Dang it, We are in a Tight Spot - Let's Reverse Uno LOTR 72
The "World" Turned Upside Down...
Link: Hugh Bolton Jones, On the Green River
We've mentioned ecbatic prophecy before. Certain patterns are simply built into Creation. These patterns are neither merely static, nor remotely arbitrary. Rather, they approach and attain an art of form, which lives. It would be equally problematic if the Logos Tomeus was monolithically remote & unchanging, or if it was terrifyingly capricious and vague. Either would come to equal the other, in the end.
There is only one Being. This Being is not an "It", but rather He is an esse ipsum, the fountain of all Being. He is not an abstraction. As Christians, we believe the fullest and most perfect expression of this is found in the doctrine of the Trinity, although it was formulated (as it had to be!) imperfectly, by imperfect men, with imperfect terms. Throw in the Incarnation, and you have covered the mystery of the 1, the 2, and the 3. All else flows from this.
Since there is only one Being (with the Mystery of the Three Persons co-existing in perichoresis, with each other), and only one Reality, this Reality was manifested by itself, in order that man might join in participation, and co-create. The old creeds say, man was created to love God and thereby, enjoy Him forever.
That is, Reality is already set up to be participatory: creation, independence, and personal power are provided for, indeed could exist in no other way, than through this already existent One. It is also designed (by "Itself") that no beings will thereby conflict with any other being. God pronounced Creation "utterly good" in Genesis. "The myriads of bright beings exist alongside each other, in the light of day", the "day" which is God.
Any rebellion against this Being is inherently absurd. That is, one cannot get outside this Reality. To "conform" to it is mandatory, but this in no way oppresses the creatures, but rather, fulfills them, as they are co-creating their own destinies in the mystery of God. To cooperate with God, is to co-create and cooperate in your own creation. To reject this, is to run away from your self.
The modern project, to the extent it wishes to go outside this Reality or fail to see it, is therefore bound to be "in love with Death". That is, it can only destroy. And even this destruction is meaningless, since there is no significance, meaning, purpose, or creativity outside of Reality.
The awful truth of Sin is that Man's freedom (which he hates) is so powerful in this co-creation that it can generate the Illusion of Life without God. Since God is Light, Life, & Love, this is obviously bound to produce privation, misery, and death, wherever it goes. It has no real, but only illusory, "being". It is an abstraction, the product of "living inside of one's own head". Whatever shreds of reality it has, will only serve to judge and destroy the Lie from the inside out, thereby ecbatically fulfilling the prophecy, "All that hate Me, love Death".
So why not do this the "easy" way?
The war that people have made on the created Order is a death wish. It can only end in one way, with the "transforming" of Evil through the purifying and destructive fires of the Love of God. How rebellious are we, and how determined, to do this the hard way?
I guess we will find out. It sure seems easier, and even easy, to re-discover the real teachings about Iluvatar. That is what these scribblings at The Squire are all about.
Or, as the Hopi Prophecies have it,
The spiritual door is open. Why not join the righteous people?
It's hard to have a sense of humor, when you're busy annihilating Creation. Since they can't quite get at Creation (let alone the Creator), they are going for all those nasty little hobbits out there, and their little dogs, too. Here...is...all...the...bad...news. It's quite a weekly roundup, week-after-week! And don't forget about these two gems.
The Federal Reserve is already insolvent. According to its most recent annual financial statements, the Fed has just $51 billion in equity, versus a whopping $948 billion in mark-to-market losses. This means the Fed is insolvent by roughly $900 billion. This is a big problem. Remember that the Fed is still a bank, i.e. it has financial obligations, liabilities, and depositors that it needs to pay. For example, commercial banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America have deposited a total of $3.4 trillion of their customers’ money, i.e. YOUR money, with the Fed. And the Treasury Department holds another $700 billion deposit at the Fed. The Fed owes money to foreign governments. They owe trillions of dollars from repurchase agreements to banks and businesses across the global financial system. So, yeah, the insolvency of the Federal Reserve is a pretty big deal. Yet, at least for now, no one is saying a word about it.
Let's make this balance sheet look good with some spin! Link
According to Paul Krugman and this Bumbleshanks, It's The Best Economy, EVAH! Somebody (I won't say who but their political affiliation starts with a P or an L or a D) needs to get out more. Otherwise, they will keep sounding like this Velveteen Dandy Fop. As Dennis Miller once said, they aren't Transparent, they are Translucent. As always, it's not the lies they tell, because they just tell a half truth - they Lie indirectly. Your brain and operant conditioning does the rest.
For instance, you ask? Well, in the above, article by Captain Bumbleshanks Barry Ritholz, of course the bottom Quartile has always struggled, or had tough times! Of course to your of course, Barry, with knobs on! Right back at you. We do speak English and we live in America on planet earth. Because (as he well knows) in the not so distant past in America, cheap land, educational scholarships to good schools (eg., GI Bill), social and medical safety nets, cultural homogeneity, & decent housing and food prices kept The Poor going, because...well...that's how we do it. This is America.
NONE OF THAT IS THE CASE ANYMORE. And Barry (who holds a position with the Washington Post), either can't see that, or has no respect for our IQ. He will however, like Krugman, sound very convincing to his own tribe. Some of them are occasionally trammeled with the troublesome shred of conscience or haunted by the odd, stray scrap of reality. They need more sedative.
To the Manor Born...let them eat cake!
What else is there to say? It is hard to tell (at this point) if they have begun to believe their own propaganda.
In 1859, the Southern aristocracy presided over the fastest growing, and perhaps richest region of the young nation of America. Mississippi, particularly, was opulent. The cotton trade with England was lucrative. Money was pouring into the South. Pre-eminent in politics, she was beginning to compete with the North economically. Purblind to their own dangers and defects, confident in the eternality of their right and power, the South was absolutely certain that they could successfully separate from the North, and not only defend themselves, but mop the field with their adversaries.
Sherman had warned them at West Point, before the war, that a protracted struggle would be a matter of industry and mathematics: the North would crush the South, unless the South was willing to fight to the death with guerilla warfare. As it turned out, the same feckless Southern Aristos who lacked the foresight to free the slaves and only then fire on Fort Sumter, were unwilling to support the war once it became serious; the burden of the fighting fell instead upon the small people of the South. It was they who earned the glory of the war, not the aristocracy.
A nice place, back in the day...tragic to have to see it go south
It was not the first time that a clueless "Elite" lead their nation to disaster (the South took a century to recover), and it will not be the last time. Our so-called "Elite" are also feckless, clueless, & incompetent. They think that money and power are their birth right. They are filled with Hubris. Although we do not have a caste system of blood, but human nature designates instead the "meritocracy" of the "right people with the right talent and the right connections".
These people are leading the entire USA into ruin, just as the Southern aristocrats lead their own people into ruin in 1859 and 1860.
God will be separating the sheep from the goats. Sheep follow Him. Goats will always go with the flow of the world system.
It’s just a matter of time before this technology is installed in retail stores, banning anyone from buying or selling products unless they are among the digitally marked. At that point, we are into Revelation 13. Link
I don't think you have to use theological language to understand this. You don't need terms like apocalypse, revelation, or even Providence. In fact, bad theology can make those terms problematic. What is clear is that our Elites are ready to destroy the entire planet, if they can't have their Plantation, which they call Globalism or One World Government. And this has blinded them. Sauron is blind to Reality.
JMG wrote: “It impresses me that they simply will not learn from their failures.” "Apart from present company, who out there is learning from their failures these days? It’s kind of eerie this came up, because just a few days ago I was thinking about how if one intended to wish someone ill, wishing for them to never learn from their mistakes would be particularly devastating. But then, example after example came to mind of people and groups essentially wishing that on themselves. by being so unjustifiably certain they’re right. 'As you believe you cannot be wrong, you shall not learn from your mistakes.' That’s a literal curse, is it not? More than that; I suggest it’s fully at large and acting broadly upon nearly every industry, profession, nation, and endeavor. It’s alarming how well that explains so much that’s going on. I’m not even sure it’s a good idea to say it 'out loud,' but maybe somebody has to."
"Walt, that’s a dreadful (and dreadfully effective) curse, not least because it fulfills all the classic requirements. That is to say, I think you’re right — and shudder at the thought."
For those who can notice the obvious...
The optics have never been worse—it is truly an Empire in total terminal decline, its entrails strewn across the globe for all to see. Link
"The military-industrial-complex is killing us all."
The West makes techno-narcissistic luxury products, mainly...
For all of these reasons, we at The Squire are convinced we should let the Empire (and indeed the Empyre of the World-Saeculum) entirely GO. This is the Reverse Uno Card, that can restore our real "fortunes" in the world. When Christians talk about the "world", they think they can "leave it behind".
That's unfair to both the body and the physical world. It's the "world" (false magic lantern show of psychological glamor and illusion/delusion) which is unreal, not the poor Br'er Mule of the Body and the physical stuff. The "world" is not a unified world or Cosmos. Unity implies creative Love and perfection.
That is still to come. That is ahead of us. But it will be right here, in the same place that we are now. In Creation.
Lets get back to The Shire, as quick as we can. We have to help God create the world, by cultivating our garden.
