1 John 4:7-8
“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”
C. S. Lewis
“The pull of fascist politics is powerful. It simplifies human existence, gives us an object, a 'them' whose supposed laziness highlights our own virtue and discipline, encourages us to identify with a forceful leader who helps us make sense of the world, whose bluntness regarding the 'undeserving' people in the world is refreshing. Fascism thrives under conditions of economic uncertainty, where fear and resentment can be mobilized to set citizens against one another,
When you legitimize yourself entirely by inventing enemies, the truth ceases to matter, normal restraints of civilization and decency cease to matter, the checks and balances of normal politics cease to matter.
The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. It limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination."
Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works
"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."
Thomas Clement Douglas
Ask God to show you your sins, especially those to which you have been blinded, and so easily explain away and rationalize, out of habit and pride.
This is the beginning of our salvation, when we still have a choice for acceptance and true repentance.
Stocks were volatile again today, with deep lows and a bit of an afternoon recovery.
Big cap tech, the flag-bearers of this particular market bubble, led the way lower.
Gold and silver caught a bounce after the mugging dealt to the metals yesterday.
The Dollar chopped sideways.
As I have said before, underlying the equity market is a simmering volcano of mispriced risks.
Lies and manipulation are prevalent in far too many areas of our society.
As people grow more cynical, abandoning their souls of themselves and their children for some material fear or advantage, the instability in the markets and social discourse will become more pronounced.
Of course they do not believe it, preferring to see the fault in 'them' and not in the madness of their own hardened hearts, often wrapped in fantasies of 'righteous anger' in response to some grievance.
It is a story as old as Babylon, and evil as sin.
Have a pleasant evening.
"Then it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not."
C. S. Lewis, 1944
