Typically when discussing politics and the origins of political movements, countries, and ideas one defaults to history as a way to explain and understand what has happened in society. This obviously makes a great deal of sense as it helps us to see where some movement or idea has come from, how it has functioned in the past, how it is effecting the world today, and to theorize about what most likely will happen in the future due to its influence. But, as a means of actually understanding the whys and wherefores of these issues the historical method can only produce half answers. History cannot tell us what it is about the human condition that leads us to making the choices we do, it cannot explain what about the human mind leads us to doing the things that we do. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do so. In fact, I recently completed a series of articles looking at the origins of the State that does just that – it examines the psychological origins of the State, what about the human mind leads people towards Statism. This is a collection of those articles in a single place.
Category: International
Why You Shouldn’t Vote
During the 2020 American Presidential Election I authored or shared three articles that explained why people in general, and Latter-day Saints specifically, should never vote, at least not in a statist political system where the victor will be able to use the violence of the government to force his ideas upon the masses. In these articles I address the unethical nature of voting, the effectivity of voting as a means to bring about real change in the world, and the ways that taking part in the system legitimizes and empowers it to do evil and immoral things in your name, encouraging and commanding people obey politicians violates the laws of God as a matter of the government’s standard operation procedure. This page acts as a place where I have collected those articles in one easily accessed source for future reference.
Rejoice That God Is With Us Now And Forever
It being Christmas I wanted to share something short but beautiful. My favorite Christmas hymn is Veni, Veni Emmanuel, or in English, O’ Come, O’ Come, Emmanuel. The song is both a prayer that accurately captures the hopes, if not the actual words, of those who looked forward to the Messiah’s first coming and those of us now who anticipate His Second Coming. But it also testifies to us that we need not wait for Christ to come again to experience the power and peace He promises to bring because God is with us even now in Presence, Person, and Spirit. He is our Emmanuel, our ever present God if we but open our eyes, minds, ears, and hearts to Him.
The Origins of The God-State
There are many historical works on the rise of the modern State and the origins of its power. Many of them trace the development of the modern state from the end of the Medieval all the way up through the present day, drawing attention to how particular national and global crises – mostly wars and economic collapses – have resulted in the growth of the power of the centralized state as a solution to these problems.
As with all history, understanding these facts is very important to understanding how we got to where we are today. But in answering how they all too often neglect the why things are the way they are today.
Why is it that people have turned to the State for temporal and material salvation?
Why is it that men and women lavish religious levels of adoration and faith upon the State and its operatives?
Why is it that people have given it so much power?
What about humans and the way we think has convinced us, seemingly en masse, to turn to the State for salvation?
Using the writings of eminent psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, I try here to answer these questions; I answer not how the God-State came to be, but why humans have created the God-State in the first place.
Why The Governments of Men Are the Enemies of God
A few weeks back I wrote an article based on the writings of Dr. Carl Jung and his insights into the way that the very nature of human psychology makes the slide of the State , no matter how minimal or minarchist, into oligarchy and autocracy inevitable. This week I continue to use Dr. Jung’s observations and insights into the human psyche in order to explain why the above described operation of the State sets it at opposition to religion, to explain why religion and the State are always enemies to one another and why the State always seeks to control, corrupt, or eliminate religion. Dr. Jung explores how the State operates as religion in the lives of the people, promising salvation in the material world in exchange for the people surrendering their individuality and liberty to the politicians who run the State. Religion provides the ability of the people to have morality outside of the power of the State to control and therefore provides a challenge to the authority of the State which it cannot allow.
The Lockdowns Are Killing Us
We have repeatedly been told that if you do not support the state ordered lockdowns then you oppose science, hate your grandparents, and want people to die. Well, the results of the lockdowns are starting to become too obvious for this delusion to hold up. Reality is setting in and no matter of vitriolic propaganda or perpetuated ignorance can disguise the truth any longer. The lockdowns have devastated the mental health of millions of people and suicides are skyrocketing across the planet. The fear, terror, and anxiety induced by the vulgar and ignorant media coverage of the virus coupled with the government ordered lockdowns which have turned billions of free people into prisoners in their own home have resulted in mass riots in dozens of cities all over the Earth. The elderly are dying from the misery and isolation caused by the lockdowns and have started protesting, demanding their rights to see their loved ones returned. Scientific studies are being released that prove the lockdowns didn’t reduce deaths from Covid-19 no matter how strict the procedures were, meaning the lockdowns have only killed people. Challenges to the legality of the lockdowns and the ability to enforce them have begun to spring up. No matter where you look, one thing is again and again proven an absolute fact: the lockdowns are a complete failure that have done nothing but destroy lives and kill people and must be ended immediately, without delay.
Is The Slide Into Autocracy Inevitable?
The State has been tried in every form imaginable – monarchy, oligarchy, dictatorship, republicanism, constitutional monarchy, Socialism, minarchism, democracy, etc. In every instance it has failed. In every instance it has delivered the exact opposite of what it has promised. In every instance the dream of the State has proved to be a nightmare. So why on Earth do we keep trying it? That is a question I have puzzled over for some time now because I’ve never been able to wrap my head around it. But, I’ve finally found an answer. I have found the answer to not only why we keep reverting again and again to the State in all its different forms, but I’ve also found the answer to the question of why democracy always slides in to autocracy – one man authoritarian rule. Additionally, I have discovered exactly why minarchy – such as under the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written and interpreted – also always fails and descends first into populism and finally into oligarchy or dictatorship. In short, I have found the explanation of why voluntaryism and anarchism are the only ways in which to build a functional society which allows for any form of social governance without descending either into authoritarianism and autocracy on the one hand or chaos and self-destruction on the other. And I have found these answers from an unlikely source – the writings of Dr. Carl Jung.
Why I Am A Radical (And Why You Should Be, Too!)
I am often asked why I feel that I have to be so radical in my positions. Cannot I not moderate my views and make compromises in order to win immediate political victories? The answer is a resounding, “NO!” And this article is the reason why. It is an explanation of why compromising, often presented as some virtue, is in fact an evil that has wrought nothing but misery for millions of people and why I am a radical who refuses to abandon the morality and truths that I know and why you shouldn’t either. This is why we should all be radicals and why being a radical is the only way to make the world a better place.
The U.S. Constitution: A Covenant With Death, An Agreement With Hell
In American Latter-day Saint circles there is much idolatry over the issue of the U.S. Constitution. Most of it has to do with a particularly willful misunderstanding of most statements on the Constitution found in the scriptures, the purpose of government, the rights of the people in the face of oppressive government laws, and the supremacy of God’s law to man’s in all cases. American Latter-day Saints also tend to idolize the American Founding Fathers. Much is made of the Lord’s statement, “by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” that is for writing the Constitution. (see D&C 101:80) It is without a doubt that they were intelligent men. The writings of Thomas Jefferson are still worth studying even today. But that doesn’t justify us in not creating something better now than they could envision then; that doesn’t justify us calcifying out social, spiritual, political, and economic development because they could not imagine the next step in liberty and individual freedom. It does not justify us in idolizing the Constitution (or your respective national charter), ignoring the many ways it has been wrong, corrupt, and evil form the very start, and choosing it over that which is better now.
God’s Will and Man’s Law
The following lost LDS Classic is an article I came across recently in my readings of older church writings. Though the author for the article is unknown, the editor of the Deseret News during this era was David O. Calder. What makes it interesting is the way in which it clearly lays out the limits on our obedience to the laws of man and the supremacy of God’s law. Further, it offers fuller, more correct interpretations of scriptures such as D&C 98: 4-6 which are often today used to justify our expected obedience to the State but which, properly understood, command that first and above all, we be loyal to God and His commandments no matter what the orders of the government may be. That man’s laws may make illegal that which God has commanded means nothing to the Saint who has dedicated his or her life to God. We are to obey God in all things, even if it means breaking the laws of men, even if it means suffering trial, hardship, suffering, and death for doing so. As the article points out, this is in fact the very test of life – to see if we follow God in all things no matter how all the powers of Earth and Hell may rage against us for doing so.