A person who denies the link between a government’s promise of the “public good” and the death of that culture, is like the drunkard who denies alcohol’s link to diabetes and cirrhosis.
In a free nation,
the government is both a referee and a defender of liberty's tenets. Such a government is not designed to coddle or pander.
To those who assume that my concern with the encroachment of communism is sure sign that I am suffering delusions––– that my fears are a straw man used to rally support against the left, I ask you to please consider this: An alcoholic drinks because the alcoholic likes being drunk. If their life is their vote, then their vote is for drunkenness. They are not voting for diabetes, cirrhosis, or nerve disorders, yet that's in fact what they will get. Oddly, the drunkard seem to think us crazy when we suggest that excessive drinking will be damaging to their health.
Viktor Frankl, in his book entitled Man’s Search For Meaning, surmises that when people lack life-meaning, they will settle for pleasure instead. Here, drunkenness fills a space where life-meaning is meant to reside, thus the 100 proof buzz is what holds an otherwise meaningless life together.
If pleasure can hold a man’s life together by the relief that pleasure offers, and if it buys time in delaying a confrontation with his lack of life-meaning, and if it numbs his feelings of alienation, then likely (quick) suicide is taken off the table. As long as the feelings of pleasure keep coming, the existential abyss can be ignored. While his deliberate suicide is not in the cards, a slow death-by-pleasure will be inevitable.
Humans feel an urge to gain some quantity of pride, dignity, and identity. The drunkard will assume that whatever seemingly generous thing that delivered this life-affirming and pleasurable jolt, must stand on the side of “good.” If self-righteousness and one’s refusal to responsibly participate in the world has been coupled with the pleasure of alcohol, then these inflated feelings of justification will metastasize into an inverted sense of pride and dignity. No one wants to admit that they are useless, or that they are a drain on the good. So, if pleasure in the form of both drunkenness and righteous indignation can help avoid the existential abyss, then pleasure will be perceived on the side of the good. When this occurs, his glorious pride will display his persona publicly, and when he demonstrates pleasure’s glorious and whimsical entertainment value, he’ll conflate the validation he receives with life’s meaning. If others validate his view, he’ll believe he’s gained a justifiable identity of goodness. When he’s come to believe that his acts are on the side of good, he’ll then go on to diminish his antagonists: those who act as pillars of well-functioning communities, congregations, and institutions. Why? Because those who represent his antithesis are those who invalidate him… his opponents are missing out on all the fun! If life is about pleasure, then it’s easy to minimize those acting responsibly in maintaining the necessary balance. He considers their warnings against drunkenness as both absurd and paranoid.
But, what happens when the liver disease sets in and the pleasure stops? That’s when the grift is revealed. His pride and his dignity collapse. He’s now being confronted with the abyss he’d been avoiding. What does death mean to a person who’s lived a vapid and stolen existence? He’ll be hit hard with having made none of the sacrifices that build worthwhile bonds of love. Death without love is a death without self-respect, is a life unjustified––– a wasted life. Since humans must believe themselves on the side of good, when he faces his own uselessness and destructiveness, it will be too much to bear. A death that carries no self-respect is a painfully terrifying death, like being strapped to a conveyor that slowly moves toward a sharp spinning blade. No matter how loudly he screams, the room stares back at him in silence. The pain of a meaningless life is nothing compared to the pain of a meaningless death. Such a death is no warrior’s death. The abyss awaits.
Underneath it all, he’s always known what was coming, which is why death itself is his enemy. A death that fails to validate a life, is a mirror of truth that reflects nothing back at him…because he is nothing. Whatever time remains of his life, he’ll use to repent as to reduce the pain of having wasted the greatest of all opportunities, that of being human.
Now, contrarily, what does death mean for the person who has made great sacrifices on behalf of his beloveds, what does it mean for he who protects the glue that holds his people together? This is a man who will die having known that the sacrifices he’s made are what allow his beloveds to continue. In this, there is no personal or regrettable demise, as what he loves most will live on!
The drunkard has learned that when the fountains of pleasure run dry and when the disease has set in, that he has made a very big mistake. He sees that he’s been misled, brainwashed, that his life’s meaning and his life’s labor have been stolen. When confronted with death, all he has to show for his time lived, is a long empty runway that ends with terror. By his ignoring responsibility and by his failing to tend to all that holds humanness and liberty together, he has hurt himself, he has hurt the people he loves, and he has disrespected those whom have sacrificed for him.
Contrarily, those who live with meaning are willing to pay the ultimate price, they are willing to give their lives to protect the principles that hold the fabric of reality together and they are willing to protect the people who stand in those principles. Those who see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together are happy to do their part, even if it means losing their lives. Why? Because they don’t see themselves as individual entities. They are “part of.” They are human. Humans are not afraid of death per se, humans are afraid of enduring a death that lacks all romance and meaning.
The drunkard hurts all of us because a free nation demands our best participation, our highest trustworthiness, and our goodwill. The brainwashed person simply won’t see it until writhing in pain at death’s doorstep.
“Oh, I see. Alcohol caused this. I caused this! I thought pleasure was my righteous weapon in my war against death and meaninglessness, but now I face death, and more notably, I face regret while I die alone in no one’s arms….which ironically is the exact thing I tried to escape through alcohol. I’ve made none of love’s sacrifices. I’ve contributed nothing to what holds the fabric of humanness, meaning, and beauty together. Who will celebrate me? Why is it that I was never shown the meaning of what being human is all about? For some, there is romance in death, but for me, there is none.”
Until this disease rattles and wakes him up, at all costs and no matter how childish, destructive, and vapid, he will justify himself on the side of good. Even rioters and looters will often believe they are doing something good. If this version of psychosis will allow people to believe their own lies, then these are the easiest people to lure with propaganda. Feeding their false self-image of “goodness” is simple. Tyrants, foreign enemies, media, and marketing companies know how to use these narratives to steal and or destroy the glue that holds a strong and free people together. Tyrants are the liars who play tricks on those people who already lie to themselves. How do they do this? First, they feed the alienated (and uninitiated) people a steady diet of injustice narratives that scapegoat the tyrant’s opposition. Second, they promise hope, equity, justice, and free lunches. Third, they affirm that a life-of-pleasure (meaningless celebrity, status, and self-indulgence) is the best life that one can hope for, thus he makes an enemy of the church, of the local community, of principles, and of the trust earned between neighbors. For the tyrant to win, he must kill the meaning of meaningful connection. Fourth, they align one’s political party with rhetoric about moral righteousness and social justice, even though there is not one iota of evidence that demonstrates their sacrifices for the actual “common good.”
My question is this: Do the drunkards who claim that I am overly paranoid with communism, actually understand what communism is and how it takes root? Communism is not something that happens as a result of votes in the name of “communism,” instead it is a cultural death that occurs when a population thinks they are voting for hope, change, justice, and equity. The voters are duped. They vote for drunkenness and deny the existence of disease. They don’t vote for communism, but communism is what they end up. This is not a secret to those who have studied history––– many of us know how a nation descends into communism. Communism, which is ultimately the same as totalitarianism, fascism, etc. is what happens when all the society’s systems no longer work! If you’re not scared of it, then you simply don’t know what it is. If you’re not concerned with it, consider that you may have been intentionally shielded from knowing what your responsibility is in living as part of a free nation. Learn how N. Korea became what it is, how Russia became the U.S.S.R. and killed up to 60 million of its own people, how under Mao’s revolution, China ruined itself and killed up to 80 million of its own. Were they better off with these conditions? No. Everyone became equally poor and faceless, except the elites, who caused mass poverty, murder, and starvation. Did they establish more trust and humanness? No.
The belief that politicians who speak of hope, change, equity, and justice are able to deliver any of their promises, is entirely gullible and naïve. Hucksters use the word justice, but that’s not what they mean. They speak these nice catch phrases to mislead and to simply avoid reality altogether. They lure the gullible into submission. So, to hope that a central governmental authority who produces nothing of economic value and who lives as a parasite upon its people, has any ability whatsoever to deliver the benefits that their gullible voters hope for, is patently childish and lacks the most basic understanding of economics, history, and humanness. By believing and feeding these falsehoods, we erode the glue that holds a free nation together, and that outcome is… communism. In a free nation, public servants are tasked with a liberty-protecting constitutional duty. That’s why they take an oath. If the oath no longer means anything, then the culture has died.
Community and culture are based on trust. When the trust evaporates, the lies and false promises establish a disease that leads to a complete collapse. This is what creates the power vacuum that is inevitably filled by tyrants. Hence, communism. (Yes, government has a small and vital role in serving a free nation. Minimal and necessary.)
All this to say that your humanness is your most precious asset and must be protected above all. The balanced conditions in which your humanness flourishes must be respected and adhered to, personally and collectively within the culture. If these fail, tyranny and communism are soon to follow. Don’t let it happen. Protect your humanness by living your humanness…it is YOUR responsibility. It is a local affair. It is a community affair. Our humanness is built upon a cornerstone of truth and balance, and its initiations are what give our children a reason to love: to love this Earth’s beauty and providence, to love the people whom we live and survive with, and to love the dignity that is earned by our efforts to protect all of the above.
Our humanness deserves our highest respect and care, and this care arises when we are firmly anchored in Earth’s story–– the story of how life on Earth has worked perfectly for billions of years. It’s a story whose magic is easy to fall in love with. (It’s a story that intersects the truths of religion and science. These truths are displayed between Earth’s beauty and Earth’s functionality. When we fall in love with Earth’s beauty, we simultaneously recognize how each part of Earth’s beautiful creation functionally holds the fabric of reality together (interdependence). Religion speaks to the awe. Science speaks to the practical functioning of all the things that we find awesome. If the awe is missing, we become slaves and robots. If the practical is missing, we die by the onslaught of threats to our physical existence.) The awe that we fall in love with, is why we bother living whatsoever. Without it, a person is just a weaponized slave who is controlled with injustice narratives, pleasure pellets, and fear mongering. Wake up America, wake up, world. Your humanness has been stolen and turned against you.
Our enemies will never win against a people whose stories are anchored in a world that works both beautifully and elegantly; enemies will never win against a people whose stories invite each initiate to be part of the timeless success of Earth. Our survival means nothing if it is devoid of those things that make life-worth-living. If the things that make life-worth-living, are hidden and replaced with subpar substitutes, then communism, thus the death of the culture, is certain.
Freedom and Liberty
are
built upon a story,
and that story
needs its storytellers.
AMERICAN FIREKEEPER
America-First
Political Leadership Guidance
Political Messaging and Storytelling
Dio Lyons
American Firekeeper 2022
All rights reserved
americanfirekeeper@protonmail.com
Comments