"Never again will we try to persuade a foolish person with reason, for it is senseless and dangerous. In conversation with them, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of them. They are under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in their very being.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
“I fooled myself. I had to. 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.”
Milton Mayer,
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
"The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct
psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make
people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if
the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they
would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had
lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the
statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior
tactical cleverness.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule
is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for
whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer
exists.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
"The foolish ask nothing better than not to have to understand anything, and they even used to get together and try not to understand, because the last thing of which a person is capable is to be malicious and foolish all by themselves. Without understanding, they form spontaneously into herds, not according to any particular affinities but in obedience to the petty ideology, which swallowed up the whole of their small lives, allotted them by birth or chance. They would far rather kill than have to think."
George Bernanos, Under the Sun of Satan
“This great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, compassion, historical necessity or even social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Word, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. Christians are called to compassion and to action. "
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Gold and silver were utterly hammered today, in honor of the usual rigging that occurs around the Non-Farm Payrolls report.
Even though I was in cash and waiting for it, the sheer brazenness of the running of the stop loss orders was amazing.
But we live in exceptionally brazen times.
Stocks ignored everything else and rallied to new highs.
There is an exceptional amount of hysteria and foolishness in public discourse today.
Look deeply into your own hearts.
Disengage from the sites that keep reinforcing the lawlessness and hysteria which may have overtaken your hearts with brazen and incendiary lies. Or not.
I wonder about weapons and restraints, like zip ties, that some of the protesters were said to be carrying as they attempted to breach the House, with 80 hostage-ready Congressmen sheltering therein. That could have been quite a spectacle.
Change is coming. I am not optimistic for areas of deep concern to me such as financial and political campaign funding reform.
And yet, through it all, there is always His loving kindness and tender mercies, like shafts of light in a dark and cloudy day.
By their fruits you will know them.
Little children, beware the love and service of idols.
Have a pleasant weekend.
