His stature was still an asset to the regime, however, and Nero put him to work drafting a letter justifying the killing to the Senate. He had to claim that Nero had acted in self-defense against a dangerous woman, but not by celebrating the death of a mother. It did not impress the Senate, though only a hardcore stoic named Thrasea Paetus showed explicit disapproval of the blatant propaganda.
Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes. On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure. But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies. For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.
The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone. In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”
James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero, 2014
"Hell for all eternity, for so little in exchange. It is true in many respects he assumed the role of the charlatan, yet how apropos, considering his willingness to follow the Father of Lies and deception. If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2008
"The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by elite, self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth."
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966
"And the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendour. ‘All of this I will give to you,’ he said, ‘if you will fall down and worship me.’"
Matthew 4:8-9
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the House of the Dead, 1862
"There is nothing of heaven in the words of the eloquent, or the deeds of the powerful, or the counsels of the wise, or the resolves of the lordly, or the pomp of the wealthy. And yet the Ever-blessed Spirit of God is here; the Presence of the Eternal Son, ten times more glorious, more powerful than when He trod the earth in our flesh, is with us.
Let us ever bear in mind this divine truth, — the more secret God's hand is, the more powerful — the more silent, the more awful."
John Henry Newman, PPS Vol 4, Sermon 17
"And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth — that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His city."
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905
Stocks rallied up to new highs.
VIX fell.
The Dollar maintains the 99 handle.
Gold and silver bounced back.
The people of this world are taken with a greed for riches, and the lust for power.
Ideology wrings the life from their withered principles through a lens of willful deception.
The sun rises with the awful silence of God. though they paint the walls of their Bedlam with darkness.
And so the dawn will come.
"It is better to be a child of God, than king of the whole world." Aloyisus de Gonzaga
Have a pleasant weekend.
