Preventing the Apocalypse

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

Now that I’ve published my pre-deterministic post on preparing for the Apocalypse, I thought maybe I should put out something about preventing the Apocalypse. I think the key is talking. That may seem trite and trivial, but there it is. I think the U.S. is ground zero, because we’re the biggest economy on the planet so if we go under, we’ll likely drag the rest of the world down. And then war. And then etc….

Relativism of truth is false, but relativism of knowledge is not. Tell yourself, “I am NOT omniscient. I can still learn things.” Now picture everyone else as being individual collections of knowledge you DON’T have. You want some of that knowledge, don’t you? Try to peaceably acquire that knowledge through talking (That’s what we got the First Amendment for, right?). Calmly. Rationally. And whatever you do, don’t go and try to annihilate yourself because the possibility of the counterpoint being true is terribly bleak and awful—like yours truly. You may have to start with people who only disagree with you slightly, but I think you should have as a goal, those people you most despise.

Okay. The socialist should talk to the capitalist. They both have good points to make (that’s very patronizing, I know, but oh well). The atheist should talk to the fundamentalist. The Nazi should talk to the Jew (in a safe location) and the person of color (also in a safe location). The Christian should talk to the Satanist. And so on.

Oh, and one other thing, we should probably pray. We can’t defeat Satan without God’s help.

Now, I have to get off my soap box.

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

Preparing for the Apocalypse

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

How do you prepare for the Apocalypse? I’m not entirely sure. This is my first one. I think. Perhaps I shouldn’t try to inject humor into the Apocalypse, but I’m not sure what else to do.

Okay, maybe we should start with what can you expect? War. Economic Collapse. Rampaging AI. Plague (got that with Covid now). Okay, let’s deal with these one by one.

What do you do about war? Is there such a thing as a just war? I’m not sure anymore. I know WWII is probably the classic case of a just war. And, even though I am largely a pacificist, WWII makes me question. Still, if the U.S. descends into Civil War, I’m sitting it out. I recently heard someone say, “Violence only works as a solution in the short term.” That seems to ring true with me when speaking of war. I know … what about WWII? I don’t know.

Okay, how about economic collapse. I think this is inevitable now. How do you prepare? Is there a safe haven for your assets and wealth? In terms of money, I don’t think there is. Congress seems to be trying to spend the dollar into oblivion. The stock market is probably one of the biggest bubbles in existence. Bitcoin is extraordinarily volatile. And I know very little about finances. All I know is that any one of those could go up in smoke. And I fully expect all of them to at the same time. What do you do? Invest in skills. Learn the rudiments of as many useful skills as you can. That’s all I got.

Okay, so what do you do about rampaging AI. I bought myself a super soaker … you know, one of those big water guns. I may be disinclined to kill a fellow human being, but I have no such disinclinations when it comes to machines. Thog no like computer. Thog thump computer. Make computer small. Sorry. Private joke. For people who probably aren’t reading this blog.

Last but not least, what do you do about plagues? Or, in this case, the coronavirus? I’m perfectly happy to be vaccinated for such things provided they respect my right for informed consent.

Oh, and one other thing … we should probably pray.

But remember, I am NOT omniscient. And that is one truth I am certain of.

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

Trivial Morality

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

Our culture (the U.S.) seems to be obsessed with “trivial morality.” I am NOT claiming that morality is trivial. In fact, I think morality is very important. It’s just that I’m convinced that the moral issues the U.S. is obsessing over these days are “trivial” ones.

For example, that whole transgender pronoun thing. A biological guy wants to be called she and her. Okay. If you politely make me aware of that fact, I may or may not comply, depending on my mood. Maybe I should comply and call the biological male her or she, and I am in error if I do not; however, if it is an error—which I am not sure it is—it is a trivial one. Seriously. You are getting all bent out of shape because someone isn’t calling you by your preferred pronoun when your entire anatomy indicates that you should be called something else? You are getting outraged over something truly trivial. There is a reason that pronouns only have two or three letters at most. It’s because they are an afterthought in the English language. Insults are more severe moral infringements. And insults are not worthy of legislation.

Another one: white privilege. There may be some truth to the notion that more whites are financially better off than more blacks and, as a result, have better opportunities and are prone to be more successful. But the racial factor to that truth died 50+ years ago. It’s strictly a monetary disparity now in 2021. Sure, there are white supremacists left in the country. A whole five of them. Most people these days don’t care about race unless it is to walk around on eggshells for fear of setting a foot wrong and winding up on the wrong side of the “woke” cancel culture mob. The problem with the notion of white privilege is that there are plenty of low-income whites who are just as disadvantaged as blacks because of their economic position. Further, trying to trace back everyone’s ancestry to the days of the slave trade is a herculean task that won’t really tell you much except that person A’s ancestor screwed over person B’s ancestor 150+ years ago. Sure, for some there will be a trail of resultant economic success, but I’m sure there will be a lot of “bad” ancestors who fell afoul bad karma as well and wound up in the poor house. Also, why stop with the injustices of the slave trade? I’m Catholic (well, sort of—see all my posts about the antichrist). Should I be allowed to trace my ancestry back to Rome when all the Christians were fed to the lions and demand such and such from Italians as a result? When is the cut off? It’s a trivial concern.

Next one: cultural appropriation. I honestly don’t see the point of this one either. It just seems to me that the Left is getting upset over a host of trivialities and somehow winning the culture debate in the process.

The point I’m trying to make is that when it comes to moral concerns there is a scale of importance involved. There is a massive moral difference between a late-term abortion and a mistaken use of a frigging pronoun. Let’s try to stay focused on the important ones and leave the trivial moral issues to Life, God, or the Zen Oneness of Being to sort out.

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

A Bad Idea

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?

Once upon a time, I was a college student. And I had a really, really bad idea. I probably wouldn’t even mention this, but over the past several years, I’ve had other bad ideas. And some of them seem to have been picked up by society. Presumably, because other people have had the same idea themselves. Alternatively, some people may have read my mind and, convinced I was Maitreya or some other cosmic figure, proceeded to take my bad ideas and run with them. Spreading chaos. For example, I once had the idea that, in the spirit of non-violence, one should resist the urge of passing laws to influence cultural morality and instead do things like use boycotts and such to do so. Now, that seems to be the motto of the Left and the cancel culture. And as it spreads, I am growing more and more convinced that that is a bad idea. Well, I am of the mind that we have way too many laws, and I would gladly support a reduction in that number, but replacing them with boycotts seems questionable at best now.

Anyway, that was one of my bad ideas.

The next is a real doozy and I want to try to squelch it before it manifests … on the off chance that all my bad ideas are going to be made manifest.

Anyway, back in college, I had an emotional rough spot and while in the midst of that I had to write a paper for a philosophy professor of mine. In this paper, I put forth the really dumb idea that society should “turn to the religions of the world and find some commonality.” I went on and supported the notion that this amalgam of religions should be taught in school (I think, if I remember correctly), and that is a serious mistake. First, religious and moral upbringing of children are the parent’s responsibility, not the school’s and not the government’s. Second, this comes so close to mandating a certain religious ethos by dictate of the government that just screams tyranny (yeah … it was my inner moral despot rearing its ugly head) that it should be laughed out of the public square. All I know is that it was and is a terrible idea. And as such, I fully expect the Left to take it up and start moving in that direction. I pray, though, that they don’t, if for no other reason than that Christians will never submit to such (not that any other religion would) and the conflict will lead to end-times-like persecution.

Anyway, that is my confession of my terrible idea from many years ago.

Satan is a Liar. And Jesus Christ is the Lord. Repent and be saved. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before. But have you ever heard it from the antichrist before?