"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays. We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life. In this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so easily condoned."
Franklin D Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 1937
"At times the truth shines so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day. But then our nature and habit draw a veil over our perception, and we return to a darkness almost as dense as before. We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night.
When I have a difficult subject before me—when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools—I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude. I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace."
Moses Maimonides, Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, 1190
"Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, 'what is real?' Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it."
Philip K. Dick, A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978
"All the world marveled at this, and gave their allegiance to the Beast. And they worshiped the dragon for giving such power to him. as they also worshiped the Beast. 'Who is as great as the Beast?' they exclaimed. 'Who is able to resist him?' And the Beast was allowed to commit great blasphemies against God."
Revelation 13:3-5
Stocks came in wobbly, and went up and down in their usual willful way.
Down they went and a proper selloff was averted, once again, with some obvious propping into the close.
Gold and silver sustained an early smackdown, but in the end gained some ground.
The Dollar fell rather sharply and obviously.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report this coming Friday.
Lawlessness and self-dealing is the fashion of the day, with a heavy dose of malignant narcissism.
Crimes again international law and humanity are defended with duplicity and hypocrisy.
The Constitution itself is battered by money and the will to power.
How all this will end only God knows. But these things rarely end anywhere but badly.
History is incredulous at servile lack of decency and willful collaboration in the face of madness.
"Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so.
Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake?"
The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942
And yet despite all this, the world though fallen is redeemed.
Have a pleasant evening.
