Prospects

     A nice word, that. Etymologically, it means “a look forward,” something we time-bound types can’t really do. All the same, we try. Sometimes, through no great merit of our own, we get it right.

     As we stand here in the Year of Our Lord 2021, what are the prospects for the immediate future, and – though more vaguely and hazily glimpsed – for what lies beyond?

     I’m dead certain of a few things:

  • The dollar is going straight to Hell, and the Usurper Regime will blame the private sector.
  • Regimes and powers hostile to America will grow ever bolder. Our allies, such as they are, will be of little or no use in curbing them.
  • The private American citizen’s willingness to comply with the dictates of the CDC, state “public health” authorities, and the vaccine propagandists will continue to diminish.

     I’m certain of these things because they’re already happening. Predicting that they’ll continue is like predicting that the Sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning. It’s less a matter of accurate foresight than reliance on a visible pattern of causes and effects.

     Other trends are almost as reliable. The flood of illegal aliens swarming across our southern border will continue. Racial and sectarian tensions will intensify further. The Usurpers’ war on the fossil fuels appears to be accelerating. Taxes will likely rise before the 2022 elections can disturb the Usurpers’ grip on federal power. They’ll continue to try to disarm the private citizenry. And the Left’s campaign against the person, achievements, and support base of Donald Trump, the 45th President of these United States, will strengthen as well.

     Stipulate all of the above. It shouldn’t take much effort. What’s next? Are there any correctives available to those of us who’d like normality back, or have the radioactive rats eaten away the bottom of our handbasket?

     I’ve been conversing about it with two friends. One of them recommends a retreat into prayer; the other thinks massive bloodshed is the ticket. This is what we in the logic business call a dichotomy. Most Gentle Readers, if I’ve read you aright, would prefer something between those two poles; I would too. But what if quietism and bloody revolt are the only effective measures remaining?

     Which of them would you prefer?

***

     I’m old. Old men are mostly fond of peace. Oh, we may talk of our past adventures, but most of us are happy that they’re behind us for good. What we miss is the vitality of youth. We also miss the thrill that came from risking and the exultation of winning: pushing our chips to the center of the table, daring our opponent to meet us there, and thereafter raking in the pot. The stories we tell to our helpless victims younger relatives and friends allow us to relive those adventures in memory: a far safer business than re-enacting them in real life.

     Being old, I know I have no business on a battlefield. Nor shall I counsel others to take up arms that I’m no longer able to wield. I want to finish out my life in peace: a contemplative tranquility undisturbed by anything other than the occasional ringing of the phone…which I usually ignore. If I must choose, it’s prayer from here to the grave.

     It seems that not many people pray these days. Though it pains me to say it, I know of priests who seldom pray:

     That having been said, prayer is my chosen recourse, plus turning out these essays and the occasional fanciful novel. God might yet take a hand in temporal matters, and besides, prayer cannot harm anyone.

     But matters are growing dark. People are muttering things they never before contemplated. Street violence has been rising steadily. Elements of the federal government are being put to the tasks of suppressing opinions hostile to the Usurpers and impeding associations and organizations opposed to them. For the moment, God seems to have adopted the attitude that “You broke it; you fix it.”

     And there’s still no BLEEP!ing ammo to be had.

***

     It was once my habit to scan several major news sources and about a hundred opinion sites, twice each day, for material on which to base pieces for Liberty’s Torch. It was so regular a practice as to be all but automatic. Not anymore.

     I recently took myself on a “news retreat.” That is, I refused my attention to anything and everything that didn’t pass through my front door under its own power. I gave my time and energy solely to my own needs, desires, and concerns. For two blessed days I went undisturbed by the tumult from the world beyond my personal wood.

     My tranquility returned. It was glorious: two days of perfect peace. I could actually hear myself think again. But how long could such a state last? Given the ever deeper penetration of all Americans’ lives by the aforementioned tumult, is quietism a practical approach to life in this era?

     It doesn’t seem so. It’s practical for me only because I’m personally fortunate. Ninety-five percent of the nation isn’t nearly as well insulated from the Sturm und Drang. Moreover, present trends continuing – and that’s where the smart money is going – I wouldn’t be able to persist in it either.

     More and more peaceable Americans, men who only wish to be left alone, are finding themselves in a fight-or-flight situation. However, those who mean them ill and seek to do them harm are following them. At some point there’ll be nowhere left to flee.

***

     A famous statement by Winston Churchill has been in circulation recently:

     “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

     The time of easy, bloodless victory is long past. The time of certain victory at a modest cost is past as well. Today the odds favor the Usurpers. They control every major institution in our nation, including the media, the schools, the entertainment industry, the mainline churches, and a strong majority of the Fortune 5000. They also wield a heavy preponderance of the organized instruments of coercion. If it comes to open war, the big battalions and the heavy weapons are theirs.

     There’s no getting rid of them by “voting the rascals out.” They closed that escape hatch some time ago.

     What, then, must we do?

***

     Depressed yet? I didn’t mean to ruin your day quite this early. Still, I write from what’s uppermost in my thoughts. Today those thoughts are rather grim.

     I write stories with happy endings. Mostly, anyway. I write of heroes doing mighty deeds in the name of liberty and justice. Tales in which the good guys win – and there’s never any doubt about who the good guys are. I do so because people need such stories to maintain their morale. But they’re stories. Fictions born in my mind. Christine D’Alessandro and Malcolm Loughlin aren’t out there battling the Essence of Evil for us. Stephen Graham Sumner is a child of my imagination, not a real-life figure who’s just been “waiting for his moment.” Althea Morelon won’t be winning any wars for us singlehandedly. Fountain won’t be stopping by to heal us…or cook for us, more’s the pity. And there’s no BLEEP!ing planetoid near enough to capture and convert into an interstellar vessel.

     Just now, the depth of the gulf between those happy imaginings and the grim truths of our milieu is much on my mind. Too much.

     Time to pray.

9 comments

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    • Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) on May 19, 2021 at 6:38 AM

    Why not prayer AND violence?  It worked for our ancestors.

    1. (chuckle) Well, after prayer, the urge to violence tends to be muted. And after violence, I usually find I’m too worn out to pray!

  1. Suicide is a mortal sin. You may not submit without some effort to preserve your life, whatever it takes.

    When your enemy attacks yours he’s attacking you. Turning the other cheek, if you still have one, is fine — once. But don’t be misled by insistent and media platformed pacifists — either they are deluded or working for the evil. Do not and fail your duty to yourslef. Prayer is probably the best course of action, almost certainly before you begin your counter attack.

    1. Suicide in Judaism is also a mortal sin. The only exception that I know of is to prevent forced conversion.

    2. I was rereading your comment and recalled Worf of ST:TNG fame in – IIRC – one of the books, saying “Turning the other cheek only results in two bruised cheeks”.

      1. @Nitzakhon
        After offering the other cheek — once — one is alert to what may be coming. Where is it written one may not fend it off? Foolish assumptions cost lives.

    • JohnB on May 19, 2021 at 12:20 PM

    On the legislative battleground at the state capitol yesterday morning, my aching knees as I climbed a steep lengthy stairway to visit a Senator’s office let me know I was well past the age of door-kicking. I do not see a future with me on the front lines as an active participant in a two way rifle range. Even a desperate last stand of freedom lovers will still require some sort of logistic tail, though, and it may be there where we elders can contribute best. Food, water, ammo on the material side and aid with scouting, communications, and even propaganda will all be needed. My prayers will be for this need never to come but going out on my knees isn’t an option for me.

    • T Town on May 19, 2021 at 6:43 PM

    While I pray daily for a revival to break out across this country so that we might change the course of this country away from the wickedness that it is pursuing, I am afraid that any chance of revival will not happen until the country experiences some extremely hard times.  One only has to look at the stories in the Old Testament about all of the times Israel was punished when they plunged into wickedness.  Not only did they suffer under the rule of their enemies, but there were also times where they suffered under the rule of their own wicked kings such as Ahab.

    While I do not intend to abandon my prayer for revival, I am all but resolved to the idea that we will have to undergo a period of judgement before it will happen.  Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be so fortunate as to have another great depression as our only means of judgement.  I am afraid that it may be a civil war, a revolution, societal collapse, or possibly even an invasion from an enemy army that is to be our judgement.  Or, it could be a TEOTWAWKI event, like an EMP or large solar flare, that sends us back into the 1800s technologically which would cause a large loss of life.  I pray that I am wrong, but I don’t think we are getting out of this without some large number of lives lost.

  2. What with the specter of gun confiscation, mandatory vaccination, mass censorship, it’s not a question of if, but when, we’ll have to ask permission to live. Are you an anti-racist?  You are?  Fine.  You refuse to be an anti-racist?  Step this way.

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