My intellectual journey’s led me to a spiritual place

I’ve identified several maxims that describe our New Abnormal. While some are bleak, I also realize the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Satan, I’m pretty sure, does not traffic in the truth.

In my last two essays, I’ve tried to develop the theme that reading - and then thinking deeply about the subjects that capture your attention - is extremely important. 

As I referenced in one sentence, our brains are like a muscle. When we routinely and intensely exercise our brains, our synapses fire more efficiently, sometimes even producing observations that change the way we view the world.

In the last four-plus years, I think I’ve used my brain “muscle” more than ever (at least on Big save-the-world topics … maybe not enough when it comes to making decisions that affect those nearest and dearest to me …. But that’s a topic/confession for another day).

Bill’s Top 5 Maxims for our New Abnormal …

Thanks to my brain exercise program, I’ve formulated several philosophies that might qualify as maxims. The following statements elucidate my (new) and most-strongly-held views:

- Officials never investigate that which they don’t want to confirm.

- All important truth-seeking organizations are completely captured.

- Never trust the “experts” or authorities … or at least make them “show you” they are not lying.

- Almost all authorized narratives are either false or at least dubious.

- The Law of Opposite Effects applies to a striking number of topics. (Examples: The quest to end vaccine hesitancy produced …. unprecedented vaccine hesitancy  …or “safe and effective” really means “dangerous and ineffective.”)

Truisms that have been reinforced …

Many of my brainstorms do not qualify as original, but these truisms have been reinforced in recent years. For example …

Fear is the greatest motivator … and the greatest weapon used by forces who want to control society.

“Groupthink” is a powerful force and “pack journalism” is an example of diabolical groupthink. 

Most people covet the “safety of the herd” above just about everything else.

Absolute power does, in fact, corrupt absolutely.

Other contrarian personal theories have become clear to me in recent years. For example …

The government (and its crony partners) have taken over virtually all of the Mob’s best rackets.

In a world of ever-rising inflation and ever-evaporating personal freedoms and liberties, one must constantly develop new work-arounds to survive.

I recognize these maxims are a tad cynical and skew toward the bleak … but one cannot control the maxims that pop into one’s head. 

(If the first half of this column was a TV drama, the  headline might be “Breaking Bad.”)

However, the world’s glass might be half full …

Hope might be the world’s greatest thing and I don’t want to bring readers down so I’m happy to note that my super in-shape brain has identified a platter of Silver Linings for our “New Abnormal.”

For example, I’m now convinced the world’s real rulers probably committed a fatal blunder when they showed too many smart people their true faces.

We’ve all  heard the Biblical aphorism  “The Lord works in mysterious ways” … which I now believe more than ever.

If it’s going to take take a religious or civic revival to save the world (and souls), a  prerequisite for redemption might be that more sinners have to understand they’ve discarded the path to salvation and then sincerely repent. That is, a Great Awakening could only occur following a period of extended mass slumber.

If large numbers of evil or sociopathic leaders have now shown their faces, so too have large numbers of Good, Brave and intelligent people.

I firmly believe our side’s troops and leaders are superior to the scalawags I’ve now identified as people to avoid … or fight. 

Also, our Army - which is growing - doesn’t have to expend constant brain power to conceal previous lies - which must be a nerve-wracking and exhausting to our adversaries.

While we’ve all lost friends or seen important life-long relationships damaged, we’ve also formed new friendships and identified large numbers of admirable role models.

Indeed, I think I’ve become smarter because I’ve discovered so many writers and thinkers (many via Substack Reader Comments) who are much smarter than I am.

If life is a journey of self-discovery and self-study, my education on important topics has accelerated at warp speed. (And I didn’t need to go to Harvard to receive this education).

Maybe we are living through historic times …

It’s occurred to me that probably every previous generation thought they were living through historic, unique or pivotal times.

This caveat offered, I think it’s very possible those of us alive today may be living through unprecedented times - events where “what comes next’ could be vastly different (read: worse) than what came before.

Speaking for myself, I can’t remember a period where, in a couple of days, the world’s rulers … ordered the entire world shut down because of a respiratory virus.

None of my American ancestors lived through a time when free speech was re-labeled “dangerous misinformation” or when the litmus test for Good Citizenship was letting a nurse inject you with a substance where almost nobody knows what’s in the vial.

Hundreds of years ago, unelected bureaucrats couldn’t order subjects around the world to do things they might not want to do … because unelected bureaucrats could only reach people within a horse ride of their bureaucratic castles.

It’s hard to fathom in the age of instant Internet communication, but it’s apparently much easier for the Ruling Classes to terrify and then control the masses.

If one studies history, this student quickly realizes that nothing is new to human nature. In one of my Substack columns, I noted that the rulers of Ancient Greece executed Socrates for the crime of asking questions.

The Socratic Method was apparently deemed a dire threat to the rulers of Socrates’ day. Today, the members of the Trusted News Initiative and 50 organizations in the Censorship Industrial Complex  are working around the clock to target people and groups who are asking taboo questions.

My spiritual walk is accelerating

Five years ago my religious faith wasn’t nearly as deep as it is today. I probably believed that Satan really exists, but I didn’t think much about any kind of society-destroying program this fallen, perpetually angry angel might be working.

If one believes Satan is real, this person must also believe in God. For believers, it might make sense that Satan has never stopped trying to turn people away from God by any means necessary - fair or, much more likely, unfair.

It’s also possible that Satan - a master deceiver, perhaps working through master deceivers on earth -  would convince people to do things that Satan wanted to happen.

I’m no Biblical scholar, but I think in the denouement of any battle between Good and Evil, the forces of Evil will surge into the lead. This might be more likely to happen when Bad is widely and falsely perceived as Good.

It might also follow the script that those trying to fight so many evil trends would be silenced, maligned or ostracized.

It’s fascinating and, frankly, surprising to me that my intellectual journey of the last few years has led me to a new spiritual place. 

As a further observation, I note that I’m not the only person who is now viewing world events through a spiritual context. Many other people are seemingly reaching the same conclusions as I have.

If we’re all correct - and Jesus loves us and is testing us and giving us a chance to choose sides - this would be the ultimate Good News. 

That is, I’m now inclined to believe we all could be living through historic times … and times prophesized in the Bible.

The first maxim in this essay says the Powers that Be do not want anyone to do anything that might confirm they have produced so many dark results.

As Socrates might have asked, how much evidence do citizens need to confirm the world is being led away from the path of joy and salvation?

By now, more people should be able to see with their own eyes that a showdown between Good and Evil could be occurring right now … but, I admit, this also might be a matter of faith.

My prayer is that more of us see and then keep this faith.

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