Degenerate Fools

There was nothing like cruising the highway on a whim, taking off for a game of pool at a nothing bar in the mountains somewhere at the end of a winding road. Good music blaring from the speakers, alerting horses in the pastures of one’s approach; the low rumble of exhaust heard through the open camper window, squeezing through rifle stocks, assured one of the sturdiness of the engine beneath the hood. Speed was only limited by one’s ability to maintain control. Freedom was in the knowledge that unless someone reckoned your escape to the mountain bar, there would be no phone calls to take, no texts to answer. One was just “gone” and everything would have to wait until their return. Occasionally, a friend or two would see your pickup at the bar and stop in to see what news might be shared between bottles of beer.

The machinations of politicians in Washington DC were as far removed from one’s thoughts as the city in which they plied their devious plots. Protection from them came from the sure knowledge that common sense would weed out the stupidity and dangerousness of their plans; that the undying protection of one’s own freedom would deny them their worst instincts at control; that universal respect for the people’s rights would do the rest. What restrictions of freedom one suffered were brought on by individual choice. Marriage, children and mortgages could hamper the impulse to do as one pleased, but they were brought on intentionally; trading freedom for purpose.

Idyllic? No, it was not, but it was worth fighting for, defending and ultimately dying for, because it was as close to freedom as one might ever experience. It was worth fighting for the things that had been built, the families that had been raised, the lives that would follow. It inspired the great patriotism that was felt in the hearts of those who saw the American flag, heard the Star-Spangled Banner. There was a recklessness to it that spoke of freedom. People died senselessly and stupidly, but it was their lack of sense, their stupid decisions that brought it on.

We embark now, on a different kind of death, death by prescription, death as a solution to professed, but as yet unwitnessed disaster that will be averted by them. The carelessness and recklessness that kills us now can not be written off as individual failings, but by government coercion. These lives are not spent in defense of hearth and home, but in defense of an ideology subscribed to by a minority of powerful interests and individuals, who have corrupted those placed in positions of power to protect the people and respect their rights.

The slow encroachment of laws designed to change behavior rather than deal with the results of that behavior have accelerated. The ideological understanding of the average politician has evolved from recognizing the powerlessness of government to act in certain situations to one determined to do so. To do that, they’ve had to reduce the American, in their minds, to a being unworthy of respect, unworthy of self-determination, unworthy of rational decisions. In doing so, they have simply proven themselves unworthy of power, unworthy of respect and incapable of representing the people they claim to serve.

There is no way back to some yesteryear of freedom. Technology alone has ended a lot of what once made America a very special place to live. The indoctrination of communist thought throughout the school system has infected the populace to such a degree that the very idea of freedom is misunderstood, the principles of capitalism defamed and derided by those incapable of surviving under a system that requires intelligence, drive and passion. The apparatus of society has churned out a population designed specifically to abide by government dictate, a whole population of administrators rather than inventors, entrepreneurs and discoverers.

The America that was worth dying for and preserving for posterity has been subverted to a never-ending production of propagandists. Those who are left to try and fend off this blizzard of misinformation are fighting with truth against lies and lies are easier to produce than evidence. Fantasy is easier to embrace than reality. This is what they’re calling Mass Formation Psychosis. This forces America, or at least the United States of America, toward an undeniable path of implosion, because truth can be ignored, reality denied all the way to the point that both of those things result in the utter devastation of the fantasy. Right now, that wipes out most of American businesses, the government, the economy and the military. What do we do with it then? This is what happened to Venezuela and even with all of the facts, all of the similarities and the evidence of the utter devastation that was caused there, a great many of the people here stroll right along the same path. What part of resorting to eating zoo animals is appealing to these people?

I’ve been pushing back against this since I first recognized the government as an adversary and I’ve been able to have no effect on the inexorable descent into madness. If there is a concerted effort to resist this, I’m all in, but in absence of that, I guess it’s all a show. I’ll defend my piece of the world as best I can when the time comes and hope that the foolish are consumed in the flames of their own stupidity. Yet, the question still burns in my head, what degenerate fool looked out on that world of the remote mountain bar, the winding dirt road, the pastural scenes to be had on it and thought, “Oh, we gotta fix this!?”

This verse keeps coming back to me:

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Mark 8:36

I've enjoyed my own pool games at a mountainside bar such as the author describes. It is indeed a pleasure this world used to hold. But things have gotten biblical now. It's time to change one's focus from earthly plans to the plans of heaven. God is giving everyone plenty of advance warning.

2 Peter 3:3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

I live in a little mountain community. On Thursday evenings (5:30 to 8) I head further up the mountain to a little place that calls itself a “canteen”. It’s basically a small tap-room. They don’t sell food, but on Thursday nights most of us contribute to pot-luck dinner that’s free to who ever wants something to eat. Local residents drop in after work and hang out for friendship, food and music, as there is always a Blue Grass/Old-time Mtn Music jam on Thursday nights as well. I play in the music jam, no need to drink or eat, I just bask and delight in the sheer pleasure in the playing of the music.

When the weather warms up in the spring, we will move the music jam to under the big oak tree beside the outdoor tap-room of a local brewery where folks like to gather. Life is good in the mountains, and church and music is our sanity in these crazy times.

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