HE IS RISEN.
It has been a while, dear friends.
Last year I gave up alcohol for Lent. 40 days with nary a drop. And it was good.
For Lent this year I gave up coffee. The sacrifice is supposed to be something you enjoy, something you have come to depend on. I have depended on caffeine (mainly in the form of coffee) to fuel my sleep-deprived meat vessel for over ten years, so I knew it would be an arduous season. And arduous it proved.
One of the first things to go was the writing. There seems to be a positive correlation between amount of coffee ingested and how much writing gets done. Tea is suitable to put you in a contemplative mood. But in terms of output it simply falls short. Writing fuelled by tea and tisane is like tanning by moonlight instead of the sun. Ask the late and great Honore de Balzac – he knew a thing or two about coffee’s salutary effect on writing.
So I stopped writing for a bit and started listening more. Started praying and reading more. The world continued plunging boldly into a place nobody wants to name but looks suspiciously like a vision of hell. Over the last decade I have stopped paying attention to sportsball, celebrities, pop culture (ugly oxymoron if ever there was one), and virtually all mainstream discourse on culture, masculinity, femininity, politics, etc.
And now for the same reason I stopped reading the news. It’s outrage porn. Disaster porn. 1 minute of actual reporting on things that happened for every 59 minutes of analysis and political hand-wringing by moralizing midwit pseudo-experts who couldn’t for the life of them throw a punch or take one. Oh yes my friends. The news is fake and has been for a long time.
And I understand how difficult it is to look away.
You think you’re privy to this information that explains X and Y about the world. It’s why liberals cannot turn away from their grievances and their holiness spirals. That shit is addictive. They tell themselves it’s for the good of the victims but at the heart of it, doing this makes them feel good. Pure. Virtuous. Holy. And human beings are creatures that respond well to these feelings.
You think you need to stay informed but, really, what does it avail you to witness the pain and suffering tragedy of 8 billion souls? You want to be a good person? Forget about a fundraiser for refugees or starving children 10,000km away. Start a community garden or do something to help your local community.
Reading philosophy and social/political/economic analysis is now becoming less of a priority for me. It’s a lot of time and effort that amounts to… what? More philosophical diddling. Empty tawk. Want to focus more on history and nutrition. The science of why we are the way we are. I read a fascinating little tome called Deep Nutrition by Cate Shanahan. Trying to understand the world around me as it is. Sure, being able to discourse on Clausewitz or reactionary political theory is nice but will it let me teach more effectively or add 100lbs to my deadlift? No. That being said, the work done is still amazing and true and important and I will continue to follow some writers in this space with interest.
40 days I abstained from coffee and slowly let my pen fall silent. I bade myself be silent and still so God’s voice could reach me. Images and objects that appeared blur or far came to resolve themselves more clearly, more vividly.
Progressivism is built on a lie. Modern identity discourse (gender, race, etc) and academia is cancer. Democracy is a sham. There are too many humans on earth. Religion is true and real and essential to one’s harmonious functioning. The more things change the more they stay the same. But lest I be called out and mocked for being unscientific and backwards, I insist we must use data and scientific rigour to bring to life the eternal truths our ancestors had the wisdom to uncover and preserve.
The future will not be like the past, but can be enhanced for human flourishing through distilling the best of the past and seeing it clearly, as the scales fall from our eyes.
This morning during Easter service I felt a weight lift from my shoulders and I became suffused with a calm presence. I am the exact same man I am, and I will continue to experience fear, uncertainty, and doubt, but I know I cannot lose. The God that raised me, that empowered me, has died and arisen and now bids me move forward.
The cost of absolute victory is the shedding away of everything the world wants me to treasure.
And I see with clear eyes that any unhappiness in my life has come in times when I allowed myself to chase false lights, and listen to false leaders propounding manmade philosophies. But none of that will give me what I want. It certainly will not help me go where I am needed or do the work I am meant to spend my life doing.
No more false idols, no more false deities, no more false gurus and false lights.
Only God.