Sophie Scholl, The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942
"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan. He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it. Wonderfully silent, yet resistless the course of God's providence. And if even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith?"
John Henry Newman, Parochial Sermons 17
"Men rejected what is good, having cherished the nothings of demons and men, instead of the truth."
Athanasius, On the Incarnation
The Hitler Party likes to emphasize its uniqueness, and it really should not be measured against conventional yardsticks. Even if it were to explode into smithereens today, the fact would remain that it recently won fifteen million voters. Its brutality, loud-mouthedness and brainlessness have acted not as a deterrent but rather as an attraction, and have generated unconditional and subservient followers. But the evil and ugly instincts he has called up will not blow away so easily, and will plague the whole of public life in Germany for long years to come. New political and social systems will replace the old ones, but the after-effects of Hitler will also rise again, and later generations will have to step up for the wrestling match that the German Republic was too cowardly to fight."
Carl von Ossietzky, Winter Fairy Tale, 3 January 1933
"Only one who spent the years following the First World War in Germany can fully understand how hard a battle it was that a man like [Carl von] Ossietzky had to fight. He knew that the tradition of his countrymen, bent on violence and war, had not lost its power. He knew how difficult, thankless and dangerous a task it was. to preach sanity and justice to his countrymen. [plus ça change] In their blindness they repaid him in hatred, persecution and slow destruction; to heed him and to act accordingly would have meant their salvation and a true relief for the whole world. The abstention from the solution of human problems by brute force is the task today as it was then."
Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, 1956
We find it easy to judge others, but we almost always fail to see the same flaw in ourselves.
We shut our eyes and turn away from the truth. And if we are shown it, we react in anger and often violent denial.
This is how our pride draws us to the abyss.
But things are so complicated. What are we to do?
"The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."That's what He said, at many times in many ways.
Micah 6:8
Stocks plunged today, on a combination of factors including more pseudo-hawkish comments from the Fed's Powell, gathering storm clouds over the Mideast, and lousy corporate earnings reports. Especially from companies with some material connection to reality.
It seems we had a risk off day all in all.
Gold and silver rallied.
The VIX rallied higher again.
The Dollar surprisingly lost ground despite the interest rate hawkishness.
Tomorrow is an option expiration for stocks, although certainly not a major one like the infamous triple witch.
We might see a two step, as the traders do their technical trading in the morning, and then square up for the potential uncertainties of the exogenous kind over the weekend.
As Groucho said, 'I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal.'
Have a pleasant evening.
