“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.
People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite
"I see dead people. Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know that they're dead."
Cole Sear: The Sixth Sense
"They do not see the image of Almighty God before them, and ask themselves what He wishes. And, for the same reason that they do not please Him, they succeed in pleasing themselves. Hence, they become both self-satisfied and self-sufficient, and in consequence they are very well content with themselves, and rate their merit very high, and have no fear at all of any future scrutiny into their conduct.
All sin, indeed, when repented of, He will put away; but pride hardens the heart against repentance, and sensuality debases it to a brutal nature."
John Henry Newman
"People love the sentimentality of their beliefs, the traditions and tribalism and forms of a self-conception, the good feeling that they get from believing that they are better than and different from the great body of mankind. We can be wonderfully profane.
But when it comes to applying those higher principles of belief in their daily lives, most people are highly selective, and in general want nothing to do with them, except as it is convenient, and serves their purposes without sacrifice. And so they become spiritually dead, dried husks of souls that have slowly starved the love from their hearts. They view themselves as superior, and therefore victims of their inferiors. They cling to their hypocrisy like a drowning man might cling to an anchor, down to the depths of the abyss."
Jesse, Dead People, Seeing Only What They Want to See, 8 February 2018
Stocks wobbled around again. The usual rally attempt failed into the close.
Gold and silver were under some pressure.
The Dollar drifted sideways, finishing slightly higher.
VIX fell slightly and remains on the low side for recent history.
There will be a FOMC meeting and rate decision next week.
The market seems to be anticipating a 'neutral' meeting.
Whatever that means.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
