Our Contemporary Tower of Babel

 

I decided to do some lighter reading – novels, books where I would not be so focused on disciplined study and the like.  So I picked up The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Yeah, I know.  Not the lightest reading.  But the reasons why behind choosing this book will be made clear at my other blog in a few weeks – basically, this novel was recommended as a good novel for a Christian man to read.

I don’t know how often I will post something from this book, but some quotes will be too good to pass up.  To begin:

In the majority of instances human beings, even the evil-doers among them, are far more naïve and straightforward than we suppose.  And that includes ourselves.

This seems to suggest that we need not find some complex plot, or deep organizational momentum behind many of the actions we see around us.  People go in the direction that they go, because that is what they want to do.

They are “far more naïve and straightforward than we suppose.”  How might this be understood?  Well, since the novel was recommended by a Christian for Christians, I will go to the Bible:

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

During the reaction to covid, there were emerging countless articles on this idea that there had to be a spirit – an evil spirit – behind the actions of many of the government and political leaders everywhere around the world.  They all acted in concert, in a manner that was clear at the time – and even more so today – that was purposefully designed to crush humanity.

All of humanity was under siege.  From Ephesians 2: 2 “… according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

Were they naïve?  Perhaps many who were driving humanity into darkness were not aware of the spiritual hosts of wickedness which they were serving.  Can someone always know when he or she is in the grip of an evil spirit?  As they are sons of disobedience, they just do what they do because that’s what they want to do.

As to straightforward?  This seems clear – there was an objective to crush mankind.  They did not mess around, no games or trickery.  Like bulls in a China shop.

But, note the quote from Dostoyevsky, the end: “And that includes ourselves.”  We all live driven by a spirit.  The question to ask ourselves: What is the spirit that drives us?  Pray it is this one:

Romans 8: 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Returning to the book, Alyosha (the third son) answered just the question of which spirit drives him:

No sooner, having given the matter some serious thought, had he been struck by the conviction that God and immortality existed, than he immediately said to himself: ‘I want to live for immortality, and I will accept no half-way compromise.’

Are we that driven?  Am I that driven?  No half-way compromise?  We know what is said about lukewarm Christians:

Revelation 3: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Matthew 5: 13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

There is no such thing as a half-way Christian.  You are either all in – 100% – or you are out. 

Alyosha was struck by just this point:

One Way DOGE Might Work

 

I have previously considered this DOGE – department of government efficiency – to be led by Elon and Vivek.  My conclusion:

Even if Trump [because I am still not sure he will be inaugurated] and Musk get in, nothing like this will happen.  Can you even comprehend the weight of those who suck on the government teat?  Everyone who is anyone will fight against every action to reduce the spending.  Banks, the military-industrial-complex, heck, even Trump’s best supporters will fight this (“keep your government hands off of my Medicare”).

At most, Musk and his buddies will make some aspects of government more efficient – Blackwater will fix the DOD, Palantir will fix the CIA and FBI, etc.  You get the idea.    

I want none of that.

I have thought about one way it could work, but first a slight detour for a clue, from several days ago when the eleventh million government shutdown was threatening civilization:

With a Friday deadline to fund the government looming and Republican lawmakers at loggerheads over House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed stopgap spending bill, the conservative House Freedom Caucus is touting a plan to slash federal spending that conveniently leaves the bloated Pentagon budget untouched.

This is the one way DOGE might stand a chance to be implemented.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (none at NASA, plenty at SpaceX) to know that the spending trajectory for the United States is unsustainable.  Now, I am not saying next year or in ten years.  But, thinking long term, it just isn’t.  Tack on the exponential growth of Social Security and Medicare…you get the idea. 

DOGE can work if the DOD and the spook agencies want it to work.  And they will want it to work if they want to continue their fun and games; others in government will want it to work because the only thing backing the US Dollar is aircraft carriers and the stationary carrier in the Middle East.

Now, all government agencies have this desire for continued survival.  But Joe Biden, for all the incoherent things he said over the last four years, got one thing right – and I will paraphrase greatly: who has the F-15s?

It isn’t the Department of Agriculture or the Department of the Interior or the Department of Education.  It sure isn’t grandma and grandpa waiting for a return on all the money they put into the system for forty years.

If the DOD and spook agencies see that the only way they continue over the next fifty years is for all other aspects of government spending to be drastically reduced, well, that’s just what will happen.

Conclusion

Now, I am not sure such rationality exists in any department of this $7 trillion monstrosity.  But not everyone in the military and spook hierarchy is stupid. 

And they have all the meaningful guns.

What’s Next?

Trump won. 

First, some background:

How did he win?

It is clear that if the democrats wanted to, they could have swung a few votes in key districts to change the outcome, and the media would have said “fairest election in history.”  Not sure how the right would have reacted, but there it is.

So, why media and democrat silence?

Call it the aftermath of October 8, 2023 – the day that genocide began.  I don’t think I wrote out any thoughts on this, and I mentioned it to one or two people, but it didn’t sink in enough for me to write it out.  But it should have been obvious: the left is an unstable base for Zionist support; the right is not.  Sure, at the top of each party, the support is there.  But the base?  We have seen the answer.

Black, female college presidents, previously supported by countless millions of dollars of culture destroying money, were railroaded out of their positions because they didn’t fight so-called antisemitism.  But what happens when those that were taught to hate white males figured out that Jewish men were also white males?

Protests on college campuses against what Israel was doing.  Those same students that received endless training to hate white males now turned against a subset of those white males.  There goes the base of the left.  And it may mean the death of DEI – in addition to the economic reasons for its death, it turns out that it is a weapon against those who thought they could control it.

In any case, republicans offer a more stable base for the support of Israel and its genocidal actions than democrats currently do. 

Hence…Trump.

Why no riots?

I certainly believed that the cities would be on fire if Trump was to win – notwithstanding what my gut told me on the item immediately above.  Yet, almost nothing.  Why?  See immediately above.  The left was directed to stand down.  Sure, they are permitted to complain on air, but the sleeper cells have not been activated.

And, so?

Not a prediction, but I still think there is a possibility that Trump will not make it to inauguration.  At this point, he is irrelevant to the cause of Israel.  Republicans have control of all important institutions for at least two years, and their Scofield-brainwashed base is firmly behind the Zionist state.

For the democrats?  This is why I think the whole DEI thing is dead.  They will have to get behind some other movement besides “get whitey” if they want to win again.

Now, a look ahead:

The reality.

As you all know, I am pretty bad at analyzing events in real time.  I am worse at predictions.  This isn’t one. 

Please, No DOGE

 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a plan to create a government efficiency commission led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk if re-elected president. This commission would conduct a financial and performance audit of the entire federal government. Musk is pushing the idea of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), emphasizing concerns about government overspending.

Subsequent comments set a $2 trillion reduction out of a total federal spending of something approaching $7 trillion.

Some History

A few data points to begin.  When the United States closed the gold window in 1971, unleashing all hell on the idea of money and, therefore, fiscal discipline, federal spending was $210 billion.  In 2007, the year before the great financial crisis, spending was $2.7 trillion.  Then came TARP, and all types of supposedly one-time programs, raising spending to $3.5 trillion in 2009.  I say “supposedly one-time,” because the feds never looked back. 

By 2019, the years before the planned-demic, spending grew to $4.4 trillion, almost all of the growth coming under Trump’s watch (with Republican support or a split congress).  Then, the gusher: in 2020, $6.5 trillion – all the various programs to help those poor covidians (in reality, it was all a financial system bailout – the fake illness was just the pretext; once the scam began, every department found a way to not let the crisis go to waste).  Did the number shrink post-covid?  No, current estimates are $6.75 trillion.

To cut $2 trillion from this amount shouldn’t be so tough – just take government back to 2019 levels.  Before the fake illness, before the fake president.  Does anyone feel like the government was somehow starved then, like we didn’t have enough state?

Let’s start with “Department”

I know DOGE is just a cute name, but names come with a mentality, forming a purpose.  How many government departments, once created, have ever been shut down or shrunk? 

In other words, please don’t form a department.  It will be staffed, and soon enough those on the staff will have a reason to perpetuate the existence of another department.

And this might be the worst department ever to perpetuate…

“Government Efficiency”?

First of all, this is an oxymoron.  In order for any institution to be motivated toward efficiency, a few things are required: revenue from willing customers, and the idea of profit and loss.  The government has neither of these.

The government need not satisfy its customers in order to collect revenue; it doesn’t even collect revenue from its customers in any case.  Those who pay into the federal government do so because prison is the other option.

Further, profit and loss are irrelevant to the federal government.  It can tax, print, or borrow to offset any deficits, and can do this almost indefinitely (with the sole form of discipline being an eventual destruction of the currency, the timing of which is unknown and unknowable).

But there is a bigger problem: do I want the government to more efficiently kill innocents overseas; more efficiently spy on me; more efficiently incarcerate perpetrators of victimless crimes; more efficiently process illegal aliens?  Oh, the list can go on.

Almost all that the government does are things that I do not want the government to do.  So why would I want the government to be more efficient at any of these?

So, Now What?

When Genocide is in Fashion

 

Yes.  The polite company finds genocide fashionable.  It’s all the rage.  A couple of things come to mind due to this evolving social trend.

First, does the polite company think genocide will remain contained 10,000 miles away, in an unknown corner of the world?  If it’s good enough for them, why not us?  The United States government has found genocide a useful and moral tool.  When has any tool available to the United States remained in use only “over there.”

They spy on terrorists over there, only to find soon enough the same tools are used against us over here.  They deploy military men and equipment over there, only to find soon enough that the same equipment is now worn and used by law enforcement over here.  They used color revolutions over there, and in the summer of 2020, they used a color revolution over here.

At least so far, the USG hasn’t dropped a nuclear bomb on a US city…wait.  One way or another there are those in the government who were involved in, or at least have knowledge of who was involved in, nine 11.  So, yeah, kind of.

Second, Christians take a beating over many things in history: the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-burning, colonialism, etc.  Set aside the exaggerated nature of many of these accusations – in many cases they are either not true or quite minimal when compared to, say, Genghis Khan or Joseph Stalin.

Fifty or one hundred years from now, Christians won’t be able to hide from the support their parents and grandparent gave to genocide.  This genocide is too well documented.  I used to think it was just evangelical Protestants brainwashed by Scofield that were genocide supporters; Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox can’t be this stupid.  Then I read something that said, yes, Roman Catholics can also be so stupid.

From Chuck Baldwin, who has been excellent on this topic of Christian cheerleaders of genocide:

Obviously, there have been diabolical and demented mass killers before, but never have we seen Christian people—almost as a whole—excuse, defend, facilitate and actively support and assist the maniacal, murderous monsters.

The last twelve months have unveiled a racist, bloodthirsty, maniacal Israeli society that looks at people of other races as nonhuman. They are described as animals. The babies born to their mothers are called little snakes. These killers recognize no law but their own—not international law, not Natural law, not moral law, not Biblical law, not even the law of humanity. They kill at will. Defenseless women and children are slaughtered like cattle. They celebrate death and destruction. They are willing to take the world into global nuclear war to achieve their goal of complete ethnic purging of the Palestinian people. They are wholly without conscience.

Yet, in the Christian West, we find abject apathy or even exuberant excitement for this satanic behavior. Our national government protects and defends it. Worse than that: It assists and facilitates this murderous madness by providing money, weapons of mass destruction, satellite surveillance, intelligence, etc., to the Zionist zealots of death.

Make no mistake about it: The United States of America is as culpable in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Palestine as are the Israelis. So, too, are those Americans—including Christians—who in their hearts support Israel’s genocide.

What about the Eastern Orthodox?  I have seen nothing of support for genocide in this community.  I will bet, within the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Coptic Church is not supportive.  Likely not the Armenians, as they have recent memory of being genocided back when genocide was not in fashion.

Although such memories, real or exaggerated, haven’t impacted today’s genocideers. 

Christians and Politics

 

Roger Mitchell, a regular and valued commenter at both of my blogs, has written a blog post, Should Christians be Involved in Politics?  It is a thought-provoking read, as is much of what he writes.  His answer is “no.”  I offer here his conclusion:

What, then, shall be done? How, then, shall we live? Well, there is nothing to do except to change myself into and in conformance with His likeness, to become holy as He is holy, to accept that there is no other name except His by which I am saved. This alone brings freedom. It is the only path to life. Nothing else will work. Everything else will fail.

You can rationalize all you want. You can make all the excuses you want. You can delude yourselves until the chickens come home to roost. In the end, you are only deceiving yourself.

I offered a comment, as follows:

Roger, I offer a story, taken from an excellent novel on the Spanish Civil War. As you know, fascists vs. communists – although even within each label there were other groups, etc.

Barcelona was more favorable to the communist side. Being a Catholic in this region was almost certain to bring persecution, if not death. Now, I could take a shortcut here – bypassing the more sobering point to the story…well, I will offer the shortcut, then get to the more sobering point.

A Catholic in Barcelona would much prefer the fascists led by Franco. It doesn’t mean they thought godly everything that Franco touched. It just meant relative safety for them and their families.

The more sobering story: before the war broke out, one of the sons of this Catholic family donated blood to a man, saving the man’s life. Turns out this man was a fanatical communist.

He would go on to protect the family during the fighting – with firearms and whatever else – from his fellow communists. He said, to the mother: “not even God can get through me to you.” She would smile, understanding his point even though it was a very poor way to phrase it.

So, I am not sure what I am saying – and, for sure you know how I feel about the lot of them (all the likely winners are supporters of genocide; it doesn’t get more evil than this). Maybe instead of considering it as the lesser of two evils, we consider all as fallen, but some less fallen than others.

Even with this said, I still don’t know how I feel about any of it. The way politics is practiced in a relativist, atheist society, is ugly – even in its least-fallen form.

I have written one post on the novel from which I based my comment, and I offer a couple of excerpts from my post as they are relevant to the point I am offering for consideration:

Gironella [the author] paints a picture of the chaos, turmoil, and terror when one is faced with a situation from which there is no escape – when no avenue offers safety, when no side can be chosen because all sides are violent and repressive, and choosing the wrong (losing) side is just as likely as choosing the right (winning) side; and the “right” and “wrong” sides can change claim to the seat of power, at times even day-to-day.

Throughout the novel, I am struck by the paralyzing nature of the situation – what choices can one make when all choices are bad?  Gironella paints this picture with great nuance and clarity – the lives of everyday people in a boat floating off as it will – with no one able to control it. 

We are not yet at the point of civil war.  But in every way, it seems inevitable that we are headed in this direction.  At that point, will we, as Christians be satisfied if we stayed out of politics?  Before we come to that point, will we rather choose a strongman – say, a Napoleon – to bring order no matter the consequences to libertarian political theory?

Angelo Codevilla was a prescient writer, seeing the divide in America many years ago and where this divide would lead.  I wrote several pieces referencing his work (just search “Codevilla” in the search bar on the right column).  However, I offer his comment most relevant to this topic, written in the run-up to Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016: