“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Kjerlighedens Gjerninger (Works of Love), 1847
"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable. This is what too few are willing to see."
Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable, 1966
"I fooled myself. I had to. Everybody has to. If the good had been twice as good and the bad only half as bad, I still ought to have seen it. But I didn't want to see it, because I would have then had to think about the consequences of seeing it, what followed from seeing it, what I must do to be decent. I wanted my home and family, my job, my career, a place in the community. Hitlerism was a mass flight to dogma, to the barbaric dogma of the tribe, the dogma that gave every man importance only in so far as the tribe was important and he was a member of the tribe.
The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway.
And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed.
Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God.”
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: Germany 1933-1945
"It seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an independent position toward the emerging circumstances."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1945
"Slowly but surely, something is happening. But isn't that the antithesis of what we have been led to believe, that really nothing unexpected could happen because the very best among us, our elite are 'in control?'
And if the unexpected does occur, it must always and everywhere because of some unavoidable act of God, or even worse an outside interference from someone who is our enemy and hates us. Markets crash and towers fall, and no one knows why, in a culture devoted to deception and distractions."
Jesse, Against the Dying of the Light, 7 June 2017
As a general rule for navigating these troubled times, listen to what they say, but more importantly, watch what they do.
Stocks managed to extend their remarkable rally into the weekend.
VIX is now supine, and signalling a diminished regard for risk
Gold ans silver and the associated miners were under pressure most of the day for this option expiration of stocks.
And they rebounded into the close, as least by the bellwethers that I watch most closely.
The Dollar is hanging on to the 101 handle.
The Donald is making friends in the Middle East. Not a bad thing in itself. But it is all transactional, and part of a fairly cynical deal. Let's see where the wars and peace initiatives go.
There are always some good things happening, even though so many other things might be alarming and discouraging.
Rep. Anna Luna (FL) is chairing a very interesting committee into the Declassification of Federal Secrets.
Here is an account and discussion video from one of the first people to provide testimony, on the declassification of documents associated with the assassination of JFK in 1963.
So speaking of long running coverups and deceptions, what's up with gold and silver?
I think there was plenty of warning that there would be the usual bear raids on the metals and the miners ahead of the monthly stock option expiration.
Particularly now that there is an active campaign from the powers that be to promote a very optimistic embrace of risk assets.
These things always have a bright life at first, but then almost inevitably crumble into cynicism and regret.
But I think even after all that we have seen in the past thirty years, a new crop of true believers has risen up that required to learn lessons from the past that have been forgotten.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
