Note: This will probably be meaningful primarily to those who identify as Christian, but I promise the conclusion I want to encourage you with is applicable to everyone.
(Read this part first, then watch or listen to the video when prompted 👇)
This morning as I was sitting in church, I remembered a story I heard back in 2008 during a training program for the collegiate ministry I was involved with. The story was about a man named Frank Jenner. Frank did cold evangelism on George Street in Sydney, Australia for 28 years until his Parkinson's became so debilitating that he was unable to continue to do so. The following video is a description of what happened as a result of his work:
[Edit: For some reason Locals still pushes all video links to the bottom, even when I tell it to hide the link preview. Just scroll down to the bottom and click the first video]
(Even if you're not a Christian, this part is applicable to you 👇)
What strikes me most about Jenner's story is his commitment to what he felt called to do, regardless of any external rewards or encouragement. He knew what his purpose was, and then he set about fulfilling it. The other amazing aspect to this story is that Frank didn't know what the fruit of his courage and commitment to his purpose would produce- this lesson applies to all of us.
It's incredibly easy to be discouraged these days. It's easy to think that if we don't have a big platform or audience or any such thing, that we can't make a difference in this fight against those seeking to destroy everything we hold dear. That's what those pushing garbage ideology want us to believe. They want us to be discouraged. They want us to buy into their illusion of consensus. The worst possible scenario for them is us everyday people realizing that we can make a difference, we can push back, and we can win. They don't want us to realize how fragile their power actually is.
Remember the end of V for Vendetta, when all the people realize their collective ability to simply say "no" to the evil around them? All they had to do was stand up. That was it. It wasn't costless, but it was certainly less costly than not speaking up. As James Lindsay pointed out in our interview (quoting Jordan Peterson), the cost of inaction in this situation is significantly more than the cost of fighting back, whatever that looks like for each of you as individuals.
Just because Frank Jenner did not see the immediate fruits of his actions, that didn't mean there was no fruit. The same goes for us. The fight we're in won't be won quickly. It will take a long time before any of us can safely say "It feels like we're out of the woods with this thing." We can't let the formidability of the problems (they are indeed Legion), or the lack of immediate gratification for our resistance be a deterrent from the work before us. Every act of resistance, no matter how small, matters. It matters for you personally, as small acts of courage and character will breed more acts of courage and character (just as comprise will breed more compromise). Moreover, it matters because like Frank Jenner, we never know how even our smallest acts will impact the world.
So that's my encouragement to you. Don't give up. Don't be discouraged by the lack of immediate fruit for your actions. Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep encouraging each other. I wasn't planning on dipping back into the spiritual stuff, but as I wrote that last sentence I was reminded of one of the first verses I ever memorized, Hebrews 10:24-25:
"And let us consider how to encourage one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."
The church under Rome (when that was written) was heavily, heavily persecuted. They were massively outnumbered, controlled no institutions, largely despised by the culture around them, and living under an unfathomably hostile government. Thus the urgent reminder to not forget how to push each other towards encouragement and action. This reminder applies to us, also. You're not alone, and what you do matters. Don't ever forget that.
Have a great day everyone. I'm going to include a link to the V for Vendetta speech that I somewhat referenced, because it's just amazing. I'm also going to share a link to the Wiki on Frank Jenner, as the account in the video has a few errors. None of them are consequential to the overall point of the story (mostly errors about dates), but I still wanted to give you the full information. Man, that video about the little old man on George Street still brings tears to my eyes. What an absolute legend. Anyway, talk to you soon 🤙
V for Vendetta Speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKnjxT5HRJQ
Frank Jenner's full biography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Jenner
While driving yesterday, I had an idea to help facilitate more regular content creation, especially during this time when it is all but impossible to make videos outside of livestreams from my phone. The idea is that of a biweekly post that roughly takes the form of a newsletter, of which this is shall be the first volume. As an aside, evidently a synonym for biweekly is 'fortnightly,' which I'd totally use if it weren't for the association with a game of stupid dances.
My current plan for the format is as follows, though obviously this is likely to change.
-Introduction, brief life updates, and maybe a thought or two I've had lately that I wanted to share with you.
-What books I have been going through, and any excerpts or takeaways I feel are worth sharing.
-Any other noteworthy podcasts or media I've consumed lately.
-What stories I'm paying attention to (if any) and why
-Any questions I might have for you guys
-?
Alright, it's called TL;DR for a reason. Let's jump in.
As I mentioned earlier, we have Covid again. I'm not going to ...
I know it's been quiet here lately. I'll eventually explain what's been going on with my personal life (most of it has been a mixture of our new baby being really, really difficult, and perpetual sickness. For example, last week three our of the four of us had to go to the hospital) but this is what has consumed virtually all free time outside of work and family time.
Please consider helping us bring justice to these bastards. Their indifference and complicity in the harm done to these kids has to stop. Please help us make that happen.
For those who missed it, here's an open letter I wrote to my community last fall after the suicide of a former student, himself a victim of this school district:
https://returntoreason.medium.com/an-open-letter-to-the-citizens-of-albany-county-ca507fa24cd8
Thank you for everything you do. You guys are awesome, and I look forward to filling you in on what's been going on in the near future. See you soon.
ps- I will be...
Salutations! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. Here is my list of top ten the things I learned/conclusions I reached from this past year. Some are directly related to events, others are not. Either way, I tried my best to create a list of useful ideas for you to incorporate into your view of the present moment. I hope you find this list useful, as many of the items on it are lenses I find incredibly important for understanding the world around me. As always, I welcome any feedback you might have!
In Part 2, I use Conquest's Three Laws of Politics to expand on my specific critiques of Peterson's Manifesto, and flush out some of my own axioms that I failed to explain in Part 1. This is where I get into the nuts and bolts of how institutions deviate from their original purpose and begin to generate and pursue their own interests.
What began as a singular episode critiquing one of my intellectual heroes has turned into a multi-part series going after some foundational axioms of mainstream Conservatism.
In this introductions, I discuss Permanent Washington and the concept of accountability, and sew the seeds for what's to come in either trusting or rejecting many mainstream Western institutions.
It's worth mentioning that this recording, along with every other part in this series, has taken almost (in some cases more than) a day to upload. I have no idea why my internet is failing me as hard as it is, but here we are. Hopefully you find these recordings in time to assist you in your vote tomorrow 🤙
I've been wanting to do this for a while. It might have taken me two days to figure out how to get this from my phone to my computer, but I finally got it to work.
On Saturday, I used the voice recorder app on my phone to record a podcast covering Karl Schmitt, his discussions of power, and how we can map this onto our contemporary situation with The Regime that runs our country, and the Bureaucratic State which does its ideological bidding.
After listening to it, I realize there is some more context I need to add to the ending, so I might record another one tomorrow or Wednesday. Either way, it feels good to be recording stuff again. As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback!
"We don't know where this thing isn't."
-Bret Weinstein
@JamesDerian suggested I pin and regularly update a thread of sources I'm compiling to illustrate the total societal takeover of Far-Left Orthodoxy, including their explicit targeting of our kids for indoctrination. Here is that thread.
Compromised entities:
Nickelodeon
Cartoon Network
Kellogg's Cereal
Mattel Toys
Lego
Sesame Street (SESAME STREET 🤦♂️)
PBS
CNN
The New York Times
The Washington Post
NPR
NBC News
Gender/Sexuality
Cartoon Network celebrating transgender children:
https://twitter.com/stage13network/status/1377332951659151360?s=20
More Cartoon Network trans stuff:
https://twitter.com/cartoonnetwork/status/1377259794294259717?s=20
Cartoon Network on "normalizing gender pronouns"
https://twitter.com/cartoonnetwork/status/1338539346530537475?s=20
Lego released "rainbow set" for Pride Month:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2021/may/everyone-is-awesome/
"Queer up your morning routine" with Kellogg's new cereal featuring edible glitter, ...
