Ecclesiastes of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible has perhaps several meanings. One specifically to the people it was written to, and about them in that time, but also for all men in all times and places as it fits specific circumstances but more generally as it reflects humans living in a fallen world within the scope of the laws of nature and human nature. On one hand we are warned that all human labor and effort are transitory and seeking wisdom for the sake of wisdom is folly. Beyond that we might come to know, if we digest the deeper meaning, that ultimately as we put away childish things and grow in wisdom as a result of a life full of experience, we are often apt to come to realizations that result in a certain kind of sadness.
Now of course I am not implying here that merely living, perhaps even for a very long time, necessarily equates to wisdom. In our current age, all around us we see examples of old fools. Perhaps in a real sense most old people remain the same sorts of fools they were most of their lives. We do not have to look far to see this as true. No, what I am speaking of in terms of wisdom is the sort that can only come from seeking knowledge from the beginning point of acknowledging that there are true truths, axioms upon which the entire structure of reality are based and are governed. I am speaking of true wisdom that begins from and expands upon that. Ultimately wisdom is of and from the source of those truths and only from that source. True enough, it requires some acquisition of knowledge, some experience, practical lab work in the real world so to speak, and reflection but it begins from the source of all truth and never departs from that to be true wisdom. One of the lessons that Ecclesiastes teaches us is that once we see human nature and our fallen world in all is true form juxtaposed against true truth we cannot help but be a bit saddened.
I have not written anything in some months, a couple of years in fact. In fact, in truth, I have retreated in large part from engaging in many pursuits that once seemed profitable but only brought sadness. Trends in our current world that bring sadness are in no short supply. At the operational level, the elevation at which public discourse and debate occur on places like social media (a space best avoided), we see it clearly. Politics is a window into the soul of a people, particualy ‘representative politics’. It would belabor my points here to delve too far into that meaning other than to say hardly anyone on any side of any issue seems to argue in good faith beginning from first principles and true truth. If I were to borrow from Aristotle, I would say this is not unexpected, most humans are mere lotus eaters ripe for a sophist to come along and deceive them. This is the world of politics that so many spend so much effort on.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. (ECC 1:3-4)
How many have dedicated a lifetime to arguing, supporting, funding, and all the rest a red or blue team for platitudes only to get the same result, generation after generation?
“Politics are downstream from culture” or conversely, as those with a will to power would assert “Politics through public policy can and do exert powerful pressure on culture”. Both statements are true, but only insofar as the people of a culture have already forgotten and forsaken the root truths of that culture. Let us leave politics alone for now, it is a sticky web which would otherwise burden us far to greatly and instead look a bit higher in elevation.
The Suicide Pact of the West
By “the Permanent Things” [T. S. Eliot] meant those elements in the human condition that give us our nature, without which we are as the beasts that perish. They work upon us all in the sense that both they and we are bound up in that continuity of belief and institution called the great mysterious incorporation of the human race. (Russell Kirk on T.S. Eliot)
Of course, by “human race” Eliot could only mean the most fundamental truths written into the heart of every man, Natural Law. Here too we might need to diverge into some long and ponderous discussion of the idea of Natural Law not even existing. [1] Mentioning the term in some Reformed circles of which I would count myself a member very often might result in being expelled from the warmth of the collective fire at worst and a heavy dose of legalistic chiding at the least. Let us dispense with that nonsense. Of course, Natural Law exists, no matter the name one wants to give it. All toddlers know that when their playmate takes their toy from them they have been wronged. My dogs know the same, neither dogs nor toddlers are taught this, they know it as a law. All men have the second table of the law, the second part of the Ten Commandments, written upon their hearts. We know right from wrong in terms of how we ought to treat one another.
But insofar as one might apply permanent things only to something called the “human race” we would be missing the mark. Again, not to belabor a point that generates much argument and divisiveness, there is of course not just one race not in the sense we use the term. There are families that begot ethnicities and from those nations and peoples. Nations and peoples developed cultures and from those civilizations. It is quite clear to anyone that reads Genisis 10 and then studies history and people throughout history that civilizations develop an affinity of more, less and expanded permanent things. Since Natural Law written into the hearts of men is not binding, men can and usually do disobey it, so also kin groups, cultures and civilizations. There have been and are objectively worse and better (not perfect) cultures and civilizations to rise and fall over the ages. Just as all men individually do not apply Natural Law in their daily lives, so too, cultures and civilizations, made up of individual men, have at times either strayed far from the mark or remained closer to it. Those that align the permanent things of that culture or people closer to true truth have historically been more righteous, prosperous, and decent.
And, just as no man, no matter how hard he individually tries, can be righteous, even most of the time, on his own steam so too it is with cultures and civilizations. Just knowing the law exists is no surety that one can or will follow it. Sanctification of both men and their cultural groups is the only way. Divine law and Divine revelation combined with the sanctifying presence and power of the Divine himself is the only true path to either a man or his culture ever getting it right even more than a minority of the time. Thus, we find, despite all objections to the contrary, that only cultures, nations and peoples that embrace Divine Law as a permanent thing to sanctify their daily labors have ever, through all of history approached anything even resembling truly prosperous and just societies. Again, nothing in this world is ever perfect, we speak here of a spectrum of righteousness and justness. A spectrum that most cultures throughout history have not even registered on.
Lowering our gaze just a bit, down to the level where people argue and gnash teeth, we see some speak of the above in pedestrian ways. They ask how could Western countries import hundreds of thousands of people, young men in the majority, from geographic regions where cultures developed with no respect for any of the permanent things related to true truth. They point out the objective fact that with these hordes comes increased crime, rapes and sexual assaults of native Westerners and squalor. There are other objective truths they point out, in the mean these foreigners are not only culturally retarded in every measurable way, they also are less intelligent.
However, one wonders if this all really ought to surprise anyone that honestly observes the West. Europe long ago abandoned all the key tenets of what made Europe European, namely the sanctifying power of Christianity within the culture. In the 18th century France committed cultural suicide and never recovered from the guillotine and the blood of believers. Germany likewise, not so very long after Bismark united the various independent states Germany began toying with perverse philosophies that still shape the West today. Britian, through greed and avarice ensured that Europe was forever tied to the very cultures that now rape European women and terrorize ordinary grandmas simply trying to ride a bus. It was Britian that insisted on building a coalition to weaken and drive apart the Holy Alliance and eventually depose all the European monarchies that tried to stand on Christian ideals. Some say that World War One was the true suicide of the West, but that was a mere afterthought, a death knell resulting from all that came before. William Butler Yeats described it best in his 1919 poem “Second Coming” [2]. In the West the Falcon could no longer hear the falconer. Western man had abandoned the Divine and thus as Yeats wrote, the center cannot hold. World War Two was merely an expected result of that. The invasion of Russia by Bolshevism resulted in the greatest human suffering and tragedies recorded in human history a result also. (Holodomor, gulags, purges). Following the fall of Sovietism in 1989 “mere anarchy [was] loosed upon the world” in the form of the rules-based order. Wars, invasions, wanton killing, and genocide are all carried out and celebrated under the umbrella of “Western values”, values that no longer acknowledge the Divine but rather resemble more the Satanic.
If one is inclined to now stand astride history screaming “No more” I am desirous to ask “no more of what”. Is it merely men dressed as women seeking access to children that offends you, or perhaps Voodoo-practicing Haitians invading small towns on the government's dime that sets you off? Do your pleas of “no more” merely wish for a fictional version of 1995 (or 1955) that conveniently ignores the cancerous tumors that were then only detectible by the most astute among us? The United States is provably the most warlike nation in recorded history, following in the footsteps of the empire we inherited from the British. No more of what exactly I must ask.
That is the rub. I often make bold claims in order to elicit a reaction from others to gauge if they are even capable of thinking deeply about these issues. Mention casually to another that the 19th Amendment was a mistake and check their reaction. There is a spectrum upon which both the 19th Amendment and OnlyFans exists. The wise among us know that. Saying the 19th Amendment was a mistake is saying something more profound than “women should not vote”. Whether they should or should not is a completely different conversation. The real conversation is that the spectrum, the scale, that takes us from one (19th) to OnlyFans is real, it is real because the argumentation for both is devoid of objective truths that are firstly based upon true truth and secondly played a central role in building Western Civilization. Between those extremes on that scale, we find unsubmissive wives, Jezebels, Ahabs, simps, cucks and all manner of other aberrations that have no place existing inside a properly functioning culture based upon true truth. This is a nearly impossible conversation in a culture that in the past would have at once understood the principles and nuances at play.
Empathy For the Young
If you want to get a sense of how far afield we are simply check in with young men in there early twenties. Of course, the young men I suggest you check in with are those that arguably represent those who have always been the bedrock of getting things done in the West. Many in this group trend more traditional and conservative in their outlook. They want a wife and children but are perplexed by their options. Older men failed them, institutions failed them, culture failed them. These young men coming of age in a late-stage empire face not only the dark economic reality of nations that spent themselves into unsustainable debt on domestic and international folly, but they also face systematic persecution merely for being who and what they are. They are the only group that it is legal to discriminate against for educational and employment opportunities. Many in that political operational discussion space focus heavily on this fact as if fixing that might truly cure the patient. It is the how such an absurd circumstance came to be in the first place that is the real problem. These young men were failed but the failure is just the tail end of a cultural and civilization collapse.
I am human, just like you, it is likely I am more flawed and sinful than you. I am a sinner saved by Grace but the Lord Almighty knows full well that my sanctification will be an eternity project. But I, perhaps like you, often get angry at what appears the proximate cause of the struggles of these young men. I look at the Reformed tradition, my people, and I see legalistic old guys who seem to believe if these young men would simply do as they did their troubles would pass. This is the equivalent of the cliché of a boomer telling a kid to just “look’em in the eye and shake hands really hard”. It is just not that simple now. If I allow myself to look, I too get angry at politicians who claim words about putting these men, these human/cultural resources, first but immediately go to work to do the bidding of their real masters. I grow angry at lotus-eating fools who fly flags and wear hats for politicians who betray them while saying nice words. Having the wisdom to know how the world works and who manages it can generate emotions, sadness or anger as it may be. I try not to look, not at the predictable results but I do have great empathy for these young men.
Recently I observed one describing his difficulty in finding a woman worthy of courting for marriage. He described many young ladies that simply would not talk to him based upon finances. The lad works and is not poor, my sense is his meaning was many seek a meal ticket instead of a partner to work through building a life with. He expressed a desire not to court a loose woman, and described this as exceedingly difficult, even in a church environment. Lastly, and this resonated with my observed opinion, he did not want to marry a woman that had been “raised by a 50y/o Karen and taught some morals”. His last comment, the one that received the most pushback from all the graybeard “reformed” guys stung because it is essentially an indictment on them. I cannot speak effectively on other traditions other than what they show publicly, and that is pretty bad, but in the Reformed tradition where men are legalistic about their doctrine here too, we find Jezebels and Ahab’s. Someone once suggested that many Elder’s wives have more testosterone than their husbands and rule in the shadows behind their neutered men. It is not hard to find these “50 y/o Karens” the young man described in many reformed Churches. As a note, to a young twenty something, saying fifty might mean anything from thirty-eight on up, just for clarification in case anyone thought to excuse themselves from guilt. Unsubmissive wives, covered in pride and narcissism, puffed up and speaking in places and at times they ought not about subjects that in a properly ordered world they ought to be silent about. I have seen them, you have to. Often, they run side-hustle charity work or “ministries” as if their husband is a rich man, all the while him working to keep the roof patched and the heat on. Demanding to sit on “pastoral search committees” running entire Sunday school programs, and more. The Jezibelization of churches does not exist just in the charismatics, seeker-sensitives, doctrineless evangelicals and black churches (as profane as those examples are), it is there in the Reformed as well. Many of the young men that notice these facts look elsewhere, many are looking at Orthodox Christianity. What an indictment on Western Christianity that we have fallen so far in love with the world that we cannot appeal to the few real man we are still capable of producing. What an indictment of men, this is the Sin of Adam repeated over the last 150 years.
Empathy for these young men, and the wisdom to see how it all came to be and the reality that short of God himself simply changing it generates sorrow. Sorrow that their fate consists of much harder choices than I had and much harder still than those of my father. Sorrow that they are left with much less help. Wisdom also teaches that the true among them, the Real men in that cohort that truly desire God were born with the stuff that will enable them to endure and even thrive. But thrive in what? Wisdom and faith provide hope for them individually, and wisdom and faith teach that in the cosmic sense, all will be well. I make no idol of Western Civilization. I make no idol of my Kirth and kin. If we do as we have done and are doing neither my kinsmen nor our culture will exist for long and if that is true, it is the Will of God, allowing us our choices that it becomes so. I make no idol of it, but I can be saddened by those facts and mourn it.
While making no idol of it God places all of us here in the times and circumstances that we are made for, and allows us our choices in how we will respond. I will not belabor a Calvinist versus Armenian argument, at the metaphysical level both are essentially true. God has a plan and is the master of History, we make choices from our perspective and he allows those choices. We live here, we have various skills and faults, we have been bequeathed the smoldering ruins of a once great culture and civilization, we each get a choice everyday how we respond. Ignoring is a choice but a rather immoral one divorced from duty.
Them
Many who wise up to the depth and breadth of the true situation in the world begin to look for a group or groups to blame. Here again we find a truism at work. The most intelligent among us, those that are for various reasons not connected to “them” in some way and the most mundane folk of meager intelligence (in this case compensated for by relying upon common sense granted them via their culture in the form of common grace) say almost the same thing about “them”. They would tell you “they” exist, wherever there is a will to power and profit there is conspiracy. Some groups have proven themselves to be much more adept at staying in the center of such conspiracies for power for a very long time. Our Bible tells us something of that group, it names their “father”. However, the two very different groups of vastly different intellectual capability mentioned above would follow up that assessment by saying, “they” can sometimes have a name, and we can very often point to key players, but in reality, it is their father that is really “them”. Noticers in the current era will notice endlessly, and not generally wrongly, and never quite grasp the nuance and depth that people on far ends of the intellectual bell curve know as fact. It is a dire mistake to fall into the middling trap of rabbit holes all pointing to one group of people, even when they all seemingly do. The true fact is something much more nefarious is at play, and always has been.
Of course, it is also foolish to deny that some groups seem more involved than others, particularly when we realize who is actually behind it all.
Powers and Principalities
Our two groups of such disparate intellectual capability might say something else to you that is true and deeper than most can realize. “The Clash of the Titans” was not a movie but a documentary. Perhaps they might not say that exactly, maybe they would rather just mention in passing that “Plato was told something true by Socrates” or more plainly “all religions except one worship Demons”. Now, one could spend an inordinate amount of time digging around in order to understand the nuances of those statements, how they relate and what they mean. Humans have known, through myth, legend, Divine revelation and even Satanic deceptions (inversions of truth) something about the past that we do not precisely know and never will in this existence. The Cosmos is not just stuff, many things have happened before and in parallel with recorded human history. [3] One does not, and probably should not, spend too much time trying to piece together everything that we can believe happened in Genesis 6 or why Jude and other seemingly quoted from Enoch and what that might mean. Something wondrous and terrible happened, more than once perhaps involving spiritual entities that if presented to us without context might just appear as gods and very likely have appeared just that way to men at various times. We do not need to, we cannot in fact, know all the details with utter certainty and ought not make an idol of trying. Many who do try invariably miss the entire point of the effort and slip into heresy. We could, if we had to know, merely read Genesis and then Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Again, I hope the nuance of that is not lost upon you, neither I nor Tolkien suggest that is a simulation of history but rather an artistic representation of it. One that presents a visual picture I am happy enough to paint in my head. But in truth we do not need to do that either. God stood outside of time, space and creation, he created our cosmological reality and all that is within it, including those spiritual entities that out of context might appear before us as gods. Some of those entities rebelled, some of those began working to pollute creation and deceive man. The ultimate conspiracy, the one that has been active since the rebellion in Heaven, is still active. Every conspiracy of man that ultimately seeks power, seeks to pervert the natural order of things, that stands in rebellion to the table of laws, is opposed to natural law and promotes unrighteousness is part of that grand and age-old conspiracy. It and all the side hustles and small projects are run out of the same ‘building’ somewhere in the spirit realm. There has only ever been one true religion, since the time of Adam that religion was Christianity although it was not called that, as we are told in the Book of Hebrews, all of the patriarchs found salvation through faith. Faith in the redemptive power of the Word, as John tells us that Word became flesh. Whether having faith in a preincarnate Christ and the redemption that would bring or in a crucified and risen Christ, there has only ever been this one true religion. Every other religion, in every denomination and form, no matter what books or titles it uses, no matter what lineage it claims or land it occupies is of Satan.
Those two facts, only one true religion, ever, same yesterday today and tomorrow with the only difference in Abram and me in this regard is I have a fuller revelation to turn to and one ancient conspiracy against that religion and it source is the secret to understanding the world and history. All other issues, such as free will, human nature, and all the rest are secondary at best or tertiary. We live in a fallen world, surround by sin, we are inclined to rebel against the law written into our hearts and are without excuse when falling for deception. The middling position is where this gets complicated, overcomplicated often by theologians, some of whom would prefer to explain away the supernatural or perhaps the way the Satanic conspiracy has taken hold most profoundly with some groups more than others. But it really is no more complicated than we, if we are truly Christian, live in a world that is opposed to us at every level and only through common grace, special grace and divine intervention is it prevented from literally eating us alive.
Now of course there is a problem with this reality. Once we realize that we truly do wrestle with entities that we alone are utterly incapable of defeating and these entities have managed to deceive most around us and secure access to all the major governments of the world, well once one realizes that one might be inclined to say, there is nothing I can do but pray and live my life as best I can. There is no lie in that, but there is a danger. God allows us choices, and not doing the duty that is clear before us is a choice, being as righteous as we can be in a small bubble is not shameful. However, taken in context as to how so much of the world is going asunder at a quickening pace, we begin to understand how little bubbles here and there while not aiding the demise, certainly never hampered it. There is a balance that few of us achieve, myself included. Many who profess Christianity while idolizing men that inarguably are ushering in very dark things, and actively supporting the slaughter of brothers and sisters in Christ and a genocide. Others, resort to legalism and head in the sandism, proclaiming it will never touch them or theirs, as if they know the mind of God himself. And there are many like me, that have perhaps decided to look away and pray for understanding and peace for those that suffer now and will suffer.
I Digress
As I mentioned earlier, I have not written in a long while, sometimes knowing that certain things are near to passing away forever and understanding why brings a tinge of sadness. When one realizes that the absurdity of our economic troubles and demographic shifts are not unintentional but rather very solvable and preventable makes it all the more distressing. I am not one to dwell long on such thoughts, they come and pass in a moment. Perhaps there is someone, somewhere that struggles more deeply. I hope that sharing this helps in some way.
There are some things that we might do to soften the burden. The entire notion of a culture and civilization was built upon families. Not the sort of four person “nuclear family” nonsense that was sold to the west in the 1950s but real families with Patriarchs leading and sons leading their wives to follow. It ought not be surprising or ironic to anyone that has paid attention but it was not long after they marketed the idea that a family consisted just of a man, a wife and two kids that we introduced no fault divorce, moving far away to work and finally the absurdity that the nuclear family did not even require two sexes as parents. When you realize that none of the degradation over time was by accident but all part of the grand conspiracy you begin to see coincidences like that differently.
So, realizing this, look to the table of nations. For instance, If Japheth could give rise to the Greeks and much of southern Europe and this after a time of destruction and turmoil why do we reject the notion that our true families are important during a period of civilizational decline. The wisest among us have already huddled together, living and working near one another, marrying their own kind and raising their children in the ways of the Lord. In a world that had essentially fallen multiple times when the tower was destroyed kinsmanship was God’s plan B for humanity. Of course, I say that in jest, God has a plan, no plan Bs at all, he merely allows us choices that take us off a more perfect path.
Do that. Sons honor your father. Fathers be the patriarch. Families raise your children to fear the Lord. Seek righteousness, reject deception and leave the rest in God’s hands but stand ready to fearlessly do your duty when the circumstances present themselves. And do not fear or be saddened, no matter how much wisdom you have. You live in precisely the time ordained for you to live.