Truth: Never Give Up

“And remember, I’m offering the truth, nothing more.” – The Matrix

What is the first foreign language lesson given to French troops?  “I surrender,” in German.

I remember walking down a very big hill.  Big, in this case, was over 14,000 feet (28,000 meters) in height.  When I convinced my friends to climb it with me, they were skeptical.  14,000 feet is, by most accounts, a pretty tall hill.  And this particular one didn’t have a gift shop at the top.

Going up was actually easy.  We even smoked a cigar back at our 12,000 foot (37 liter) basecamp after we climbed it.  I tossed three beers in the glacier by our tents, but by the time we got back from the summit, one had frozen and cracked open.  So, the three of us shared two beers.  We each had our own cigar.  I even Googled® how to light a cigar, and 43,800,000 matches.

That’s a lot of matches, which surprised me.  Normally it takes me one or two.

We then slept after our trip, and spent the night at our basecamp.  I’ve never had a meal as exquisite as the dehydrated chili-mac that I had that night.  Our basecamp was so high that boiling water wasn’t very hot at all.  And bugs?  Not a problem.  No mosquito can fly in air that thin.  Really.

Normally, when you’ve climbed one of the tallest mountains in North America, you think, “Well, going down is easy, as long as it’s not over a cliff.”

That was what I thought.

I would tell more cliff jokes, but most of them are pretty edgy.

I climbed the hill in running shoes.  It’s easy going up in those.

But down?  That’s a different story.  For me, the downhill part was the hardest.  Those running shoes were loose enough that each time I stepped down on that path, they slipped.  Maybe a quarter of an inch (57 kilojoules).  Maybe even an eighth of an inch (34 megaergs).  But it slipped.

The problem with a foot slipping on the inside of a shoe is that it builds up heat.  The heat was absorbed by the sole of my foot (I’m assuming a metric foot is a hand?) and built up.

Halfway down the mountain, my feet really, really hurt.  Pain focused my mind on the following thoughts:

  • Owwww, my feet hurt!
  • I never give up.
  • Owwww, my feet hurt!

When we got back to the Jeep® that originally took us to the trailhead, I gratefully tossed my backpack in.  We then bounced down the hill, and then zoomed across the flatland to the place we were staying.  If there’s anything as fine as having climbed a mountain and then feeling the wind in your hair (I had it then) as you scoot on a highway at 70 miles per hour (230 km/min), I don’t know what it is.

I heard that 98% of Jeeps® that have ever been made are on the road today!  The other 2% made it home.

When I got back to where we were staying, I pulled my shoes off.  When I peeled my socks off, the bottom skin of both feet came off.

Stop!

It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.  I had a blister that covered the entire part of both of my feet.  When I, um, removed it, a slight breeze felt like a hurricane filled with stainless steel scouring pads.  Again, a beer or two helped dampen the pain.

The good news?

My feet got better.

I’m telling you that not giving up has consequences.  And most of the consequences are good, especially for pride.

My friends on the trip asked me this:  “Why didn’t you let us carry your pack?”

My response was simple:  “I carried it up, I’m carrying it down.”

Congress has a new sign hanging up by their copy of the Constitution:  Not Responsible For Lost Or Stolen Articles.

Responsibility is like that.  Once you own it, putting it down is much harder than picking it up in the first place.  And giving up?  Once you do that, it becomes a habit.

I speak, of course, of where the Right stands.

We’re not winning here in 2021.

  • The courts appear to be an extra arm of the Left.
  • The troops are being culled – if you have a belief to the Right of Ché Guévérrå, well, out you go.
  • Opinions on the Internet? They had better be the correct ones or they’ll never see the light of day.

So?

Ask me if I care if my opinions are unpopular with Google®, Coca-Cola™, Chick-fil-a™, or Nike©.

I do not.

The Truth doesn’t cease being the Truth because it’s mocked or because corporate HR departments blame it for (spins wheel) just being so damn pretty.  The Truth always remains the Truth.

I guess there is a Colonel of truth to what he says?

I am, thankfully, of an age and status where I don’t ever think I’ll have to lie to anyone, ever, again in my life.  The Mrs.?  I told her when we met that I’d never lie to her, and I haven’t, which is why she never, ever, asks if those pants make her butt look big.  Is it the pants, or is it the butt?

Never ask a question you don’t want to hear a Truthful answer to.

Everyone has the ability to have these superpowers:

  • Never Give Up
  • Always Tell The Truth
  • To Thine Own Self Be True

Okay, I got the last bullet point from Gilligan’s Island.  Really.  There was an episode where they did a musical version of Hamlet, which was my first encounter with the Bard.

There was an earthquake during the production.  It was quite the Shakesperience.

But the biggest sin of all is this one:  giving up.

The Boy texted me that Fox News® has lost over 50% of their web traffic since the election.  That sounds like despair.  And despair is giving up.

Me?

I’m not done.  Why should I be?  The one thing I could do to betray myself, and to betray everything I believe in?  Is to give up.  That would be giving up on me, and giving up on you.

I can’t abide by that.

Corporate powers may try to silence me, and may temporarily lower my traffic.

That won’t stop the signal.

And if I fall?  A dozen others will take my place.  Truth will win.  It may make a thousand years, and billions of lives, but Truth will win.

Does gravity care if you believe in it?  It does not.  Neither does the Truth.

Which is why I won’t give up.  And which is why the Truth will always win.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

47 thoughts on “Truth: Never Give Up”

  1. Dammit Wilder you are getting good at this! I really needed to hear this today, so thank you and I won’t give up…..ever.

    1. That’s why I wrote it! We can’t let this get to us. Life is too short, and giving up? Maybe the worst sin.

    1. Ha! True enough. If you don’t mouth the words you will be cancelled.

      Paging Joseph Stalin . . . .

  4. After ripping my toenail off hiking down the Sliding Sands trail in Haleakala, I later found that there actually is a proper way to tie your foot into a shoe/boot to stop it from moving while hiking. Who knew…

  5. That is why us dirt people keep doing daily what we do. Even if it takes more ibuprofen. All we can do begins at our house and ends at the street basically. Finally started reading The Fourth Turning even though I have had the book for quite some time and pretty much saw what was coming a long time ago. It is a busy read with to many references but I made a note in the book at the beginning, “This was written in 1997” in case one of my kids picked it up later in life.

  6. This Potemkin Absestos In Obstetrics Karen concern czar society can’t handle the truth.
    That is why it spends an insane amount of time and money running away from it with drugs, iGadgets, Nyetflix and other delusional distractions.
    Don’t worry Lady Nature is undefeated and will win again.
    Bad news for the faculty lounge fellow traveler choom gang, human nature is not a construct of the white male capitalist pig patriarchy and it isn’t going to work this time either.
    Be of good cheer because the useful burn it all down idiots in the streets will be first against the wall.
    Vote harder for the Uniparty? Naw, I’ll pass and Javier will make sure that the chamber of commerce golf course is well manicured for the neo-Whig republicants.

  7. A long time ago, me and a good friend took my girls, 4 and 5 years old, on a hike to the top of Shining Rock Mtn in the Shining Rock Wilderness outside of Canton, NC. The mountain is only 6,000 ft tall, so not a bad trek for adults, or older children.

    But, the girls insisted on hiking all the way to the top, fussing and fighting any attempt from me and my buddy to pick them up and carry them up the steepest parts of the trail. I was kind of proud of them, making it to the top of the mountain like that.

    On the way back down, on the other hand, me and my buddy ended up carrying them most of the way down. We went up with a small day pack filled with bottled water and some snacks and came down toting a 45 and 55 pound “pack” each, me and my buddy.

    1. Yup, did one of those myself. Carried him on my shoulders in the rain. But, man, The Boy was a Tonka truck all the way up . . . .

  8. They’ve overplayed their hand. The thing is, they’ve stripped us of money, property, rights, family, ability to move freely, have a quiet drink at the end of the day, along with a smoke, if that’s your desire.
    They’ve taken away the decent entertainment, and left us with ho’s and trannies.
    They’re working – hard – at taking away our children.
    The thing is, many of us have little to lose by going all the way.
    You know Poland in WWII? Surrendered in 26 days. Gave it up, in hopes that they would be able to salvage a little portion.
    The Warsaw Ghetto – filled with starving, ill-armed, untrained people? Held out for almost a month.
    When people have their backs against the wall, their will to resist can be a mighty force.
    Battle of Leningrad? Likewise – helped along because of their fear of the Soviets, who shot those who didn’t battle to the death.
    But, yeah. Watch out for that underpowered little starving bastard – he will not give up easily.

    1. Yup – I read that in the Warsaw Ghetto they had six guns. But they had decided to not give up. They also held up several German divisions.

      Never give up. Make them earn every inch.

  9. “Fox News® has lost over 50% of their web traffic since the election. That sounds like despair.”

    Sounds like people waking up to me. Fox News is just the other side of the coin from CNN, with the exception of Tucker.

    I thought I’d posted this here before, but I might be hallucinating so I’ll post it again (or for the 1st time, depending on which reality I’m in):

    “In a 2017 survey by the political scientists Lilliana Mason and Nathan Kalmoe, 18 percent of Democrats and 12 percent of Republicans said that violence would be at least a little justified if the opposing party won the presidency. In February 2021, those numbers increased to 20 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Other researchers have found an even bigger appetite for extreme activity. In a January poll conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, researchers asked respondents whether “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” Thirty-six percent of Americans, and an astounding 56 percent of Republicans, said yes.”

    https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2021/americas-next-insurgency/

    A big part of the problem are right wing fantasies. Either a Great Man rises up and all we have to do is vote for him and post hard guy memes on the internet to win, or everyone all at once decides to start shooting the mailman in a Great Insurrection and then we win because governments are bad at protecting themselves from violence in this fantasy world. The “preparation” for this only requires spending lots of money on gear and posting hard guy memes on the internet. The closest thing to a plan people have is the government will come to their door to grab their guns, conveniently allowing them to not have to leave their EZchair to be a heroic resister.

    People who love their country enough to spend tons of money on fantasy gear and many hours online posting memes of heavily tattooed men in tight-fitting sleeveless shirts wielding firearms (not gay at all, I’m sure) do not love it enough to do even a modicum of research on the issue. And there has been a ton of research on resistance. For one thing, there is no such thing as a spontaneous revolt. They are planned and organized for a long time; our own Revolution had a decades-long runup with many articles being written, fiery sermons delivered (like the article this post is responding to), and memes being printed to get a critical mass on the same page. Sons of Liberty, a militia system, and Committees of Correspondence were organized.

    Contrary to the popular view, Hitler didn’t just give a few table-pounding speeches then get elected dictator. He spent decades building up a base, arguing with people in front of an audience, printing articles, getting others to do the same things. He also got thrown out of at least 1 beer hall because he was terrible at making speeches; supposedly he took performance lessons from a jewish magician. The reason he was appointed Chancellor was because the nazi party controlled almost all elected positions in several regions, from dog catcher to gauleiter (governor.) President Hindenburg was worried they might secede if not given a seat at the table.

    This is what we need to do: not engage in fantasy, but engage in local and state politics in places that haven’t been too badly inundated with Leftist control. Create redoubts of like-minded people. Organize to weather the storm that is coming.

    1. Nope, you posted that before. Good stuff.

      I think the redoubts are forming. Just wish we had a leader.

  10. I agree with you on your three points but must add one or at least a codicil to the ‘Never give up’.

    I have found you can follow that adage to a point where you start destroying yourself. Yes, finishing the mountain in your case was not only important but also necessary. There are times, however, that you really need to take a hard look at what you are fighting (finding the truth) and make sure you are using yourself and your reserves wisely.

    We are in a time where we could flail at the opponents we face (liberal democrats, Socialists and communists) until we destroy ourselves. That is what they are counting on. The debate is verbal and therefore free to the contenders to the throne. Yet, their ascendancy will end up costing us our freedoms and rights if they prevail. They engage in rhetoric which we all know, Talk is cheap. Thing is they are acting to back up their outrageous statements. It’s just that they are quietly and in ways we cannot stop (with words anyways).

    My overall point is we are approaching a time where words from our side, even voting against the socialists plans, will not be enough. All humor aside, if we are to stop this communist invasion we will be forced to make a choice as to whether we are willing to stand the line and drive the invaders from our nation or not. We either finish the game of nation building our founders started or we go home.

    Jefferson said that from time to time the tree of liberty needs to be watered by the blood of patriots and the blood of tyrants. We have entered into the time where our resolve or our desire to ‘never give up’ is being tested and we need to be ready to go to the next level if we are to finish what has been started. Honesty dictates we acknowledge and admit that this is the case at this point because to pretend otherwise is to lie or conceal the truth we all know is in the offing.

    1. Yes, but remember, when you fail to give up and destroy yourself? Others see it – martyrs are important, and have amazing power. Let’s finish the game.

  12. Fox News (except for maybe Tucker) showed itself to be an ally of the Left during and after the election. That’s what the founder’s children have made it into. And it became so obvious that there is no longer any reason for decent people to assume it isn’t just another Leftist propaganda these days. At best, Fox is now a gatekeeper – “You may go this far, but no further. You may say these words, but not those. You may think these thoughts, but not those. You may recognize these facts, but not those.”

    -break-

    My son is in training in the Army. They are having weekly political indoctrination sessions. There is a fairly regular purge of experienced NCOs for nearly-imaginary “crimes”. There is a proposal to add actual Commissars to the force as a completely separate chain of command for “sexual harassment and hate speech”. That’s in addition to the existing “EO Nazi” separate chain of command. The US Army is rapidly approaching Soviet Red Army levels of dysfunction and paranoia. They are rapidly being transformed from a war fighting institution to a third world style regime protection agency.

    1. Diversity officers in academia, corporate America, and now, the military, are political commissars. That’s the whole point. These people don’t report within their internal hierarchies (although they go through the motions). These people report to their regional Party officials, who, in turn, report to the Central Politburo. Yet, no one really knows who runs the Central Politburo. The only thing we know is that the commissars are entirely expendable. Useful idiots.

  13. Good message Mr. Wilder. We are the light in a dark place. We must all continue to fuel our light and burn it bright. Ohio Guy

  14. I was ready to give up, once, when I was sick. But two things irritated me. I didn’t want to die in a hospital bed, and I didn’t want to go one more single minute without a shave and a haircut. I found that if I could improve my situation even slightly, every day, I could find a will to live. It took me over 60 days to finally get clean shaven and my hair cut, but when I did, it felt like total victory. Persistence pays off. Besides, now with the weights and the leg work, getting me stronger, there are so many crappy people I want to send to their Maker. Staying in the game makes life more interesting. Smell of napalm in the morning and all that.

  16. 14000 ft is more like 4000+ meters. Still, good story. Going downhill really sucks on old knees.

    1. Yup, it’s a running joke here that I hate communist units and make fun of them whenever I can. Stupid French.

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