“If we can stop him, we shall prevent the collapse of Western civilization. No pressure.” – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
How many contractors does it take to screw in a light bulb? I’ll let you know when I get one to call me back.
Many times we look at a mess, and think, “Well, that’s just so broken that nothing, nothing will ever be okay again.” That would describe my first marriage. I don’t write more about that bad marriages because bad marriages aren’t all that interesting unless it’s in Florida and involves an alligator, meth, and a Clinton. Besides, it’s over.
So, did it really matter?
In my case, yes.
When I sat back after it was all concluded, one of the things that I did was really think about it, and try to figure out what (if anything) that I had done wrong in the marriage. On hindsight, there was plenty that I did wrong. Though I’d love to blame it all on her since , I certainly played my part. In the end, I knew I’d never find anyone like my ex-wife again. Of course, that was my goal.
There I was, recently divorced, in debt, underwater on my house, and with a stack of bills that were immediately due. It was the worst place I’d ever been in my life, with the exception of being married to my ex. Why are divorces expensive? They’re worth it.
Do divorcing stoners get joint custody?
I realize now that this wasn’t as bad as I thought it was then, but back then it looked like a jet had crashed into my life.
What did I do?
I put one foot in front of the other, met The Mrs., paid off my bills (that took four years), had first one kid and then another, and sold the house right as the housing boom was taking off. None of this was predictable to me at the time of the divorce.
But this isn’t about me.
What kind of eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie? That’s a moray.
When you look at, say, Japan in 1945, it was almost worse than my divorce. Almost. The land had been nuked, bombed, and about 4%, nearly one out of twenty, of the Japanese population had been killed in the war. Their industry had been devastated; their army dismantled, their anime undrawn.
So, they gave up.
No, just kidding. They didn’t give up. They buckled down and became the economic growth story, leading the world in the production of quality cars and electronics by the early 1970s, just a little over a generation after the end of the war and the devastation.
You could not have predicted that Japan would have been so successful that by the late 1980s people were expecting it to have an economy that many felt would soon be larger than the economy of the United States. Luckily, the Japanese discovered mascot suits, and have settled back into being one of the largest, most functional, highest standard of living places in the world who is also a bit crazy.
Why did U-Boats in World War II have dogs as mascots? So they could have a sub woofer.
The point remains – you cannot guess the end by the beginning.
As I look around the world now, I see a world that is filled with conflict, some of which is horrifying. Some of the conflict threatens to change the entire world balance of power. Some of the cataclysmic changes we’ve seen in society have ripped apart the basis for stability of the atom of society – the family and have created new structures that are actively against every virtue and celebrate their opposites.
All of that is true. And yet, I still am optimistic. Why? Because, when I look back through history, we’ve driven to the cliff, again and again and even tried to jump off. When the Roman Empire fell because of many of the same things ailing Western Civilization today, the game wasn’t over. Europe rebounded and eventually (after a lot of struggle) reached heights that had never been seen before in the history of mankind. The setback of the fall of the Roman Empire had been the catalyst for the rebirth of Europe.
Was everything the same?
No. But the foundations for a stable society that can create wealth, freedom, and exemplify virtue haven’t changed since civilization itself was formed. These things are necessary. Humans have changed since civilization started, but the basic things that motivate us and keep us going when it’s cold and dark out haven’t: the things that give us hope are family, religion, and the will to create – something far more than just the will to survive – amoeba and Leftists can do that.
These things don’t include so much of what we see being indoctrinated into the culture today, things that are anti-child, anti-family, and anti-life. These are now being celebrated as virtues, and it’s devastating and causes civilization to unravel.
Surely that burning oil could have created a full tank?
This unravelling, however, will end up being the basis of something new and wonderful: although all great civilizations rhyme, they don’t have to look exactly the same. I really believe that, perhaps, the greatest and most golden age of humanity may be before us, rather than behind us.
You really can’t see it now in a world that’s falling apart because of the absolute inversion of values, but I assure you, it’s there. We will win. Deep down, Kipling knew it over 100 years ago when he penned The Gods of the Copybook Headings (which I’ll trot out once more, full poem below).
We cannot lose because those values that make civilization worth living have nothing to do with the cultural change being forced down our throats. The irony is that, by weakening our culture they bring their defeat closer to them, faster. Hormone treatment of children has not, is not, and will never be a way to create a stable society. It is, in fact, a way to create a crushed number of people that are so broken and confused inside that there is no way that they can create any sort of civilization.
No, everything is breaking apart, and it will lead, inevitably, to the next stage, which is going to be wonderful, though the route won’t be easy. Be of good cheer. I’ll put it in better hands than mine to point out what’s coming:
The Gods of the Copybook Headings, by Rudyard Kipling
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
You are correct it does get better, but first the most evil man ever born will try to run the world and the world will love him. Then the One who made it will break it and make it new.
He will break it, make it new, and break it again.
I sense the odds of that going up very quickly.
Excellent Post! Thank you.
wendyworn
Thank you!
Optimism is indeed the fuel required to keep things going once the oil runs out.
And I can always wear corduroy pants and walk fast to keep my legs warm.
In scuba class, it was taught as “when an eel bites your thigh, like a big pizza pie, that’s a moray!”
It just seems that in today’s present situation, especially in Europe, America, Australia, Canada, etc. that with all of the immigration and with her being no motivation among the less Melanated to clan up there is less optimism for a rebuilding. There is less shared values in these homogeneous populations to create something wonderful any longer. Or am I just being a pessimist?
Things have to go bad, the back has to go against the wall to change the fall. The kids? They haven’t given up. At all.
‘Feminian Sandstones’ lol. Pinned the tail on the jenny.
Yup when things look bad the solution is just do the next necessary thing, then the next. Take it from an old campaigner. That’s how shit ends up getting solved.
These past decades most certainly are part of birthing something new on this planet. What the real church is birthing will prevail, eventually. In fact, both sides are busy doing the birthing thing.
‘the things that give us hope are family, religion, and the will to create’
Good point about the fire to create. This comes from God and is bequeathed to certain of His children, and to others no. As for hope, I place none in mankind and all in Father and King, tho it’s not exactly hope, more like impatience. My religion is my family, there is no other, and a small group they are too.
It is. Despair comes from a different place.
It’s not that I think after it all collapses it won’t be rebuilt.
It’s just the thousand years (more or less) between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the renaissance that’s the chilling factor. I’d like for my kids and grand kid – and their lines – to have a better life than I did. Not that I know exactly what that means.
The bigger the fall, the longer the rebound. The good news is that the information is so, well, everywhere, that I think the rebound will be quicker.
Quick rebound? Possibly. But, I remind myself that I started collecting ‘dead tree’ (EMP stable) books after reading ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ by Walter M. Miller Jr. While I have a formidable library, a good half of it is ‘in the cloud’, or otherwise ‘digitized’. When the eventual EMP’s are used to kill our infrastructure (either man made, or the from a ‘well aimed’ CME from Sol), anything not ‘shelf stable’ (information wise) will be toast. And unfortunately, passing information from Master to Apprentice doesn’t work well as a way to preserve information, at least – not when we’re talking the kind of volumes we have supporting our current technocracy….
P.S. – “A Canticle for Leibowitz” is recommended reading, if you haven’t already. 😉
Most of mine is paper, but how long will that last? 100 years?
Love Canticle.
There will be areas that will never recover. And areas that will. Choose wisely and prepare for the worst.
Yes. There are areas that never recovered after the fall of Rome. Rome took forever.
As always, I appreciate your optimism; it always seems to arrive just when I need it most.
And as a bonus, nothing brings me mo’ glee than reading Kipling!
My pleasure. We’re all in this together, and I think Rudyard would have approved.
North America will be rebuilt, but unless we are very careful and remarkably lucky, it will be rebuilt as a combination of Venezuela and Somalia, ruled by the Han.
Maybe so. I wouldn’t like to live under Han Chinese rule (even though I am one — though an apostate and “not one of us!!!” as I have been told by proper Chinamen on multiple occasions). But I digress. I fear rule by (dot) Indians. Those people have all the vices but few of the virtues of our current minority overlords. The only improvement would be that there wouldn’t be utter fools believing that “salvation comes from the Hindus.”
Maybe, but probably not. We’ll keep the fire going.
Here’s an important glimpse through the looking glass at the dynamic coming soon to the USA : how to punch through economic and social disaster to get thru to the other side….
https://news.yahoo.com/argentine-voters-fired-anger-ready-081023750.html
Here’s the Tucker Carlson interview with Milei, well worth watching…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZFx2TuEVw4?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=840&h=473%5D
“Radical???” He sounds reasonable to me.
Tucker could not do what he was doing with Fox. Glad he’s loose.
Nicely put John. In my recently renewed faith I am certain that the evil that wishes to control us will fail as they always undo their own work. Human nature will always return to the fundamentals.
As hinted above we always prepare for the future of our children. There are 2 types of folk – children of the sun and children of the snow.
Children of the snow know that winter is coming and preparations must be made. Children of the sun live in ‘the now’ and party on. The 2 cannot mix and when winter arrives only one remains.
Winter is coming.
Evil wants us to give up to despair.
I do love a long, cold winter.
I find that a lack of the (at least *occasional*) ‘Cold Hard Winter’ is the cause for an over-abundance of insect pests the following spring/summer that make ‘responsible’ gardening (i.e. – w/o use of military grade insecticides) difficult, at best. I know that they have to eat too, but I’d like it if they ate someone else’s vegetables! 😉
And yes, I do recognize the potential allegories present in my above response… 😉
Yeah, I’ll miss that – fresh veggies . . . whenever.
Thanks John, I love your optimistic outlook!
I like to think of these things in the most basic practical terms. (Not really a choice, so much as, I really don’t know how to do anything else!)
This is really just a matter of faith.
You have to “put one foot in front of the other” and do whatever needs to be done to improve your situation.
You have to have faith that will make a difference.
What’s the other option?
Lay down & die?
That seems… decidedly unhelpful & suboptimal, rather unproductive.
Ultimately, this is really just Thomas the choo choo logic – I think I can, I think I can. (Embarrassingly for me, I’m really not capable of much beyond that!)
I’m going to go out on a limb here & predict that we’ll be ok (after a lot of hard work) if we just start to be honest with one another again: https://truthreciprocitysovereignty.wordpress.com/2023/10/14/geography-is-destiny-embracing-fundamental-truths-identifying-fantasy-amp-infantilization-and-making-choices-that-help-us-avoid-evil-outcomes/
Except for Canadians. They’re screwed! Just kidding Canadians, we love you! Please send Castro’s Little Bastard our regards in the form of the old one digit solute if you would. That makes Americans smile. 🙂
That contractors joke is NOT FUNNY!
I’m on my fifth old home. My husband just loves the older styles (yes, he probably is clinically crazy, but I love him still).
We are waiting for a report back for our insurance company to see if they will pay for repair of our living room ceiling – water damage after a torrential rainstorm), clearing out two bathrooms and a kitchen for floor replacement next Monday a week from now, and still trying to clean/unpack/organize the stuff moved in that has not, so far, been dealt with.
But the house should be lovely – an early 1900s little CapeCod a few short blocks from Lake Erie.
Very nice – I hope it all comes together. In two weeks or so.
John, the elements that create Spring are present in Autumn and survive through Winter. It is just getting through the Winter that is difficult.
If I had an analogy, it would be that certain sides are not only eating out their own stocks, they have moved on to eating their own seed corn. When that is gone, they will look about – but will find (as always happens) that the prepared – be it physical mental, spiritual, or all of the above – will be about the building.
It is pretty hard to build a future on a bankruptcy, a bankrupt philosophy, and little to show as to why you can recommend your way of life.
The longer the winter, the cleaner the spring.
It’s Saul Good Man was a wise feller
Yup!