Hello I must be going

So last year, on November 5, I posted that I was going to semi-retire from blogging.  If I blogged, I would keep it on topics like personal faith, personal experiences, frivolous things, or other interests.  No more hot button issues, politics, religious controversies, or monitoring other blogs.  I decided to take a page from the now closed Saint Corbinian's Bear blog, and realize that much of blogging, like much of modernity, is less good for the soul than we might care to admit.  It tends to keep one in the rage-machine of outrage for two days, then move onto the next outrage.  Something, I think, that the news media wants to happen.

The reasons for this decision last  year were many, personal, and just timely.  For one, I started the blog under assumptions that simply are no longer viable.  Another reason is that I became convinced that somewhere along the line STEM turned a corner and is causing more problems than it's solving.

Within this development is the push toward turning people into thralls of digital living and relations, despite how obviously bad it is for human relations and human interaction.  The resulting tolerance of new categories of accepted bigotry, and the increasing desire to eliminate other unworthy people in a way nobody in the ashes of 1946 ever imagined we would see again, should be more than ample evidence that where we've been going is not good.  I couldn't help but think, therefore, that continuing to communicate in a digital/computer format on such a scale might smack of hypocrisy.

So I said sayonara.  That one of my old Patheos trolls stopped by on that very post to hurtle insults and expletives (he was a fun one who was almost always wrong about everything he posted, but covered it with name calling and vulgarities), just confirmed what I concluded about relations in the Internet age, and therefore it wasn't worth going on, at least with the focus on controversies of the day.  In the end, you largely deal with people who agree with your observations (not a bad thing in itself) or face people who can do nothing but troll and yell and call names like children because they are safe behind their keyboards.  Life is too short for that.

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So what happened? Where was the retirement?  Obviously I have spent most of the last year doing just the opposite of what I said I would do.  Well, it's hard to say.  At about that time, Mark Shea lifted his ban of everyone he had banned.  I thought I could get back in and reach him and get him to turn away from the pit.  That lasted a month before he banned me again.  By then, however, he was clearly beyond reaching, as he appears to be now.  Nonetheless, it pulled me back into the issues.

Then the Left emerged from behind the curtain, declaring 'Socialism fore!', making the desire to abolish freedom and liberty, and even challenge democracy, its clear goal.  The Kavanaugh lynch mob had, like any sane person, left me aghast at what type of country the Left wants.  Furthermore its push to embrace unbridled late term abortion, even infanticide, while taking the first steps to push for state mandated euthanasia, all shocked me despite my belief the Left could do nothing at all to shock me.

By the early year, as hopes of overturning the 2016 election faded, the Left kicked into full unhinged radical mode.  With the press, education and Hollywood as its slavish thralls, the fact that we were seeing more and more that was so evil and wrong embraced was an eye opener.

I mean, as the year moved on, the idea that all white people are racist, and all of Anglo-European heritage is Nazi, was rolling off the tongues of the post-modern without effort.  Movies were being made that might as well boast 'no whites in our cast!' as their selling points.  Schools were encouraging students to throw books into dumpsters because the books were not properly woke and anti-Western. Men were all but emasculated with no rebuttal from most men.  And non-European and American individuals and organizations, such as CAIR, were joining Democrats who told orthodox Christians they should have no place in the modern state.

All of this was in addition to seeing the clear push to ban the notion of boys and girls, open sexual pursuits to include anything we want, and of course push to abolish the heritage of the Christian West and the American Experiment, which was becoming the proud gospel of this emergent force of death and destruction.  I'm the first to say evil exists in all quarters of the human family, including the Right.  Nonetheless, it's clear that the Left was now the force of evil to watch because it has the willing ear of the institutions that should be protecting us.

This was quite shocking to realize, and as each story became worse, more unbelievable, more jaw dropping, I would post.  While doing so, I began to see with communism what, 20 years or so ago, I saw with socialism, and that's when it began coming together.

Years ago, in the 90s, talk radio and other conservative outlets often accused the Democrats of wanting to go full blown socialism.  Those on the Left objected and declared it slander and lies, that nobody was being a socialist.  They would bristle at the accusation, and insist nothing the Democrats or liberals were wanting had anything to do with socialism.  Sometimes even mainline conservatives stepped away from such name calling, in order to take the high road.

Then, by the late 90s and early 00s, I began seeing, here and there, the odd 'Socialism rocks!', 'Why we need socialism', or 'I'm a proud Socialist!'.  The editorial here, the pundit there, the Newsweek cover over there.   Now, in 2019, you have news round tables politely discussing the openly Socialist Democrats who are pushing the Democratic party to fully declare itself Socialist! and make America a socialist nation once and for all.

And while this is happening, what's occurring alongside?  If calling the Left socialist was an insult, calling it communist was a joke.  Pure Frank Burns and Archie Bunker style idiocy from back in the McCarthy days.  But now, however, as socialism becomes openly embraced by church and state, I'm seeing, here and there, the odd 'Communism rocks!', 'Why we need communism', or 'I'm a proud Communist!'.  The editorial here, the pundit there, the Jesuit publication over there.

So it's clear where things are going, and what we'll have when it gets here. In another 20 years, if not sooner, there is no reason to think we won't see with communism what we are now seeing with socialism.  And if that wasn't enough, it is more than mere communism, but a fusion of the last century's evils: racism and bigotry and oppression and collectivization, genocide and eugenics and the elimination of those deemed unworthy of life, and oppression, tyranny and the destruction of freedom and liberty and the dignity of the human person, all under the promise of unbridled debauchery and decadence in a material universe while people die from the sexual revolution by the tens of millions.  Therefore whether or not communism by name, I fear it will nonetheless be far worse than what we have witnessed in many an age.

So with breaking the code and figuring it out, what is left to do on this blog?   I look back at some of my oldest posts and realize what I feared then as a long shot paranoid prediction pales in comparison to what is happening. But it's likely that my blog will not make a difference.  It is what it is, and that's a tiny voice unheard by most.  Whether the world has moved past the point of no return I don't know.  Whether it will be my sons' time or their children's time, I also don't know.  But unless things change, or the Faithful of Christ go radical, I'm not seeing much to stop it.

So I've decided I've said what I can say.  Everything I would post will likely affirm what anyone with a brain should know - that we're seeing a global revolution to tear down the old orders, the old faiths, the old morals, and build a new one from the bottom down by retrying all of the worst we've seen in the modern era.  The track record is obvious, we simply ignore it, or through unwarranted arrogance, assume this time it will be awesome because it's us.

The revolution - call it the Left if you will - pulled the coup of the ages.  By mythologizing the rest of the world and demonizing the civilization that brought concepts of equality and liberty and democracy and the dignity of the human person to the world, it has made great strides in bringing the world back full circle to a 'c. 100 AD' mentality.

Of course it will impact everyone - eventually.  But most, naturally, are hoping the bad comes after we are long gone, since concern about an afterlife for most in the West has long since gone the way of the Dodo bird.  Most certainly don't think your religious opinions have any bearing on your eternal destinies, and I would include the current pope in that observation.  The Martyrdom by Proxy principle that defines the post-modern era, where the suffering of others is the price I'm willing to pay, has also made it natural to not care as long as it doesn't impact me.

But for my part, if I keep commenting and pointing this out, I will be grinding bearings and running up a down escalator by merely stating the obvious.  Those who get it will agree.  Those beholden to the revolution won't listen anyway.  So there's no sense continuing to block time out in the day to do what I've been doing.  Those in positions to make a difference will need to take it from here.  Some are; a radical few.  And where there are those Faithful of good will, there is always hope.

So come November 5 this year - a year after my psuedo-signing off post - I will stop blogging on the issues, topics and troubles of the day.  I may stop blogging altogether, or I may just do what I planned to do last year, and that's the odd post about some frivolous fun or family or faith topic that catches my attention.  Once every now and then.

I'm also planning on dropping Facebook by the end of the year and, with only a couple exceptions, stop visiting social media sites and blogs altogether.  I'd like to think it will make the sun shine a little brighter before the darkness comes.  I know leaving the worst and most evil blogs and sites already made life better.  I'm thinking this will improve my outlook and faith walk even more.

Finally, as if to remind myself how long I've been at this and all that has happened during this time, a picture of my boys taken right before I started the blog:

 By comparison, here they are back in July on a family trip to southern Ohio:

I think it is time.  If anything is going to stop the storm clouds, it will be them and their generation.  Our generations have proven sadly inept at facing up to the obvious.  Knowing what I know of the boys - and that's warts and all, not just rose colored glasses viewing you see on Facebook - that actually gives me some reason to hope. 

Between now and Nov. 5 I will keep posting topically as normal, if not a bit more sparsely.  I will also throw out other fun things as befits one of our favorite seasons.  But come Nov 5, I will stop.  After that it will be more personal reflections, celebrations or just musing on hobbies or personal interests, if it ends up being anything at all.  I'll pass the baton of heavy lifting the issues to the next generation, with some regret that we didn't do a better job standing up to the storm soon enough.