When Revolution is Inevitable

A pamphlet ironically entitled The Fasts of Louis XV, for instance, described how the king’s agents regularly scoured Paris for girls to add to the royal “harem.”

The Age of Utopia: Christendom from the Renaissance to the Russian Revolution, by John Strickland

Two major revolutions followed the ideas of the Enlightenment.  One, the American, seemingly a mostly successful one for human liberty, offered a system which didn’t last even one hundred years – and, in reality, not even that given the founding generation’s proclivities of violating their own Constitution.

The other, French.  Unlike the American, there really is nothing good to be said for this one.  Of course, not that there was no cause for which to revolt.  And on one level, this is what Strickland examines here.  On a deeper level, which is the larger theme for Strickland in this third book of his four-part series, there is the divorce from God.  But in Strickland’s case, it is deeper still – a divorce from God and Christianity as understood by the universal Church until the eleventh century.

As it has been some time since I have commented on this book, a brief but relevant comment.  I have not yet found Strickland’s larger view convincing.  I am not speaking of the religious context, the doctrinal and theological differences that divided the eastern and western church.  I am considering the governance structures that came out of each – and how these would inform a healthy individual liberty.

In the West, and despite what many claim, there was a constant tension between Church and king.  Neither had complete authority over the other.  In this space, individuals who felt wronged by one could always appeal to the other.

Certainly, each side would try to assume more authority, and the balance would shift often one way or the other.  But until after the Reformation, such a monopoly was never achieved.  It is for this reason that I find no reason to identify as a state any governance entity prior to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 or, perhaps, even the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.  There was no monopoly until these treaties, hence no “state” as we use the term.

Different in the East, where the governance idea was symphony – the emperor, a good Christian man, would govern as the ideal presented in places like Romans 13.  The bishops, supporting and subordinate to the emperor, would offer Christian counsel, and the emperor would accept such counsel.  Not surprisingly, it rarely worked out this way.

With this as background, I return to Strickland as his review of the French Revolution is worth considering.  As indicated in the opening quote, the reputation of the French monarch and the monarchy was one of filth and debauchery.  And, as if the moral issues were not enough, by the end of the eighteenth century, the finances were in crisis.

It is worth stopping to consider that in the case of the American Revolution and the situation of the colonies…the moral situation of the colonial leaders was not such – at least not in any sources I have ever read.  Further, prior to the Revolution, the finances of the local colonies were not a mess (saying nothing of the mess created during and after the war). 

In other words, for these reasons and others, the soil was different in America as opposed to France.  And this difference helped lead to the different outcomes.  Therefore, it is worth asking: what is the soil in the United States today?  And what might this mean for us in our time and the coming decades?

The Art of the Meme

A skill I do not possess…

bad cattitude (el gato malo) has written a three-part series on the value of memes in battling today’s demon-worshippers.  Part one is here, and the other two parts can be found via links at the bottom of each successive part.

A few key points:

a picture may be 1000 words, but a good meme is a treatise.

You know this, based on many memes you have seen.  If you aren’t sure, look at a few of the memes posted by the bad cat.

the information to rapidly make and rarify memes that refute what was once the primary modality of high-speed emotive messaging has completely pantsed the phonies and exposed the dumb-dumbs.

Yes, everything the cat writes is lower-case.

and dogmatists can’t meme.

Dogmatists being those who wish to control us.  In other words, it is a skill that they, like me, do not possess.

But what would they meme, anyway?  By the time they got around to doing it, the lie that they tried to pass off yesterday will have been exposed as a lie today.  The memes expose lies and hypocrisy.  It is the controllers that are at risk here.

A meme created by the left of Alex Jones saying the jab won’t protect you from getting covid or dying?  That would have had a shelf life of about three days.  The meme of Biden saying it will protect you?  That still sells – because the lie has proven to be a lie.

Conclusion

From Saul Alinsky:

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”

Works for me.

Read the series by el gato malo.  Worth a chuckle, but also perhaps a small sign of hope.

The Mark of the Beast Slayer

You want this mark….

Ezekiel 9: 1 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

There is one way out:

3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”

You really want this mark.  Sigh and groan over all the abominations in the city.

5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark….”

Like I said, you want this mark.

Conclusion

The beast slayer:

Revelation 19: 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. 20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Jordan Peterson’s Russia-Ukraine Do-Over

Early on in Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, Jordan Peterson decided to get educated, and chose as his teacher the perpetual warmonger Frederick Kagan.  The video of their discussion is here, and I wrote a short post covering the video here.

To summarize my thoughts on the video…

I made it through about 15 minutes of this garbage.  I could have heard the same thing in about two minutes on CNN.

A sampling of the many of the comments Peterson received as a result of his choice in teachers…

·         This interview was garbage from beginning to end.

·         NATO is not only a defensive alliance, it bombed Yugoslavia with no attacks from it on NATO members

·         I miss Prof Cohen.  And listening to this guy, who seems to be a typical Putin-hater, reminded me

·         Kagan is way off base. No mention of the Nazi brigades, no mention of bloated militarization of Ukraine, the illegal Maidan coup, etc. Everything is Putin, Putin, Putin. Donbas is mostly Russian speaking and they are a cancelled abused people. Kagan should take his academic ego and crawl back under his know-it-all rock. Bad choice JP! You can do better!

·         Kagan's failure to mention Ukraine's state sponsored neonazi forces shows his hand. I don't trust or believe him.

·         Frederick Kagan is schilling for the Neocons.

There were several suggestions that Peterson speak to John Mearsheimer.  One of which was mine.

Well, Peterson has taken a do-over.  But, first, an update on Peterson news.  He has recently joined the Daily Wire.  To me, something like this was inevitable – assuming Peterson’s health held out such that he could continue in his task of bucking (for the most part) the leftist turn of his liberalism.

So, with that, on to the subject video, entitled Russia Vs. Ukraine Or Civil War In The West?  The title suggests that Peterson is aware of something deeper going on than merely “Putin is the next Hitler.”

I won’t go through a blow by blow.  But here are the main themes (and I am not directly quoting Peterson, but offering a flavor):

·         I was pilloried for choosing Kagan as a teacher

·         I watched Mearsheimer

·         It turns out the situation is much more complicated than I was led to believe

·         Putin is concerned that the West wants to turn Russia into the same morally depraved hell-hole that they have forced onto Western society

·         The fight in Ukraine is a mirror of the civil war consuming the West

·         Whatever one might have as a complaint about Putin, he is a far better person than anyone who has led that country in over a hundred years.

Now, Peterson made a few mistakes – he kept messing up on the geography (“…the Russian speakers in the northeast of Ukraine,” etc.).  He didn’t touch very much on the history of Western antagonisms in Ukraine.  He also decided to get into the economic prediction game (“$300 oil”), which is an easy way for others to attack him if he is wrong on any of it.

Christians, Tyranny, and Liberty

I have only recently been exposed to Douglas Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, proprietor of both a blog and a YouTube channel named Blog & Mablog.  I find him funny and not fearful.  He speaks strongly regarding the cultural mess we are in.  Not to say I agree with all of his comments, but he is entertaining and often spot on.

He wrote a post entitled “A Liberty Catechism,” and I will let him introduce it:

Below I have arranged 52 questions on the nature of liberty as biblically understood. If parents work through these questions with their children, memorizing one a week, by the end of that year, their children may serve as something of a bright spot on our otherwise dark horizon.

I am crowd sourcing editorial suggestions on this one, so comments are open. I want to keep the number at 52, so keep that in mind if you have suggested additions or deletions. Helpful ideas from trolls will be courteously but assiduously ignored.

I offered a “helpful idea,” which I will come to at the end of this post.  We will have to wait and see if it is “assiduously ignored”!

In any case, I like the idea of his objective.  I also like that he is throwing it out there for comments and suggestions.  I have some disagreements, but I want to highlight some of the 52 questions that will resonate with readers here:

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32. What is entailed by the right of property?

Basic property rights are foundational to all human rights. The right to property means that a man is free to buy, sell, inherit, trade, or invent, and to own and keep the profits from his industry or good fortune.

Wilson has commented favorably about libertarianism in the past, but, like many, he likes the right to life and property stuff but not the social stuff.  I don’t blame him for this confusion, as too many libertarians glory in the social license and proclaim clearly that it is a required part of libertarian philosophy.

Libertarianism is not a complete ethical system.  Don’t hit first; don’t take my stuff.  This is all that libertarianism properly addresses.

33. Does this mean there is an upper limit on the power of civil government to tax?

Yes. When the government seeks to tax at a rate of 10% or higher, this means that the government is seeing itself as a rival to God. Taxes should be less than the tithe that God requires.

Amen, brother.  Add up federal, state and local income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, taxes inherent in the manufacturers costs in the products we buy and it is easy to suggest that we pay anywhere from 40% - 80% of our income in taxes – with the remainder so heavily regulated that it should be considered a further tax.

41. What is tyranny?

Tyranny is arbitrary government, detached from the authority of the Creator.

For you non-believers out there…you must have something “non-arbitrary” (objective truth) in order to label something as “arbitrary.”  If there is nothing “non-arbitrary” (if there is no such thing as objective truth), then there is no basis on which to criticize or argue against tyranny.

So…you don’t like “the Creator”?  Then call it whatever you like.  But something has to be above and outside of man’s control, else there is no such thing as “tyranny.

42. What is the duty of Christian citizens when confronted by tyranny?

It is the right and the responsibility of every Christian to resist tyranny as it arises.

The Spirit Consuming the West

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There either are objective truths (the Tao, natural law, created order, whatever) or there aren't.  The world will collapse if we continue to act as if there aren't.

If there are objective truths (things we can embrace without question), there are binaries – either / or: either black or white, either male or female, either good or evil, either an unborn human being or a clump of mush. 

If there aren’t objective truths (i.e., we each get to make up our own truths), there can never be conversation.  And without conversation…well, look around us.

Do Christians (or those who are after liberty) always have to keep butting their heads against a wall of obstinance in conversation?  Jesus had a thought on this:

Matthew 7: 6 Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Dogs and pigs.  Why would Jesus say such things?  The same Jesus who said love your neighbor and love your enemy?  Perhaps there are too many mission fields to be harvested to waste time on those fields that are strewn with rocks and thistles.  Perhaps He recognized that the Sons of Disobedience also walk among us.  Not all enemies are created equal, I guess.

Jesus went further:

Matthew 10: 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

And don’t look back.  Pillar of salt and all that.

I heard of a great quote from the latest Pageau-Rohlin video, attributed (rightly or wrongly) to Genghis Khan: "I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."

God used Babylonians, Assyrians, whatever, to punish Israel and Judah.  In our day, it appears God’s vehicle for punishment is wholly internal, self-inflicted – call it a spiritual force that is consuming western humanity. 

Conclusion

Let's pray that Abraham is currently pleading with God for mercy due to the small handful of righteous souls to be found here.  From Richard Rohlin: “Christianity always wins through martyrdom.”  Martyr means witness.  Well, it means this before it comes to the dying part.

Epilogue

Psalm 123:

3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,

for we have had more than enough of contempt.

4 Our soul has had more than enough

of the scorn of those who are at ease,

of the contempt of the proud.