Tag: Thriving in the Era of the Woke Revolt

28JUN2023 – Avoiding the Pitfalls

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One thing that is certain.  It’s more than high time we stop making believe that we will restore things back to normalcy in America anytime soon.  We will not be living in a country where a working majority of the voters want life to be like it was in the 1950s or even the 1980s.  Those attitudes and ways of life have been replaced by social values and practices such as same sex marriage, affirmative action and feminism.  If, someday, a reaction to these things came about then maybe we could return to a time where we all could complacently trust in the public schools and the federal government to perform their roles in providing us with the services that we expect.  But as Dorothy famously stated, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”  So, let’s move on.

Okay, glass half full.  Going forward we get to decide how we deal with Big Brother.  So, the government is working against you.  Take that as a given.  Also, a given, the current state of government surveillance is technically quite impressive.  They have access to everything you write and even a lot of what you say and, heaven help us, they can even figure out a lot of what you think.  So that’s bad.  But on the good side, they’re mostly not that bright.  So, if you don’t hurl yourself into every pit trap and snare that they’ve very clearly set up for you it should be relatively simple to avoid being dragged off to the gulag, for the most part.

And that’s great news!  There are all kinds of great things that have been created here in the United States.  Enjoying a more or less first world infrastructure and economy is a major advantage.  And North America is a majestic place.  The only trick is to avoid the Leftists that infest it and make life horrific.  So, that’s what we need to do.  You need to organize your life to avoid the institutions and limitations that the Left has put in place.  First and foremost, you have to protect your children from the school system.  And that’s a big effort.  Private school is very expensive and homeschooling is equally difficult for most people.  Another choice is moving to a jurisdiction that has school choice or somehow still has a non-leftist school environment.  But it is totally necessary to address.  And you have to educate your children about the realities of life in the new America.  You have to give them “the talk.”

What about woke corporations?  How do you avoid working for them?  Well, maybe you can.  Tradesmen don’t have to worry about this.  They can be self-employed or work for small businesses that fly under the woke radar.  And then there is the tactic of working clandestinely inside of a woke corporation without exposing your true colors.  Admittedly that is a risky plan and it could backfire.   After all things could become very difficult with respect to the woke environment especially if you get into the higher echelons and your personal life might come in contact with the crazier types where you work.  You might become exposed as a normal person and that could lead to you being expelled from “the body.”  The financial fallout from something like that could be catastrophic, especially if you have kids in college and other very expensive commitments.  So, working for a woke corporations is a very tricky proposition for people on the Right.

And then there’s the question of where you live.  Ideally you live in a scarlet Red State and far, far away from any city awash in crime.  Of course, for some of us this is extremely difficult because of personal and family circumstances.  If you don’t have the luxury of relocating then once again, you’ll have to do the best you can to minimizing the danger of living in a lawless region.  At the very least live as far as you can from these danger zones by putting a long commute between where you have to work and where your family lives.

And finally, one of the most important considerations for living successfully inside of occupied territory is locating and cultivating the company of like-minded people as your friends and associates.  And this means actual neighbors and also people in cyberspace.  Both are important and both provide an aspect of support that will make life more rewarding.

So instead of waiting for the glorious revolution when the Leftists will be perp walked on their way to Gitmo start living in the here and now.  Take the reasonable precautions and develop your environment regardless of whether you’re in rural Florida or San Francisco, California.  Now maybe finding another country to live in, like Hungary might seem like a better solution.  Personally, I’m evaluating that option myself.  But that’s an enormous change and almost no one is ready to go that far.  Yet.

But definitely don’t let the horror of the Left destroy your life.  Think rationally about their areas of control and how to circumvent their influence.  I think you’ll find there are ways to endure and even thrive in this brave new world.

Learning From Your Mistakes

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What is the mission?  So that’s the first mistake.  When I was young, I was told by everyone that being an American meant that I could be sure that I was living in the land of opportunity and all I had to do was work hard and follow my dreams.  And to some extent it proved to be true.  What they didn’t say was that this was a temporary situation and my children and grandchildren would be out of luck.  Lesson learned.  Opportunities are as you find them.  Just because a college has a course in classical languages does not mean there are paying jobs for people who take those classes.  Or in English Literature, or Art History or Gender Studies for that matter.  There may not even be jobs for engineers or accountants.  It’s strictly up to you to figure out what people will pay for.  And that’s part of the mission.  Because the mission is to thrive.  It’s not some automatic thing.  You are constantly figuring out the changing rules and playing field that is life in 21st century America.

How about safety?  But America is the safest place in the world.  We have safe water, safe air, safe food, safe medicines, safe cars and safe roads.  There’s the EPA, the FDA, OSHA, the DOT, you name it.  We’ve got local law enforcement, the FBI, NSA, CIA and another dozen alphabet soup agencies keeping us safe from bad guys foreign and domestic.  And yet crime, property and violent, are skyrocketing.  To a large extent you have been thrown back on your own resources to avoid becoming the victim of accidents and attacks.  Now you even have to consider whether the banks you keep your money in are safe from mismanagement and malfeasance.  All of this is on you now.  Where you live, where and how you travel and what institutions you interact with and trust, you must carefully decide these things and base those decisions on accurate evaluations of the way things actually are, not what they’re alleged to be by the government or the press.

And then there’s the federal government.  The old joke was that the scariest words an American could hear were “I’m from the federal government and I’m here to help.”  Well, they don’t pretend any longer that they want to help.  If the feds come looking for you, they’re probably going to bust down your front door and perp walk you to their gulag.  The government has made it their sworn duty to separate you from your constitutional rights and as much of your money and possessions as they possibly can.  Avoiding the malevolent influence and attention of the feds may now be the number one priority of people who hope to thrive.

But the picture isn’t all doom and gloom.  There are still lots of good people and opportunities to live a meaningful and happy life.  What it takes is a mindset that accepts that life isn’t a cakewalk and that the government isn’t your friend.  You must decide how you will navigate the hazards of our society and pass this knowledge along to your children.

If you are realistic and aware of the pitfalls that have been planted in our landscape then you will have a better than even chance of avoiding them and living a rich and productive life.

But for those who either can’t or won’t heed the danger signals and instead blunder through the minefield that is today’s America, there is the high probability that you will become one of the cautionary tales that litter our society.

Be smart, stay safe, thrive.

Another Discussion on Living in a Banana Republic

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Recent events have provided clear evidence that we no longer live in a representative democracy but rather in a bureaucratic oligarchy.  Some people have dubbed this the “managerial state.”  They control the executive branch agencies and control the real power that runs this country.  And not even an elected president can control them.  A close affiliation of Department of Justice personnel and Democrat appointed judges have the power to destroy anyone they want to.  That even includes a former President of the United States of America who is also a highly popular candidate for the upcoming election to that same office.

Now as distressing as this is, we gain nothing by continuing to shriek at the skies about this being the case.  Practically everyone now knows this.  Sounding the alarm no longer serves a purpose, or at least only a minimal purpose.

But what is purposeful is identifying new ways to live in this changed environment.  So, what is the mission?  Well, basically to maximize your quality of life within this regime and provide solidarity for others like you.  One thing it doesn’t include is providing the regime with an excuse for locking you up in a gulag.  The example of the January 6th protestors is a template of what not to do.  And the first thing to pay attention is where it was done.  Washington DC is literally the in belly of the beast.  In that jurisdiction the chance of a conservative protestor getting equal treatment under the law is nonexistent.  In fact, chances are most of the leaders of the protest were FBI agents leading the lambs to slaughter.

In general, trying to fight against the federal government in a blue state is suicidal.  But that still leaves plenty of leeway for constructive action.  There are many places in this country where conservative legislatures and governors are attempting to hold the line against the madness that Biden inflicts on us every day.  These are the places to flock to.  But even in these enclaves of freedom it’s wise to look at what you can do to reinforce your quality of life.

All the usual warnings about protecting your family from the public schools and selecting a career that eschews the woke corporations and the professions like law and medicine that have been hopelessly captured by the Left apply of course.  These things almost go without saying.  But don’t neglect them.  They have an enormous impact on your life.

But just as important is attending to the social aspects of your life.  “Man does not live by bread alone.”  And work isn’t all there is.  Cultivate a network of like-minded friends in your community.  Spend time with them and their families.  Find out who is reliable and who is not.  Be helpful to them and in this way build up a support system and a community of people you can trust and who trust you.  Hopefully some of these people will be your friends and maybe their children will be your children’s friends.

In a way we have to form communities within communities.  All of the normal social avenues; fraternal orders, church societies, even hobbies have been colonized by the Left and made unwholesome.  We have no choice but to start anew with ourselves as the only standard by which to select membership.  But at the same time, we also get to provide the rules and the content of the associations.  Maybe you’re a gun nut and enjoy going down to the range once a month.  Well, then that tells you what activity you’ll center your social club around.  Or maybe you enjoy a weekly poker night out with the boys.  Well, what’s better than that for camaraderie?

You might be asking what this has to do with being part of the resistance.  The answer is simple.  We’re the party without power.  We’re not going to win back this country anytime soon.  If we’re not going to just give up, we have to have a way to preserve our culture and also maintain morale.  To do that we need to create a network of people like us to provide the social cohesion that will keep our culture alive.  That’s why forming a community is crucial.  Without it we will become isolated, alienated and simply disappear.

Living a Good Life in a Dystopian Future

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Why did millions of immigrants come to America in its first hundred or so years as a nation?  Opportunity.  And that includes both economic opportunity and the opportunity to enjoy a measure of freedom that did not exist anywhere else.

Now, part of that economic opportunity was predicated on the opening up of an empty continent.  There was land being given away for a song and also the tremendous advantages that the industrial revolution was creating meant that all the potential locked up in this empty new world could be extracted at a phenomenal rate.  The steam engine and then the internal combustion engine created the modern world and with it the enormous middle class that was the heart of America in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Now we live in the aftermath of those events.  The continent has been tamed and to some extent filled.  Technology has more or less leveled off.  But as we experienced after World War II there is an enormous dynamism to the human capital that was mid-century America.

And that dynamism was fueled by a meritocratic outlook that tried to select the best man for the job and let him earn his way from there.  Business was a sort of Darwinian selection where everyone competed for the highest salary, the biggest office, the best benefits package and if truth be told, the prettiest secretary.

Well, things have changed.  In the last ten or twenty years all of the major sectors of our society have said that merit is racist, sexist, homophobic and now transphobic.  Children will no longer be graded in school according to ability and effort and workers will no longer be hired or promoted according to ability or achievements.  They will instead be given these academic and career rewards based on the color of their skins and their position in the sexual dysfunction hierarchy.

Now this will have a devastating effect on both the people who aren’t advantaged by the hierarchy (i.e., white people in general and straight white men in particular) and also the society itself.  After all, if meritocracy was the driving force that powered the American century and its dominance of the world in almost every field, then the removal of this force will create the opposite effect.  And we are already seeing this in multiple instances.  Wherever “equity” has been introduced, mediocrity, at best, has set in.  Anyone who has observed the American workplace from within over the last thirty years can think of several examples where a woman or minority affirmative action hire has proven so incredibly incompetent that people were hard pressed not to assume it was done as a way to punish those who worked in the same department as these disasters.

So now that equity has been codified by the government and this race based corporate sabotage will be practiced on an industrial scale, we can expect severe economic and societal dislocations.  Companies that employ unqualified individuals and then shield these individuals from answering for the results of their incompetence will not be able to compete with meritocratic organizations.  They will produce inferior and over-priced products that won’t be bought.  So, this policy, if enforced, will doom American industry when competing against products and services provided by competitors who hire based on ability.

And so, after that long and winding introduction, I reach the point of my essay.  In the future, it will only be possible to thrive by living in a place that allows people to be rewarded for competence and hard work.  Maybe that will be a red state.  Maybe it will be a foreign country.  But for the foreseeable future it won’t be a Fortune 500 company operating in a blue state.  Theoretically you can still be a small businessman living in a blue state if your skill set is in high demand.  Tradesmen and technicians who can pick and choose their assignments may still be able to write their own tickets.  Especially if their skills are needed for critical equipment and components.

But even these exceptions still have to endure the other shortcomings of living in these awful places.  Their kids will have to be taught by leftist propagandists (unless they’re home-schooled).  They will be subject to absurd administrative interference in their lives.  They will be surrounded by brain-dead zombies.  And they will be in proximity to dangerous urban areas from which violent mobs may erupt at any time.

Our current leftist leaders want to turn you into a serf.  If you don’t want that to happen then you will have to do something about it.  The best thing you can do is figure out where merit is rewarded and move there.  I’m still trying to figure out which place makes the most sense for me.  For younger people it’s easier.  The only caveat I make for them is this.  Make sure it’s a place where you can find a wife and raise a family.  Everything else will probably take care of itself.

Surviving and Thriving as a Permanent Political Minority in America – Part 1

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As I’ve made clear since the 2022 mid-terms, I no longer expect the Republicans to be able to win the presidency or majorities in congress for the foreseeable future, if ever.  But that’s not the same as just surrendering to the progressive agenda.  I still think there’s a chance that red state governments may take effective measures to protect their citizens from the evils that the federal government is rolling out even as we speak.

So, what this leaves me to do is contemplate what measures I should take as an individual to insulate myself and my family from the worst of the damage.  And this is the correct strategy.  It’s time to stop imagining we’re going to re-take the federal government.  The Democrats gamed the system so thoroughly and for so long that it’s next to impossible for the Stupid Party to win.  And, honestly, I’m pretty sure they don’t want to.  So, the correct mindset is to identify and perform the activities that you can in order to make the best life for you and yours.

And this is not a small thing.  The benefits you can produce and the problems you can prevent are enormous.  Basically, what you are doing is wrenching back under your control things that the progressives have stolen away from you via school-based propaganda and unconstitutional government actions.  You have to intervene either personally or through private groups or both to produce the outcomes you desire.  And you want to put yourself in places where there are more people that agree with you, people who can be allies and possibly friends.

So, let’s look at some of the examples of things that could be done.

  • School

Here’s one of the biggest impacts you can have on your life.  If you send your children to the public schools and don’t involve yourself in what they are being taught then you deserve to be called a member of the Stupid Party.  The first step is to find out what they’re being taught.  Request to see the lesson plans and syllabus for your children’s classes.  Pay attention to both important subjects like math and science and also the soft subjects like social studies and language.  Find out how extreme the problems are and decide whether it’s possible to allow the children to remain there.  Maybe by talking to your kids about the nature of the disinformation they are being fed you can inoculate them from the damage.  If there isn’t a way to change the worst of it then you must get your kids out.  Maybe this means sending them to a private or religious school.  Maybe it’s possible for them to be home schooled.  But whichever way you affect a change you are probably performing the most important service you can for your children.

  • Local Politics

Believe it or not, even in a deep blue state there are things that you can do to improve the local environment.  At the very least, when you are looking to move to a new home or get a new job look at the complexion of the community you are considering.  Without a doubt there are better and worse choices to choose from.  You can look at the voting record of your town.  You can read up on the referenda that the town has voted on over the last few years.  You can look for the telltale signs of a small town being invaded by the refugees from the local progressive stronghold.  Look at the local test scores of the schools and just look around for what kind of signs the town and the local businesses put up.  If you find yourself surrounded by BLM and rainbow banners then think hard and long about moving there.

Find out if there’s a local Republican Town Committee and go to a few meetings and listen to what they talk about.  Hear what priorities they have.  Ask a few pointed questions about any recent progressive initiatives like low-cost housing or DIE programs.  Figure out if you’ll be in the minority or the majority politically.  And consider getting involved on a town committee if you have the expertise or the interest.  Finance, zoning and budget committees are especially useful.  Get to know your neighbors and let them know you.  That’s how you find allies and maybe friends.  Hiding your head in the sand is how we got in this mess in the first place.

Alright I’ll stop at two for this first part.  But you get the point.  Grabbing hold of your life is the only way to limit the damage the progressives do to you and your family.  Applying this strategy across the whole length and breadth of your life is how you take control and deny the Evil Party from ruining your world.

How To Thrive in the Banana Republic of America – Part 1

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This essay and its title are more for a research project than a how-to pamphlet.  I think this gets to the essence of what all of us will have to figure out to survive in where this country is headed.  We have to figure out how to provide ourselves and our families with the things they need and want without having to compromise our self-respect and even our sanity.

As a for instance, what if you want to become a professional.  If you desire to be a medical doctor, you’ll have to be indoctrinated in the various fictions that currently apply to the medical profession.  You may be forced to approve of a pre-teen boy being castrated and having the rest of his genitalia amputated and put on estrogen to satisfy his mother’s desire to turn him into a girl.  If you want to be a lawyer you may have to festoon your office with rainbow paraphernalia and attend galas for the LGBTQ mafia and even then, you’ll probably be passed over for promotion because you’re just a straight white guy.  Even engineers are called upon by their employers to parrot mantras about white privilege, white supremacy and toxic masculinity at all the company gatherings in order to show management that they are aligned with the prevailing orthodoxy.

But even if you don’t work in corporate America the regime is going farther and farther to impinge on the life and prosperity of all those who won’t burn incense to Caesar.  California is legislating the end of gasoline engines for automobiles starting in 2035.  New York has criminalized the use of “gender specific language” in all business documents.  They are very purposefully criminalizing normal life.

The details of all this vary from place to place but you can see that they are casting a very wide net and will tighten it as time goes on.  Those 87,000 new IRS employees are there for a reason.  They will be there to punish the enemies of the regime where it hurts the most; in their bank accounts.

It will be of the utmost importance to identify the strategies and tactics needed to avoid the worst of the consequences.  But it is obvious that the only way to thrive in such an environment is to locate the most sympathetic local regimes that will help protect you from the full brunt of the Leftist system.

For instance, Florida is setting itself up as a refuge against woke-ism and other leftist problems.  With Ron DeSantis as governor and with a Republican legislature they have enacted laws to prevent transgender medical malpractice against juveniles.  Likewise, they have gone after critical race theory (CRT) in the public schools.  These kinds of initiatives are exactly what is needed to allow people to survive under the Biden regime.

And I think the most progress against banana republicanism will occur when several states coordinate their policies to prevent the federal programs from strangling the freedoms of Americans living in those states.  All of this may lead up to a showdown between these states and the feds.

But in reality, I don’t think anyone really knows how or even if we can make life in the former United States of America somewhat free and honest.  Even those on the Dissident Right who talk about the “revolution” have no idea what, if anything, that means.  We’re all so horrified and disgusted by what is going on we just assume that somehow it will have to turn around.  And that is where we are probably wrong.  Assuming that the pendulum will reverse direction anytime soon is probably wishful thinking.  After all, representative government took fifteen hundred years to return to Western Civilization.  There’s no reason to think it will happen in one hundred years this time.

Hopefully when I write the second installment of this essay, I’ll have some more practical points to contribute but I think identifying the need to look for these strategies has merit in and of itself.  Feel free to provide anything you’ve thought of on this topic in the comments.

Reframing Life in Woke America

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So, the word is out, Biden is a bust.  His presidency will be remembered along with Jimmy Carter’s and Herbert Hoover’s as a disaster for the United States.  All well and good.  But he’s going to be around for years and the country is still in the hand of Marxists so what do we do in the meantime?

Well, we live!  We’ve still got families and friends and jobs and responsibilities, mortgages and food bills and all the other things that require our attention and organize our days.  We’ll still have to deal with woke psychopaths who run the companies we work for and torment us with diversity, equity and inclusion jibber jabber.  We still have the federal and maybe state government trying to covidize our lives.  And we still have to manage to deal with the shambles Biden has made of our economy.  And if you live in a blue city you have to dodge homicidal criminals without the help of a functioning police force.  That’s what you still have to do.  Sounds not too good.  But we’ll do it.  And an important strategy in surviving this mess is framing the situation correctly.  I’ll explain.

Losing your job is a bad way to deal with the annoyances that have become attached to modern companies.  You’re going to have to put up with watching the corporate harassment training video and now they’ll have the diversity, equity and inclusion video too.  And if you’re in management they’ll expect you to drink the Kool-Aid and spout the party line.  But who says you have to go the management route?  If you’ve got an important skill, you can avoid all the nonsense by just doing your job and avoiding the wrong people.  What do I mean by the wrong people?  I mean the woke, the social justice warriors, the true believers.  You’ll be able to spot them a mile away.  They always have several rainbow flags adorning their work space and other such paraphernalia.  They’re mostly women and/or queer but there are plenty of exceptions.  Some of the worst of the worst are straight white men who want to prove their loyalty to the cause.

These people will not hesitate to get you fired.  Never socialize with them.  Avoid talking to them about anything but work and limit even that to the minimum necessary to do your job right.  This has a twofold benefit.  The obvious one is it protects you from being reported to Human Resources for some kind of harassment offense.  And that is a very important benefit.  But the second one is also important.  Avoiding these people makes your life better.  I’ll give an example.

I used to work with this guy who was a progressive.  Sort of like one of the old hippies.  He and I both worked for a contract engineering company and were both assigned to the same client for a very extended contract.  Eventually both of us went to work for the client directly.  I had always tried to be friendly with the guy.  We had worked on an assignment together in California years before and for the most part he was a nice enough guy, maybe a bit too goofy.  But because the client company we both joined had a very lefty culture he quickly became adapted and soon he was one of the worst of the bunch.  And since we still spent plenty of time together at lunch and coffee breaks, he quickly became one of the most annoying parts of my day.  And this went on for the better part of a year until one day after one of these aggravating conversations it occurred to me that I disliked this guy intensely and eventually this was going to end up with this guy reporting me for some kind of thought crime.  It was the logical outcome.  So, the next time he started up on something, I told him I had had enough and from now on we would limit our conversations to work concerns only.  He looked a little stunned but he could tell I was completely serious and that was the last personal conversation we ever had.  Almost immediately I felt like some horrible irritant had been removed from my life.  I realized that I no longer had indigestion after lunch and I felt much less tired in the afternoon.  Sure, there were still plenty of lefties at work but I wasn’t responsible for talking with them at lunch or on coffee breaks.  I made a point after that to spend my time at lunch or break with like minded people and that worked wonders.

And this is a good policy everywhere.  Both at work and outside work I look to spend my time with people whose opinions I respect.  It can never be one hundred percent.  Most of my bosses were lefties.  I was always very professional and performed what was expected of me but when it came to company social functions I would bow out.  No golf.  That was with the management types and they were woke types almost to a man.  Bowling would be better but still there were problems so I even let that go.  I preferred to organize my own after work activities with only people I knew wouldn’t aggravate me with some progressive nonsense.

And that’s what I mean by reframing the situation.  Just because the Left controls the public and private organizations doesn’t mean they control most of the important parts of our lives.  We have control of most of the space we live in.  Sort out the world into the good and the bad.  Avoid those people who only cause grief and trouble.  Seek out the people who won’t cause heartburn when you spend time with them.  They don’t have to be your clones.  There’s plenty of variation on our side of the fence.  There are intellectuals and guys who prefer to get their hands dirty.  There are introverts and extroverts.  You name it.

So, there’s my secret in a nutshell.  Search out the people on our side of the fence and maximize the connections you have with them.  Fraternize with them.  Do business with them.  Help them when they need help.  And more importantly, avoid the opposite types.  Don’t waste your free time around them.  Avoid them like the plague.  You’ll be happier and you’ll isolate them from normal people.  And that’s what they deserve.

Christmas in the Woke World

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If you have very religious friends then you know that many people have always felt that the public face of Christmas has always been tainted by the commercial nature of the holiday in our culture.  They are outraged that the secular elements of Christmas overshadow the sacred nature of the holiday.

Maybe from their point of view what is happening in the culture now is no worse than the former commercialism.  Well, now it’s everyone else’s turn to be outraged.  Of course, the present outrage isn’t confined to commercialism.  We’re dealing with the destruction of a whole civilization and its replacement by nihilism.  But maybe the course of action everyone will be forced to adopt is basically the same as that taken by religious people living in a secular society.  The religious communities have to provide analogs for all the secular institutions around them.  They send their children to religious grammar and high schools.  Their churches sponsor children’s sports teams and fraternal organizations and social occasions where families can get together and young people can find friends.  And these organizations can act as networking opportunities for professional advancement and community projects.  Even politics can be centered around church membership.

If you don’t happen to be religious this may pose a problem in today’s woke society.  Outside of churches the Left has exerted massive pressure to warp and control the other organizations existing in the world today.  Public schools are hotbeds of homosexual recruitment and even stranger things like the indoctrination of middle-school kids into the transgender delusion.  The Boy Scouts have been co-opted, the large corporations are saturated with diversity, inclusion and equity programming and the federal government is an occupying army.

So, there’s only one way forward.  You have to do it all yourself.  Anything you want to preserve about Christmas, you are going to have to sponsor personally.  So, let’s say you want to encourage the religious aspects of Christmas.  Then you are going to have to make sure you bring the kids to church and tell them what you believe.  And if there are cultural traditions or family traditions you want to preserve then you better take the time to teach the kids and the grandkids about them and why they are important.  And let’s face it, if you don’t really believe in the importance of these things, you won’t be able to convince anyone else that they are important.

Luckily for me, I love old fashioned Christmas.  I love getting together with the family and eating a great big meal and passing the time together playing games and telling stories about the old days to the kids and talking about the minor news and events in the family and the community.  I love to put on some old movie like “A Christmas Carol” or “A Christmas Story” and introduce it to another generation.  I love to spend time with my kids and grandkids and hear about their lives and maybe provide a sympathetic ear to someone who needs to talk or make the encouraging noises that everyone likes to hear and sometimes really needs.  And if the talk turns to things going on in the larger world state your opinion honestly and fearlessly.  Don’t mince words about the Democrats and especially not about the truly insane fringes of the Left.

And Christmas is just one chapter of what needs to be done.  Every aspect of normal life and Western Civilization needs the same treatment.  Be vocal and comfortable about cheerleading for the good things in the old culture that need to be defended and nurtured.  Encourage the kids to think about important parts of their lives that they will have to attend to.  Finding a job, finding a spouse, raising a family.  These are things that don’t go without saying.  Say them.  Provide practical help for things like career counseling, finding activities, even providing them with help like a lift to a job or an activity.  After all most parents are stretched pretty thin.  If a granddad has the time, he should make himself useful.

So that’s enough talk.  We’re headed out Christmas Eve in the afternoon to one of my daughters.  That’s going to be fun.  And then Christmas dinner is at my house and that will be grand.  All the grandkids will be there and I will be in my glory.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

The Dispossessed Taking Stock

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family ,

If something that always seemed substantial and even indestructible unravels then those that have always depended on its existence for making decisions in their lives suddenly find themselves adrift in uncharted territory.  And that’s where a lot of us are right now.  The United States of America was this behemoth of stability and an engine of prosperity.  It was also a place where people truly were free to say and do what they pleased as long as it didn’t involve robbing someone else.

Now with all of those things shattered what do we do?  How do we make a living?  How and where do we raise a family?  How will our children get an education?  How will they make a living?  Who will we have to swear allegiance to in order to avoid persecution?  Who must we be afraid to offend to avoid being a victim?  Essentially, all bets are off.

When a stable system receives a shock there are several possible outcomes.  If the system is elastic enough and the shock isn’t too large then things can return to a stability that might even be pretty close to the initial condition.  If the shock is a little stronger then perhaps a large chunk of the system will be ejected leaving a remainder that can then produce a diminished but stable system.  And finally, if the shock is cataclysmic the whole system is pulverized and scattered, never to coalesce into a whole again.

I think it’s too soon to tell how great a disruption there has been to America.  It feels like we’ve been irreparably fractured into several fragments that can’t be put back together again.  But maybe our enemies will be able to overcome all resistance and establish a new country in the image they have in mind for it.  Maybe we’ll win and fix the place back to close to what it was.  Or maybe we’ll split it in two.  All these questions aren’t going to be answered in a day or even a year.  Maybe a decade will decide things.

But none of us can wait ten years to answer that list of questions I asked above.  Our lives are ticking by right now.  Our kids and grandkids are growing and need direction.  So, we have no choice but to make decisions based on what we see happening around us and what we know about the policies being pushed by the federal and state governments.

And there are plenty of hints for anyone who is paying attention.  Living in California is being at the epicenter of all things woke.  It’s so dysfunctional and constrained that even the woke can’t stand it and are leaving in droves.  Places like New York and Washington and Oregon are pretty close to the California model.  In any of those deep blue states you’ll find problems trying to raise a family or even to just live your life the way you want to.  But even in purple states like Wisconsin or Colorado the Left is in charge and they will tell you what you can and can’t do.  And if you happen to be white, they’ll let you know that your turn is done and you better get used to humiliation and deprivation.

And even among red states not all of them are equal.  And not all areas in red states are equal.  Utah is considered a deep red state but Salt Lake City is a stronghold of California transplants that vote Left and control lots of the levers of power.  So, where you live is one of the ways you can control how free you will be.

With respect to employment there are decisions that will have to be made there too.  For instance, if you want to work in an industry that is heavily regulated by the federal government then you will find that the management of the companies working in that industry are aligned with the values that the federal government espouses.  So, for instance, the banking industry adheres to the equity, diversity and inclusion mantra pushed on them by the bank regulators.  In the same way the pharma companies follow these same precepts based on the FDA’s guidance.  None of this nonsense has any real bearing on sound banking principles or safe drug production but it’s how the system is rigged.  And even companies that aren’t themselves regulated by Washington may find that in order to get contracts with companies that are regulated they will have to parrot these same noises.  Hopefully, if they are small enough companies most of the noise is just that and nothing else.  But you can see how this starts to reduce your options.

And with respect to schools and colleges it’s even worse.  The percentage of colleges that aren’t woke is tiny.  It’s barely a handful.  And they won’t have all the programs you children may be looking for.  If your kids want to go to a woke college just prepare them for what it will be like and keep your fingers crossed that they can avoid being absorbed by the Borg.

And that brings us to the last part of our lives, the personal life.  We need to find enough people like ourselves to ensure that we have a rich personal life.  We have family but we need friends.  Our children need friends.  We need people who believe in the same things we do.  In the past you would have found these people in your church and in the school committee and among the parents of the kids on your kids’ sports teams.  And depending where you live you still might.  But you’ll definitely have to do some homework to find out if your neighbors are free Americans or part of the woke collective.  So don’t think that everybody is normal.  It’s easier to be careful at first and avoid the woke.  It’s much more painful to get rid of them once they’ve gotten close.  You owe it to your kids to protect them from bad influences and you owe it to your own sanity.

So, unless you live in the deepest red area of the country and work in a trade that has no connection to the government regulators and send your kids to Hillsdale College you will have to sort through these realities for the foreseeable future.  Either that or join the pod people.  I mean how bad could it be?

That photog Guy Was Really Smart

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I was listening to a podcast on the American Mind where Michael Anton is discussing with one of his colleagues, Machiavelli’s ideas and how they relate to our war with the Woke Left.  And he talked about how this was going to be a long war and nobody should think that taking back the Congress in 2022 or taking back the White House in 2024 will solve all our problems.

And that reminded me of something I wrote back a year ago.  So I went back and reread it.  And I’ll be darned if I wasn’t pretty sharp that day.  And that dove-tailed with something I found today.  It seems that Andrew Torba over at Gab is working on his own version of PayPal.  If he can make that happen he will be in line for canonization as a saint on the Right.  Being able to monetize web content without having to kowtow to the Left is sort of the Holy Grail for folks on our side.

So let me end by quoting my younger self and bask in the glow of my former eloquence….

Once you acknowledge where we currently are, you can begin to adapt to your environment and then thrive in it.  Situational awareness is very important.  Never play to their strengths.  Unless you have an armed bodyguard of special forces men you probably shouldn’t show up at an antifa rally in Portland, Oregon and declare your political beliefs.  If you want to start a fraternal society then make it a religious society that has protected status that can’t be shanghaied by social justice warriors and turned into the next Boy Scouts.  But be sure not to do it in a blue state.  In those areas everything will have to be on a clandestine personal basis.  And a personal basis is the best way to live your personal life anyway.  Know your friends and spend your time with them.  And it doesn’t even have to be your next-door neighbors.  You can make friends on-line and enjoy that experience too.  A shared point of view makes a good basis for association.  Nowadays free association only exists on a personal basis but you can make that work very well for many of the interactions you can choose to have.  This website is a perfect example of free association.  It’s very unlikely that Leftists would want to spend much time here since they’re not interested in the things I like and disagree with more or less 100% of what I believe.  Whereas people who hold similar beliefs with me will feel as though they belong here.  By congregating here we get to spend time with like minded individuals and also pass information back and forth.  Some of it is trivial like a book or a movie that’s interesting.  But maybe one day you hear about a job opportunity or a place to live or a politician that’s helping our side.

Boy that young fellow seems really smart to these old eyes.