"Satan has been in the Heaven of Heavens and in the abyss of Hell, and surveyed all that lies between them, and in that whole immensity has found only one thing that interests Satan. Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament.
Certainly, he has no choice. He has chosen to have no choice. He has wished to ‘be himself’, and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted. The Hell he carries with him is, in one sense, a Hell of infinite boredom. To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography."
C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost, 1942
"There is probably no greater threat to the faithful than that of the sanctifying of success by worldly measures."
Jesse, Sanctifying Greed, 6 June 2023
"Old moral and traditional barriers to status break down and Americans look for standards of excellence among the circles above them, in terms of which to model themselves and judge their self-esteem.
A society that is in its higher circles and on its middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with an inner moral sense; a society that is merely expedient does not produce men of conscience. A society that narrows the meaning of ‘success’ to the big money and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal."
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, April 1956
"The foolish ask nothing better than not to have to understand anything, and they even used to get together and try not to understand, because the last thing of which a person is capable is to be malicious and foolish all by themselves. Without understanding, they form spontaneously into herds, not according to any particular affinities but in obedience to the petty ideology, which swallowed up the whole of their small lives, allotted them by birth or chance. They would far rather kill than have to think."
George Bernanos, Under the Sun of Satan, 1926
Stocks were slumping again today.
VIX marked time.
The Dollar ticked up.
Gold rallied sharply higher up to key overhead resistance.
Silver moved sideways.
CPI data coming out tomorrow.
It may impinge on the Fed rate decision later this month.
Lies are becoming the norm, without consequence or shame.
What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world— but for some beachfront real estate, a fleeting moment of fame, or insubstantial digits in an account?
Have a pleasant evening.
