It’s All Souls’ Day, the day we the living are supposed to pray for our beloved dead who might be in Purgatory enduring a last purification before finally reaching Heaven. (See also this piece.) I’ve got a fair number of beloved dead to pray for, but just now my attention is on another sufferer that’s undergoing a different kind of Purgatory…if Purgatory it be.
You see, I’ve just stumbled upon a graphic that’s moved me to tears:
It echoes a sentiment you might have seen here before this:
The rising of the “men who simply wanted to be left alone” hasn’t happened yet. Why not? When will it happen? Will it happen? Shake the Magic 8-Ball:
But wait: is this thing likely to be right? I’ve thrown away the packaging, so I can’t say whether there’s a disclaimer in the small print.
And as I ponder this rather significant question, I find myself thinking that I’ve seen a sign or two that point in the opposite direction.
Prepping and preppers, terms that were once associated with a fringe minority – you know, the sort of dude that feared a plague of giant mutant cockroaches, an imminent world-ending asteroid strike, or the Angry Return of Pulius Feistersnap (read Jack Vance for these critical historical references) – have entered the mainstream of our discourse. In recent years they’ve acquired respectability. Documentaries have been filmed about prepping. Sizable firms have arisen to solicit “preppers’” patronage. The money involved is considerable, but beneath all the effort and expenditures lies a current of foreboding.
The foreboding isn’t about an implausible threat, but about one that’s burgeoning before our eyes. Consider:
- Blatantly stolen elections;
- Governance by bureaucrats;
- Massive federal overspending;
- Opening of the southern border;
- The effeminization of the military;
- Suppression of oil and gas production;
- Fake pandemics and poisonous vaccines;
- Police-state repression of disfavored opinions;
- Renewed efforts to disarm the civilian populace.
It makes quite a list, and none of it is pleasant. It points in a direction no decent American could approve. It’s hard to believe, in the face of the assembled evidence, that it’s not a concerted effort to destroy this country, being effectuated by the very people supposedly charged with protecting it.
And for some time now, “we” have put our trust in God and the predicted rise of the men who only want to be left alone. Trusting in God is fine and praiseworthy, but as has recently been observed, He’s not going to look kindly upon you if you only “lean on your shovel and pray for a hole.” He’s equally unlikely to do the digging.
I know quite a few men who only want to be left alone. They’ve been topping up their pantries and their ammo supplies, as have I…but not because they plan to march against the tides of evil.
When matters appear to be darkening irresistibly, there are two directions in which the man who only wants to be left alone can move. Yes, he can “take the musket down from the mantel” and join his fellows for a counteroffensive. But he can also “dig in:” select a redoubt, provision it for a stretch of chaos, and hope to ride it out until the darkness lifts. Up to now, the latter has been the dominant course of action among men who only want to be left alone. Poetic eloquence about their potential power and fury has not galvanized them.
Would I like it to be otherwise? Yes…and no. Yes, because the descent of the United States into all-out anarcho-tyranny is a terrible thing to witness, much less to live through. But no, because I’m old and infirm. I and those I love are unlikely to survive a civil war. Any Public Choice economist will tell you: personal interests will trump more generalized, more abstract ones ninety-nine times in a hundred.
There is no purely political solution. The barons of the Uniparty are agreed on how things shall be. I’ve been saying that for a while now. So if we except a rising of the men who want to be left alone, the prospects are bleak.
But will they rise? Enough of them, and sufficiently motivated and supplied to do what we want done?
Are you one of the men who only want to be left alone? Try this: Every day or so, sample your thinking and record it, with the date. Do that for a couple of weeks. Then go back and count the number of times you were eager to don your battle armor, join your fellows, and deal with the miscreants who are ruining the greatest nation in all of history. Compare that tally to the number of times you thought it best just to look out for yourself and your own. In effect, you’re using your own thought processes as a simulation of those who feel as you do.
I’m praying for you, my friend. For you, and all those who, like the two of us, see the storm clouds massing above us. But I no longer think a rising of the righteous is all that likely.
Worse, my Magic 8-Ball seems to have shorted out. Is there a warranty on this thing?
7 comments
Skip to comment form
Clearly it would be so much better to solve this problem at the ballot box. But the Democrats have totally corrupted our election system in their zeal for power and it seems unlikely we will suddenly get honest elections. The Republicans know just as well as we all know what happened during the 2020 election and for the most part they have done little to nothing to correct this problem. For that they will also be responsible for what happens down the road.
What happens? It is unlikely that patriots will rise up, the terrible repercussions to the demonstrations on Jan 6 succeeded in damping down any enthusiasm for political activism. So I think what will happen is pretty much what we see with Biden flooding the country with illegal, sending our money and our kids off to wars and effectively legislating from the white house and the courts until the system is so corrupt and so inept that it collapses. Our enemies are waiting for that and the only question is will they invade or nuke us into rubble?
No, OneGuy. No hostile invasion. We are too big, too diverse. And can fight back. No nukes. Fallout knows no boundaries and atomic warfare destroys great wealth which could be looted. Instead, consider a Vichy France scenario under the vision of the Great Reset/ New World Order.
The dollar becomes a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) and every penny is controlled. That is the key and is why the current junta so much desires it. Remember, George Washington and his army could raise cash money in the colonies which bought arms, paid soldiers and fed them. (Not well at times, but it did happen with French help, enough to win.) With a CBDC in place, that would be neigh impossible.
America, still under the control of the Democrats, becomes a client state of China, backed up by Russian muscle as needed. A President still exists with a Cabinet chosen by the Chinese. Canada succumbs and is subsumed. Mexico stays “independent”.
The US Navy and Air Force has been turned over to China, sunk at sea or scrapped. The Army becomes a national policy force. The population is disarmed with no tolerance for non-compliance…the penalty not being death or prison, but permanent punishing poverty for you, your family, your children and your children’s children. (see CBDC, above). The list can go on and on. Everyday life can continue much as it was, as long as you heed the boundaries your masters have set. You have a job, you can go shop at Home Depot, eat at McDonalds and even travel to some extent. But there are few, if any, degrees of freedom that would allow the ability of the brave to throw off the puppet government until the looters collapse of their own greed. That may take a lifetime or more.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, but the trend line is pointing this direction.
If you really believe the neutron bomb isn’t, then no nukes. Otherwise, forget about restraint.
There is yet another option (besides a direct invasion attempt or nuking us into rubble):
EMP.
An Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapon would do to our ‘high tech’ infrastructure (our power grid and everything it feeds, as well as any non-hardened / protected electronic assets) what a neutron bomb is reported to be able to do to people.
Call it the ‘ultimate’ softening up of your target – as it doesn’t (directly) destroy roads, bridges, or buildings – although in the apocalypse style breakdown of civilization that will be seen in and near high population density areas, all bets are off. Think: 80%+ of the population dying off for lack of food, water, or medicines – and no more convenient, work saving appliances/power tools. Think ‘Mad Max’, but without the vehicles.
For an adversary that is willing to ‘take the long game’ and let their opponent ‘die off’ on their own, it makes invading a much less challenging endeavor.
For those that are thinking about ‘digging in and letting the unpleasantness pass’ – this may well be what you get to look forward too. I pray that this too may pass.
I’m far less pessimistic. My working years were spent enforcing foreign policy. I can tell you that there are peoples who will not be subjugated. I live in an area populated by such folks. Our area is not unique to our country. Get out of the cities and visit your rural areas. You just might find America again. A word of caution, they just want to be left alone. That’s why they live there.
I actually live in a very red county in a very blue state. I know people here who would fall into that class. I see and talk to them at the local gun store, at our range. Some are my neighbors.
My main point is that once the junta (and its very dangerous captive AI partners) have total control of the entire economy, the task for “those that want to be left alone” becomes much, much harder as they can then only draw on resources which are not monitored by the CBDC. There may be ways to hide expenses for things that are dual purpose, but eventually one will need ammo, magazine, cleaning supplies and spare parts for firearms, etc. etc.
I’m soon to be 72 years old and realize I would likely not survive such an internal civil war. I would do what I can that does not require combat skills past being able to put rounds into any desired target.
Time for my daily prayers.
Perhaps we should all read up on the Battle of King’s Mountain, in the War for Independence. “Born Fighting” an excellent book by James Webb (2004) describes the assault upon the Americans of western Carolina by the British who threatened to burn their farms and hang them as traitors. In response, the “Over Mountain Men”, homesteading Cherokee-fighting HILLBILLIES, (who just wanted to be “left alone”) came out from their hills & hollows and destroyed a contingent of British loyalists and regular army taking 900 dead out of an 1100 man regiment. After the battle, these hillbillies just went home.
That happened before and it can happen again, may God have mercy on those modern day Redcoats if they piss off the wrong people!