The Crusades in Music

This Is God's Country

A lot of times we think things are new when they are not. There were no good ol' days. 

Under a dictatorship the Big Business, made possible by advancing technology and the consequent ruin of Little Business, is controlled by the State - that is to say, by a small group of party leaders and the soldiers, policemen and civil servants who carry out their orders. In a capitalist democracy such as the United States, it is controlled by what Professor C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite.

This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country’s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communications, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody.

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited 1958

While I would not call our system democracy or capitalism, we all need to understand that the whole system, America the Beautiful as the song calls it, has a Potemkin village kind of beauty in its veneer. 

But ugly is what is really there. It was ugly in 1958, in 1858, and the ugliness is still there. Like the Eagles song Hotel California, "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." I am mixing my metaphors here as I have always advocated leaving the system behind...just look at the subtitle to the blog, "Leaving Babylon the Great." 

We are all stuck in Babylon. Even if you emigrate to New Zealand, you will find Babylon there. But each of us can strive to leave it in all the most important ways. You may be forced to be in the system--just refuse to pay your taxes and see what happens. But you can refuse to be of the system. 

This is oddly enough why I try to blog every Friday about food and health. I refuse to eat the food of Babylon. I want something different. As Huxley mentioned, Babylon controls the media, so it tries to control even our feelings along with our thoughts. This is why I do not watch much television. This Is My Country! This is also why I talk about religious matters. Most churches have been co-opted. If you think I am wrong, on a weekend around July 4, go to church with an open mind and listen. 

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

Do these lyrics sound familiar? Have you heard it sung in church? But have you heard this section from Jeremiah 7 preached and related to the modern situation in the US? 

8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”God’s Decree!

Is this God's country? Not so much. 

Inflation Or Deflation?

My short, waggish answer to this question is yes. 

The only way you can have hyperinflation is if the government decides to do it. This seems unlikely, but not impossible. A far greater risk is deflation, which would cause the government to print too much money, which would cause inflation, which would cause the government to tighten, which would cause deflation. An endless cycle of chaos. This is my interpretation of the data. 

A lot of the "guys" are expecting 2014 to be the "year." I am not. I expect sideways movement. Governments will continue to prop things up. China just did by bailing out a bank that was due to default on $500 million. No one is saying where the money came from, but there are no other possibilities. Turkey raised their interest rates to 12%. This will solve the currency problem they have but will present problems for those who have loans that need to be rolled over. Russia is spending $400 million a day defending the ruble. Russia's reserves are better than most but are not infinite. 

Governments will continue to interfere with the market and will for the most part succeed. President Clinton will have to deal with this in 2017.

Ambrose Evans-Pierce is one of the economic writers I follow. His latest musings led to this blog post.

Are You A Gang Member? Part 3

Are Catholics bad? 

Some would say yes. But instead I am going to offer that they are a part of a system that has become corrupted. Why did various Catholic Bishops protect pedophiles? One aspect might have been pedophiles protecting each other. But the most likely explanation is that rather than doing what was right, the desire was to protect the institution, the gang to which they belonged. Bishops talk to other religious leaders in their church who have the same background. A group-think develops to defend the institution, and instead of being fired, or even transferred to an institution where there are no children, the pedophiles were just assigned to a different parish.  This is the classic definition of insanity--you keep doing something that is not working hoping that this time it will work.  

It didn't. 

It is possible, to paraphrase Jesus, to be in the system, but not be of the system--sometimes. It depends on the system, it depends on the individual. It is always hard not to be a team player even when the team is corrupt. We believe the lies of the team, and as the gang member I quoted in part 1 said, "It is all lies." 

I remember being a part of a religious gang over a decade ago. I supported the church financially. I drove hundreds of miles a month. The church would reimburse some for mileage, I never did request it. I spoke every week, and was the main speaker in the area. I wrote on Internet forums to defend the interests of my gang. I became a hack. 

When a difficult situation arose locally, I naturally expected to receive back from the gang the support I had given it. I journeyed to denominational headquarters to present my case. I expected that I would be supported. But alas, those that had the preeminence both locally and denominationally prevailed. How naive I was. While I was never technically decredentialed, I found out later, I was put in a position where I had to leave. It could, and probably was, said that I had made the choice myself to leave.  

Any system naturally corrupts those that belong to it, they that are "of" the system. Thus Catholic Bishops, whose lifetime devotion to their church and ideals should really not be questioned, became corrupt because it was necessary to defend the institution. The gang trumps all. 

I am not saying in this three-part series that one can never vote for a political party, although I am less and less interested in such matters. Nor am I saying one cannot be a member of a nation state. Nor am I suggesting you not join a church. But instead, I am saying you need to understand the corrupting nature of being a gang member, and leave that behind. 

I remember singing a song written by the uncle of the founder of my denomination. It was a reworking of the first psalm. I sang that I "would not stand in sinners' way." I had no idea what this meant. Later I came to understand that it meant not to associate with sinners. As you read the words of the psalmist ask yourself who are you like? Are you a tree standing tall, bearing fruit for all? Or do you hang out, defend and associate with the gangs of this world? 

Are you a gang member? 

Psalm 1

The Message (MSG)

1 How well God must like you—
    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. 

Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
    you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
    bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
    always in blossom.

You’re not at all like the wicked,
    who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
    unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

Are You A Gang Member? Part 2

One danger of gang membership is that as a member of the group the way you think, your template as I call it, will change. This is often called group think. This is how Wikipedia describes it: 

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

This may be the reason for the similarity between the two major political parties. Barack Obama was nominated as the anti-war candidate. Yet the war in Afghanistan continues and the only reason the US is no longer in Iraq is that it was kicked out. Our culture masters all tend to have the same view on things, they too suffer from group think. 

GroupThink in ActionLooking back at my national gang, the US, over the centuries is rather disgusting. My natural tendency is be loyal to my gang, but looking at the lynchings, in particular one in a town in Missouri where i lived for many years that explains why there aren't many blacks there, the various wars, and the economic domination by our masters, I am loosed from that loyalty. 

Note that I call the US my gang. I really have no choice in the matter, once a Blood or a Crip, always a Blood or a Crip. It is not practical to be independent in a gang-held area in our cities' slums. It is not practical to be independent in the gang held area called America. 

But you can avoid group think. You can, to paraphrase Jesus' advice to his disciples, be in America but not of America. It is not always easy. Things as simple as commercials put you under tremendous pressure to conform and buy, buy, buy. News channels are particularly pernicious in group think. The political orientation of the station will over time gradually become your orientation. You are being programmed. 

While remaining in gang-held territory, you can leave the gang in all the areas that really matter, you can leave Babylon. I am leaving my gang membership in the US behind, join me.