Prophets

Before the collapses of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, prophets claiming to bring the Word of God told the Israelites that they need to shape up or that bad things were going to happen.

Jeremiah, as depicted by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, from Wiki

What ended up happening?

The Israelites kept worshiping other gods and kept throwing orgies; bad things then did happen. The Assyrians came in and destroyed the Kingdom of Israel, scattering ten of the tribes like dust before the wind of history. Even with this example, the Judeans kept screwing around. So the Babylonians came in and destroyed the Kingdom of Judah and carted the Judeans into slavery.

Too bad, so sad. YHWH told you so, according to the prophets.

While you can argue about if the prophets were transmitting God's message or not, they could see that a society can not fritter it's security away on self-indulgence. They tied the security of the Israelites to obedience to God, and claimed to speak in God's name.

I tie security to matters of security and rule of law, and I do not claim that g!d stands behind my words.

The One I Lost

I have been "angry posting" for almost twenty years now. The beauty of the Internet is that you can see source documents, you can see what a "leader" said yesterday versus what he said today, and as evidence piled up, I got angrier by the year.

I started thinking about this post Saturday night, basically writing it in my mind; I was drunk, and I tend to get depressed when I do that (imagine my shocked face that a depressant has that effect!). Actually, the title had come to me when I was explaining to my friends why I didn't hang out that much. I didn't want to explain the matter past that, because everybody was having a good time (the depression part came later)

My tendency towards anger ramped up sharply since 2012, and it went beyond the increasing pile of Ministry of Truth Cliffnotes I'd been collecting.

It comes down to a woman that I lost...I chose to fight this war instead of cleaving to her. I have deleted a lot of this section; describing her, how I felt about her, how I mistreated her, how I lied to myself that I could do both my duty and to be true to her, and how I lost her. It would be dishonest to say that this was a choice that I made consciously and willingly, and not something that resulted from my indecision and hesitancy in claiming her heart for myself. This was trage-farce, not honest sacrifice. I would have had to make the same choice regardless, but I surely could have saved some pain by keeping my distance from her after I was aware of the choice. And that is all I will say about that.

I'd still be angry at the state of the world; I'd still be full of hate for these thieves and traitors...but this loss makes the anger much more intense. I blame it on them instead of myself. It's not like I need to stoke up my anger, but there is no reason not to direct my rage at people that deserve rage, ne?

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Hillary Clinton, talking about 1984, and proving the book's point instead of hers:

“Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. This is what the Soviets did when they erased political dissidents from historical photos. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered. The goal is to make you question logic and reason and to sow mistrust toward exactly the people we need to rely on: our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence, ourselves.”

From Ace of Spades

And it is this control of institutions that is the problem; a street full of rioting leftists can be cleared, a terror team of Islamists can be hunted down and killed; the people organizing and financing these actions can likewise be targeted and terminated....but to have a government and media covering for their actions is to lose half the battle before it starts. To have that government indoctrinating people in Narrative instead of critical thinking skills is to lose the next 75% of the battle.

This is why Information War is so vital.

And this is all I have for people. I can't spin it into good news. I can't make people feel "special" about themselves by saying it, no one will be getting better jobs if they listen to me.

All I have is evil prophecy.

You Can Not Live in a Perpetual State of Worry and Anger

Trust me, I have tried ;>

What do you do do when everything looks bleak?

Fix bayonets and slog through the killing ground. Rub some dirt on it. Be a man. Take your punches.

You can't quit.

But neither should you dwell in bleakness...find joy where you can, and live in that joy as much as you can while you grit though the struggle.

Take pride in what you do...take breaks...live life for itself, not for only duty.

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