Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Wikileaks hits the jackpot: “. . . an unaware and compliant citizenry”

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This issue is directly relevant to the ID controversy, but also to much more of what has gone wrong with our civilisation and the utter, stark peril we now face because we ignored warning signs for decades:

w_lks_ivey-podesta-civikz

This has to be decoded a bit, as it is of course in the usual context of our being concerned over sawdust in the other fellow’s eyes while there is a plank in our own.  In an overnight comment, I gave a few clues:

In de pits with sawdust flying [HT: oz cedar dot com]
In de pits with sawdust flying [HT: oz cedar dot com]
>> –> Ask yourself, are ALL the moneybags on one side? (E.g. Koch vs Soros. [And no, I am not endorsing or opposing any parties or individuals, I am pointing out balancing facts given the known tendencies of pundits to give half of the story.])

–> Ask yourself, what have the education unions, media houses etc done about straight civics [CSPAN aside] for decades?

–> Ask yourself, about trends of affiliation and agendas in the education and media sectors?

–> Ask yourself, what the churches and their leaders have been doing in recent decades?

–> Include in that, how we have responded when voices such as Francis Schaeffer have come to us?

–> Ask yourself, about what has been dressed up in lab coats and sold to us as science (as in, only an IDiot questions “science”)?

–> And more.

Then, take time to read here, on the Acts 27 case study.

I do not think anybody comes up smelling like roses on this one.>>

The first grave issue we are utterly distracted from:

geostrat-pic

Our Lemmings problem:

Of Lemmings, marches of folly and cliffs of self-falsifying absurdity . . .
Of Lemmings, marches of folly and cliffs of self-falsifying absurdity . . .

. . . or, in more “analytical” sustainability terms:

change_chall

We should take pause to note that Mr Gorbachev is quite concerned about Syria (which sits in the middle of the pivotal triangle above).

We must move on from being unaware, compliant, readily manipulated through agit prop talking points (that have been duly scripted courtesy demographically tested focus groups and other marketing techniques).

What should we do?

Start with:

strt_v_spin

With a modicum of sound knowledge of history, ethics, civics, common sound sense and first principles of reasoning — multiplied by a cool head not given to being celebrity-/star- struck — we can find a way out.

(Cf here for my more detailed thoughts; of course Big Brother, not endorsed by UD etc.)

It’s time for a Lemmings for common sense movement!

Right from the horse’s mouth, we are being told that we have been manipulated, including educationally. (And if you think that only happened with civics, I have some hot Caribbean beach-front property in Montana for sale, cheap, cheap, cheap.)

Let us now re-think ever so much of what we think we know and understand, lest we follow a march of civilisational folly to ruin. Including, what we think we know regarding origins science and the intelligent design controversy.  END

Comments
JAD, cultural marxist agip prop/ community organisers (who must first dis-organise what they see as the oppressive old order) at work per the rules for radicals of Saul Alinsky. In this case, Sophia long since answered them as naifs caught up in what they don't understand, or ill-advised mockers or outright fools given over to marches of ruinous folly:
Prov 1:20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you turn at my reproof,[a] behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, 25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Sophia, that fine Jewish lady gave her counsels 3,000 years ago; that en-scriptured counsel still stands, every jot and tittle of it. It will be left standing long after the cackling, mocking laughter of today's fools on a stubborn march of ruinous folly has long since burned down to ashes under the pot. Start with, the fool hath said in his heart, that there is no God. And has proceeded to lock the root of reality out of what he will admit to be knowledge. As things fall over the cliff through stubborn folly, let us understand that. KFkairosfocus
October 17, 2016
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Q, I am clipping, i.e. quoting Lind. KFkairosfocus
October 17, 2016
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At the end of his article Pecknold writes that ”ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd tweeted after the leaks: ‘My fellow Catholics, you are aware that a majority of Catholics are pro-choice and pro gay marriage, right?’ Mr. Dowd perfectly illustrates how the progressive faith is a kind of ‘ideological colonization…’” Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441074/podesta-leaks-catholicism-undermined Please note:
Dowd, along with other MSM journalists, appears to be assuming that the wikileaks emails are authentic. As I said above that has yet to be fully established. Nevertheless, there is too much detail there to have realistically been faked or made up.
But also one has to question whether:
As a journalist, is it ethical for Dowd to publicly advocate for sweeping and historic religious reformation? I would argue that it is not. Why would ABC News, whom he publicly represents, allow him to take such a position? For example, while political reporters can vote, they can’t actively campaign for a political party or candidate. As a Catholic what authority does he have to advocate for such a change? Catholics see the authority for its teaching coming from God through the Bible and the church. As a Christian what authority does he have to advocate for such a change? While Protestants disagree with Catholics about authority of church they agree that God’s authority comes from God through the Bible. No single believer has the right or authority to change fundamental Christian thinking. Who gave Dowd that right? If he is dissatisfied with his religion why doesn’t he look elsewhere rather than try to change it for everyone else? Of course this is quite typical of secular progressives, who in spite paying a lot of lip service to noble ideas like freedom/empowerment, equality and tolerance, are actually very authoritarian and intolerant when it comes to traditional values and institutions, which they falsely believe are oppressive and/or repressive.
Once again we have an example of the total corruption of a MSM outlet.john_a_designer
October 16, 2016
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KF writes,
If Brave New World’s motto is “Think globally, act locally,” ours should be “Think locally, act locally.”
Or individually. If the Elites want to control a society from its institutions and culture, it's really no different than the worst of the Medieval Catholic church. My view is that if a house is burning down and I can't put out the fire, I will try to rescue those trapped inside rather than shoring up the timbers. Yes, I might get killed in the rescue attempts when things inevitably come crashing down. I'm willing to accept this. -QQuerius
October 16, 2016
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JAD, Pecknold indeed asks some very pointed questions and raises a highly significant issue. What I find also highly suggestive is the thinking in terms of setting up a framework for an astroturfed "Catholic Spring" agit prop subversion from 2005 on, in a context where the Middle East was destabilised in the 2011 - 12 period by a series of street level uprisings that failed to deliver genuine democratisation. Instead they did by and large what radical revolutionaries usually end up triggering: lead to takeover by the most ruthless and prepared. In this case, the Islam-ISTS; who were often presented to us in "moderate" clothing; now looking a bit tattered given what ISIS has been doing to those it seized power over. This led to a fresh round of wars and a serious geostrategic deterioration, which we can readily assign to the Obama-Clinton foreign policy. In that context, the White House's patent lies and scapegoating over the company scale attack on the US Embassy facility in Benghazi speak volumes about foreign policy failure. With the underlying issue coming out also that it was smuggling arms to support ISIS (which seems also to be backed by oil sheikdoms). This throws a stark light on the subsequent chaos in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, spilling over into Turkey and threatening Jordan and Israel. No wonder Russia intervened on the behalf of a long term ally, Syria; using its longstanding bases. (Did you ever wonder about the significant continuity of Russian foreign policy post collapse of the USSR? Think geostrategically!) Where of course the media by and large have shown an utter lack of interest in the underlying dynamics, by sharp contrast with the Bush era, and, lo and behold, no street level grand protest movements. All of this is revealing on the Alinsky Rules for Radicals/ "Community Organizer" -influenced cultural marxist thought and agit prop strategies at work in the West and across the world. KF PS: Why is it that there has been so little general media interest in drawing out and addressing just what a "Community Organizer" of the Chicago school founded by Saul Alinsky is, and how such would operate if given access to levers of power? Why is it that Wikipedia suppressed its page on cultural marxism? Lind has some significant 4th Gen War influenced perspectives: https://web.archive.org/web/20130801090250/http://www.westernrevival.org/who_stole_our_culture.htm . . . let me clip:
Gramsci famously laid out a strategy for destroying Christianity and Western culture, one that has proven all too successful. Instead of calling for a Communist revolution up front, as in Russia, he said Marxists in the West should take political power last, after a "long march through the institutions" – the schools, the media, even the churches, every institution that could influence the culture. That "long march through the institutions" is what America has experienced, especially since the 1960s . . . . [In the 1950's] Horkheimer and the other Frankfurt School members decided that the key to destroying Western culture was to cross Marx with Freud. They argued that just as workers were oppressed under capitalism, so under Western culture, everyone lived in a constant state of psychological repression. "Liberating" everyone from that repression became one of cultural Marxism's main goals. Even more important, they realized that psychology offered them a far more powerful tool than philosophy for destroying Western culture: psychological conditioning. Today, when Hollywood's cultural Marxists want to "normalize" something like homosexuality (thus "liberating" us from "repression"), they put on television show after television show where the only normal-seeming white male is a homosexual. That is how psychological conditioning works; people absorb the lessons the cultural Marxists want them to learn without even knowing they are being taught . . . . To serve its purpose of "negating" Western culture, the Frankfurt School developed a powerful tool it called "Critical Theory." What was the theory? The theory was to criticize. By subjecting every traditional institution, starting with family, to endless, unremitting criticism (the Frankfurt School was careful never to define what it was for, only what it was against), it hoped to bring them down. Critical Theory is the basis for the "studies" departments that now inhabit American colleges and universities. Not surprisingly, those departments are the home turf of academic political correctness . . . . {much more of details] . . . . The question is, what are we, as Christians and as cultural conservatives, going to do about it? We can choose between two strategies. The first is to try to retake the existing institutions – the public schools, the universities, the media, the entertainment industry and most of the mainline churches – from the cultural Marxists. They expect us to try to do that, they are ready for it, and we would find ourselves, with but small voice and few resources compared to theirs, making a frontal assault against prepared defensive positions. Any soldier can tell you what that almost always leads to: defeat. There is another, more promising strategy. We can separate ourselves and our families from the institutions the cultural Marxists control and build new institutions for ourselves, institutions that reflect and will help us recover our traditional Western culture. Several years ago, my colleague Paul Weyrich wrote an open letter to the conservative movement suggesting this strategy. While most other conservative (really Republican) leaders demurred, his letter resonated powerfully with grass-roots conservatives. Many of them are already part of a movement to secede from the corrupt, dominant culture and create parallel institutions: the homeschooling movement. Similar movements are beginning to offer sound alternatives in other aspects of life, including movements to promote small, often organic family farms and to develop community markets for those farms' products. If Brave New World's motto is "Think globally, act locally," ours should be "Think locally, act locally." Thus, our strategy for undoing what cultural Marxism has done to America has a certain parallel to its own strategy, as Gramsci laid it out so long ago. Gramsci called for Marxists to undertake a "long march through the institutions." Our counter-strategy would be a long march to create our own institutions. It will not happen quickly, or easily. It will be the work of generations – as was theirs. [--> think about what would happen were we to undergo civilisational collapse similar to that of the W Roman Empire, multiplied by WMDs, e.g. several Iranian nukes triggering massive EMP-driven technological breakdown. Ask yourself, what would be needed to check re-subversion, or simply using force under colour of law backed up by toxic smears drummed out endlessly by media indoctrination in dominant but false and slanderous narratives, to crush undesirable . . . "deplorable" . . . alternatives.] They were patient, because they knew the "inevitable forces of history" were on their side. Can we not be equally patient, and persevering, knowing that the Maker of history is on ours?
kairosfocus
October 16, 2016
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Here is a very interesting and insightful analysis of the wikileaks emails submitted to National Review Online by C. C. Pecknold, an associate professor of theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Professor Pecknold writes that…
The e-mails give us a special window onto this esoteric “form of religion,” which is rarely spoken about. Progressivism — a secularized, and in these writers’ [Podesta et al.] view purified, form of progressive Protestant Christianity — is the one true faith. This kind of liberalism is parasitic upon true Christianity, but it holds it in utter disdain. And it follows that the most ancient form of Christianity, Catholicism, should become its very special target.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441074/podesta-leaks-catholicism-undermined What is troubling is the very subversive and coercive nature of this so-called secular progressive movement. There may be some forms of secularism that want to peacefully coexist with traditional Christian and non-Christian religions, not the currently dominant secular progressive left which is pushing for social change under the phony and disingenuous banner of equal rights. To achieve its goals it seeks to undermine and destroy traditional religious belief and moral values. Look at it this way: if nobody has any rights then we will have equal rights. I am afraid that is the direction that secular progressive agenda is trying to take us.john_a_designer
October 15, 2016
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Vy, Churchill in fine form, and it seems, after Italy blocked the first threats of Nazi Germany against Austria. Before, the French and British drove the two dictators together in a fatal axis after Mussolini's grasping for empire in Abyssinia. Vienna, of course being a dual gateway to SE Europe, and to Central Europe as 1529 and 1683 forever showed. Oh, how soon we have forgotten! KFkairosfocus
October 15, 2016
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... many of the Elites will discover that they were only considered “useful idiots” by the inner circle, and they will find themselves in re-education camps as happened in the former Soviet Union.
So true!
"When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history."
My aim was to post "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" but I stumbled upon that gem.Vy
October 15, 2016
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Thanks for the great insights and thoughtful replies, KF (and others). The way that humans traditionally “voted” was by force of arms, often with massive and irrational bloodshed. Thomas Jefferson famously noted that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I seem to remember that he thought that this should occur about every ten years or so. So a bold experiment has been conducted to establish a government of the people, which has offered unprecedented opportunity for immigrants such as myself. However, some people who consider themselves “the Elite” have been working tirelessly to gain control over the constitutional mechanisms that were designed to ensure reasonably fair popular representation. This is a clear indication of their contempt for the common person, and their intent to establish a wonderful new society managed by them—in other words, a tyranny. They are succeeding. One institution at a time has fallen under their control: the press, the film industry, the educational system, academia, many of the circuit courts, the IRS, now the FBI, and soon perhaps the Supreme Court, and so on. Sadly, many seminaries, churches, and synagogues are functionally atheistic, and now view themselves as agents of social change. As a devout, joy-filled Christian, I really don’t have time to argue against their spectacularly failed utopian ideologies and self-centered aspirations. As we can see on this forum, none of the materialists have been affected in the slightest, let alone have ever changed their minds regardless of overwhelming evidence and logic. Their thinking comprises rationalizations and personal attacks all the way down. To them, their groundless assertions constitute irrefutable proof. I will vote and as long as voting isn’t completely fraudulent—which is now becoming questionable. The bright spot is that the Department of Homeland Security wants to take over voting, which means that the Elite are becoming impatient. But I will absolutely NOT oppose the Elites, who will soon be our overlords, with force. Considering the militarization of our police and the purchase of one or two billion rounds of .40 caliber ammunition by US government agencies, I don’t think non-violence is being planned by government bureaucrats against those who are not docile-enough subjects. What’s ironic is that after a brutal bureaucratic dictatorship has finally been established in the US, many of the Elites will discover that they were only considered “useful idiots” by the inner circle, and they will find themselves in re-education camps as happened in the former Soviet Union. Also ironic will be that the economic collapse inevitably follows will naturally be blamed on the hated group of the moment. And of course, what passes as journalism will continue to revel in how Fair things have become, now that everyone is equally enslaved in abject poverty. Except the Deserving Elites, of course. Again . . .
. . . if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 2 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
In obedience to Jesus, I do not consider this my fight, so I'm trying to rescue as many people as I can from the judgment to come when even the Elites will find themselves standing ashamed before God. -QQuerius
October 15, 2016
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JAD, that reads very much like a confession as to the astroturfing behind various street level agit prop movements, likely including cases such as the Arab spring, so called. The Alinsky signature is plain. KFkairosfocus
October 15, 2016
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To be fair we are still not sure if the wikileaks emails are authentic. Whether or not they are, they do reveal a lot of what we already knew about secular progressive thinking and activism, along with the left leaning bias of the mainstream media. One of the things that is most troubling about the secular progressive agenda is its extreme animus towards people of faith (especially Catholics and evangelicals) or people who simply want to adhere to traditional moral values. For example, the Washinton Post reports that one wikileaks “email that was released appears to suggest that Clinton’s campaign set up Catholic groups to organize on issues such as contraception. Sandy Newman, president of Voices for Progress, wrote in an 2011 email to Podesta that there needs to be ‘a Catholic Spring,’ referring to the ‘Arab Spring,’ a wave of demonstrations and protests in the Arab world… “Podesta responded that the [Clinton] campaign had created the groups Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United ‘to organize for a moment like this.’” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/12/wikileaks-emails-show-clinton-spokeswoman-joking-about-catholics-and-evangelicals/ The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” Please note! That is not an invitation for political parties to meddle in peoples religious beliefs. Even if some or all of the wikileaks memos turn out to be fakes (which is very doubtful) there is more than enough evidence already out there to prove that this is exactly how activists on the secular progressive left think.john_a_designer
October 15, 2016
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Pindi: That’s so funny. You guys are the poor lost souls. Born in the wrong century. Unable to progress. I actually feel sorry for you It must be a terrible experience, hating the modern world. Really? feel sorry? I don't believe it for a second. Materialists come here and it has nothing to do with sympathy. They come to prove they not only have an intellectually superior mode of function, but to use that superiority to slay the perceived dragon of theism or possibly dualism - IOW to feed their egos. And why this would be so important they can't seem to address. It seems that there is a tar baby effect because when I ask materialists why they keep commenting here over the years, there is never an answer. Oh and that idea of progress. To you guys progress always seems to be a perceived intellectual thing. IOW to progress you have to become more heavily rational/intellectual. As if that would work for a suffering soul with Tourette's syndrome. So if you would, please point to the "progress" that scientific materialism has made in ridding a person of symptoms of that condition. Progress, right, you guys have the monopoly, of course.groovamos
October 15, 2016
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PPPS: Some basic discipleship and basic (cell scale) leadership stuff: 6, on first steps in discipleship: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/ABCD.pdf 7, on renewal for Christians: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/Why_Not_Now.pdf 8, on cell-scale leadership and service skills: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/Cell_Manual.pdf 9, on basics of issues: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/AN_APOLOGETICS_PRIMER.pdf 10, on gospel-rooted biblical ethical theism: http://nicenesystheol.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-2-gospel-on-mars-hill-foundations.html#u2minfactkairosfocus
October 15, 2016
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PPS: Weaponising logic, worldviews analysis and discipling reformation leadership i/l/o the fullness theme, the 4-R's framework and the seven mountains of influence model: 1, on critical thinking 101 (a 15-minute primer): http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/Straight_Thinking.pdf 2, on de-spinning news, views, education etc: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/straight_or_spin.htm 3, on the mars hill strategy: http://nicenesystheol.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-2-gospel-on-mars-hill-foundations.html#u2mars_hill 4, on wider, deeper worldviews analysis (101 level): http://nicenesystheol.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-2-gospel-on-mars-hill-foundations.html#u2_bld_wvu 5, on discipleship and reformation (and note the link to Francis Schaeffer's vid series): http://nicenesystheol.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-2-gospel-on-mars-hill-foundations.html#u2xfrmnkairosfocus
October 15, 2016
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Q, there was a "right" of the Roman soldiery [these would have likely been the auxiliaries, not the core Roman army, the legions] to compel passersby to carry their 50 - 60 lb packs on the march for a Roman mile [= 1000 paces]. Essentially, by right of conquest. In Palestine at the time, of course, the Romans had been present from the 60's BC because of power elites inviting them in due to a faction fight among the inheritors of the semi-free Hasmonean kingdom about 100 years after the wars of liberation from the Syrian Greek kingdom. So, we see no democratic citizen's contribution, just a dirty power game that brought in an oppressor over a subject people with no realistic hope of anything better . . . as was proved by the three failed Jewish revolts from AD 66 - 135. The carry the pack a mile rule was deeply resented. And, reading between the lines, many of the occupying soldiers seem to have enjoyed using it as a species of petty oppression. They were not viewed primarily as defending the community, but as occupying oppressors. Worse, it is likely that auxiliary soldiers in Palestine would have come from traditional enemies of Israel, with a long and bitter history. Jesus' counsel, in the face of an oppressive regime was, first deal with the inner, spiritual problem and carry the pack two miles (by implication, if you can). Likewise, when slapped, turn the other cheek. In short, do not be waspish. Such is still valid at some levels. Our circumstances may bring that to the fore, but the level of duty we primarily must face is, we are democratic citizens of a civilisation in which the governments and elites are accountable before we the people. We need to learn some civics (whether or not it is distasteful and boring, go the extra mile with that), we need to familiarise ourselves with a true and fair view of circumstances and trends, as well as the driving factors of security, safety and inclusive, self-sustaining growth and development, etc. Again, we should be going the extra mile with such. Then, we have a duty of accountability, holding those in significant office responsible for their dealings. Likewise, we have the duty to hold the media -- the means of general communication to the public in our time (with states where the scale is such that the dynamics of a small town or village are not going to allow us independent knowledge of people, issues, trends etc) -- to account for truth, fairness, and more. Above all, we should be going the second mile to promote justice, the due balance of rights, freedoms and responsibilities; including having a modicum of knowledge on relevant history and underlying issues as to how genuine rights are grounded. In short, we should be going the second mile on being sound, aware, upright citizens fit to be salt and light, and to be watchmen in the towers to blow the trumpet of warning when evil is coming and raising dust clouds. None of this is particularly entertaining or enjoyable, but it is a much easier duty than walking under a bullying occupying soldier's 50 - 60 lb pack for 1,000 paces. However -- in part due to manipulation of education and media for decades -- these duties seem to be doubly hard in our time. That is why I am pointing to the straight vs spin grid in the OP, and am suggesting, spread it as an infographic. I wish to suggest that I can find nowhere in scripture any indication that going the extra mile can be equated to enabling or passively going along with weaponised slander, blackmail and intimidation to push an agenda of evil. Instead, I find every encouragement to stand up with credible, prophetically insightful, reforming intellectual and cultural leadership that corrects the fallacies of evil and those of leading people astray from God and from sound community founded on him who is the truth and the right himself. For first instance, I see Paul's counsel (after he has argued that through the sound functioning of the church we are immunised to winds and waves of false doctrine and the cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming):
Eph 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
A tall order, and an order that points to an utterly different kind of citizenship than has been going on across our civilisation. (If you need balancing pieces on what is going on just now, with the press shark pack game, I suggest Cochran here. Similarly, on the wider issue of the invasion of cultural marxism and aAlinsky style agit prop, you may wish to look here at an archived wiki page [now supressed at Wiki of course] and here for a more focussed 101 level critique.) KF PS: One of the most challenging spiritual warfare texts is quite non-spooky when we look at it with fresh eyes:
2 Cor 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . .
Worldview warfare with weaponised logic and sound insights!kairosfocus
October 15, 2016
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The conspiracy of some elitist, arrogant politicians, bureaucrats, and academics to create a "compliant citizenry" is especially rankling to those of us who cherish freedom. Nevertheless, consider this. Yeshua told his disciples to not only be compliant with the cruel and corrupt Roman empire, but to be proactively cooperative:
If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. - Jesus as quoted in Matthew 5:41
His disciples got the message.
if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. - 2 Peter 2:9
I'm determined to trust God in this promise and to be obedient to what he wants for my life. -QQuerius
October 14, 2016
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It looks like that maybe I spoke too soon when @ 36 I wrote that neither CNBC or the NY Times would take any disciplinary action against a reporter who appeared to have violated long recognized standards of journalistic ethics. However now it’s being reported that one of the oldest members of the MSM, NBC News, is suspending one of its Today Show reporters, Billy Bush (who BTW is the cousin of George W Bush) for the interview he did with Donald Trump 11 years ago, when Bush worked as a “reporter” for the infotainment show Access Hollywood. (That’s not exactly an important MSM news outlet.) So what did Bush do wrong? I am not sure. Apparently neither are any professionals in the news business. For example, Jonah Goldberg of National Review writes:
What I find bizarre is that Bush has been suspended from his job at Today for . . . what? I don’t really know. Was he supposed to slap Trump? Rip off his mic and say, “How dare you, sir?” Report him to the police? Maybe he should have. I certainly would think better of Bush if he had. But I have to assume that when you’re in the business of sucking up to celebrities in a cutthroat competition for prized “gets,” one must listen to — and see — all manner of things that would offend decent, middle-class sensibilities.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441063/billy-bush-suspension-nbc-over-trump-lewd-remarks-nonsense But maybe the mainstream media is finally getting its act together-- well, maybe not.john_a_designer
October 14, 2016
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Eugen, either we wake up now or we wake up with our backs broken at the foot of a cliff. Those, "lucky" enough to survive. KFkairosfocus
October 14, 2016
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JAD, I recall how, when the Lewinsky scandal broke, an elderly black lady (an evangelist) was on one of those talking head shows. She said, if this intern had danced into the President's Office stark naked, he should have taken off his jacket and put it on her, then sent her home to mama; c/o the secret service, I imagine. Unfortunately, that did not happen, the Playboy mentality seemed to be too strong. Then, as now. But that old lady had a solid point about duty as husband and as high official. I have to give some credibility to the accounts of advance leaking of debate questions (esp. for no 1). That is sad, and sadly revealing. Likewise, the failure of media houses -- as the OP highlights too -- is just as sadly revealing. Our civilisation is on the crumbling edge of a precipice, and we need to wake up from our stupor of folly and turn back before the ground gives way underfoot. Or, at least, we are duty-bound to try. Do we really want to go through the sort of collapse that happened after 476? That, would be utterly foolish, but we must remember, that collapse was precipitated by a long train of folly, step by step until things collapsed. It took a thousand years to recover. This time, with nukes in play, it may be much worse. How foolish we have been! KFkairosfocus
October 14, 2016
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What is absolutely appalling to me as a U.S. citizen is the corruption of our main stream media (or MSM). Several of the wiki leak emails reveal what a lot informed citizens already knew: the New York based MSM is biased politically towards the far left and is complicit in pushing a secular progressive agenda and propping up political candidates who share that agenda. According to Fox News:
The ongoing WikiLeaks dump of a top Hillary Clinton lieutenant’s emails is shining a light on the cozy and often improper relationship key members of the press had with the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign. Advance notice of debate questions, the promise of positive coverage, and even editorial control over stories are among the eyebrow-raising revelations in emails to and from campaign chairman John Podesta.
(emphasis added) For example,
CNBC correspondent and New York Times contributor John Harwood, who served as a moderator in one of the Republican primary debates, emailed Podesta numerous times, on some occasions to request an interview and other times to offer advice.
(emphasis added) http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/12/bias-alert-wikileaks-exposes-medias-secret-support-clinton.html Note: “to offer advice.” In other words, Hardwood, while on the job, is moonlighting as an unpaid political consultant. Illegal? Maybe not. Unethical? Definitely. Will CNBC and the NY Times do anything about this? Probably not. If you are skeptical of Foxes coverage because of its alleged right-of-center bias take a look at this video from left leaning MSNBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhFRGDtlxA Sure, Scarborough’s reporting and commentary is to the right, but the revealing thing in the clip above is that his left wing colleagues agree with him. There is a liberal bias in the news reporting of the MSM.john_a_designer
October 14, 2016
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Kairos Thanks for Ecclesiastes 7:6. So much wisdom in the Holy Book... Like you said there are some coordinated global trends and movements happening in the background all well synchronized with media, the propaganda machine. I think,too that quality independent sources of news on internet will break the monopoly of main stream media.This will hopefully reverse effects of decades of brainwashing. I always encourage friends and family to diversify their sources of information and to never trust main news networks. Unfortunately some people just don't want to wake up...Eugen
October 14, 2016
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PS: Assessment, the USA is now deeply polarised and will be engulfed in internal divisions and wedge issues regardless of who is elected. This has been getting worse and worse since the hanging chads election of 2000.kairosfocus
October 13, 2016
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F/N: Eugen, in 3 above, put his finger on a key point that bears emphasis, given current hot-button talking point games on ever so many issues:
Nations are divided over made up issues while serious damage is happening in the background. I cannot think of easy solution to this.
The hidden agenda cannot stand on its own, so it rides quietly on the back of what is trumpeted. Then, with message/ narrative/ spin dominance, the inconvenient facts, reasoning and concerns can be drowned out or twisted into a strawman caricature. A very good index of this is to follow up on the Wiki bios for key people involved with any movement the secularist elites do not like. If the bio is a hatchet job (as opposed to a true and fair view), then pay attention to what they have to say in their own words in whatever corner they can get a message out. For, that's the change, with Internet technologies the big boys cannot simply silence what they don't want us to hear anymore. So, they have to marginalise and discredit by any means fair or foul. And of course there are opinion cascades and there is a spiral of silencing, when domineering narratives reach a tipping point so that people simply parrot the seeming consensus, squelching doubts and qualms as they think they are isolated. Then anyone who does not get the message can be pounced on as a whacko. But then Paul was laughed out of court in Ac 17, quite literally. The laughter of a fool is as the crackling of thorns under a pot. The thorns are long gone as ashes when those who sit to supper are having their soup. Let that be a word of warning from Sophia to those who play the mocking dismissal trollish tactics game. (And if you think this is not serious, go read Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy in the post 476 world.) Of course ID is a classic in point as say contrasting the hatchet jobs at Wiki with the New World Encyclopedia article will at once reveal. But ID is not the actual pivot. I am convinced that the central evil of our time is mass abortion. A simple triangular growth model across 40 years since the '70's to the Guttmacher estimate of 50 million globally per year will come up with 800+ MILLION abortions. That amount of mass blood-guilt under false colour of law HAS to be severely warping and tainting how we think, present news and views and entertainment, argue public policy, address ethical matters, vote, make and enforce laws, carry out education and more. Which then readily explains other distortions, manipulations, strawman tactic distortions and much more. Starting with the utter warping of education. That's a full generation of the Plato's cave shadow show games. A civilisation carrying so much blood guilt is in tenuous contact with soundness and reality. That is almost bound to set the notorious horsemen of the apocalypse loose: conquest, war, famine and deadly disease. Hence, the significance of the Middle East as a pivot and Africa as a continent open for the raping. But of course, no that cannot be real, it is not being validated by the big voices in the major media. To get an idea, ponder how from 1904 Mackinder pointed to E Europe as a pivot area of conflict and to the mass of Siberia etc as a core resource space with rail and telecomms of the day enabling exploitation. Thus, shifting power-balance to continental powers, namely Germany and Russia. C20 history, at broad brush level then becomes: two German global power grabs and one Russian one. Pivoting on E Europe, the buffer zone between the two powers. (Current events in Europe echo this, and those in Syria bridge to the C21 issues.) Of course, the maritime powers and the key trade choke points also come into play, as Spykman emphasised. It is no surprise that ambitious and aggressive Islam-IST powers are moving along lines much as sketched. For just one instance there seem to be many dozens of thousands of Iran-backed rockets targetting Israel emplaced in Gaza and Lebanon under the nose of the UN. Where, Iran -- a chief sponsor of Islam-IST radicalism and terrorism for the past generation -- is clearly at or over nuke threshold. It is also plainly reconstituting the Persian Empire and is already on the E Med coast. Playing cultural marxist agit prop games to push the so called Arab spring only and predictably opened the way for a nightmarish Islam-IST winter. Which is of course presented in major media as though it comes from nowhere. Further East, China is flexing its muscles and of course has interests in Africa. We can go on and on, but that is enough outline. Ponder, then, how in so dangerous a geostrategic circumstance, the ongoing election campaign and media discussion in the US are so largely silent or superficial about such issues. And no, labelling such concerns "neo-con" does not make them go away. Nor does it change the strategic significance of the Nile Corridor (with the Sahara as an obstacle across northern Africa), Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Nor, Iran and the buffer zone of Iraq. With the Sunni powers of the Arabian peninsula in the game too. Then, listen to the echos of "migrants" and "refugees" by the millions going up the invasion routes into Europe from the SE especially, where obviously many of these are Islam-ISTS. Compare the historical result of waves of Germanic tribes invading and immigrating into the Roman empire. Ask yourselves, why so little is said about the settlement Jihad/ Civilisational Jihad strategy and the intent of Islam-IST global subjugation across C21. Ask yourself why the RH woman key Aide of a major candidate to be US president was listed on the Editorial Board of a major journal promoting that strategy for a decade . . . a journal founded by her family. (I call that, on fair comment, agent of influence. Just as I am troubled by the closeness of another major political family to the elites of the Arabian peninsula. [Given the limits of 501c3, I think that is as far as I can go, other than to say this is my view in my own right, not endorsed by UD.]) Some very big sharks are swimming in these murky waters. KFkairosfocus
October 13, 2016
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Folks, notice how the pivotal issue of long term educational dumbing down to soften up for media and opinion manipulation has been tip-toed around? Do you see the pivotal importance of getting awakened from a Plato's cave, shadow-show bewitched mentality of en-darkenment substituting for genuine enlightenment? [That's a key vid] See the dangers involved in being unaware and compliant with the dominant, domineering media narrative and spin games? Thus, the significance of the de-spinning framework I pointed out by way of an infographic in the OP? Notice, not one objector touching that framework? KF PS: Can I suggest, spreading that de-spinning framework far and wide, likewise the markup on our geostrategic peril as a civilisation? Same, on the infographic regarding unsustainable business as usual and building critical mass to switch to a sustainable alternative.kairosfocus
October 13, 2016
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How is using a laptop having a discussion over the internet "hating the modern world"? (sigh) Another example of internet troll inanity, stupidity and irrationality.john_a_designer
October 13, 2016
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Look at how fast the comments popped up! I know people, veterans all, that are not going to accept it if HilLiary gets elected. Take that however you want. Neither candidate is fit for the office, but Trump will appoint conservative judges to the SCOTUS and is anti TPP. He doesn't believe in an open border. I'm voting issues, not personalities.jimmontg
October 13, 2016
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"My kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my servants would fight." -Yeshua Hamashiach My prayer has been that the evil plotting of these wicked, wicked liars be exposed without regard for their affiliation. I had no idea of the extent that my prayer and those of many other authentic Christians would be answered. I'm sure that more is yet to come! My faith and assurance gives me peace and fills me with relentless joy, regardless! And discovering the creativity of God is such a thrill! :-) -QQuerius
October 13, 2016
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Pindi, notice how you have had nothing substantial to say regarding the sobering issue in the OP or further matters, only sneers and attempted put-downs, lastly thinking you can tell the truth or the right by the wrong instrument -- a clock or calendar? Please, think again. The myth of secularist, utopian progress has long since gone bust. KFkairosfocus
October 13, 2016
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That’s so funny. You guys are the poor lost souls. Born in the wrong century. Unable to progress.
It seems you've not been keeping in touch with your evodoc.
I actually feel sorry for you It must be a terrible experience, hating the modern world.
A Darbot feeling sorry? With feelings? That'll be the day.Vy
October 13, 2016
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TWSYF" "Keep coming, poor wretched creature" That's so funny. You guys are the poor lost souls. Born in the wrong century. Unable to progress. I actually feel sorry for you It must be a terrible experience, hating the modern world.Pindi
October 13, 2016
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