© Freedom PhoenixThe Portent in Chief
There is a certain type of mind that defaults to manic dot-connecting in a frantic effort to prove monstrously far-reaching claims about our reality. But as philosophers of science have put it in their usual convoluted way, the larger the scope of a theory, the less likely it will hold true. If you have the operator "all" in your sentence, you better make damn sure you are at least a half-god with X-Ray vision, because otherwise chances are you're going to miss something. The antidote to such fallacies is the art of balancing abstract ideas with a deep sense — an embodied feeling — for the particular: situations and circumstances that are unique, non-replicable, derived not from laws but from beyond the realm of categories.
Following Trump's victory, the small but vocal group of schizognostics has reared its left-brained head again, proclaiming from their text-walled gardens the gospel of Trump: the Deep State Psyop. Because, it just has to be a psyop. Why? Simple: their first principle says that all leaders are psyops, and if your theory's scope is nothing short of everything, then Trump and his coterie of disgruntled smarties has been the Trojan horse of the earthly demiurge all along.
Smarties. To the color-blind, they are all blue. Or black. But don’t fret, RFK may soon ban them all anyway.
Both extremes just won't do, as anyone who has left the realm of disjointed abstractions and actually lived with eyes open for a moment will know. Clearly, there is a bottomless darkness at the heart of our world. Powerful bad guys are a thing. The Apostle Paul spoke of spiritual principalities we are up against. Christianity has Satan. Mythology is full of hellish creatures. But also clearly, the good stuff is here, too. Heck, even the Gnostics acknowledge a Über-Creator who has the final word.
How to look at current events given that reality seems to be a mixed bag, and indeed given that to assume a deep darkness at its core is the right instinct? The trick is to choose your angles from which to look at the world wisely. You play your perception by hitting perspectives like keys on an organ. Sometimes you need that gloomy, dark bass, conjuring the terrifying vista of the demiurge holding us captive in the prison of material reality, where even goodness is just a cynical joke by the cosmic torturer to instill a false hope, just to be crushed in a pain-maximizing kick in the soul, while a distant cackling makes its way through the misty swamp we call our home. You need that sound, because it is a note that rings true. But you also need those other notes, the harmony, the simple yet rich melody, softly breezing in this radiant sphere where a shy mountain stream tickles down in the sun-lit woods, the air heavy with the sweet scent of heaven and earth coming together, the direct expression of the kind of love that only ever makes its way here via radical truth.
Some on the Nietzschean right sense, correctly, how reprehensible such manipulative, psychopathic, false-egoic original sin-ism is, and contrast it with glorious warrior tribes conquering lands, village-burning and woman-raping their way through the steppes, hills and seas. Well, I'm not a fan. (To confuse the noble warrior with the psycho warlord is a sleight of hand I won't just overlook, just like confusing the pimp with the sex appeal of male strength won't do.) But you have to admit these guys were at least more honest, more primal and straightforward: the right-wing edition of the Noble Savage. In our modern so-called civilized world, of course, the self-proclaimed top dogs spew moralistic acid while having a grand one on Epstein's island or at Diddy parties. Yeah, makes you appreciate the honesty of those warrior-savages of yore, I suppose.
Point being, I know all that. We are a doomed world, built on horror, in desperate need of a good Old-Testamentarian divine smackdown. But the art of living and thinking lies in holding different angles in mind and using the tension productively, choosing now this, now that perspective to get a hold on what's going on. And so, that I know all that doesn't mean I have to hate civilization in general, and my civilization in particular. Rotten foundation and constant, lie-infested horror show notwithstanding, it has brought us a richness of mystic proportions. The music, the architecture, the art. The inventions, the technology. The philosophy, the languages, the science. The sheer goodness, courage and drive. It really is beyond the pale. And all of it should be celebrated as the outpouring of spirit that it is, the tapping of the existential underground spring from whence the Holy Ghost rises, from whence we rejuvenate, strengthen ourselves, from whence infinite love for creation, and the consequent transmutation of that love into a celebration of humanity's sacred station between the realms of the gods and the realm of pure instinct, springs forth like a unicorn in the night.
So, Trump. If ignoring the existence of goodness, beauty and the spirit working through humanity is to lie, so it is to categorically exclude that a team of renegades can ever grow into an effective opposition against the regime. The thinking behind such (secretly enjoyed) doomerism is that we are totally controlled by darkness, by overlords so crafty and ancient that they will always be ten steps ahead, and that any person on earth with any power or fame is by definition "in on it" — it's all one giant collusion. Interestingly, those who make such claims seldom go into specific instances where collusion between what appear to be mortal enemies might actually happen, apart from manic dot-connecting of the "see, he was at a WEF meeting!1!" variety.
For instance, it is conceivable that Israel and Iran have certain communication channels open, and that to a degree they coordinate their tit-for-tat strikes for public consumption, while behind doors making sure things don't escalate, based on a form of limited mutual interest. Or that Trump's killing of Soleimani might, in fact, have happened with the tacit Iranian approval and support, because the elites there wanted to get rid of a general so popular he might threaten their power one day. Or that Putin and Xi play along with the climate agenda in a strategic bet and to further certain interests, just as the Western leaders do, if probably for different reasons. Whatever the truth of these matters, such things happen and have always happened. It's called realpolitik. You don't need to postulate a Gnostic demiurge and proclaim universal collusion or reality-as-mere-theaterism to see that. Admittedly, it's boring and nuanced, and defies our longing for a quick-and-dirty first principle that sorts all the facts into a neat little narrative.
Just as to realize our civilization is rotten to the core doesn't exclude a celebration of its fruits, so a realistic worldview that allows for good guys doesn't exclude the idea of dark overlords. Paul's principalities, a Gnostic demiurge, or evil alien-demons controlling things from behind the scenes are essentially the same motif, and damned if we don't find ample hints for their existence in the hellhole also known as prison planet earth. However, the nature of our interaction with this dark realm is complex. It is not that of the billiard ball universe causal network, where the puppeteers control every single movement of their puppets. Why? First, let's not forget about the ultimate creator, the one even Gnostics pray to, the source of it all. This means that demiurge, hyperdimensional aliens, principalities and the rest of the gang have to play by certain rules, too. They aren't the top dogs. Second, there is this thing called Free Will. Now combine these two ideas, and what you get is that Free Will, in cahoots with the ultimate creator, can break the spell. We can fight back. What we grow to think, what we grow to be, matters.
This goes for individuals as well as collectives. Just as Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, always had the power to go home using her slippers, and just as the Wizard was revealed as a pathetic little fraud once the evil witch was defeated and the veil lifted, so we have the power to end the charade, and there's not a damn thing that little fraud of a wizard can do about it. But the witch must die first, otherwise her spell remains too strong.
The Wicked Witch wants Dorothy's slippers because they are the magic key to getting back home. Just as "they" want to take our Free Will, indeed make us believe we haven't any, and no way of reclaiming our world. Dorothy gets angry and throws water at the witch. The witch dies.
Are we there yet? Of course not. The overlords are real, and they aren't done. They are indeed ancient and crafty. And I'm not at all sure we have used our Free Will, individually and collectively, to the degree necessary to defeat them. We are still too blind, too messed up, too timid, too afraid, too broken, too ignorant, too emotional, too intellectual, too spiritually beaten and defenseless. My sense is that whoever those overlords are, they have realized some time ago that they have been defeated in this particular battle, and that Kamala won't make it. Not with a rigging operation so obvious and unbelievable that it would further contain the spell, anyway. (It probably was impossible on a practical level as well; they just thought Trump wouldn't be there, but then he survived and pulled off a spectacular campaign.) They have resigned themselves to it, busying themselves with plotting their next moves. Unlike in 2016, it didn't come as a shock to them. Hence it feels more calm this time around — a calm before the storm, perhaps.
Will Trump and team deliver? They will try, and they truly are the best team we have seen in politics for ages. But they also have blind spots and weaknesses, which gives the Deep State many options: they will try to manipulate Trump into appointing traitors, setting wrong priorities, and drive him away from his campaign promises, particularly in foreign policy. They will block and subvert every step, every initiative. They might stop him before the inauguration with whatever they can marshal. They could tank the economy with the push of a button and take the Trump admin down with it. And if we all don't use our Free Will wisely, the deeper cosmic order might not stand in the way of the demiurge-lords next time; indeed, the ultimate creator may allow one of those divine smackdowns to go through, in a last ditch effort to make us get over ourselves by our own choice. Suffering is the best teacher, after all. But there is hope, too: the future never felt so open, so indeterminate. We are at a crossroads, the world is spinning, and nobody knows where we'll land.
Let's not get lost in lazy grand narratives of dark 4D chess that fly in the face of reality. Neither should we give ourselves over entirely to hooray emotions or over-intellectualization. (Celebrating victories is a must, though.) Let's do what we should always do: observe closely, wise up, touch grass, while counting our blessings and riding the shifting energies: by channelling the subtle glory between those coarse atoms, a material world that is neither the wasteland of the Gnostics nor the ultimate playing field that materialists both left and right take it to be. Rather, let's see it for what it is: a divine offer for redemption, both contained within it and reaching far beyond it.
When the divine makes an offer, you can be sure to be in for a hell of a ride.
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Reader Comments
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'The Politics of Cultural Despair. It is despair that is killing us. It fosters what Roger Lancaster calls “poisoned solidarity,” the intoxication forged from the negative energies of fear, envy, hatred and a lust for violence. by Chris Hedges Nov 10, 2024 [Link]
I especially recommend the one by "Billy Pilgrim". Wow. I've decided: I'm not going to renew my black pill prescription.
It isn't one or the other. We can't solve problems we don't understand. The problem we face is that the deranged oligarchs at the tip-top of the economic pyramid are not going to stop until they control everyone and everything. The reason they're so close to succeeding is because nobody wants to know, let alone take personal responsibility for, the truth.
Some fake savior is sold to us every four years, and we fall into paroxysms of relieved adoration. All we have to do is vote and then cheer our "chosen" (provided) leader like a bunch of lost children! And then we can be content with the little scraps thrown our way to keep us complacent.
'Hey, RFK is going to get fluoride out of the water! We're on the right track now! I can go back to thinking about what color to paint my picket fence and make plans for next weekend's tailgate party at the football game.'
Nobody realizes that very few spontaneous events or people of any significance happen in our cultural, economic, or political experience. If something doesn't fit an accepted and scripted agenda, it's quickly squelched. This happens so insidiously that we hardly notice. And it's soon to get worse. Much worse.
A German heritage can make this more difficult to see. As the child of German parents myself, I know first hand the split between mind and heart that tends to be engendered by that culture. It's even more difficult to be aware of this split when there's a strongly intellectual skillset. It's easy to think we have perspective when we don't.
You want irony? So while the Brits bombed German cities by night, the Americans, like my grandfather who was a navigator aboard a B-17 that nearly got shot down at least twice, were dropping bombs on German cities by day. All part of the cause of my mother's PTSD. Then in the 60's when my grandparents finally met each other, my German grandfather would talk about being an anti-aircraft gunner for the Wermacht shooting allied planes out of the sky above France, and my American grandfather would talk about the nighttime raids he was a part of. My German grandfather never talked about his experiences in the American concentration camp however. He always had a certain disdain/distrust for Americans, and I could never figure out why that was until after he passed, when my grandmother shared with me some of the things he shared with her. He never told her very much about his experiences as a prisoner of war. What he did share was shocking enough...
I do the other too.
But the first thing you said re despair- despair is the goal of despite , one who despises. This is far beyond simple hate, which being on the opposite side of the coin of which love is the other face, is also an attractive force. Despite is a repulsive force. I know I'm not explaining this well. Lemme try this. Humans hate their opposites, their opposition. Demons? Satan? Whatever your word for the diabolical, do not hate. They despise. It is possible to live with hatred. Despite wants nothing less than absolute annihilation of that which it despises. Not death, it wants, needs, it to have never existed, or at the very least, to be never remembered.
Sorry I can't do better, all I can say is, read the books I learnt it from. I learnt it from a fictional trilogy, the first chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever. It's very much a fantasy setting, and absolutely real human interaction. I recommend it to all.
So, that's how I do it. I love. I hate. I will not despair, and absolutely will not despise. Despisers cannot be loved, hated, despised
or despaired of, all of these make it stronger, they need to be taken seriously. Despisers must be ridiculed, laughed at and about, genuinely. Humour is their kryptonite.
Explains why they can't stand memes, huh? Humour makes them desperate, and enough laughter directed at them will have them eaten by the despair that is what they're made from.
Despising leads to despair. That's a wonderful insight! These definitely do try to consume everything that is good about you from the inside, and I can well believe that they are the actual tools of evil. When I read your post, Barak Obama's face appeared in my mind. One time, at the height of his first campaign, when the crowds seemed convinced that he was the second coming, people were holding candles, swaying and crying as he was speaking. I saw a look cross his face, just briefly, that revealed how much he despised and was disgusted by them. Then the mask came back on and he resumed speaking. I sense that he is experiencing the despair about now, which might be why his ability to be charismatic seems to have entirely left him. His attempt to get young black men to vote for Harris was entirely unconvincing, and gave me the impression that he had no emotional resources to give to the effort. That's what despair does. It enfeebles.
Quote: " But the art of living and thinking lies in holding different angles in mind and using the tension productively, choosing now this, now that perspective to get a hold on what's going on."
I would only add that we are involved in a spiritual war, and that spirit wins the war. This means that there are inalienable human rights like freedom including freedom of religious belief that must be respected. There is the Islamic TV series called Ertugrul that provides a view of a heroic human being, faithful to his family, his faith in Allah, his love, his own honor. He is willing to live or die protecting them, which means no fear.
clearly, to manufacture a deeply interwoven, intricate and elaborate conspiracy theory, about this, that and the other thing, requires a high (HUGE) level of thought and energy.
to refute such a deeply interwoven, intricate and elaborate conspiracy theory, about this, that and the other thing, requires an even greater (HUMONGOUS) level of thought and energy.
we are saved.
have a great fucking day, everyone.
i repeat, we are saved.
civilization has been saved.
(sarcasm)
ned,
out!
trump is not an overlord.
he is one of us.
i can feel it in my bones.
yep.
n,
o!!!!!!!!!!
[Link] - Neocons Not Welcomed Into New Trump Team
Trump declares on X he will not be inviting Nikki Haley & Mike Pompeo to join his administration.
~
The article includes something from "twitter"....I mean "X" - of a publicly made statement - and I support that.
From Zero Hedge [Link]
The positive vibes were quickly shattered by reports that Trump will place three quintessential neocons in key national security and diplomacy positions -- Stefanik as UN ambassador, Waltz as national security advisor, and Rubio as Secretary of State. All three are anti-Iran hawks, zealous backers of the State of Israel, and major beneficiaries of pro-Israel lobbyists. According to Track AIPAC, pro-Israel groups have given more than $1 million to Rubio, $900,000 to Stefanik, and $235,000 to Waltz.
You've been royally duped, folks. It's OK, just learn from it for next time you're being lured into the political theatrics tent. Mr. I-don't-start-wars Trump is going to follow orders and get us into a war with Iran. Tucker Carlson telegraphed it when he downplayed Iran's status as a military power. (What a shill he's turned out to be!)
I thought I read recently that "Rubio" indicated - he already has a job.....
Regards,
BK
from about 40 minutes ago: Time will tell no doubt - but the probability of secession increases if that is correct. The probability will only get higher if the swamp is not drained this time Mr. Trump - President elect.
[Link]
Suzie Wiles.
This is the definition of a government.
Violence, theft and murder are immoral, unless a so-called government does it, through authority it gave itself and legitimized by laws it issued itself. States and governments are by far the biggest murderers and thiefs.
Nothing will truly change until man understands how his belief in authority will always enable a select group of people to enact violence on others.
Nothing will truly change until man takes responsibility for all aspects of his life.
Rule of thumb:
"It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellow men." - George MacDonald (probably)
Some have stated that digital currency will prevent money laundering which is the basis for corruption in the West.