A Bargain or a Trap

 Here's the last one for today. At Alt-Market.us Brandon Smith has an article entitled Is Global Technocracy Inevitable or Dangerously Delusional. The so-called tech geniuses and gurus believe that computers will eventually take over the world. Through Artificial Intelligence, the machines will be in charge. But Smith notes that it is entirely in our hands, as it has always been. We can choose to cut the cord, to leave our devises at home. We don't have to live as slaves to this iteration of "world domination."

The bewildering truth behind human technological enslavement is that it is impossible without the voluntary participation of the intended slaves. People must welcome technocracy into their lives in order for it to succeed. The populace has to believe, blindly, that they cannot live without it, or that authoritarianism by algorithmic consensus is “inevitable.”

For example, the average person living in a first world economy voluntarily carries a cell phone everywhere they go at all times without fail. To be without it, in their minds, is to be naked, at risk, unprepared and disconnected from civilization. I grew up in the 1980s and we did just fine without having a phone on our hip every moment of the day. Even now, I refuse to carry one.

Why? First, as most people should be aware of by now (the Edward Snowden revelations left no doubt), a cell phone is a perfect technocratic device. It has multilayered tracking, using GPS, WiFi routers, and cell tower triangulation to track your every step. Not only that, but it can be used to record your daily patterns, your habits, who your friends are, where you were on any given day many months or years ago.

Then there’s the backdoor functions hidden in app software that allows governments and corporations to to access your cell’s microphone and camera, even when you think the device is shut off. The private details of your life could be recorded and collated. In a world where privacy is being declared “dead” by boasting technocrats, why help them out by carrying something that listens to everything you say and chronicles everything you do?

Like Mr. Smith, I grew up at a time when there were no computers. We all got along just fine. We used paper maps to get around. We went to the library for information. We employed slide rules to perform calculations.  We actually wrote down things on paper with ink delivery devises called "pens." Young people are fascinated with fountain pens and often ask me to demonstrate one. My point is that we can live without a lot of this stuff. Indeed, in many ways our lives were better, if less convenient, then. Convenience is only worth so much. It is certainly not worth your freedom and your soul.  They are offering you a bargain, but it is also a trap.

Grab a cup of coffee and read the whole article. it is well worth thinking about it.

A Christian Revival

 It seems that today is my day for disagreeing with the story title writers at the American Thinker This time it is the article entitled God Is Back by S. R. Piccoli. God has always been there, will always be there, and constantly calls to people to come to Him. We are the ones who stray, like lost sheep, from His embrace. The title of the article should have been "People Flocking to God."

There. Having fixed the author's title for him, let me note that I have noticed the same thing, though I did not have the statistics. In my own congregation, I have seen an upswing in new members, both couples with children and single men. (The phenomenon of men entering the church without women is something I have not thought enough about, being too old and too married for that sort of thing. But if the number of single women who believe themselves to be oppressed by society and the "patriarchy," and voted for Mamdani are any indication, there is a huge lack of gratitude among our young women today. If young women want to see patriarchy, they should take a hard look at Muslim societies. Women are considered the possession of a man, to be bought and sold like slaves.)

The revival of Christianity among both young people and intellectuals is good news. We will need them to fight off the coming Muslim attempt to conquer the West. I have noted many times here that Islam is not from God, but is from the devil himself. The followers of Islam, like their father, build nothing, invent nothing, make nothing. They only destroy. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Christian God, created us, sustains us, and builds us up. Christians, like their Father, invent, build, and attempt to make the world better. Even Richard Dawkins admits he would rather live in a culture based on Christian principles.

Understand that the Church Christ founded will never fall, so whose side would you rather be on?

Nick Fuentes: Man of the Left

 Joseph Ford Cotto has an article claiming that Nick Fuentes proves 'No Enemies to the Right' is suicide for the GOP. I read the article at the American Thinker, and it does get better, but seems to avoid the obvious. So, let's back the truck up a bit. Let us note that Nick Fuentes is not to the right of the GOP. He in fact is a part of the Marxist Left. He is wacky, emotional, his principles are not well thought out, but he is of the Left. He praises Hitler and Stalin for crying out loud.  We have no problem declaring him, and anyone who follows him an enemy. We don't want him anywhere near Republican politics. Period.

One can talk good sense to the vast majority of Republicans and conservatives, however. To them, the message is clear. There is no moral, political, or strategic justification for allowing Fuentes or his followers anywhere near GOP and right-leaning institutions. They must be screened out of every respectable, or even quasi-respectable, non-lefty function, media enterprise, political campaign, donor network, youth organization, party organ, political action committee, and think tank without hesitation or apology.

So, Cotto has it correct in the end, except that he allows himself to believe the old canard that Hitler and the Nazi party were of the Right. They were not. Perhaps they could be considered to the right of Stalin, but they were still Socialists and of the Left.  Reagan's 11th Commandment does not apply.

Man Bites Dog Stories

Well, here's something different...way different.  This is a man bites dog story if ever there was one. Apparently, in Western North Carolina, a bald eagle dropped a cat through a motorist's windshield. You can find the story at Sky High Surprise: Bald Eagle Hurls Cat At Unsuspecting Motorist.

These are things you and I can't explain. It is like the time that a little bird, a type of parrot, landed on Mrs. PolyKahr's shoulder. It was obviously someone's pet, but whose? Having had parrots before, we put him in a proper cage, fed him the proper diet, and put up posters around asking if anyone knew to whom he belonged. After about 7 months or so, we had decided that he was ours, when our little bird needed the care of a veterinarian. It turned out that the original owner had taken the bird to that particular vet, and so eventually bird and owner found themselves together again.

One can't make this stuff up. Really, these things are just too freaky.

The Three Estates of Man

 I have spoken about what this thing called "conservatism" is all about.  In the past, I have differentiated conservatism from traditionalism.  Traditionalism often masquerades as conservatism, but they are not the same thing.  Conservatism conserves our founding principles, as contained in our Constitution.  Traditionalism is conserving what has been, no matter that it was originally a radical position. Being conservative requires discernment to know the right path.  Sometimes conservatism is traditionalism, but sometimes it requires us to try new things to achieve old ideas.

Jenna Ellis presents us with an even deeper idea of conservativism in her piece at Townhall.com today entitled Real Conservatism: Pursuing What God Ordained. My previous definition of conservatism was essentially political, and to some degree materialist. Ellis points us to an apolitical conservatism with which we can combat all forms of ideology and materialism by following God's original plan for us.

Ellis opens with a warning for us old dogs. That warning is that young people have grown weary of the usual guff the movement conservatives give them. They have become wary of traditional institutions which they see as corrupted. Ellis is correct in her assessment. And an old dog still can learn new tricks. Each of the "institutions" started out as something new once upon a time. But many have outlived their usefulness to conservatives.  They need to change or be reprogramed to serve a new generation:

For years now, the so-called “New Right” has expressed a deep and growing distrust of America’s institutions. And honestly? They’re not wrong to feel that way. Every generation eventually realizes that the shiny buildings and bureaucratic titles we’re told to trust are, in reality, just man-made structures run by flawed people. Washington think tanks, legacy media, universities and even parts of our own political machinery have squandered their credibility.

But in reacting against the failure of man-made institutions, too many conservatives — especially younger ones — have started believing the entire conservative project is obsolete. They look at the GOP establishment clinging to “Reaganism” in 2025 like a security blanket or nostalgically quoting the Founders without offering any path forward and understandably wonder whether the future belongs to populists who burn everything down or technocrats who want to rebuild everything from scratch.

Both sides are making the same mistake: they’re acting like institutions are the problem.

But the real problem is the wrong institutions.

Conservatism was never about “conserving” whatever man happened to build. Conservatism was — and must again be — about conserving what God ordained: the permanent institutions that He designed for human flourishing.

So, what are the God ordained institutions that are designed for human flourishing?

There are three institutions Scripture establishes:

1. The Church, tasked with proclaiming truth.

2. The family, the foundational unit of society.

3. Civil government, designed not to create rights but to secure pre-political rights endowed by our Creator.

Everything else — parties, agencies, bureaucracies, schools, media, “experts,” political influencers — is downstream from human ambition and human failure.

Ellis here notes what Luther described as the 3 estates of man: the State, the Household, and the Church.  One has specific duties in all three.  So, in our culture, voting is a part of our civic duty under the State as well as paying taxes and defending its borders.  We also have specific duties under our Household.  For instance, earning a living, leading prayer and worship, nurturing children and so on.  Regular church attendance is also a part of a man's responsibilities.  All three estates have been under siege for at least 100 years.

I would note that I have voted in every election since Nixon became president. In all that time, for the most part I have held my nose and voted for the least bad choice. For the most part that has meant voting Republican, even though I acknowledge that the Republican party is the stupid party, able to snatch defeat from the mouth of victory. Right now, the Democrat party, always the evil party, is in disarray. But they will eventually right themselves and move to the center again. We, as conservatives need to focus Church, family, and achieving a civil government that secures our God given rights.

Update: Watch Modernity is about to collapse. Richard the Fourth comes from a British perspective, but puts his finger on the source of our troubles. Man made ideologies are, not surprisingly, materialist and seek worldly things rather than sacred things.

Socialism Always Fails...Always

 Late yesterday, at the American Thinker D. Parker had a great post entitled The running gag, the leftists lie: 'Socialism has never been tried before'. As Parker notes in his post, socialism has actually been tried many times over hundreds of years, and has...failed...every...time. He notes, socialism started in this country with some of our forebears. For example, the Mayflower colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts nearly starved to death under collectivism. They had made all land common property and expected the people to all give their utmost to ensure the common good. After all, this was a Christian colony.  Trouble was that each person expected someone else to do the hard and dirty work. It is the tragedy of the commons so lamented among environmentalists, where when everybody owns it, nobody worries about conserving it.

Parker describes a sampling of socialist experiments that have taken place in the United States over the last 200 years. None of these were the totalitarian variety. All were entirely voluntary. They did not survive. And little wonder. Like the pilgrims' experiment, when people realize they will get the same as everyone else no matter how hard they work, no matter whether they have good ideas for improving things, they slack off. It is human nature. People will work for their family, for themselves, and a few will work for altruistic reasons. But generally, nobody works for nothing. Indeed, this is called slavery.

So much for the running gag that is the leftist lie: Socialism has never been tried before. It’s been tried everywhere, including the birthplace of AOC, and it’s never worked in 200 years. That’s a consistent record of failure that the left needs to be ashamed of, once you consider the mass murder and misery that always accompany these socialistic schemes.

If you are not familiar with the socialist experiments Parker mentions, it is an interesting exploration. If you happen to be leaning towards socialism, it is worth your while to study them and ask yourself if the current crop of socialists has proposed anything different? If not, how will the current politician succeed where the ones in the past failed?

As far as "capitalism" goes, it is just the way business has always been done. It is trading something you have for something you want more. Merchants would load a ship with, say, grain, wine and olive oil, and hope to trade these for copper, iron, and perhaps spices or luxury goods. In the process, the merchant hoped to make a small profit to provide for his family and be able to purchase his next shipload of goods. The problem with our current "capitalism" is that it has become crony capitalism which is actually corporate socialism. If politicians can note that a business is "too big to fail," with a straight face, they should seriously think about breaking that business up.  Oh, and as we are learning from the collapse of the EV market, you can't sell something nobody wants without government mandates.

Please read the whole post.

You Can Not Be Left and Be Christian

I have said it, but I have never heard anyone else say it.  You can not be a disciple of Christ, and call yourself a Christian, and be a leftist.  There are many reasons for this.  But the most glaring reason is that the Left views abortion like a secular sacrament. Abortion is child sacrifice, the same as what the Bible describes as passing their children through the fire.  God ordered the Israelite armies to destroy cities that did this.  He ordered them to destroy men, women, children and even animals.  He did not want anything to remain of such people.  What do you think he thinks of us?  In any case, I agree with the speaker in this video.

I would note that there are some commenters who think that Christianity is separate from such things. They want to have it both ways. They talk about being a progressive Christian. I agree that the Right is not universally on the side of Christ. But the Left is pretty universally against Christ and on the side of the devil. You can not be neutral. You can not sit on the fence. And, oh by the way, God is not your co-pilot. You must be on Christ's side in all things, or you are lost.

Please go watch the video. It is short.