For those who missed the memo, we're in a conversation. Right now in the West this is a community wide conversation as we face certain critical junctures in history. It is not only poignant and important but literally game changing, and an urgent last minute call to higher principles. For example Kek's meme army memed "the orange man" into the presidency (along with a lot of prayer from those who pray, and certain great sacrifices). Feel free to join this conversation - we will share the outcome, either chaos and rapid destruction, or a steady recovery and rebuild of relationships. Breaking habits can be tough, with withdrawals, headaches, occasional relapses and drying out periods, but with a stern father figure and guiding hand (Putin) we can get through this; we must! Let's also remind ourselves that we are all human. Where possible in this conversation try to help your "opponent" to understand his own words when your "Stupid O Meter" highlights for you how stupid his words are; consider responding with a sentence beginning with "Did you mean ..." or "Are you trying to say that ..." It is convenient to use the "royal we" that is to use "we" (or "our" etc) to refer to either our whole community or any subset - if the true meaning is unclear to you, that's an opportunity to join the convo and ask for clarification. When the royal "we" is used, it often is not meant to imply that the writer is necessarily included in the group referred to. Example 1: Pragmatism ----------------------- Pragmatism has its place, but it often has its price! Pragmatism is in many circumstances a reasonable "default fallback", e.g. when in doubt. Pragmatism also appears to be the dominant old school modality for our trusted deep state allies - yes, we use the word "trusted" in a generous way as not only a figure of speech, but as a prayer for a future for our children of peace between nations; let's call it a pragmatic choice :) The problem with pragmatism is its limits - without the higher guiding principles, "pragmatism" justifies torture, murder, and for example the revolving turnstyle in Iran of regime change de-installing one leader and system for another, followed by later de-installing your new "puppet" and re-installing the old, just to later turn around and do it all again in repeated reversing repetition; and the obvious result is a cluster-check of distrust, instability, international condemnation, and generally fear. All in the name of pragmatism. And this has of course been repeated all over the place including Iraq, Turkey and Libya. Given the West's regime change antics, it is no wonder we are on the precipice of the same sword. The will to use evil on another, justifies that evil befalling ourselves - karma or "do unto others that which you would have them do unto you". Despotic pragmatism has so universally dominated the CIA that the CIA's present Director Gina Haspel has reportedly engaged in / authorized / upheld / publicly supported, torture (named by the despotic euphemism "enhanced interrogation techniques"). One wonders what happened to Ms Haspel in her younger years… Torture must be forever taken off the table, and publicly renounced, unambiguously, and permanently. The Western regime is on the precipice of destruction. We must repent of our evils. We must cast evil from our "toolbox" of foundations for action. We must stop justifying all manner of evils as the means to reach "the 'good' ends". For starters, "our deep state buddies" must actually renounce, and actually refrain from, certain evils including: - torture - extrajudicial killing aka murder - violent regime change of client (or "enemy") states (Feel free to add other evils which we must cast from the West!) Without actually renouncing, denouncing and refraining from, torture (for one example), no mandate from heaven can be in operation (duh!) and instead the wrath of heaven must descend, and if that's hard to understand, pray you be guided as to why righteous humans would uphold, or destroy, a nation. If "you" (CIA, FBI, employees, etc) struggle to find righteous foundations for action within yourself or within your department, you are in urgent need of crowdsourcing some righteousness immediately! Achieving that might mean a public dialog of some sort, possibly whistleblowing, or perhaps something else, but at this point in history we cannot afford to fail on such basic moral/spiritual principles; act accordingly. Some have paid a very high, yet honourable price, their lives: from Seth Rich to the Donbass region for example, and to honour their sacrifices we must do more than carry on as before, we must instead lift our game, live a higher ethic, do all that we can to atone for such evils and to bring forth righteousness. Example 2: Russia blaming --------------------------- There is not much that is more insulting to the plain thinking man than years of ridiculous "Russia blaming" and hoaxing. Not only is it the most blunt tool in the clown box, it is undignified, demeaning, spreading of lies and falsehoods, and from a diplomatic perspective, hands over a continual stream of wins to our "Russkie brothers", which come to think of it is not such a bad thing - for them :/ But remember this my fellow doofuses: every time you dump on Russia, you have given up, lost and foresaken another opportunity for someone in the West (someone of at least nominal authority) to put forth humility, to put forth dignity, to begin the process of ownership and cleansing and therefore the redemption and healing that the West so desperately needs. We cannot afford, politically OR spiritually, to continue spitting on such opportunities for redemption. If you can't immediately find some politician sufficiently non-compromised to take the public soap box for Western dignity and redemption, then get to work and find someone, make someone or mold someone, and while you're at it, turf those who are compromised to the wolves; it's a funny thing about demons, once the righteous start to speak publicly, there's a point at which the demons turn on one another and devour one another (mostly figuratively) and at that point our job of catalyzing redemption is almost done. Example 3: Domination and client states ----------------------------------------- The old testament is "an eye for an eye", the zero sum resource game, "I want the word plus 5%" aka usury and cyclical chaos. The new testament is the Star Trek economy, awesome abundance, discernment and discrimination with appropriately placed (+ neither naieve nor foolish) forgiveness, e.g. of certain debts (once again, Putin has lead the way on this blindingly simple tool). Domination and "client state regime change" is founded in the Old Testament of fear, wrath, war, and the deception of "power as the highest principle". Abundance demands trust in others, even some faith (OMG, shawk!), and admits of healthy group dynamics from nationalism, to vertical integration at every level, to cooperation and bilateral agreements. We are creative, and given at least half a chance we shall bring forth even more abundance and more delights, more joy. Notes: With the recent Russian referendum and the probability of Putin being elected for two additional terms, we in the West have been granted a small yet greatly needed breathing space - IF we use it wisely! We must NOT take November for granted. We EACH play a role, no matter how small; do your bit to lift up another this day, to ease the burden, to remind that we must live better, in truth, in dignity, in righteousness. It's easy to understand, and it's actually pretty easy to do - a little bit here, tiny bit there and we're rolling together in the healthy direction. Let's create our shared world.