This is What I Leave, and Why

28 February 2022

I began blogging in 2004, had my first non-technical article published in 2012, and began writing in earnest in 2016 and then finally when I retired from the Army in 2018, I began to write my thoughts freely and very openly.

If I am totally honest with myself, I believe much of it was for my family, my children, and my nephew. It was a way to express things that maybe they had not heard. More broadly I hoped to add a voice to something that might help change the tide. Much of the old writing is buried on the Internet Archive and occasionally someone reminds me of an old piece. The theme has been consistent, only the view has become clearer as things have progressed over the years.

I was fortunate in so many ways in my life. Fortunate to grow up around men of profound common sense. I heard and listened to the old men and simple preachers I was exposed to as a boy in the 70s with great interest. They were both correct and predictive concerning our future.

In the 90s I came across, began to read, and eventually met great men and thinkers, men that were just one generation removed from the likes of Russell Kirk and had known him. These men too, they saw the trends and directions and they diagnosed both the causality and cure.

It was upon the shoulders of these men that I began to write in the early 2000s. My experiences in other lands, in the military, provided me with an insight into geopolitics and the workings of the government that both buttressed my early practical education and added perspective and details to the things my mentors spoke of. I have said it often but the pinnacle of me expressing that education was in 2012, in Manifesto of old Men and Simple Preachers, all of it is there, stated plainly (culture, economics, a practical philosophy, tradition, faith, and reason). Every single additional digit, space, period, and typo since has been a defense of that, no matter the subject, it always goes back to the principles articulated there in that expression of my received knowledge from generations past.

The notion that the collective wisdom of the past, transmitted from generation to generation has transcendent value is something almost foreign today. “They were just flawed humans” is the retort, one that misses the mark. It was not the wisdom of individuals but rather the collective weight of knowledge passed from father to son, from generation to generation, built upon, shaped, added to, refined – it was this collective and elaborative power that make that wisdom so much more powerful than what any generation might hope to create out of whole cloth.

As best I can tell, of all my writing, the thing that gets the most attention is an article called “Color Revolutions Explained”, a piece that merely summarizes a complex topic, presents the phraseology and methodology, and points to the reality that what happened in 2020 involved more than what people think or want to believe. I watch the search traffic come in and most leave in mere seconds, as soon as they realize the article is not going to tell them what they want to hear, what they were searching for to confirm bias. Progressives want to hear that the US is running such an operation on Trudeau or that January 6^th was a failed color revolution while MAGA people want to be told it was all about getting rid of Trump. My realism told me a long time ago that it was hopeless to attempt to explain complex, uncomfortable things to people that are simply searching for confirmation of biases and preconceived ideas. My optimism told me to make the attempt, so I tried to expand on it, to drive them to other information. Most people are stuck in a comfortable delusion and are repelled at the first bit of data that confronts their delusion.

If I had my choice in the matter, somehow the article from 2012 would have received all the traffic the color revolution article did, except this time, perhaps people left and right would read it and see there are some real points there that all Americans of good intentions ought to be concerned with. However, nobody asked my opinion about what would get traction and what would not.

I began writing in earnest about the cultural war in 2018, not realizing at the time that war was irrevocably lost. It was not until 2019 that this fact was indisputable. Some still do not realize it. Progressives do, this is why they meme, joke, and quip about the “fake culture war”, it is over, and whoever ultimately influences the narrative for them lets them know that. Western Civilization's cultural norms were replaced and subverted. Postmodern, anti-rational, anti-traditional, emotivists ideology is ascendant. It dominates all the institutions, even churches, it is the very water and air that surrounds us now, few can escape its influence and few do. The cultural war is long over, a new paradigm and orthodoxy reign.

However, the ‘idea’ of the culture war continuing has value to some. Political opposition, stated more accurately controlled opposition, leveraged part of it to generate support in recent elections. The topic dominated much of social media in 2020/21, essentially a distraction at that point with people talking about critical race theory. The hard fact is the last well-published academic paper I can find criticizing critical theory, in general, was in the early 90s. Critical race theory was just a final, logical iteration of absurd praxis that had already infected every area of study at university and even seminaries. It was far too late, by 2020 to fight critical theory or focus on critical race theory, the institutions that generate thinkers had already been polluting minds for three decades. Those minds were sitting on editorial boards, chairs of departments, reading news, teaching others, and influencing opinion.

I really entered the fray late, with optimism and the certitude that truth and the received wisdom of the ages could prevail. By 2019, the next phase was revealing itself. I published The Philosophy of Common Sense in November of that year, a book about the crisis that many predicted would occur in the decade of 2020s in connection with the Fourth Turning, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and The Great Unraveling. It was a letter to the young generation that will have to fix things once this all plays out, and a guide for adults to help figure out how to protect and prepare them by collecting and transmitting the wisdom of the ages we received. I had no idea that those predicted crises, wars, and troubles would begin so soon after. I would soon have my first conversation with an Army buddy about observable color revolution techniques - and just two months later we would watch, what we now might assume, was propaganda footage from China of a plague. I took that propaganda seriously from January to March of 2020, and then the story unraveled for me. The only things I have ever written that were 100% wrong occurred in those couple of months.

Ultimately that leads us to the color revolution articles. I was too late to that fight also, much earlier than most, and mostly alone (publicly at least) in stating the scope of it. By the time the methodology was inarguably detectable it was far too late to stop any of it.

We come from that, through fields of briars and thickets of related issues to Russia and Ukraine. In my assessment, this is more significant than most realize. Perhaps I should correct that, those panning a potential nuclear exchange certainly have a strong case for “significance” of outcome but that seems unlikely. It is profound because the true nature of the West is on full and naked display. The hypocrisy, the deception, the years of manipulation, meddling, scandals – all of it is related, all of it points to this event, all of it had a part in creating this event. It is plain to see, or it is not – it is all a matter of discernment. This event is profound, not because of what is happening, but because most cannot see it; the causes, the lies, the deception. That has a significant meaning. It means, simply stated, that we are beaten, controlled, managed, and owned – completely. Most of us will believe anything we are told if it is packaged in a way we want to receive it.

The West’s reaction, words and deeds related to Ukraine are so easy to spot, so well documented, that it is all undeniable. [see, The Nature of the West] That sentence does not excuse nor praise Russia, it is an indictment on the West. This event is all the proof I need that there is no stopping what is happening, and those that manage it (they do not absolutely control it all, they are managers). It appears clear to me that the current conflict is merely the first large scale direct action of a long-game that will either fundamentally realign power-centers or consolidate power centrally. [see, Sufficient Proof]

If the powers-that-be, those that ultimately pull the strings behind the scenes no matter party or creed get their way in this alignment we can know something of the nature of what things will look like on the others side. They will ride the idea of progressivism (as a tool), while managing events toward a more powerful oligarchy unopposed – helped even at times by people from both sides of the political spectrum that would otherwise oppose them.  If after decades of lies, scandals, and machinations, most of which many people are aware of and upset by, if they can pull off saying 2+2= 5 surrounding the current Russia and Ukraine crisis, and be cheered on by those same previously upset people, well they have established a pretty complex control and manipulation system. Never mind all of the color revolution methodology used leading into 2020, that was complex and sophisticated, but their current demonstrated ability to swing opinion worldwide, despite inconsistencies and counter-facts is truly impressive.  It shows the power of their system and ability to manage and control information. A system that is powered by the anti-rational, post-truth anti-traditionalist ideological air we breathe.

If 2+2 can be said to equal 5, and people that have all the tools and evidence to know better not only believe it but support it, anything is possible, the magician behind the curtain that is capable of that trick can perform many others. That is where we are. Us so easily manipulated sitting on the cusp of great transformation.

And it is undeniable we are entering into a time of transition, the fourth industrial revolution, with a prevailing ideology that prevents us from parsing truth from deception and the technological revolution itself, is equipping ever centralized power structures with immense capability to control information and thought. These sorts of things (transformations) happen, they have happened often, but this time will be different. Great awakenings almost always accompany these events, all previous awakenings in the West began with Christianity as the predominant basis of reality, this will be very different and have a different foundation. Authentic Christianity and The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an attempt to merely frame the question of ‘what’ of an event that we cannot deny we are entering into.

We can sense that the outcome will be more authoritarian than the present. By logical conclusion it must be, people in the West now confuse illiberalism for liberalism, there is only one end to illiberalism [see From Progressivism to Authoritarianism]

I have seldom written anything that did not raise eyebrows. How could I know about any of the subject material I wrote about since 2004? Who am I to write about trends and then extrapolate out ten years? Wise old guys told me! They probably told you too. Nothing is new under the Sun, it is in books, things written thousands of years ago. Our Bible tells us about human nature. Plato wrote about it also as he dabbled in political philosophy – he was well aware that democracy often leads to tyranny, that oligarchs rise and usurp and rhetoricians come along and seduce the lotus-eaters in a society. Throughout the centuries old men, looking back across their lives saw these patterns, and they shared that knowledge with the young. We have always had the ability to see all of this, each of us. It is in our libraries and in the wisdom of those that came before us. It merely takes discernment, wisdom, knowledge, and common sense to see it. I never wrote anything that was truly mine, it was all gifted to me by others.

Authoritarianism is dangerous to philosophers, to paraphrase something I heard once. A post-truth, anti-traditionalist, anti-rational, illiberal culture will also be hostile to religion. In all my writing, I have attempted to apply philosophic truths and principles -reason and realism - to my analysis of culture and geopolitics, colored and painted at the base by my Christian faith and beliefs. The current trend inarguably toward the sort of illiberal, anti-rational soft-authoritarianism we can see, if we look, developing around us will be unkind to this sort of thinking.

By the standards of history, by the standard of all of Western Civilization and in Christian truth, I have never written a single word, phrase or sentence that is controversial, bigoted, hateful, extreme or dangerous. But the standards of history and of Western Civilizational norms do not apply in a post-truth, anti-traditionalist society that believes it is smarter than all that came before and has created new rules, definitions, and standards. As these rules are not at all based upon true universals or first principles, it is impossible to predict where the whims and winds may soon blow. What is deemed merely annoying today, might soon be termed antithetical to good order. The philosophic truths, based upon Western Tradition and Christian principles I have written about may someday, with the ebbing and flowing of the tides, be termed seditious, hateful, and dangerous.

I have lived my life, and I fear very little at this point. People have called me on the phone to threaten me for my writing, my webpage has been hacked and I have received cryptic voicemails. At this point in life, I might welcome someone attempting to ambush me in the back yard, it would be a thrilling challenge – but that is not how such people operate and those that have noticed me from time to time are just the advanced elements of something more – they represent a dark idea and herald a new technological dark age.

A black-hooded would-be assassin may never visit me in the dark of night in my back yard, but it is not inconceivable that my children or grandchildren might someday be asked to disavow and renounce me and my writing, even if I am long dead. There is historical precedent for that very sort of thing and human nature being true at all times and in all places, humans tend to repeat their most glorious failures over and over. And even if that dire possibility never materializes, there are other more likely costs, perhaps to them if not me.

I stand at a point where my optimism competes with my realism. Most often these two can be reconciled, but in this case, my realism says the benefit from writing, or even leaving my writing up, is of much less value than any optimism I may have that any of it will matter – that my words matter.

The “bill” for my website comes due on October 22, 2022. I have canceled autopay and do not intend to renew it. I will spend the next few months copying a few articles to an external drive, something I may lock away in a safe, I do not believe in self-censorship and I do believe that in my own failed and incapable way I captured something that was taught to me. My words were the words of my father and grandfathers, related through my inadequate skill into digits. I need to ensure I somehow make that available to future generations of my kind. But when the bill comes due, all of this will disappear, into the digital void. This is the way. My realism tells me I have done what I should have done, fought the fight, and spoke the truth that was handed down to me. My optimism tells me I must now turn toward home and hearth and the hope that some child, yet unborn, and his peers will set this all right, God willing. If not, maybe perhaps something of the past survives that provides them a help in understanding and wisdom.

This was an enjoyable hobby. I have met so many fine people over the years and collaborated with some. Most were infinitely smarter and more accomplished than I and those sorts were always the most gracious and kind. I met and worked with some of my heroes, men of credentials and learning. It was an outlet for me and it certainly helped me keep the world in perspective and express what might have been stress and anger through digits. Perhaps there were one or two others that enjoyed the effort, and I was always sincerely appreciative and humbled by every click, book purchase, and comment.

I wish you all joy, happiness, safety, comfort, and Purpose, very often that purpose, the thing we were created to do is our vocation and our family duties. If nothing else I have ever written resonates with anyone I would merely point out that all of this around us is but a fraction of creation, this the physical realm we exist in. Man is fallen and removed from the Creator and all of human history since the fall has not been a story of progress but a regression from what we were created as. We build ideas and technology, but all of that contains the flaws of the human hands that made it. Without a connection to our Creator, without personal knowledge of our God, through his Son Jesus, nothing of the world will ever make sense and we will never be truly fulfilled. I would encourage you to seek an authentic, orthodox, real relationship with our Creator, the instructions are contained in His revealed Word.

This is all but just a moment, the writing and warnings and analysis – these were all just for understanding. We are free moral agents, we get to decide what we believe and where we place our faith - we merely live for a time in this world, we have duties here, but it is not our eternal home. Seek Ultimate Truth.

Pax

Barry

Some articles I think are useful before they disappear:

Lies, Them And Us

Epistemology, Critical Thinking, And Truth Claims

Realism And Optimism

Tyranny Of The Asylum

Manifesto of Old Men and Simple Preachers