Month: January 2023

Some Actual Political Power Exercised

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One of my very old friends sent me this interview of Matthew B Crawford whom I was not familiar with.  The discussion was about the various aspects and causes for our current imprisonment by a managerial state that uses endless states of emergency to control us.

When the interviewer Freddie Sayers concluded the discussion by asking whether individual people should seize more control over their own lives, Crawford replied, “I do think it’s one by one from the bottom up, is how social change happens.  But also, it is political, because I mean you don’t have the option of disengaging from this stuff.  You’ve got an HR department at your work or your kid’s in school that again, have this sort of militancy to them.  So, I think the response, by way of defending the space of normal human activity, normal human life and ownership over the things that are most meaningful to us.  There has to be I think, some actual political power exercised in reining in these sort of Messianic transformative social engineering initiatives.”

And that sounds right.  Individually we can try to resist, get on with our own lives and try to move in our own direction.  But the forces of coercion that are arrayed against us are more than daunting.  They’re implacable.  So, unless a power center immune to this coercion creates an oasis of freedom in the current desert then it doesn’t seem possible for us to live normal lives.

So that seems to be what era we now live in.  We’re like the Jews of the 1st century AD waiting for the Messiah.  Will it be Trump, DeSantis, Gaetz or no one?  Will it be a president or a governor or something completely unexpected?  Maybe it’ll be a holy man who begins a religious revival.  Or maybe it’ll be a labor leader who declares a general strike and shuts the country down.

It’s like the flame of freedom is being snuffed out across the country and someone has to build a shielded fireplace to protect it and allow it to warm the inhabitants.  Then it can be a template for the next neighbor to copy.  I like to think that Ron DeSantis might be that champion down in Florida.  Maybe he’ll strengthen his state to the point that the feds finally give up trying to ruin it.  That would take a remarkable effort to face them down.  Because we know that the Justice Department would come after him hammer and tongs.  I wouldn’t doubt that they’d come after him personally with trumped up criminal charges and try to imprison him.  But if he won, that might be a breaking point.

But whoever steps forward, this is probably our last chance for at least a generation.  The Millennials and the Zoomers are pretty much locked down by the safety culture.  The Boomers are too old and Gen X is getting up there too.  If it doesn’t happen soon, we’ll have that Great Reset that Dementia Joe spouts on about.  We’ll have electric cars without electricity.  Homes without heat.  Cricket tacos for dinner and jobs at Uber and Amazon.  And childless forty-year-old girl bosses cohabiting with their cats and goldfish while their male counterparts are playing video games and waiting for euthanasia.

“There has to be I think, some actual political power exercised in reining in these sort of Messianic transformative social engineering initiatives.”  Very true Mr. Crawford.  But who?

 

Guest Contributor – pigpen51 – 16JAN2023 – Reply to What’s Wrong With Modern Churches

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Here’s a Post About What’s Wrong with Modern Churches

I never knew that Bear Grylls was a man of faith. But it seems like he is not only a man of faith, but a wise man, as well. Myself, I have seen this same thing, for a very long time.
I attended Bible College in the early 1980’s, thinking that I might become a Baptist Pastor. Due to family circumstances, I was only able to attend for a year, but I learned much in that year. Not only knowledge about the Bible, but about Christians and the direction of the Church itself.
I could see even back then that there was a movement, not hidden, to try and move the conservative churches to become more liberal, and to turn to what I call a Social Gospel, instead of the Gospel of Truth. They were teaching Pastoral Candidates to question everything, to seek new and different interpretations of the Bible. To not believe the men like Spurgeon or Tozer, but to question them and to seek to find the places where they were wrong.
I always felt like a Church was supposed to be more of a hospital, for wounded Christians, than a Museum where so called ” Good Christians” came every Sunday to show how spiritual they are. And to listen to their pastors preach smooth words that put them at ease, words of comfort that they were just fine, and God loved them.
Well, God does indeed love them, especially if they are believers. Their sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that they are walking in the light.
I found myself saved at an early age, perhaps 9 or 10. But I never knew that there was anything else required of me. Fortunately there was a real change in my heart and my life, and it was apparent that I had something different in my life. And it stayed with me all of my life. But at the age of 20, God showed me that there was more expected of me. I was in a serious car accident where it was like He shook me and said ” wake up, it is time for you to get to work.” So I got involved in the Church, and it was obvious that I was a Bible scholar, in that I understood how it was meant to be understood, and was able to see it as a whole, when so many failed to “get it.”
The problem I found was that Baptists failed to understand a lot of the things that I found in the Bible. Oh, they would acknowledge them, but then make excuses that didn’t hold water. Things about church discipline, and how salvation is by faith alone, but they then live like it is by works. To the place where a Baptist Pastor I knew would not leave a bottle of coke on his kitchen table, in case someone drove by and saw it and thought it was a beer bottle, and it made them stumble.
But I guess the biggest thing that drove me away from the Baptist church, but really it could have been just about any of the denominations of today, was their lack of genuine love for each other. They of course, made a big show of love, saying the right words, and telling each other that they will pray for them. But as you no doubt have seen, Christians are the only group that shoots their wounded. And if that wounded Christian is wounded so that the public is aware of it, all the better. One of those issues that I am thinking of is a young lady getting pregnant out of wedlock. Following the scriptures, it should be handled privately, and not be brought before the church, if the young lady understands that she made a mistake, and repents of it. The Baptist church, however, requires that lady to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin.
Looking at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she came to be pregnant, and then Joseph who was called a just man, and not wanting to make Mary a public spectacle, but wanting to put her away privately, it seems like the whole public confession is totally against the teaching of the New Testament, and punitive at that.
I don’t see how a young lady, of 16-19 years old, pregnant out of wedlock, can feel loved if forced to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin. It is a wonder that they don’t require her to wear the letter A on her clothing. This at a time when a young woman needs love and support from older women and families the most, they withdraw it.
Now we see churches trying to change, and to make the social gospel the big thing. Big production values, with rock bands and power point presentations, short films, etc. it is a wonder that they have any room for God in the building. And I think that is the feeling that young people get, and why they are seen to be leaving churches in droves. I hope that it turns around, but for that to happen, one thing will need to happen, and that is that God will have to be invited back into the building, and the church will need to begin it’s journey back into a hospital for the hurting, a refuge for the sick, and a shelter for those in a storm. I hope that it is not too late, because as the Church goes, so goes the nation.

H/T to Mike Simonelli Documenting Another Case of Justified Deadly Force

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Justified Deadly Force

Mike’s beat is documenting the absurd charges hurled at police whenever they are compelled to use deadly force in the line of duty.  In this case a young man, under the influence of what will probably turn out to be some psychotropic drug, smashed through a window onto the street, half dressed in the New England winter, brandishing a machete.

He was followed by the police for five blocks who begged him to drop his weapon.  When he turned on the police they first attempted to stop him with a non-lethal “sponge round” but when he charged one of the officers he shot the armed man several times with his service weapon, killing him.

So that seems pretty straightforward.  But the assailant was Bangladeshi and the incident took place in Cambridge Massachusetts, the home of Harvard University and most of the craziest people in New England.  I’ll quote from Mike’s article:

“Activist and Cambridge City Councillor Quinton Y. Zondervan tweeted, “We must reject the racist system of policing that is failing our young people,” likening the shooting to “the kind of racist, senseless killing that we read about in places like Ferguson.”

Such allegations have contributed to protests, calls for change, and local student newspaper The Harvard Crimson to write, “the shooting of Faisal, a Bangladeshi American, has spiked concerns of racism, Islamophobia, and police brutality throughout Cambridge.””

After discussing the inaccuracy of these characterizations of the police action and the actual record of the Cambridge Police Department over the last quarter century, Mike concludes as follows:

“When elected officials irresponsibly portray police as racist murderers, there are serious consequences. Besides these violent attacks upon the police, the lies have led to drastic changes in the criminal-justice system resulting in increased victimization of our citizens.

If Americans want serious leaders who support the rule of law and don’t act stupidly, they need to start voting smartly.”

In that last sentence Mike is parodying what Barack Obama said back in 2009 when he criticized the Cambridge Police Department as “acting stupidly” for arresting a black Harvard professor who was a buddy of his when he broke the law.  And of course all of this break down of law and order began when Obama’s Justice Department started using lawfare to attack the police departments of America’s cities and towns.

So aother day, another slander against police officers protecting the public from madmen running wild.

Justified Deadly Force

Michael Anton, Paul Gottfried and the Z-Man – A Fractured Spectrum on the Right

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I have been an advocate of dialog on the Right.  And recently there has been quite a bit of it.  And now I think I can see the present limits of what can be achieved by dialog.  Based on what I have seen I would say that at the point on the Dissident Right where Civic Nationalism starts to be viewed as anathema, then from there on, common ground can no longer exist with the more mainstream right.  The level of hostility is too extreme to allow for civility or even meaningful communication.

So be it.  But that still leaves plenty of latitude for dialog.  After all, the Z-Man and Paul Gottfried have several times shared the stage on various podcasts and they have been extremely cordial.  And Gottfried and Anton have debated on the pages of various right-wing publications with clearly evident collegial respect and politeness.  So, there is a bridge across the chasm but it is more of a shuttle that on its own can visit the two sides.

I can see the point of view of both these sides.  But I will say I have more sympathy for Anton because he has extended himself to try to communicate across the divide in a friendly manner.  The Z-Man was far from friendly.  In fact, he was pointedly hostile and rude.  And maybe that’s the requirement of the position he has staked out.  He has readers who exceed him in their anger toward any moderate figure or group in America.  Maybe politeness toward someone like Anton is a disqualifying act.  But maybe I’m wrong about that.  Maybe he truly feels that Anton is part of the enemy he faces.  And that is every man’s prerogative; to select his own friends and enemies.  But I give the moral high ground to Anton.  He wasn’t demanding any concessions, only extending an olive branch or a flag of truce for a parley.

Almost equally I think I know why the Dissident Right resents the Civic Nationalists.  They see them as the descendants of the mainstream conservatives who allowed themselves to be led along by the Buckleyites and the Neo-Conservatives and never did anything to prevent the takeover of the country by the Left.  They see the egalitarianism of the Civic Nationalists as the stepping stone to all the evils we see today; the LGBTQ madness and the destruction of personal freedoms in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.  And there’s some truth in that.  In fact, I feel I was one of the pawns who believed in men like George Bush Jr. and his endless wars that accomplished nothing but killing Americans.

I see myself as someone who sees both sides of this divide.  But even though I have sympathy for the dissidents I think Anton’s side is where there may be a chance to take constructive action.  Someone like Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis will reach out to a Michael Anton or a JD Vance because they are interested in practical steps that can actually be accomplished.  Anton has reached out to people on the fringes of the Right like Curtis Yarvin and BAP in order to try to understand their point of view.  And while his viewpoint is still quite different from any of these people he is at least engaging in dialog.  And if nothing else it allows for some measure of coordination on practical things like supporting political candidates and networking.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at how this contact between two worlds ended up.  But I am a little disappointed.  I wasn’t hoping for rapprochement but some kind of dialog and détente with a little glasnost thrown in for good measure.  Oh well.

But something was learned and nowadays that’s the first step to constructive actions.  Apparently, it’s not yet time for the opposite ends of the Right to talk to each other.  Whatever coordination gets done it will not include the Dissident Right.  At least not yet.