The coldness of the societal mindset, the isolated
competitor, was the precondition, as indifference to the fate of others, for the fact that only very few people
reacted. The torturers know this, and they put it to test ever anew.
One must come to know the mechanisms that render people capable of such deeds, must reveal these
mechanisms to them, and strive, by awakening a general awareness of those mechanisms, to prevent people
from becoming so again.
It is not the victims who are guilty, not even in the sophistic and caricatured sense in
which still today many like to construe it. Only those who unreflectingly vented their hate and aggression upon
them are guilty. One must labor against this lack of reflection, must dissuade people from striking outward
without reflecting upon themselves. The only education that has any sense at all is an education toward critical
self-reflection."
Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz, 18 April 1966
"The present war crisis is something we have made entirely for and by ourselves. There is in reality not the slightest logical reason for war, and yet the whole world is plunging headlong into frightful destruction, and doing so with the purpose of avoiding war and preserving peace! This is a true war-madness, an illness of the mind and the spirit that is spreading with a furious and subtle contagion all over the world."
Thomas Merton, The Root of War, The Catholic Worker, October 1961
"The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."
The Project For a New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses, 1997
"Jesus looked at them and said, 'One of you who eats with Me will betray Me.' How was it possible to share such an intimate and profound moment with the Savior and then rush so quickly toward betrayal and spiritual failure? During the intense pressures of Gethsemane and the cross, the disciples did things they never thought they would do. They had no idea how cruel and hateful the world around them would be to their Lord. But only Jesus knew the full extent of the temptation they would face. In the pressure of the moment the heart does surprising things.
How quickly the surroundings of your life can shift from the security and tranquility of an upper room to the harsh reality of Gethsemane and the cross. Guard your heart. Listen now to the Lord’s gentle warning: the failure that was possible with His first disciples is also possible with you. You, too, are capable of forsaking Jesus, just as the first disciples did."
Henry Blackaby, The Unthinkable, 1998
“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”
C. S. Lewis
Stocks came in weak today, and fell in the morning.
But surprise, they took it back to unchanged by the close.
One can only wonder.
Gold and silver were hit by selling, probably to clear out any buyers who stuck a toe back in after the recent low for the NFP and the Fed.
The old 'gut punch' just to test resolve and shake out the weak hands.
Why do you think a few big players pay for all that order flow from the retail brokers? Although not individually, the big players know what the segments of the market are buying, and pretty much in real time these days.
They hide their own plays and positions in dark pools. Nice.
VIX flopped back down into the fog.
Most of us seem to be in a general fog these days.
Time to wake up.
"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."
Fulton J. Sheen
Have a pleasant evening.
