Millions Of Golden Images (The Abyss, Three.)

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so readeth, let him understand.)

Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ~Matthew 24:15-18

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American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same in France; but in all these three countries the dominating fact is that whenever the people get ready to change the government, they can change it. The same thing is not true of Germany, and until it was made true in Germany, there could be no free political democracy anywhere else in the world — to say nothing of any free social democracy. My revolutionary friends who will not recognize this fact seem to me like a bunch of musicians sitting down to play a symphony concert in a forest where there is a man-eating tiger loose. For my part, much as I enjoy symphony concerts, I want to put my fiddle away in its case and get a rifle and go out and settle with the tiger. ~Upton Sinclair.

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[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

I saw this yesterday.

Peter Theil thinks he's fighting the "Antichrist."

Apparently he thinks all his money will keep him warm in the cold and darkness of the Abyss, or somethig.

Sorry, but Peter Piper here is closer, Biblically, to being an Antichrist than fighting Antichrist, and a lot of Evangelicals would back that statement up simply because he's gay.

(And this dude enables that horseshit, too.)

These fucking people's bullshit isn't politics in the normal sense, even in the sense that one might use words like Fascism or Nazism and I've had a hard time making people understand this.

Yes, there are fascistic or supposedly-religious elements, but the truth is it's narcissism and nihilism by people who've pretty much been allowed to cafeteria-ize their beliefs like a kid that's a picky eater working their way down a buffet line. The results of this end up being flat-out nonsense. But because it's rich people, America thinks we have to indulge this crap.

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. ~Matthew 19:24

Just sayin.'

But apparently a lot of these fucking people are eyeing the exits, too. Apparently Trumpist Fascism isn't going nearly as well as they thought it would.

I mean, I could have told you that.

Why? Because for all of their pretensions (intellectual and otherwise) these guys are idiots. Dudes like Curtis Yarvin and Peter Theil pretty much scan as 13-year-old boys who never had to grow up, either because of money or being sheltered by indulgent parents or whatever. Sooner or later, reality is gonna catch up. 

Republicans basically trying to start a civil war by repeatedly provoking the public in a country with more guns than people doesn't exactly seem like the smartest idea even by that standard, either.

I mean, say what you will about the man but I guess Curtis Yarvin is at least smart enough to figure out that he needs a consistently-working power grid and technology to be able to do whatever it is he does and he's managed to put two and two together and figure out his ideas aren't exactly popular with those of us who aren't billionaires. So there's that, I guess??

Sorry to sound like a cultural and intellectual snob here, but one hell of a lot of American Idiots don't even have that much going for them.

And the motherfuckers are so high on their own goddamned Narcissism that they think they can talk down to the Pope who is also *Checks Notes* American.

This isn't religion, not even the Prosperity Gospel kind, it's narcissism.

It's basic Heresy and outright Self-Worship by people who've been convinced (or worse, convinced themselves) that they are the most special of Special Snowflakes and that others aren't. (And that those "Others" basically anybody who isn't a bigoted MAGA narcissist, aren't even worthy of the most basic of considerations.)

Not only is this not sustainable, it never should have been allowed to progress to this point. Like a lot of this crap could have been solved by Matt's parents whupping his ass once or twice or by some other kid smacking him in the mouth when he lipped off with stupid shit in the 7th Grade and then someone making him sit in "Why did this happen?" for a couple minutes.

And this kind of idiocy is not just on the Right. A hell of a lot of These Fucking People are on the supposed-Left, too...but they were so high on their own supply with "Principles" that they couldn't even be bothered to vote against *Checks Notes Again* Actual Goddamned aspiring Fascism.

In terms of what the Bible means by the Abomination of Desolation or the Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar, there's a lot of people who think it's them and it's the fault of the World for not recognizing how "Great" they are.

I've pretty much been saying since last November that FAFO is the only cure for a lot of this kind of bullshit. But then, what about those of us who did our duty to civilization and didn't fuck around in the first place??

People like me or my partner, for example.

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

Where do those of us stand for whom the Golden Image is at least...not ourselves??

And honestly, counting on "These people are idiots" is the coldest of cold comfort.

In the end, these fucking people being this stupid and their beliefs in conspiracy theories and woo woo being tolerated by others will only end up getting more people killed, didn't we learn this from the COVID-19 pandemic??

Freedom requires a basic level of intelligence to maintain (or even recognize) it.

So does proper religious belief or pretty much anything else. Just to use religion as a specific example; If it ends up coming down to endorphins or feelings or subjective experience long enough...after awhile, how do the people in a given church even know what they're worshiping, anymore??

Keep that crap up long enough and sooner or later everybody becomes their own god.

Think about how much chaos that implies, will ya?? Sure, some people like Donald Trump or Peter Theil can buy a bigger pedestal to put their gold statue on...but trust me, I work with the public and it's not much better lower down.

And if you think things suck now??

I'm here to tell you they can and will get worse if we don't stop this crap.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. That sort of means you have to acknowledge that other people exist.

And you're either willing to step up and stand against the fall of night, or you're not.

Слава Україна!

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

Two

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan