William Dodd, US Ambassador to Germany, Speech in Berlin, October 5, 1933
"Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated on being obedient and taking orders is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's need to think. I may have made an error in judgement — but one thing is beyond dispute: the man was able to work his way up to leader of a people of almost 80 million. His success alone proved that I should subordinate myself to him."
Adolph Eichmann, quoted by Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem, 1963
“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind, 1977
“The last moments before damnation are not often so dramatic. Often the man knows with perfect clarity that some still possible action of his own will could yet save him. But he cannot make this knowledge real to himself. Some tiny habitual sensuality, some resentment, the indulgence of some fatal lethargy, seems to him at that moment more important than the choice between total joy and total destruction.
With eyes wide open, seeing that the endless terror is just about to begin and yet, for the moment, unable to feel terrified, he watches passively, not moving a finger for his own rescue, while the last links with joy and reason are severed, and drowsily sees the trap close upon his soul.”
C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 1945
Do not be overly concerned about the coming of the beast.
The beast may yet come or not in time, but his servants are already here, aggressively doing his will in their lust for money and power.
And they are offering prominent seats at a banquet of everlasting suffering and death.
Stocks rebounded today, although they faded markedly into the close.
Antics for the stock option expiration.
Risks remain mispriced, and the underpinnings of the risk markets are ephemeral.
Gold and silver were smacked around into the close.
This is not the normal action of efficient markets.
The markets reflect the current power elite of the US, which is unprincipled, unstable, and predatory.
So take this into account as you make your short term investment decisions. Or better yet, don't make them, and take a longer term horizon.
The most important thing is that, when the time of reckoning comes, that you will not be found standing with them.
So let's see what the next, holiday-shortened week, will bring.
I remain defensive, since there are so many potential exogenous events looming on the horizon, and how capricious in their decisions that the powerful have become.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
