew of wildly different flavors of backgrounds and histories, bound together under a social contract roux that is based in the Constitution, and everything tastes EXACTLY like mistrust and suspicion of authority. With guns.

Meanwhile, ALL of those countries that expelled our ancestors kept all of the folks who would just accept their lot, sit down with the other kids, and color inside the lines.

But without any guns.

These two sets of people have been breeding and teaching their young what society means for hundreds of years. Whatever it is that makes us suspicious of authority has been concentrated. Whatever it is that made them docile and accepting of control has also been suffused.

This is what makes us different.