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.
The Complexity of Existence and the Reality of God
The prophet Alma taught that “all things denote that there is a God.” The very complexity of the Universe, of the possible Multiverse, and the narrow, impossible odds against such existing complexity and the random development of any life at all, much less the complex and intelligent life of Earth, suggests that all of it did not simply spring out of the ether as part of a continuous cascade of impossibilities. The most logical and reasonable conclusion that can be reached once one begins to take into account all that we have learned about existence (and considers all which we have no idea or understanding of) is that this all is no accident. There is a Designer who has guided and created this Universe upon the exact principles necessary for which existence to flourish and life to develop. Today’s article is an introduction to the scientific evidence which leads to the most logical conclusion of how everything came to be how it is – that it was designed this way by a Creator, a God.
The Power of Giving Thanks
Originally I had planned to do a deep dive on the history of American Thanksgiving as a nationalist holiday that perpetuates the myths those in power want because those myth justify their positions of power and exercise of control over the populace. And maybe I will next year. This year though I have decided to do otherwise due to a request put out by the Prophet last week for the members to spend the next week expressing our gratitude to God for His blessings in our lives and to focus on building our relationship with God and Christ.
So instead of digging into Thanksgiving I decided to explore the three things the Prophet has asked us to do and to talk about how each of them individually and together can transform our lives and the world around us. Seemingly simple practices like giving thanks, regular prayer, and building a close relationship with Christ can not only change our lives but they can transform the world. Here I explore each of these in a little more depth to try and tease out some of the richness of these concepts, why they are important, what makes them so powerful, and how we can apply them into our lives to make ourselves better people and the world a better place.
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.
When We Should Break The Law
From our earliest days, when the Prophet Joseph and Patriarch Hyrum suffered in Liberty Jail and died in Carthage Jail, to the Saints spending nearly 30 years resisting Federal anti-polygamy laws, practicing civil disobedience and being willing to go to prison in order to serve God, on down to the modern day we have examples of the lives of great Saints who have repeatedly broken the laws of the land in order to do what is right and to serve God. Latter-day Saint history is full of rebels and rogues, people who would rather be exiled from the nation, who would rather be killed, than disobey the Lord. So how is it that so many of us have become so milquetoast about standing up the government tyranny? Why is it that so many of us think that the Saints should “strictly obey the laws of the government in which they live,” even when such laws aren’t just wrong or immoral, but even when said laws actively compel us either to disobey God or punish us for obeying Him? While there are numerous reasons, one of the largest is because Latter-day Saints have misinterpreted the Twelfth Article of Faith, D&C 58:21, and D&C 134:5 as giving commandments to the Saints to obey the law and to comply even with evil laws. A close examination of these scriptures though, as I attempt here, show that such interpretations are, by the large, gross nonsense.
Why Latter-day Saints Shouldn’t Vote
This past week I have been laying out both the ethical and practical arguments against voting. In a political system dominated by State power and control voting to use violence in order to force others to live how you think they should is evil and those in power are going to justify doing whatever they want whether the people support it or not so voting is meaningless. Here though I dig into the deeper, theological reasons against voting in a statist political system. The scriptures teach us that the power of the governments of the world come from Satan, not God. Likewise, the State sets itself into opposition to God by teaching men and women under its influence to defy and break the commandments of God in order to serve and follow it. Giving such a perverse and corrupt system even the appearance of your consent to it through voting, thereby legitimizing it in all its violence, oppression, and theft, should be something all people of all persuasions would avoid to do, especially the Saints of God who have consecrated themselves and all they have to God alone. The State is infernalistic and idolatrous and we should have no part in empowering it or promoting it.
Voting is Ineffective, Meaningless, And A Waste Of Time
It really doesn’t matter who you voted for, why you voted, or how you voted. Liberty is about much more than the number of autocrats on the ballots or what empty promises they make. Voting doesn’t work. It doesn’t just fail to protect your freedom; it actively creates the system by which the people are convinced to surrender their liberty. As a means to actually accomplish anything it is utterly meaningless and a total waste of time – at best. At worst it is an unethical exercise in appointing an autocrat who will use the violent powers of the law to try of force his or her Utopian vision of society upon all the people, if not the world (see the way the War on Terrorism promised to “”spread democracy” around the world and ask those being sold into slavery on Libyan beaches how that worked out for them.) Voting is completely ineffective and perfectly meaningless as anything other than a tool of control and a servile ritual that convinces the masses to love and protect the chains on their wrists and the boots on their necks.