Recently, our friend Jim Jatras gave a fantastic address to the Ron Paul Institute. I can’t recommend it enough. I asked him if I could critique it and he graciously gave me permission to do so.
Before I do, I ask that you read it for yourself in its entirety. It’s a must-read that stands alone on its own merits. It’s an outstanding tour de force, highlighting not only the ills that beset our nation but perhaps, provide us with a way forward.
Here it is in video form: https://youtu.be/QkJX2ffZaI0
Once Jim gets the usual introductions and caveats out of the way, he wisely notes that things were not always as black and white even in the good old days. Still, public service was once a noble occupation. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that this is no longer the case. Especially for many in the permanent political class, it is anything but, unless you think it’s a good idea to drive America further off a financial and cultural cliff and let future generations pick up the pieces. For them, public service is nothing but a cynical way to guarantee a permanent income and open invitations to all the right Georgetown parties. Let me quote his own words:
“Well, that was then, this is now. Let’s get something very clear. Back in my day, yes there was corruption, yes there was influence peddling, yes there was contempt for truth and common decency. But these were debasements within what could still be argued was a structure built on a Constitution and the rule of law. That is, something existed, though as with all human affairs, it was only as good as the people operating within that something. One could still, with a straight face, contend that if the good guys win, if wise policies prevail –audit the Fed, cut taxes, stop our interventionist foreign policy, ban abortion, legalize dope, whatever you want–there was enough integrity to the something to allow for such improvements. We were still living in a normal moral universe where virtue and vice contended for dominance. We were still living in America.”
The operative words in my opinion are, “that was then, this is now.”
Jatras’ words are diagnostic of a Republic in its terminal stages. Think of Versailles in the early days of Louis XVI or St Petersburg right before Rasputin showed up. I can’t disagree. To those who might think that he’s too pessimistic, he makes this biting observation: “We really can’t say that anymore. It’s not just the laws and the Constitution that are violated…but that they now have almost no relevance to the nation [we have become]…And it’s come with astonishing speed.”
I can’t disagree. The Bill of Rights is essentially a dead letter. The Constitution itself is nothing more than a quaint artifact; its vaunted “separation of powers” have been rendered impotent. We are beyond the point where the Constitution could have prevented the present decay. As one of our commentators wrote not all that long ago: “If the Constitution could have saved us, it would have.”
Consider the great lengths to which Louis XIV went to disguise his adulteries and then look at the nonchalant attitude of his great-grandson and successor Louis XV. In the Sun King’s day, Versailles pretended to rectitude, with Louis being called “His most Christian Majesty.” (Louis XIV had hidden doors to his bedroom and he always made sure that after a dalliance he went to his marital bed to be woken up by his courtiers, among other things.) By the time his successor came along, Versailles had become an antique version of the Playboy Mansion. He saw that the rot was so pervasive that he famously said “apres moi, le deluge.”
The parade of horribles that he describes is indeed horrible. In fact, they are inarguable. I’ve long given up hope of papering them over for the sake of patriotism or a united front against whatever foreign enemy the neocons say we have to fight because of “muh democracy”. It’s not possible. The degradation of society on every level, the very affronts to common sense, tie the tongues of even the most sophisticated commentators. Even those who are sympathetic to our international obligations are rendered mute.
A case in point is Jen Psaki, the oracle of official Washington, who has given up hope of making sense. The press corps looks at her askance, knowing full well she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Frankly, how could she? She’s been given “cray cray” from behind the scenes to explain. But they all play along because that’s what official institutions do when a society is in its terminal stages.
As if that’s not bad enough, we simply don’t agree on anything anymore. What was once called abortion is now called “choice”. “Pride” today means half-naked men dressed in chaps riding on a float in a parade down Main Street in Anytown, USA. And who can forget men “identifying” as women beating up real women in the Octagon? One of the Democrat contenders for the presidency even said that he would not rest until men have the right to have abortions.
This is madness, no two ways about it. Worse, we know it is madness –and that means all of us. But we can’t do anything about it. If it’s not the soft terror of the Deep State/Big Tech that keeps us quiet, it’s the Human Resources Department at the totalitarian Fortune 400 company where we work that keeps us docile. And if it’s neither of those things, it’s normalcy bias. Think of the proverbial frog in the boiling pot.
That said, I am not as pessimistic about the future. Jim thinks that’s because I’m an optimist. I am not. Instead, I see some hope for the future because I consider myself to be a realist. To put not too fine a point on it, I see the entire liberal narrative crumbling all around me in ways that are too innumerable to count.
That may be because I live in a Red State and have been insulated from the worst ravages of the Branch Covidien cult. Here, the Lockdown Liberals were never as strong as they were in, say, New York or California. Jim on the other hand lives in a town where no matter how bad the decisions are that are made, how destructive the results, they keep truckin’ along on inertia alone. And only rarely is somebody called to account when things go bad.
For many, as long as a president doesn’t send out mean Tweets, he can literally drool at a press conference or fall asleep in the Oval Office while meeting with a foreign head of state. He can literally tell a reporter that “they just wiped my butt.” (I wonder who has that job?) And of course, he can drone any number of innocent brown people he wants. And there will be hardly any mention of it.
Repeat after me the Catechism of DC: Mean Tweets Bad, Drone-Strikes Good.
I know how debilitating it must feel. Last December, when Gail and I were in Washington for the Stop the Steal rally, I felt an oppressive spirit in that city. Despite its beauty and stunning architecture, it had no longer had any charm for me. The last time I had been in DC was almost twenty years ago. Washington still exuded some sense of Americana. There was palpable excitement in the city. I don’t know. That is not the case anymore. The scales have been removed from my eyes.
Jim did treat us to an excellent dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant. I would definitely like to repeat that experience. –But not in DC. Next one’s on us, Jim.
I didn’t have to go to Washington for the Rally to come to this conclusion. But it helped. My own feeling of dread started on or around November 9, 2016, when I saw the full force and fury of the permanent political class go into overdrive against a duly elected president.
The fury of the permanent political class has abated somewhat, so that’s a tender mercy, all things being equal. However, it has been replaced by an ineptitude not seen since the days of Carter (if then). Now it is normal to openly muse about an upcoming civil war. Ken Burns, for example, who produced the PBS documentary The Civil War, is saying openly that we are hurtling headlong into another massive civil conflict. He is not the only one. The Internet and even the mainstream media are abuzz with detailing the contours of such a conflict, many have even identified the correlation of forces and have drawn up the battle-lines.
Last December Gail and I saw how we Americans are living in two separate realms. In our nation’s capital, things are OK, fantastic even. The six counties of Northern Virginia who abut the Capital are phenomenally wealthy, in fact these counties are among the ten wealthiest counties in America. And why should they not be complacent? They suffered no casualties in The Sandbox and their stock portfolios have only grown fatter. No matter how badly they screw things up, they suffered no consequences. It’s called “Failing Up”.
Afghanistan? In normal America it’s an unmitigated disaster. For the permanent political class on the other hand, it’s a roaring success. You can see it in the real estate prices and all the construction going on inside the Beltway. Such an accrual of wealth is not because they provided enlightened leadership but because of the impenetrability of the Military Industrial Complex. Once you’re in, you’ll be there until you die. If you lose an election, you will make more money as a lobbyist. If you retire from the Pentagon, a nice, cushy job awaits you at Raytheon or General Electric. If you were a mid-level flunky at the White House, a lucrative book deal awaits. That’s why their denizens are immune from the consequences of their terrible mistakes.
In a sane society, the purveyors of that conflict would have been cashiered up and down the chain of command. Civilian as well as military heads would have rolled. Instead, they have been richly rewarded. Whatever one feels about the justice of that war, the political class has grown incredibly rich while the rest of us paid for it in blood and treasure.
For the patriot, even one who lives in the Beltway, the sting of the corruption and military humiliation is felt all the more acutely. No doubt this is so, in part, because such a man is surrounded by the tens of thousands of the nomenkaltura who do not care. And he knows better than most that the elite of American society do not care about America. To them, “patriotism” is a dirty word, conjuring up dark images of Joe McCarthy. They despise those who live in the thousands of counties that make up Red America and they assuage their guilt in doing so by assuring themselves that those ignorant rubes are racists, bigots, and xenophobes.
To the tens of millions who do not live in the Beltway, the sting of defeat is likewise humiliating but we at least, do not have to pretend that all is well. It’s easier for one of us to say that the Assistant Undersecretary of State for Transgender Issues is an idiot –or that such a position shouldn’t exist in the first place–but to say this in the Beltway is nothing less than sacrilige. And to suggest that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, well, we won’t go there.
In other words, America’s defeat grieves us but at least we are able to see with the clarity which defeat brings. We at least have jobs in the private sector which provide some level of value. And we are quietly reassessing all of our commitments to the central government and its pieties. The insanity that has gripped our culture is only making it easier to do so. They, the permanent political class, have the Deep State. We on the other hand, have the Deep Nation.
Quite simply, it is because we, the majority, can grasp this reality, that gives me some hope for the future. This is where realism sets in: we cannot keep on going the way things are. In Kabul, reality came in the form of the Taliban who took that city in less than 72 hours. We were assured by the best and the brightest that they couldn’t “realistically” take Kabul in less than 90 days. Reality now has set in on so many different levels back home (but still not in the Beltway). The rest of the liberal program is also being confronted by reality as well.
It is here that I will put my cards on the table: the present regime is unsustainable –in all its particulars. Not only politically but culturally, economically, and religiously. I could give you chapter and verse of the absolute crapulence that has overtaken our homeland. But I won’t. You can no doubt discern it every time you turn on the TV, or go to fill up your tank. Or go to the grocery store and see empty shelves. Or take that long walk to the Human Relations Department because you told a joke. And so on.
Instead, I will direct your attention to the likes of the aforementioned Ken Burns, and other sensible liberals who likewise foresee an inevitable conflict. Their list is growing: on the cultural front Sam Harris, Bill Maher, and Jordan Peterson are sounding alarm bells. On the political front, Democrat legislators in the border states are likewise chiming in. Red State Democrats are begging Biden to not campaign for them in 2022. Conversely, the stock of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others of her ilk is falling.
One of the signs of a Versailles-before-the-Terror narratives that we see is the rampant hypocrisy regarding COVID. Recently, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez attended a gala at the Met dressed in finery that we usually see reserved for starlets walking the red carpet. Her elegant white dress had the words “Tax the Rich” on it, yet she was attended by lackeys who treated her like Marie Antoinette. They were wearing masks, she was not. If that doesn’t scream Ancien Regime hypocrisy, nothing does.
Jatras predicts that “this crescendo will be similar to earlier ones,” things like the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Byzantium, and the other catastrophic events (such as the Reformation) that upended their respective civilizations. I agree. Where we disagree is how we get out of it. Or if we get out of it.
To be fair, he is not without hope and he gives sage advice to the attendees. Among them: be vigilant against deception; prudently care for those people entrusted to you; get involved in your community; learn a trade; go to church and “never go to law school”. He goes on to say: “…being what used to be considered normal and leading a productive life is becoming the most revolutionary act one can perform. With that in mind, find the strength to be revolutionaries indeed!”
This is Solzhenitsyn straight up and served with a twist of Orwell. Drink deeply if you don’t want to go insane.
I wholeheartedly agree. Live not by lies and be a true revolutionary and tell the truth. Don’t be afraid to be the little boy who says that the Emperor is naked (or performing an unnatural act). I would also add: stop watching cable news; read a good book (basically anything by Tolkien and Lewis); listen to Classical music; go fishing; get in touch with nature. And by all means, learn the fine art of mockery. Pass memes around. Liberals hate mockery.
It’s not going to be easy. Our Republic may not survive. As I wrote several weeks ago (after the fall of Kabul), the Soviet Union itself fell two years after its own defeat in the Graveyard of Empires. The people of the Soviet Union had had enough. They couldn’t believe the lies anymore. “Yes,” they said to each other, “America mistreats Indians and Negroes but I can’t get any toilet paper”. Something has got to give and give it did. Still, unlike our own humiliating retreat from that benighted land, the Soviets staged a strategic and orderly withdrawal. You’ve got to give them that.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union into fifteen different nations was traumatic for the ordinary man in the street. The 90s sucked all the way around for them. Whereas the Japanese had a “lost decade”, Russian citizens stood hopelessly by as they watched their land being pillaged by American vulture capitalists. Had Vladimir Putin not stepped in, Russia as we know it would not exist and the Russian people would be living in Third World conditions. The question for us is, will our own breakup be as catastrophic?
Here I must point out that the average life-expectancy for Russians has increased since 2000, up from 54 years old to 65. Last year for the first time, life-expectancy in America decreased by 1.5 years, from 78 to 77 years.
This is where I hold out some hope: Russia has been a unified state since the time of Ivan the Terrible. To remain one they’ve always needed a strong man at the helm, even if he was a brutal tyrant like Stalin. Our nation on the other hand, was never meant to be that unitary, despite the best efforts of the Progressives.
In other words, our nation as presently constituted may not survive but then again, it was never meant to be the behemoth that it has become. None of our Founding Fathers would have countenanced the permanent Warfare/Welfare State that we have become. I imagine they would have taken up arms against it. In any event, it is untenable on its own terms. And given that it’s become an empire as well, that too will disintegrate in due course. As the historian Toynbee said, empires die of suicide brought on by years of internal rot. And ours is well on its way to rotting from within.
Our Founding Fathers did not found a nation such as were found in the Old World. They were instead, the representatives of thirteen sovereign States who crafted a confederated Republic. The President was to be an elected sovereign, with as minimal powers as possible. John Adams himself said that the congressional delegations from the various States were to be “embassies”. President Monroe actually vetoed an interstate highway bill because he could not find justification for such an enterprise in the Constitution.
These thirteen States preceded the Constitution (which they created). We have forgotten that. And so, following the inevitable economic collapse of the Federal government, the dissolution of the United States as presently constituted becomes certain. As Milton Friedman said, one can have a welfare state or open borders but not both. The various dependent classes that currently suck at the teat of the Federal Treasury will find themselves being weaned off before they are ready.
The worst-case scenario is an America fracturing along regional lines, with the Military carrying out search-and-destroy missions against rural/exurban militias coupled with ghettos in flames. A better case scenario would be the fifty States reverting to something resembling the post-colonial United States. Which it must be said, was much closer to what the Founding Fathers envisioned in the first place. That is to say stronger States which will demand the Congress to pull back from these debilitating foreign adventures which are presently exhausting us.
I like to think that the next generation of pundits on the Buchanan News Network will be regularly invoking John C Calhoun, the patron saint of Nullification. Or Jackson on defense; I’ll even take a Lincoln on tariffs. When it comes to the modern “trusts” of Big Tech, we could certainly use a man like Teddy Roosevelt again.
Perhaps that is an optimistic scenario. But short of an actual civil war in which the military firebombs American cities, it is the only imaginable one I can foresee. I dare say that given the incredible ineptitude of our Deep State (Kabul anyone? Drag shows on aircraft carriers? MASH units clogged with deviants undergoing “gender reassignment surgeries”?), I find it hard to imagine how a true civil war could proceed on their terms.
Then again, we are being called “American Taliban” by the likes of Michael Moore and Frankie Schaeffer. We should keep this in mind.
Both Jatras and I think that it is indeed “later than we think”. The question as I see it is whether it is too late.
I for one, think not. Why? Because reality always wins out in the end. In any event, it ain’t gonna be pretty.
This is tangential to Jim’s speech but highly descriptive of an empire in its terminal stages:
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2021/09/blm-increased-black-murders-by-2164-28.html
Another way that the Deep State uses to manipulate the masses. I guess Black Lives (don’t) Matter. It was nothing but a massive grift to get rid of Orange Hitler.
Not being an American, perhaps I am mistaken, but I can’t see American soldiers killing American civilians. Am I wrong? Anyway, you all are armed to the back teeth and I think that will prove to be essential in keeping your republic alive. George and Gail, with Orthodox, God-pleasing people like you, I think, as Trump said, the best is yet to come. The fate of the whole world depends on it.
Let us hope not, Katherine; but it is astounding to me what some people will do to keep their job. It wouldn’t be the first time soldiers fired on civilians of their own country, It has happened before – even here.
I think too many reg’lar ‘Muricans fail to consider that a critical mass of people might just fold in the face of irrationality backed up by coercion. Will the military (which is currently being purged of those unwilling to just shut up and follow orders to get the jab) turn its guns on Americans? What if that’s unnecessary? What if there’s already a critical mass of those who support the new Woke totalitarian order added to those who will submit under pressure? I am not saying this ends with a whimper, not a bang, but that possibility shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. For each person who’s willing to get tossed onto the street to stand on principle there’s at least one, two, many more who not only submit but who positively applaud dealing with “deniers” and “conspiracy theorists” with “deserved” harshness. We have met the enemy, and he/she/ze/xe/they is us.
I dont disagree at all with your ambivalence about our military. They are in my opinion the wild card.
What I do see though are two things: 1) the sheer incompetence of the civilian leadership & the military brass and 2) the continued degradation of the.middle class.
Coercion only works on people who have something to lose. In the end, all ideologies based on nihilistism fail.
But, as I said: “it ain’t gonna be pretty”.
RE: “Coercion only works on people who have something to lose. ”
Or, as the hit song “Me and Bobbie McGee” (1978) puts it, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…”
Yes indeed, Fr.
The police and military down under in Victoria are proving incredibly vicious. How many of those in uniform will actually “buck the system”? Not something I would count on—only the remnant who are willing to be martyrs.
We must all pray to be ready for what is coming. What else if anything will bring widespread repentance.
The excerpt from Nihilism was prescient: aren’t most of us fundamentally tainted by the Liberalism therein described—I.e. worldliness? It seems that Christ God is inviting us to be healed of it difficult though the cure may be.
Lxc+
Lex, that’s one reason to be against the entire Defund the Police movement. The idea was not to defund a constabulary but decimate the current ones and replace them with a national police force made up of BLM and Antifa thugs.
Such a force would be beholden to the national Demshevik Party (good one, Misha) as opposed to the thousands of localities. We already have a precursor of this in the FBI, but luckily, most of them are like the decorated “warriors” over at the Pentagon: desk-jockeys who spend their days dreaming up ways to screw over ordinary people.
Katherine, there are three possibilities regarding the American military:
1. They won’t need to because we’re so obese and complacent that merely calling somebody a name (i.e. racist) will be enough to keep the revolutionary embers damp.
2. The military will be so full of anti-Americans that they will not hesitate to round up rebels and shoot them, burn their houses, put them in concentration camps, etc. (If the regular Army won’t do it, then look for the DS to activate MS-13 and all the Afghans they’re bringing in. As for the restive black population, they can be brought to heel by the Muslim demographic in certain cities, like Detroit. Same with homosexuals who go on a rampage. I could see them being tossed from tall buildings in the finest retrograde Islamic fashion.)
3. If things get really dicey, parts of the regular Army will act in renegade or rogue fashion. They won’t obey orders or “lose” them in transit. Ammunition and fuel depots
will all of a sudden be empty and that’s why a particular regiment can’t move out for the time being (thereby giving the militia time to melt into the woodwork).
There are two wild cards. The first you mention, the fact that Americans are the most heavily-armed people on the planet. That’s one. Number two is whether the regular Army (and especially the Special Ops forces) will obey these orders.
My (admittedly, civilian) take is that as long as the majority of the armed forces remain white and/or traditional Christian (nominally at least), they won’t obey any orders which entail them killing their co-ethnics/religionists. The reason I say SpecOps is because that’s the lethal part of the military and they are overwhelmingly white/Old Stock American (i.e. Midwesterner, Southern, Appalachian, rural New Englanders, basically Red-Staters).
The other thing to watch out for is the overall economic situation. The single most crucial indicator of troop loyalty is whether they are getting regularly paid. If things go really south economically, no matter how many times the Marine Band plays “George Floyd’s Body” or President Harris speechifies about the Evil Patriarchy, very few are going to muster the courage to charge against well-armed militias.
George,
Very interesting analysis. I was in Washington many years ago and I started talking to a group of who I thought were soldiers. They were in fatigues and I found out they were a National Guard group. They kindly pointed me in the right direction and I was so impressed with their manners and demeanor. I think they will be guardians of your Republic.
“George Floyd’s Body’s”? Is that the new “John Brown’s Body?” Too funny!
“The question as I see it is whether it is too late.” For the Republic, yes. For the American ethnos, we don’t know yet. The next two to five years will tell in all likelihood.
Hence my distinction between the Deep State and the Deep Country (or nation)
I have to take issue with Jatras about his contrast of the way things were as opposed to the way things are now. . . It is probably more accurate to say that the liberals and the Left have always been as bad as they are now but that before Trump forced them to come out in the open in order to continue to be effective, there were many of us who could make believe that they were acting in good faith.
Walter Cronkite was an enemy of the truth and the American people way back in 1968 when he misreported the Tet offensive, no less then than later. Dan Rather was an enemy of truth and decency when he misreported that school kids in Dallas were cheering Kennedy’s death rather than the fact that his killer appeared to have been apprehended. They did incalculable damage to the American psyche before they were cashiered as did Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, etc.
These people have always been minions of Satan. That is how we got abortion, feminism, LGBT and, yes, the Civil Rights Movement. Norman Lear and Rob Reiner were every bit as radical when All in the Family premiered as they became latter. Alan Alda the same. They ruled the country through a professional wrestling match known as the two-party system (better termed “the Uniparty”) which was an alternation of rapid vs. less rapid “progress”.
They have always been despicable and beneath contempt. It’s just that when Trump came on the scene, they realized that their veiled corruption would not be enough to combat him. They had to remove the mask and become overtly ideologically polemic without any remote semblance of dispassion in order to win, if it was possible.
What is uncomfortable for people to contemplate is how evil some of the icons they looked up to in the old order are and were. George Will, for instance, one of my former favorite columnists from my younger days, now in retrospect was always an uncle Tom shill for the Uniparty, as was Peggy Noonan. Most rock musicians I liked were indefensibly evil in political terms. All the old shows, all the old stars – almost all of it, was the product of Liberal, Inc. and therefore evil as sin.
We grew up in an ideological delusion no less pervasive than that of the former Soviet Union and it is only now beginning to dawn on us what that means in terms of the patriarchy and manhood. But the only thing that’s different now is that Trump brought to our attention in undeniable terms the fact that we have been screwed all our lives.
I can’t disagree with anything said in these comments so far. The ultimate question is whether the official propaganda can turn enough people against those who the right-thinkers call “American Taliban”.
If they can, then the coercion needed to keep Sam Suburban locked up in his crappy job because he can’t stand the thought of losing his family is a real one. My take is that the MSM has shot its load, there are no more arrows in the quiver of why we need to fight Evil Joe Tyrant of Slobovia because he’s a meanie.
Ultimately, I think what we are seeing is the desperation moves of the globo-homo DS brought about by full-tilt Trump Derangement Syndrome. We must remember that 2020 was not the turning point but a reaction to 2016, when they had the election rigged for Hillary.
What they did in the intervening four years is pull out all the stops to make sure that the 2016 event would never happen again. And 2016 doesn’t mean Trump per se, but any populist/national/anti-globalist. Even if Jesus and the Twelve Apostles surrounded by the nine choirs of angels descended from Heaven and told the people that Trump was their nominee for 2020, the DS is so beholden to the other principalities and powers that they would cavalierly dismiss the Heavenly Host. That’s how far gone they are.
So, 2020 was their last chance, pure and simple. They pulled it off. The question now is: can they govern? Or will the last eight months be a prelude to further crapulence down the road, governing be damned?
One thing we can look to as a positive indicator is that even the fire breathing resistance, at this point, is not calling for kinetic action. The Bannons, Turleys, Pauls, Cruzes and Cottons seem to be as alienated from the Uniparty as MAGAns but seem to believe that working within the system in 2022 and 2024 will do the trick.
I’m not sure. But I don’t see standing armies forming or paramilitary units recruiting for imminent conflict. Thus I assume the time for kinetic resistance has not come upon us yet. Not to say that one person can’t do significant damage, but only a drop in the bucket of what is needed for regime change.
It is important to balance appreciation of the fervor of the rhetoric with observation of actual actions. Actions are much more indicative than words. If, for example, Mark Levin actually believed the situation is as dire as he sometimes portrays it, he and many others would be taking up arms.
Dispassion is a virtue, even in conflict – especially in conflict.
In his prophetic book “Nihilism: the Root of Revolution of the Modern Age”, Fr. Seraphim Rose makes the following observation:
“In the Christian order politics too was founded upon absolute truth. We have already seen … that the principal providential form government took in union with Christian Truth was the Orthodox Christian Empire, wherein sovereignty was vested in a Monarch, and authority proceeded from him downwards through a hierarchical social structure. We shall see in the next chapter, on the other hand, how a politics that rejects Christian Truth must acknowledge “the people” as sovereign and understand authority as proceeding from below upwards, in a formally “egalitarian” society. It is clear that one is the perfect inversion of the other; for they are opposed in their conceptions both of the source and of the end of government. Orthodox Christian Monarchy is government divinely established, and directed, ultimately, to the other world, government with the teaching of Christian Truth and the salvation of souls as its profoundest purpose; Nihilist rule–whose most fitting name, as we shall see, is Anarchy—is government established by men, and directed solely to this world, government which has no higher aim than earthly happiness.
The Liberal view of government, as one might suspect, is an attempt at compromise between these two irreconcilable ideas. In the 19th century this compromise took the form of “constitutional monarchies,” an attempt–again–to wed an old form to a new content; today the chief representatives of the Liberal idea are the “republics” and “democracies” of Western Europe and America, most of which preserve a rather precarious balance between the forces of authority and Revolution, while professing to believe in both.
It is of course impossible to believe in both with equal sincerity and fervor, and in fact no one has ever done so. Constitutional monarchs like Louis Philippe thought to do so by professing to rule “by the Grace of God and the will of the people”–a formula whose two terms annul each other, a fact as equally evident to the Anarchist as to the Monarchist.
Now a government is secure insofar as it has God for its foundation and His Will for its guide; but this, surely, is not a description of Liberal government. It is, in the Liberal view, the people who rule, and not God; God Himself is a “constitutional monarch” Whose authority has been totally delegated to the people, and Whose function is entirely ceremonial. The Liberal believes in God with the same rhetorical fervor with which he believes in Heaven. The government erected upon such a faith is very little different, in principle, from a government erected upon total disbelief, and whatever its present residue of stability, it is clearly pointed in the direction of Anarchy.
A government must rule by the Grace of God or by the will of the people, it must believe in authority or in the Revolution; on these issues compromise is possible only in semblance, and only for a time. The Revolution, like the disbelief which has always accompanied it, cannot be stopped halfway; it is a force that, once awakened, will not rest until it ends in a totalitarian Kingdom of this world. The history of the last two centuries has proved nothing if not this. To appease the Revolution and offer it concessions, as Liberals have always done, thereby showing that they have no truth with which to oppose it, is perhaps to postpone, but not to prevent, the attainment of its end. And to oppose the radical Revolution with a Revolution of one’s own, whether it be “conservative,” ” non-violent,” or “spiritual,” is not merely to reveal ignorance of the full scope and nature of the Revolution of our time, but to concede as well the first principle of that Revolution: that the old truth is no longer true, and a new truth must take its place. Our next chapter will develop this point by defining more closely the goal of the Revolution.
In the Liberal world-view, therefore–in its theology, its ethics, its politics, and in other areas we have not examined as well–truth has been weakened, softened, compromised; in all realms truth that was once absolute has become less certain, if not entirely “relative.” Now it is possible-and this in fact amounts to a definition of the Liberal enterprise-to preserve for a time the fruits of a system and a truth of which one is uncertain or skeptical; but one can build nothing positive upon such uncertainty, nor upon the attempt to make it intellectually respectable in the various relativistic doctrines we have already examined. There is and can be no philosophical apology for Liberalism; its apologies, when not simply rhetorical, are emotional and pragmatic. But the most striking fact about the Liberal, to any relatively unbiased observer, is not so much the inadequacy of his doctrine as his own seeming oblivion to this inadequacy.
This fact, which is understandably irritating to well-meaning critics of Liberalism, has only one plausible explanation. The Liberal is undisturbed even by fundamental deficiencies and contradictions in his own philosophy because his primary interest is elsewhere. If he is not concerned to found the political and social order upon Divine Truth, if he is indifferent to the reality of Heaven and Hell, if he conceives of God as a mere idea of a vague impersonal power, it is because he is more immediately interested in worldly ends, and because everything else is vague or abstract to him. The Liberal may be interested in culture, in learning, in business, or merely in comfort; but in every one of his pursuits the dimension of the absolute is simply absent. He is unable, or unwilling, to think in terms of ends, of ultimate things. The thirst for absolute truth has vanished; it has been swallowed up in worldliness.
In the Liberal universe, of course, truth-which is to say, learning,–is quite compatible with worldliness; but there is more to truth than learning. “Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.” No one has rightly sought the truth who has not encountered at the end of this search-whether to accept or reject Him-our Lord, Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Truth that stands against the world and is a reproach to all worldliness. The Liberal, who thinks his universe secure against this Truth, is the “rich man” of the parable, overburdened by his worldly interests and ideas, unwilling to give them up for the humility, poverty, and lowliness that are the marks of the genuine seeker after truth.”
I think this is the clearest explanation of why the US and most of that part of the world formerly known as “Christendom”, are in the state in which they are…
Interesting, George.
People call you an optimist, but you call yourself a realist, and you believe there is hope.
People call me a pessimist, but I call myself a realist, and I believe it is finished.
The present order is being finished. Whether the Constitution/Republic survives is questionable. Whether it deserves to be salvaged is another issue.
What will emerge in due time is a civilization devoid of the feminist, homosexualist, egalitarian fantasies that are presently destroying our Republic.
Yes, it’s over. But there is something sweet in being considered by the young people I interact with on YouTube, Rockfin and Telegram to be a based and red pilled Orthodox Boomer Grandma at age 63. I get to watch Jay Dyer guest host on Alex Jones who I’ve followed since his beginning (along with Art Bell for fun) back in the day. I’m enjoying watching the Orthosphere catch fire with converts to Orthodoxy from psychedelic culture, masonry and atheism become a big influence on a crop of young males (Brother Augustine, Roosh, David Patrick Harry) who are converting to Orthodoxy right now (we’ve had four recent converts from atheism and RC in our parish in the past year. God does seem to be raising up a “new crew” and Fr Peter Heers reminds me a lot of Fr Seraphim Rose with his 10 week Patreon course on the Catacomb Saints of Russia! What a great time to be alive and Orthodox. I visited the Holy Land in 2019. Next trip might be to scout out the very Orthodox country Georgia which requires no visa to go for a year. If my crypto holdings keep doing well I might be able to afford to move there.
Alexandra,
I’m right there with you. The brothers in the Orthosphere are one of my few sources of comfort right now. I saw you and your husband on DPH’s birthday stream. I checked out your icon site too. Great stuff there
Along with Seraphim I am right there with you Alexandra.
I guess as a young Millennial and a guy I am technically an OrthoBro, but probably not on the level as some. The above mentioned people, plus Luke Kendrat, Dave theRealMedwhite, Ube Petrus, have been a great source of comfort and community over the past couple of years.
I converted to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism in 2017 and only found out about Jay Dyer afterwards, but his videos on RCism and Orthodoxy have helped me tremendously.
Also, if you haven’t heard, that same crew as well as Fr. Dcn Ananias have started a new platform, Patristic Faith, to counteract AFR. I’m really looking forward to it.
Not being much of an historian so I don’t know the whys , but
How did mainly Orthodox countries end up communist in the last century.?
If the Orthodox hierarchical system is the best, how come many of the Orthodox dioceses are failing?
And on another front, I read yesterday that polls say 46% of our electorate still support Biden. That is scary.
Russia ended up communist because the Russian people turned away from The Church.
Eastern Europe would have regained their sovereignty after WWII were it not for the Stalinists who had control of the Roosevelt administration. The real winner of WWII was Stalin.
Yup. Makes me wonder if we’d be having this discussion about America falling into cultural and economic rot had America chosen to support nationalism, not globalism, from WWII onward.
The Russian people did not turn away from the Church. Even through the worst of it, at least one third of the people considered themselves Orthodox. When the Bolsheviks took over, Russia had almost 60,000 churches.
One can say it was the sins of the people that caused the Revolution. Nicholas II did not abdicate in a vacuum. And Russia’s feeble attempt at a democracy lasted approximately seven months under weak and feckless leadership.
Bottom line is that the time was ripe for bandits to barge in and occupy an empty throne. However, neither the Church nor lack of allegiance to it had much if anything to do with it. One imagines that only Reds were left and the Whites were driven out. That is not the case. The Communist Party ruled with a membership of just about 5% of the population.
One third from the whole makes two thirds who were not Orthodox. The Russian Refugees who are my people blamed themselves mostly for the fall of Russia.
If only five percent were Bolshevicks how did they overwhelm the 95 percent who were not? Because, for various reasons, they did not fight back to save their country.
I went on a tour in Russia. The tour guide reminded me of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies; a no-nonsense sort of person who took her job very seriously. I don’t think she stopped talking the entire time we were with her which was often 11 hours a day.
One day she surprised us and told us about her family. Initially, they were relieved when the Soviet Government promised they would take care of housing. Imagine their surprise when they moved them into a small house with 5 other families, none of whom they knew. Just one bathroom, too. Not at all what they were expecting. Too late to do anything about it.
So I think the answer to your question is “false advertising.” They make you believe it’s all going to be wonderful. You notice when things start to go bad but because you don’t want to believe it, you look the other way.
Yes, I agree. I see the same thing happening now. I have no problem believing that our governments are malevolent; it’s a struggle to get people to open their eyes.
RE: “it’s a struggle to get people to open their eyes.”
Right you are, Katherine. But the struggle requires more than situation awareness.
As Thomas Paine wrote famously in his pamphlet American Crisis, published on December 19, 1776, when all seemed lost in the Revolutionary cause:
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
Winter will be upon us soon, as it was for the shrinking Patriot army under the command of General George Washington.
But less than a week after Paine’s rousing pamphlet spread through the ranks, those American soldiers scored an astonishing victory during a surprise attack against a garrison of Hessian mercenary-allies of Great Britain in the town of Trenton, New Jersey. That memorable event did not quite turn the tide against the British, but it did breathe new life and hope in Patriots throughout the former colonies.
I hope and pray that faithful, patriotic Americans today, beset by increasingly hostile, oppressive governing elites in Washington, DC, the states, and counties and towns throughout this land, will not “shrink from the service of [our] country.” This is a time to test our souls.
May we, all of us, rise up and resist–with every peaceful, nonviolent tactic we can devise–the tyranny that may soon crush us otherwise.
Very eloquently put, Fr.
Having said that, I cannot disabuse myself of the notion that the government will do something stupid or inflammatory to rouse ordinary people. The Atty Gen did something incredibly stupid yesterday with his opinion that ordinary American parents can be “domestic terrorists”.
In doing so, he woke up thousands of ordinary people as to the nefarious nature of the present regime. Worse, on a local basis, he caused the local functionaries to question their own allegiance to CRT/BLM/antifa/etc. That’s because they are the ones who have to enforce this nonsense.
Also, because they are on the local level, they are in contact with ordinary people and I dare say that even some of the most ideological ones have to question these directives when they find out that even local liberal friends of theirs are outraged.
This happened in Nazi Germany when strictures against German Jews were put in place but when it came time to enforcing them, individual gauleiters balked in several instances when they knew the law was going to be applied to a person they personally knew. Perhaps someone they were related to by marriage, or were veterans of the Great War.
Same thing regards the Soviet Union: directives regarding the destruction of certain churches were “mislaid” or “never received”.
Anyway, I’m in the weeds talking tactics. Thins like the above examples cause evil programs to be delayed and hopefully, by the resistance enough time to escape.
“If only five percent were Bolshevicks how did they overwhelm the 95 percent who were not? ”
Bolsheviks came later in a coup. The betrayal took place during the real revolution – in February, when the liberals replaced the monarchy.
Martin, FWIW, barely a third of the American colonists were in favor of secession/independence. When it came to the real fighting, only 3% were committed enough to risk spilling their blood in furtherance of that cause.
You are correct about the betrayal first coming from the liberals. No doubt.
As for the bulk of the Red Army during the civil war, the majority were being fed a lot of false promises that they would be taken care of by the Bolshies. You know, free housing, free medical care, free stuff. Plus there was envy: “Look at that baron over there, he lives on 10,000 acres while you have barely 1/2. He lives in a 20 room mansion while you live in a hovel.” Etc.
Yes, George, but those 3% were Americans! Booyah!
And in 2021 America, we Millennials hear that and think…”Wow. They had their very own hovels??” ??
Russian civil war 1917-1921. Mass executions at first, especially retired military. Deliberate hyperinflation. Etc etc
To be fair, Russia also ended up communist for 70 years because of the London and New York bankers who financed the Bolsheviks. Important to note that the core group of Russian Bolshies never amounted to more than 5% of the Russian population.
The Rockefeller family was pissed at Tsar Nicholas II for refusing to sell Russia’s oil reserves to them. In return, the wealthy Rockefellers where among those who financed the Bolshevik revolution. Tit for tat.
And Britain knew that their most significant threat in the wake of WW1 was a dominant Russia – who had by far the largest population and the most natural resources among all the European countries. Tsarist Russia was a huge threat to British dominance in Europe post-WW1. And Russia was industrializing rapidly. London bankers who financed the Bolshies helped to cut 20th-century Russia off at its feet.
In Europe at least, the ones who benefited most from a Tsarist Russia collapse were the British. Russia’s collapse enabled the British to continue to dominate European politics for most of the 20th century. And Russia’s collapse a hundred years ago enabled America to dominate world politics during the 20th century.
Generally, it seems that the same ones who were terrified of a dominant Russia 100 years ago are the same ones who are terrified of it today. One hundred years ago they were able to do something to prevent a dominant Russia. This time around, perhaps not.
Russia and other Orthodox countries succumbed to communism much as the New World was devastated by smallpox: they had no genetic (culturally speaking) resistance. Never forget, Marxism is a western ideology, a version of the Gnostic temptation latent in Western Christian civilization, as Voegelin described it in 1952. Starting with Peter I but accelerating in the 19th, much of Russia’s upper classes were increasingly alienated from their own people and civilization based on Orthodoxy; a similar pattern occurred to a somewhat lesser extent in other Orthodox countries. There’s a parallel to the Woke self-appointed pseudo-elites in America and their alienation from — and hatred of — the Deplorables.
“The Rockefeller family was pissed at Tsar Nicholas II for refusing to sell Russia’s oil reserves to them. In return, the wealthy Rockefellers where among those who financed the Bolshevik revolution. ”
Tsar was not removed from power by the Bolsheviks. They came later. The actual revolution was in February, similar to the color revolutions of our times.
I’m learning some new history here! In my history textbook, the Bolsheviks industrialized a backward and agricultural Russia, turned it into a military juggernaut, and in the end redrew Europe’s and the world’s borders in such a way that there wasn’t much left for Britain to do but watch. Of course, the final and most embarrassing blow came a few decades letter with the Suez Crisis, but I think it’s safe to say that after 1945 Britain became seriously diminished on the world stage. Doesn’t seem like the Rockefeller’s and Rothschild’s really thought that one through.
“Russia’s collapse enabled the British to continue to dominate European politics for most of the 20th century”
Soviet Russia was the main factor in dismantling the colonial system (based on racist principles) in which Britain, France and others ruled most of the world. This dismantling enabled former Third World countries for independent development, at first slow and with reversals, now rapidly accelerating.
True all that.
Which means that the moral of the story is that when planning to go into battle, “the enemy gets a vote”. The British and French did not think the fall of the Romanov dynasty through. Their bankers did get their short-term gains but their nations lost out in the end.
Serves ’em right.
Lina, We have all been seduced to one degree or another by the heresy of modernity, i e, “Every day in every way we are getting better and better.” Or “God ? We don’t need no stinking God! We can perfect ourselves.”
That is the mind of the World and we are inundated by it. We can hardly take a breath apart from it. Repentance always for all things giving glory to God is the only vaccine we need.
Later than most think, because we seem to be more at the death throes of Mystery Babylon, and thus the start of the Tribulation proper, with the roll out of the “vaccines” (depopulation and transhumanism gene therapy) and the vaccine/health/wellness passports, which seem closer to the Mark of the Beast everyday.
Democrats want to use 29 USC 666 (what a coincidence, just the year of coincidences) to fine companies up to $700,000 per non-injected employee:
https://seed307.bitchute.com/qsqOliWyhidn/8JCBPlrWblpR.mp4
There was a Romanov wedding in St. Petersburg today for the first time since the 1910s.
I think a lot hinges on whether the totalitarian Left decides it’s ok to use force to accomplish their objectives. Force, that is, along the lines of what we see going on in Australia, or similar to what Mao, Lenin, etc., did.
As it stands now, the Pelosi/Biden/Milley/Psaki etc. crowd still seem to find using force against their own people distasteful. They continue to use the pretense of “logical argument” or “trying to convince” – when in reality everyone knows that the time for that is long gone. Our society no longer believes in thoughtful discussions, free exchange of ideas. We no longer have the shared foundational beliefs or common worldview that makes a free exchange of ideas possible.
If/when the Left brings out overt force, I expect the move for national partition to move forward. Places like Washington DC, New England, coastal California, etc., will probably fold without much fight. Places like Texas or Oklahoma or most of the South won’t tolerate that sh!t without a fight.
The senior military brass is not completely captured. Yes, some career opportunists are, but not all. The enlisted ranks are full of Texans and Alabamans and the like. The only kids from San Francisco or Seattle or NYC who join the military are the less economically advantaged ones, who usually aren’t of white post-Protestant extraction and who don’t buy the garbage that the old white post-Christian boomers who run our culture are stuffing down our throats.
Partition is a real possibility I think. I’m thankful that God led me to Texas a while ago, where I intend to stay. The part of the country where I grew up will likely fold quickly. There, they bizarrely tend to admire old white harpie atheistic women (and their castrated men) who run things and are intent on running our country into the ground.
Man’s natural state is to live in smaller tribe-like communities. Maybe we’re seeing a slow return to that?
FTS, what you say about “old white harpie atheistic women” is interesting. I’ve just read an article about the witch trials by Z-man. (https://www.takimag.com/article/everyday-lunacy/print .)
The thesis is that because of the relative luxury we have lived in for almost two centuries, the insane ideas of “witches” have been transformed by spinsters and have taken hold as “feminism”. The early modern mini-Ice Age of Europe had a Darwinian impact on society, making it more congenial and collegial, otherwise death would have ramped up significantly.
One of the beneficial side-effects is that such harsh conditions made men interact with each other in a more trusting respect. That made European civilization, science and technology boom. Mainly because ordinary men did not have to fear being cuckolded by their neighbors. Europeans became a “high trust” society.
Because men could trust other men, they were able to select as brides the most desirable females (previously, homely women would have been preferable because at least they would not be desired by other men). This left a surplus of homely women who were driven to the margins of society, things like witches but not always. The majority of the homely women would leave no descendants and eventually they would be reduced to very insignificant numbers. (If they’re truly unattractive, they have a higher “mutational load” which means their physiognomy is a proxy for undesirable mutations.)
That said, their isolation made them immune to social convention; some practiced magic, others became abortionists, yet others became unofficial doctors. The witch trials began because of competition for resources and the desire to stamp out aberrant behavior. Such behavior is non-functional to society.
Now of course, witches have taken over Western societies.
Repeat after me: Hard times make strong men; strong men make good times; good times make weak men (that’s where we’re at); and weak men make hard times. (Rinse and repeat.)
This is the thesis that undergirds the idea of “Turnings”, that is to say, 80 year periods with roughly each phase constituting 20 years. If this is true, then we can say that WWII created hard men and these men created good times (the 50-70s). These good times created soft men (the soy-boys and the feminazis whom they idolize); that would be the 80s-2000s. The weak men created the hard time (2000s-2020s).
Looking at American history, these 80 year cycles ended in wars which were the capstones of these Turnings: cf 1790-1860 and then 1860-1940. 2020 is 80 years after 1940, which means we’re due for a major upheaval. And as I look around, I’m sure we can all see one.
Yes, George, exactly — what we are seeing now is Biological Leninism (the term was coined by Steve Sailer, I think). It’s amazingly accurate.
A coalition of people who would be on the fringes of any healthy, functional society — the old harpies who hate the Church and hate the family, those struggling with severe emotional problems (so-called “trans” folks, or those who’ve totally adopted same-sex-attraction identities as defining who they are (the militant GLTBQ crowd)), the race grifters who make money off of stirring up racial hatred (the Ibrahim Kendis, the Robin DiAngelos), and so on).
In any healthy society, these folks would appropriately be on the fringes, as they do need emotional therapy and support (and honestly a lot of nurturing love) in order to return to emotional balance, to be the folks whom God created them to be. They should *never* be in charge of anything. They should *never* be allowed to run anything in society or to get anywhere near controlling what our children see and learn.
But these days, instead of encouraging them toward therapy/emotional healing, those who benefit from Biological Leninism (the wealthy globalists/socialists/elitists who run the show (Pelosi, Clintons, Obamas, Soros, etc.))grab these people as they are and offer them legitimacy and validation. In return for legitimacy and validation, these folks on the fringes give eternal fidelity to the causes of Soros et al. and do their dirty work. Essentially, they become the wealthy globalists’ henchmen.
Like the crazy old ladies (and some men who do their bidding) who are running Australia’s health department, those who run our American CDC/NIH/Covid policy (the Fauci and Rochelle Walensky crowd), and who are running the State of Oregon into the ground.
Kate Brown (the current governor of Oregon) is probably one of the most prominent examples. She’s an angry older white lady who’s openly bisexual. In any healthy culture, she’d need intensive emotional therapy (she still does need that) and she should never be allowed to run anything. But according to modern Biological Leninism, she’s now governing an American state. Or rather, instead of running it, she’s running it into the ground. And we are supposed to call it “progress” because an angry, older, self-proclaimed “bisexual” woman is “governing” a state.
These kinds of folks are in positions of authority all over the Western post-Christian world. It’s all Biological Leninism. They uniformly despise the traditional Christian cultures that we see thriving in Hungary, Russia, Romania, Poland, etc., and that we have underground in the West (like we Orthodox Christians in America), because these Christian cultures (and we Orthodox Christian westerners who are paying attention (like you and Gail!)) can see right through them. They hate that. The only reason we still have a semblance of freedom in the West is that we are so overwhelmingly small here and are fly under the radar.
Lenin did the same thing with the proletariat 100 years ago – used them to do his narcissistic bidding. Soros/Clintons/Obamas et al. are now doing “la même chose” with folks who’d otherwise be on the fringes of society.
It certainly most likely won’t endure – just like Leninism never did – but they will continue to cause a heck of a lot of cultural damage until enough people see through their charade and stand up to it.
I encourage anyone interested about the phenomenon of Biological Leninism – and how western cultural elites are now using it in overdrive to maintain power – to read about it.
I know something about Marxism and its history. Flippant use of term “Leninism” makes me cringe.
. . . My father graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in Marxian Political Economy and always cringed when some Western pundit begins to throw around the terms Marxist or Marxist-Leninist without having the slightest clue of what it entails. According to him, Marxist dialectical materialism (with Lenin’s all-important contributions), is still the best method to understanding human history.
Dan
Leninism has a couple of meanings. One is that it is possible to start socialist revolution in a country where capitalism did not reach its maturity (a scandal to the other Marxists), and later to compensate this through his NEP (New Economic Policy based on liberalized market and trade).
Stalin abandoned NEP in favor of forced rapid industrialization, to prepare for the coming war. Much later China under Deng returned to this Lenin’s idea with resounding success.
Another Lenin’s contribution was in philosophy when he rejected subjective idealism in favor of metaphysical and epistemological realism (“Materialism and Empirio-criticism”)
Dan, I’m gonna have to pass on that whole “dialect” thing. That included a lot of violence.
Just sounds like “revolt of the untermenschen” to me.
George “2020 is 80 years after 1940, which means we’re due for a major upheaval. ”
In our times, when the world is interconnected and major powers have nukes, open war is becoming impossible. It takes different forms – economic, technological, informational etc … This “upheaval” is already going for at least a few years.
I don’t disagree. In fact, Alex Jones has beaten us to the punch: according to him we’re in an “info war”.
Alex Jones is always right in the end.
George,
Bottom line: do you feel there’s anything worth fighting for in the political arena right now? Is there anyone coming up who might actually turn the leftist tide? DeSantis? Anyone? Or is it not even worth voting considering they will likely just keep stealing elections anyway?
Seraphim, yes, of course fight we must. But fight in a targeted fashion.
First on the local level. Do things like call out the nonsensical ideas of liberals in your own locality. Run for the school board, precinct captain,, etc. But, in doing so, don’t be afraid of compromise but let it be known that there is/are red lines you won’t cross. If it means being an A$$hole, do it. If they fight, make it as expensive for them as possible. Think of the Alamo –they all died there but they bought Sam Houston some time so he was able to win a decisive victory on San Jacinto Day.
DeSantis is like this on a larger scale. They call him every name in the book and yet he blithely ignores them. Having said that, regarding “allies” like DeWine of Ohio, Codrianu’s advice is best. Ideally, a MAGA 3rd party would be ideal right now because it would make the Country-Clubbers sweat. It may still come to that, btw.
Thousands of little victories like this make their lives miserable and cause them to lose big battles down the road.
“yes, of course fight we must. But fight in a targeted fashion.”
In global Jonestown, you don’t need to overthrow the cult to win, just refuse to take the “vaccines” and hide.
Very well thought out there, Myst.
I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that Americans are driven by their 401ks. Nobody is going to ANYTHING if it means risking their retirement accounts. Think about what that means. As long as out 401ks are doing well, we are just going to max out at being keyboard warriors.
We have become lukewarm, all of us
Apart from voting or becoming precinct chairmen, there is very little that most people can do short of outright insurrection. That is why the present period from now until at least January of 2023, but really until January of 2025, is going to seem like an eternity. The Dems are going to dig themselves new and deeper holes and we’re all just forced to witness the madness. And madness it is. The Dems dragged us down the rabbit hole in March, 2020 when the Covid Hoax first took hold. From there it’s been incessant national hysteria.
Now there is a battle of sorts being waged against them on two fronts: first, the conventional conservatives like McConnell; second, Trumpistas like Paul, Cruz, Cotton, etc. But that largely amounts to counting coup and sabotage given Democratic control of Congress and the White House.
The good news is that if you live in a red state, especially one where the Second Amendment is taken quite seriously, it may not affect you that much. Yes, we watch with contempt as events unfold in the Biden Regime. It reminds me of the Carter years, actually – mind numbing contempt. But most people seem fairly sane here, though some politicians and academics are out there.
So pay no attention when people say “Biden is done.” or “It’s over.” Absent a revolution, we are stuck with a Democrat in the White House until January 2025, and probably a Democratic Congress until at least January 2023. Bear in mind, you need 67 senators to remove a sitting president.
America has become a wilderness, a jungle, subject only to the jungle’s law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg
By the way, it seems that some readers of this site have wondered who “Brian” is. All I know is that he is not me. I have never commented here as simply “Brian.”
Since there are many Brians, even many Orthodox Brians these days, I would suggest that they all respect the others and let us know which Brian they are when commenting. Thank you.
Repeat after me: “It all makes sense if you know that we are ruled by traitors”.
https://stream.org/columnist-at-the-times-of-london-the-2020-election-was-stolen/
Russian civil war 1917-1921. Mass executions at first, especially retired military. Deliberate hyperinflation. Etc etc
The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma has not come with “startling suddenness”. It actually began as soon as George Washington left office, if not before. That Dogma is, in fact, built on an Enlightenment foundation which at best is a Christian heresy at worst, as it often is, a demonic attack on all things Christian. Succinctly: that humans are capable of not only governing ourselves but improving ourselves, saving ourselves without God–at least our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ
The whole experiment has been an utopian fantasy. Mr. Jatras statement is not only wholly wrong it is deeply naive as it gives legitimacy to the heresy and his own unconscious participation in it– just like most of us.
Henry Adams wrote his work on the degradation, the title of which is above, in 1919 (available for free download on Google Books). The date is significant because it is within the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, arguably the most evil man to hold the office. In my opinion he and his administration destroyed any semblance of Constitutional government over a hundred years ago. Everybody bought it.
I am reading a fascinating book, “A Conservative History of the American Left” by Daniel J. Flynn. He lays out the amoral and often psychotic foundation of most social movements in U.S. history and details just how heretical the foundations of our politics has been. Although he does not expose the heresy intentionally.
The U.S Constitution has always been lipstick on a pig. We are just now seeing how voracious the pig is.
There is no salvation or hope of the good triumphing under the U. S. Constitution and never has been. I used to believe that.
Modernity is the disease. It is only cured through the Blood of Christ and our submission to His mercy.
Matthew 3:2. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
His mercy endures forever.
As to the eschaton, I find the best advice in Hamlet: ” If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it is not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.”
Rejoice for all things, giving honor and thanksgiving to God.
The latest along the lines of why the radicals always win over the moderates:
https://www.takimag.com/article/the-seeds-of-moderate-defeat/
Yes. Another word for it is “commitment”. It’s like ham and eggs. The hen that lays the eggs is involved; the pig’s committed.
In fact the south is kicking rear end and the blue coastal areas ae losing thousands of jobs to the south. Take Ford Motor company doing 4 plants in Kentucky and TN. Its cheaper to manufacture things in the south. As for professional obs, New York City, New Jersey, Boston, Seattle, California have lost lots of tech jobs and finances jobs to Texas and parts oof the south. New Jersey lost a tech company to Indianapolis Indians. There is a guy in Texas, Joseph Vranich that mentions all the companies leaving California, and somewhat New York. San Diego lost a naval company to Gulfport Mississippi. Orange County California lost an environmental consulting firm to Little Rock Arkansas, for both examples. San Francisco lost the headquarters of a furnishing apartment complex to Birmingham Alabama. In fact its more likely that rural Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta will disappear as more areas in West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisanna, and Mississippi will develop.
In fact instead of the federalist wring about Mississippi picking up companies by streamlining their taxes and regulation. Yes, old Miss is not modern republicans on taxes and regulation, the federalist writes about poverty in rural Maine. In a state that went 8 percent for Biden except the rural part where Trump got one vote doesn’t mention that Maine unlike Indiana or Texas has more anti-business laws on the books which keep it poor. So, you don’t read about company A going to Maine but you do read about company b going to either Indiana or Texas.
There is an old saying that “Everything I needed to know about life I learned from Star Trek.” This, of course, is folly. Star Trek was a symptom of cutting edge Establishment Liberalism in the mid-late 1960’s. Gene Rodenberry was an atheist and believed that religion was a dwindling relic. That’s why humans are not portrayed as having any religion in the future.
In any case, there is something to be learned from it about the dominant culture. Consider this episode about the Organians.
There are different layers to unwrap on this onion. Ostensibly, they are highly evolved sentient beings “as far above us as we are above the amoeba.” There is truth mixed with lie at work in this episode.
There is no reason to assume that a much more highly evolved being would be pacifistic, to start out with. This is foreign to nature and only occurs as a product of ideology – the unnatural hyperfocus on a particular emotional obsession. And the author believes that this higher evolution gives them the right to intervene universally. Sounds a lot like globalists, no?
On the other hand, they are portrayed as creatures apparently consisting of little else besides pure thought and energy. This is a very Orthodox arrangement, though employed for atheistic purposes. One could argue that the entire purpose of hesychasm – human life in fact – is to make man as “Organian” as possible.
However, heretics (in this case atheists, the writers) introduce the Marcionite preoccupation with non-violence. This is early liberal white guilt – the same phenomenon that has metastasized into woke-ism. At some point in the 1960’s the dominant party line moved from Kennedy, “bear any burden” to anti-war, anti-nuke pseudo-pacifism. But it is only a pseudo-awakening. It’s Achilles heel of self loathing is its main flaw.
And this brings us to the subject of the distortion of the icon of Christ, to eradicate Christos Nika. It is a long term project of modern liberalism to emasculate and declaw the Lion of Judah. Yet God Himself is described in scripture as a “Warrior” with “wrath” who sends His angels to fight above and alongside the armies of Israel, new or old.
To isolate the “sword” brought by Christ to combat the Romans – cooperation and love – and turn it into the Cross itself is heretical. God is love, no doubt. God is many things. He is also a Consuming Fire. Man does not live by “bread” alone but by every “word” of God. Christ did not conquer the Romans by His crucifixion. He conquered sin and death itself.
The episode’s writer presupposes cowardice in the face of suffering and death. Suffering is part of life and death is the door to paradise. Kirk’s reaction would be unlikely. A federation is a business and war can interfere with commerce. So long as the terms of the peace were agreeable (and the devil is in the details, details which idealistic atheists neglect), an imposed peace would be preferable. A captain would not act so impassioned given the circumstance.
The virtue signaling of the Organians itself is somewhat insufferable. The world is fallen. We are born without a choice into a violent world where pacifism is masochistic. No one should be expected to choose it except as a considered tactic in a no win situation unless one is set apart from society, as a monastic.
Proverbs 25:22 – If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
Romans 12:19-20 – Beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
You will notice a) this is not new teaching but present in the Old Testament as well, and b) it is a tactic, not justice (hence “coals of fire”), c) the monopoly on violence of the central authority is asserted in the quote “vengeance is mine.”. This is a direct reference to the duty to obey earthly authorities as having been given the sword by God. In old Israel, vengeance was reserved for the state as the representative of God, not for private purposes.
But the idea that evolution to a higher spiritual plane involves the condemnation of violence is ludicrous in light of what we know about the God of Israel. We may attain to theosis, but it won’t be by singing “Kumbaya’.
Ironically, the Klingons perhaps have the most healthy reaction. They are having none of the virtue signaling. They accept the situation stoically, probably calculating benefits. And they are quite aware, as the Klingon captain’s last line conveys, that the world is still fallen and so aggressiveness is ever necessary, regardless of such a circumstance, which he treats like an unfavorable change in the weather.
Misha: ‘One could argue that the entire purpose of hesychasm –
human life in fact – is to make man as “Organian” as possible’
…whereas the entire thrust of ‘modernist/liberal’ thinking
is to make man as “orgasmic” as possible
and hence unable to think.
Something that we don’t see explicitly focused on, at least in writing, is the effect of the spectacle of the riots last year. It only takes one side to start tribal warfare. It takes all sides to peacefully coexist. The riots were seen by many of us as a burning of the social contract by the commies and black nationalists.
That, I think, explains the actual red wave in November and the liberal need for The Steal. I don’t know if 2022-23 will be hairy, but I’d bet money that 2024-25 will be worse than ’20. For better or worse, Christian whites are forming a distinct identity as a defensive reaction and because they see that if they fail to dominate, it all goes to hell under weak liberal “leadership”. One can call this white supremacy if one wishes. That’s a pejorative term but, strictly speaking, it’s not that far from the mark. However, the commie leadership is also white and there are blacks among the anti-comm resistance, so there you go.
I prefer Christian Nationalist myself as being most descriptive of an impulse that stretches from here across Eurasia. If it’s tribal warfare of commies and BLM against Christian whites, why would we be ashamed of taking up for ourselves? Tagging us as the klan may make political, rhetorical sense but be careful what you wish for.
I like the term “Christian Nationalist”. It has a certain flair to it.
Thanks.
“Populism” just doesn’t do it for me. While part of me likes the image of “peasants with pitchforks” that “populism” connotes, it seems to be a not so subtle way of disparaging the movement as one of the uneducated and unwashed – in short, a kind of elitist slur. You see this in the adoption by some of the title “deplorables” as a badge of honor. This diminishes the substance of what is being asserted to a trendy “outlaw” mentality.
You may be observing the infighting within the Democratic Party as I am with amusement. It seems that the commie-now wing of the party want to hold the main “infrastructure bill”, aka the smaller boondoggle, hostage to the big 3.5/7 trillion dollar full socialism bill which it seems has been whittled down through accounting gimmicks to around 2 trillion dollars. I.e., the commie-wing won’t vote for the smaller bill until a bigger bill is passed – the two are “linked”.
Right now, this keeps any of it from getting done, which is great. However, this past week Granny Boxwine pulled out all stops to get the commie-now radical wing to move and failed. So it’s 6-5 and you pick em whether it gets done or not. None of it makes ChiComm Joe look good though.
Now my point recounting this is something I said back during the Democratic primary fights. I was rooting for a formal split in the Democratic Party between the liberals (gradual socialists) and the “progressives’ (commie-now) wing. A formal split might doom them both to third party status at the national level.
What you are seeing now is the flip side of that possibility: This is what it looks like if you have two mutually irreconcilable philosophies within the same party where both are significantly strong. Would they be worse off if they split? Temporarily, perhaps. The liberal wing is viable in America, the commie-now wing is only viable in the bluest regions. So it would be a purge of “progressives” and after some period of time the liberals would recover since they were the only viable left wing party.
However, “saving the marriage” may be the worst thing they can do for the party as a whole. All, or most all, of the policy failure that you see manifesting in the Biden Regime are the product of appeasement of the commie-now wing. Even the Afghan exit was affected by it, though I’m still convinced it was primarily driven by Biden’s obsession with 9/11 optics and his resignation to another Saigon exit as somehow noble.
All the rest of the craziness is coming from the Bernie wing. What this results in is a lose-lose scenario for the Democrats. Biden holds them together and passes something, they continue to drag him down. They split and nothing gets done, they continue to drag him down.
The progressives cannot read a political map or, if they can, they believe in magic.
Ain’t no such magic.
The liberal side is looking at an oncoming Red Wave/Trumpian Revolution and believes that their respective philosophy may be the only way to avoid it or mitigate it as it arrives. On the progressive side are hard core ideologues who are, at heart, kamikazes because that philosophy has gotten them where they are today. Dead enders fear mediocrity more than defeat and prefer to go out in a blaze of glory if success eludes them. They believe that only through the suicidal sacrifice of many aspirants do the few get through that actually accomplish the revolution in a capitalist environment.
So it’s a beautiful picture, all in all. I will refrain from predictions since, contrary to my estimations, the Democrats have remained ostensibly united thus far. This is the best political environment they could obtain (control of executive and legislative branches) by a treasonous coup and they are still at each others throats.
The truly lovely thing is that this is all happening under a Democratic pseudo presidency and that right up until Trump, or whomever he endorses, gets sworn in in January, 2025, it will be a Democratic pseudo presidency; i.e., the Dems have no lighting rod against which to unite. Even when the Republicans take over both houses of Congress in 2023, the Democrats will still have no one to blame for the falling sky but each other.
It may be that the only way to break the two party, Uniparty stranglehold on the American body politic is for the Dems to self destruct in the ugliest way possible rather than simply suffering another routine defeat.
Greetings from Idaho! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the knowledge you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, great blog!
Is it really later than we think?
Well, as the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month approaches (when the guns fell silent in The War To End All Wars) and the war drums are beating again
over Iran, Taiwan and the Donbass, here are the three saddest songs I know:
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda written by Eric Bogle, sung by Liam Clancy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg
No Man’s Land written and sung by Eric Bogle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-38PB_5ozc
and from the disaster of Flodden Field four centuries earlier:
The Flowers Of The Forest sung by Isla St Clair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-38PB_5ozc