{"id":7150,"date":"2019-05-27T22:56:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T02:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=7150"},"modified":"2019-05-27T22:56:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T02:56:50","slug":"when-your-eyes-are-finally-opened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/27\/when-your-eyes-are-finally-opened\/","title":{"rendered":"When Your Eyes Are Finally Opened"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Now, Th\u00e9oden son of Thengel, will you hearken to me?\u2019 said Gandalf.\u00a0 \u2026\u00a0 \u2018I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad.\u00a0 Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018It is not so dark here\u2019 said Th\u00e9oden. \u2026 \u2018Dark have been my dreams of late,\u2019 he said, \u2018but I feel as one new-awakened.\u2019 \u2026 \u2018What is to be done?\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2015 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings; The King of the Golden Hall<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lots of friends and relatives on our side of the fence (meaning the non-leftists) criticize me for being too optimistic.\u00a0 They acknowledge that Donald Trump has altered the landscape in a revolutionary way.\u00a0 They admit that progress has been made.\u00a0 But they stress that things are still almost hopeless.\u00a0 They stress the lopsided progressive advantage among millennials and immigrants.\u00a0 They remind me just how razor thin were the margins in the 2016 elections and the election fraud that is sure to be unleashed in 2020.\u00a0 And on and on and on.\u00a0 And all these things are true.<\/p>\n

But there is one change that is not a matter of degrees but rather a binary change from unknown to known.\u00a0 And that is the knowledge of why we always lost.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a fan of the Lord of the Rings for about half a century.\u00a0 Because of this I often find myself using analogies from that book to explain and illuminate logical points I want to make.\u00a0 Admittedly, from a strictly logical perspective, it\u2019s an unjustifiable practice.\u00a0 And when viewed by those unfamiliar with Tolkien\u2019s work it\u2019s a counterproductive practice.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks.<\/p>\n

Thinking about our situation currently I am drawn to the scene in the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf enters Meduseld and is confronted by Th\u00e9oden, the King of Rohan and Grima Wormtongue.\u00a0 Grima is the king\u2019s chief counsellor and an agent of Saruman the Evil Wizard.\u00a0 Grima has poisoned Th\u00e9oden\u2019s mind against his own family and provides counsel to the king that flatters him but always leads to the worsening of Rohan\u2019s position. \u00a0The king is bowed down by despair.\u00a0 His only son has recently been killed in battle and the enemies of his people are attacking his country at will from all sides.\u00a0 His own kinsman is disobeying his orders and his chief counsellor, Grima advises him to accept the diminution of his power and the necessity of capitulating to his foes in order to survive.<\/p>\n

Through the counsel of this traitor Th\u00e9oden has mistaken his friends for foes and enemies for allies.\u00a0 And in such a state he is constantly dismayed to see all his efforts fail.\u00a0 Trusting Grima implicitly, he doesn\u2019t realize that all his plans are known to his enemies and all the actions he is told to follow always make his enemies stronger and him weaker.<\/p>\n

Then Gandalf comes along and reveals the truth to Th\u00e9oden.\u00a0 And once he understands Grima\u2019s status his own situation and the experiences of the past make sense.\u00a0 Now, that is not to say that Th\u00e9oden isn\u2019t indeed in an almost hopeless position.\u00a0 He is.\u00a0 But at least now it all makes sense and he can choose how he wants to make a stand without his enemy knowing his plans in advance.\u00a0 Once the confusion of the false assumption about Grima is eliminated Th\u00e9oden can see clearly where he is and which way he should head.\u00a0 Without the misinformation being fed to him he has a better chance of correctly choosing a path forward.\u00a0 And to complete the metaphor Gandalf leads Th\u00e9oden out of the dark hall of Meduseld into the bright light of day.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s the analogy.\u00a0 We handed the Republican Establishment victory after victory.\u00a0 We gave them what they said they needed in money, votes and loyalty and in return they sold us out time after time.\u00a0 They accomplished nothing and conserved nothing.\u00a0 Their slow-motion capitulation to every Leftist demand has finally left us virtually strangers in our own land.<\/p>\n

But that day, at least for me, is over.\u00a0 Anyone who tells me that the only way to survive is through capitulation is working for the enemy.\u00a0 Anyone who supports leftist social policies is by definition a Leftist.\u00a0 Wall Street needs cheap labor so their Republican Establishment puppets tell us that even trying to enforce immigration laws will make us a minority party that will never win another election.\u00a0 Then Donald Trump wins on that very platform.\u00a0 We may be defeated in the future because of demographic change but allowing the fear of it to prevent us from pursuing our own interests is rank stupidity.\u00a0 Cowardice and stupidity are not the qualities needed when you are in a tight spot.\u00a0 Intelligence and courage are.\u00a0 And with the world as degraded as it has become it will not be a short or easy job to return life to a normal state.\u00a0 It will take years and it will involve hard work and even then, we may be beaten in the end.\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0 At least you go down to defeat swinging not just walking passively to the slaughter house.<\/p>\n

So, my point is it is time to stop listening to the defeatists.\u00a0 Even the ones who truly are on our side.\u00a0 When some well-meaning Republican tells me that the only way to win the woman vote is to nominate Nikki Haley for vice president, I politely say that is a terrible idea.\u00a0 Haley is a RINO who will fold under any pressure from the left.\u00a0 She would be just as bad as a Bush.\u00a0 The idea that we should nominate someone just because she\u2019s a woman is the same bad thinking that has gotten us in trouble time after time.\u00a0 Find someone who knows how to make the system work for us and back him.<\/p>\n

Allow yourself to dream big and then try to do something positive yourself.\u00a0 Red-pill a friend or a family member or an acquaintance.\u00a0 Back a candidate that you think is good.\u00a0 Build a platform where people on our side can share ideas and encouragement.<\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know the Lord of the Rings I can give a different pop culture reference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWell I won’t back down<\/em><\/p>\n

No I won’t back down<\/em><\/p>\n

You can stand me up at the gates of Hell<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But I won’t back down<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Hey baby<\/em><\/p>\n

There ain’t no easy way out (I won’t back down)<\/em><\/p>\n

Hey I, will stand my ground<\/em><\/p>\n

And I won’t back down\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I Won\u2019t Back Down by Tom Petty<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Now, Th\u00e9oden son of Thengel, will you hearken to me?\u2019 said Gandalf.\u00a0 \u2026\u00a0 \u2018I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad.\u00a0 Too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,818,6],"tags":[987,1901,1900,400,451,405,186,1902],"class_list":["post-7150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-ocf","category-trump","tag-gandalf","tag-grima-wormtongue","tag-i-wont-back-down","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-red-pill","tag-theoden","tag-tolkien","tag-tom-petty"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Your Eyes Are Finally Opened - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/27\/when-your-eyes-are-finally-opened\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Your Eyes Are Finally Opened - 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