Christians have a huge advantage in that we are able to see the world for what it is, not for what we want to it to be. We do not derive our security from the world, rather from Jesus. So when we see evil, we’re able to more objectively call it out without it causing us much emotional discomfort. We have a resting place, Christ, for when that discomfort comes up. Those who don’t have that resting place or hope in Jesus often simply can’t accept what an awful place the world can be because that life would be too bleak for them. They don’t have the light in the darkness, Jesus, so they bury their head in the sand and cling to denial.
I must be a hard-core Libertarian, because I do not agree with esteemed Dr. Rogers' statement that "both the market and the government alternative have failed". It’s the state interventionism that has resulted in failure. In other words, markets did not fail. Adulterated markets, distorted by govt interference, have failed.
But the corporations that own the government rig the market in their favor. Pfizer writes the rules that the FDA & CDC implement. The government interference you complain about is directed by corporations.
Thank you for your comment Dr. Rogers! You make a valid point, and you certainly got me thinking! Here are my thoughts: the fact that "the corporations own the government" means that the governments are corrupt. Therefore, we need tighter controls over and accountability by the governments, not the corporations. Corporations are inherently self-interested, as they should be in order to succeed. Trying to change that would be trying to change human nature - this has been attempted by various stripes of communists and other ideologues time and again, and has always failed. The only useful measure that comes to mind with regard to corporations is that we need very strong and effective anti-trust laws (or another tool to the same effect) in order to prevent monopolies and oligopolies from forming, as they invariably have multiple negative effects on the society as a whole (including formation of "public-private partnerships", which is just another name for corruption of governments by too-powerful mega-corporations).
In the last four years there has been a merger of corporations and the state (and the military). I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins -- it's all one big happy crime family. The federal government should be cut in half at least. And I agree with you about anti-trust.
Dr. Rogers, you get no argument from me re "one big happy crime family" or that "the federal government should be cut in half at least"! The same certainly applies to provincial and municipal govts here in Canada, and I am sure the situation is similar in the US and world over. Once again, in my opinion the main fault for the status quo lies with the government: too big, too much overreach, too much power. How do we change that? These governments are obviously not going to legislate themselves out of existence.
A funny and good analogy, the airplane one. The government is owned by the market. Difficult for those identified with a clever intellect as a superior form of intelligence to remain humble. The earth we presently occupy drips with evil.
"If Pharma made airplanes there would be airplane crashes every single day and Pharma would blame the people who never fly." Brilliant analogy. I've already sent this quote out to wise and knowing friends.
As to the supposedly rock-solid astrophysical laws, we're living in an era when even that is being overturned. The Amaterasu particle beam that struck Earth late last year has scientists puzzled, as it seems to have come out of a point at the edge of our galaxy known as the "Local Void," an area of dark matter that "shouldn't" behave that way. To name only one recent strange cosmological phenomenon among many...
Part of the problem is that the whole apparatus of monetized intellectual property requires constant "discoveries" that then become patentable or the raw material for career advancement. Thus, the incentive shifts from pure science to personal gain. The onus is not on verifying theories but on continually coming up with new ones. We are far from the truth-seeking motivations of a Plato or Pythagoras. And as Arnold Toynbee said, you cannot reach an ethical goal by resorting to unethical means, it's impossible.
I think we're only just now coming out of a 500-year (or longer) Dark Age. Think about it: Using the science of Sacred Geometry, the ancients were able to build the pyramids and other monumental structures all over the world that we today cannot duplicate. Even the medieval architects, without computers or cranes, were able to build sublime structures such as Chartres Cathedral as late as the 12th century using the principles of Sacred Geometry. Yet we were taught in school that the early medieval period was "the Dark Ages," directly inverting the truth as all great propagandists do.
You have my sympathies with astrophysics. There are 99 dumb ideas for every good one. I think that dark matter is a dominant force in the universe, and its mere presence has created space as we know it. It creates a field that conducts gravity waves, and everything else in the universe. The dark matter field is stable enough it resist everything except the gravity of black holes. When a black hole forms, all the dark matter inside the event horizon collapses into the hole, leaving a region of true empty space, a vacuum that even light cant travel through. So even the vacuum of empty space is supported by dark matter, and only black holes are truly empty. So one could work out the tensile strength of the dark matter field, by working out what gravitational force is required to make it collapse. I dont think we are about to find dark matter though, cos particles with no spin and no inertia will not react with normal matter.
I used to have a guru. This was 50 years ago so don’t hold it against me please. I don’t accept much of what the guru and his current adherents believe but he did make one bold claim back in the early 70s. He said ‘pharmaceutical companies are run by rakshahsas’. A Rakshasa is a hindu word for demon. He claimed therefore demons ran big pharma. I thought it was a metaphor. Maybe he meant it just as it reads.
Boy, do I love this article today, or series of… I especially love your plane analogy! One suggestion: progressive could use some quotation marks—“progressive” as in not really so progressive after all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Toby Rogers! So brilliant. So incisive. So (bloody) articulate. So glad you're among us, doing your thing. We need you!!
So, Bingo on your insight into Christianity. Pretty much the entire story is that we humans are limited creatures that require God's laws and perspectives to live good lives. Left to our own devices, and minus sincere humility (a reasonable assessment of our real selves), we are "utterly depraved." If not right off, surely after living the life of, say, Bill Gates or Joe Biden. Or Fauci, or Klaus, or Juval, or "W', or any of thousands of others who believe that they are the measure of things. This realization of our inherent flawed nature elicits deep skepticism of granting anyone or anything unregulated power. Hence the "perfection" of this idea inherent in the Constitution bequeathed upon us by our marvelously insightful Founders. Once we realize that none are above challenge, we can open at least the possibility of fomenting institutions and mores determined to permit human thriving and suppress the selfishness of our nature. When you create institutions as unaccountable and psychopathic as the CIA for example, and then grant it generations of conscienceless drunken revelry, you end up with a thoroughly toxic and nihilistic culture of arrogant leadership that can think of nothing to do but immiserate the innocent.
How is the U.S. Constitution the "perfection" of the idea of our inherent flawed nature? Through its separation of powers?
If I am understanding you correctly, I think the Brehon Law of the Ancient Irish (wrecked/wiped out by the English and the one-vote "victory" at the Synod of Whitby that brought Roman Catholicism to Ireland in place of its Irish Christianity) serves as a better structure for managing our inherent flawed nature. I think the formation of the CIA (and all the three-letter agencies found somehow to be legal under the Constitution) is evidence of the Constitution's serious flaws.
Note that I placed that word in quotes. What is perfect about it is the mature understanding that the flaw in human life is inescapable. The structure above all tries to prevent the perversion of government into the usual exploitation. The perfection lies in recognizing the impossibility of perfection. See?
I know nothing of the Brehon Law but seems pretty interesting. The CIA, and the horror it has become, is antithetical to The Constitution, or really any genuine moral document. It is itself a perversion.
Of the two major documents of the American founding, I think the Declaration of Independence is the moral document. Its declarations come from the moral Law. The Constitution is "merely" a framework for a form of government. Were the Law adhered to always, it could be argued that monarchies are as legitimate a form of governing as a constitutional republic.
.....could not POSSIBLY disagree MORE, Charles - what 'Christianity' (and more PRECISELY, evangelical Scofield Biblicalism) especially STRESS is the BELIEF of man's INHERENT (from who, WHAT then? Oh, THAT's right - 'Satan', 'The Devil', 'Lucifer' - BADLY-distorted ARCHETYPES, lacking ACCURATE cultural context - STILL.....my RESOLVED identification as 'gnostic' - NOTE the SMALL 'g', is entirely WITHOUT rituals; SIMPLY a recognition (OK, retrospectively) that the knowledge ALWAYS lay within ME as much as ANYwhere else - DECREASINGLY difficult to access, as PROPORTIONAL confidence was gained; SEE Matthew 6:22 for the BIBLE's own liberating CONFIRMATION of it) FAILURE being a 'fait acompli'; 'done deal'; conditionally-faithLESS state - to which I say, "HORSE-!!!"
Organized religion (as LONG 'constituted' - resembling though not at ALL, our Constitution - in MYRIAD ways) ITSELF's a PRIMARY instrument of JUST such narcissistic SADISTS inhabiting 'The COMPANY ' - to PRODUCE an entire PLANET full of masochists WHO, as I'll note in a Comment to Toby's NEWEST 'Thinking Points' (SUCH an IRONIC title of LATE) - are fundamentally DISCOURAGED from INDEPENDENT thought, and INCESSANTLY encouraged to unquestioningly DEFER (as BEST characterized by the infuriatingly-BLITHE trope 'let GO - and let GOD', similar modern 'New Age' advisories NO less so) to a 'higher', 'greater' POWER; promoting ESTRANGEMENT from OUR part OF same - thus increasingly DISempowering those NOT able to see BEYOND their MACHINATIONS (vocalized 'capitalistic' expectations to, 'EARN a living' - effectively VALIDATE one's very EXISTENCE, which BETRAY as much; associated 'work' / 'employment' but PERHAPS a mildER form of, 'SLAVERY' - indentured SERVITUDE) while others from an EARLY age NEVER caused to doubt, THEIR ability to - with SOME respectful DISCERNMENT, enhance quality of life - NOR innate VALUE they ALREADY possess, have no NEED to OVERCOMPENSATE for a SUBJECTIVELY-perceived LACK of it.....
But “ good lives” or “ God’s laws” were only put in place to remind us we aren’t perfect. The only perfect person to walk this Earth was Jesus. Luckily, there’s Grace from God to fill the void. God’s love and everlasting life is a gift that can’t be earned. Read C.S.Lewis “ Mere Christianity”. It’s the best & answers all the questions & leaves the unanswerable ones alone. God is the answr.
Christians have a huge advantage in that we are able to see the world for what it is, not for what we want to it to be. We do not derive our security from the world, rather from Jesus. So when we see evil, we’re able to more objectively call it out without it causing us much emotional discomfort. We have a resting place, Christ, for when that discomfort comes up. Those who don’t have that resting place or hope in Jesus often simply can’t accept what an awful place the world can be because that life would be too bleak for them. They don’t have the light in the darkness, Jesus, so they bury their head in the sand and cling to denial.
Amen to that!!
This is one of your best. The comparison of pharma and airplanes is absolute genius. Thank you!
I must be a hard-core Libertarian, because I do not agree with esteemed Dr. Rogers' statement that "both the market and the government alternative have failed". It’s the state interventionism that has resulted in failure. In other words, markets did not fail. Adulterated markets, distorted by govt interference, have failed.
But the corporations that own the government rig the market in their favor. Pfizer writes the rules that the FDA & CDC implement. The government interference you complain about is directed by corporations.
Thank you for your comment Dr. Rogers! You make a valid point, and you certainly got me thinking! Here are my thoughts: the fact that "the corporations own the government" means that the governments are corrupt. Therefore, we need tighter controls over and accountability by the governments, not the corporations. Corporations are inherently self-interested, as they should be in order to succeed. Trying to change that would be trying to change human nature - this has been attempted by various stripes of communists and other ideologues time and again, and has always failed. The only useful measure that comes to mind with regard to corporations is that we need very strong and effective anti-trust laws (or another tool to the same effect) in order to prevent monopolies and oligopolies from forming, as they invariably have multiple negative effects on the society as a whole (including formation of "public-private partnerships", which is just another name for corruption of governments by too-powerful mega-corporations).
In the last four years there has been a merger of corporations and the state (and the military). I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins -- it's all one big happy crime family. The federal government should be cut in half at least. And I agree with you about anti-trust.
Dr. Rogers, you get no argument from me re "one big happy crime family" or that "the federal government should be cut in half at least"! The same certainly applies to provincial and municipal govts here in Canada, and I am sure the situation is similar in the US and world over. Once again, in my opinion the main fault for the status quo lies with the government: too big, too much overreach, too much power. How do we change that? These governments are obviously not going to legislate themselves out of existence.
If you think the CDC lies, you should see NASA!
I hope Denise Aguilar gets elected. I remember her well from former battles against mandates. She is a powerhouse.
That was great. May have to up to a paid subscription
A funny and good analogy, the airplane one. The government is owned by the market. Difficult for those identified with a clever intellect as a superior form of intelligence to remain humble. The earth we presently occupy drips with evil.
So we know that black holes can be made out of gases we can blame them on the cows too? Those varmints sure got a lot to answer for.
😂
"If Pharma made airplanes there would be airplane crashes every single day and Pharma would blame the people who never fly." Brilliant analogy. I've already sent this quote out to wise and knowing friends.
As to the supposedly rock-solid astrophysical laws, we're living in an era when even that is being overturned. The Amaterasu particle beam that struck Earth late last year has scientists puzzled, as it seems to have come out of a point at the edge of our galaxy known as the "Local Void," an area of dark matter that "shouldn't" behave that way. To name only one recent strange cosmological phenomenon among many...
Part of the problem is that the whole apparatus of monetized intellectual property requires constant "discoveries" that then become patentable or the raw material for career advancement. Thus, the incentive shifts from pure science to personal gain. The onus is not on verifying theories but on continually coming up with new ones. We are far from the truth-seeking motivations of a Plato or Pythagoras. And as Arnold Toynbee said, you cannot reach an ethical goal by resorting to unethical means, it's impossible.
I think we're only just now coming out of a 500-year (or longer) Dark Age. Think about it: Using the science of Sacred Geometry, the ancients were able to build the pyramids and other monumental structures all over the world that we today cannot duplicate. Even the medieval architects, without computers or cranes, were able to build sublime structures such as Chartres Cathedral as late as the 12th century using the principles of Sacred Geometry. Yet we were taught in school that the early medieval period was "the Dark Ages," directly inverting the truth as all great propagandists do.
Precisely. Toby is already writing on paper the truth that no one else will write. THAT is what great comedians do already. They say it out loud
You have my sympathies with astrophysics. There are 99 dumb ideas for every good one. I think that dark matter is a dominant force in the universe, and its mere presence has created space as we know it. It creates a field that conducts gravity waves, and everything else in the universe. The dark matter field is stable enough it resist everything except the gravity of black holes. When a black hole forms, all the dark matter inside the event horizon collapses into the hole, leaving a region of true empty space, a vacuum that even light cant travel through. So even the vacuum of empty space is supported by dark matter, and only black holes are truly empty. So one could work out the tensile strength of the dark matter field, by working out what gravitational force is required to make it collapse. I dont think we are about to find dark matter though, cos particles with no spin and no inertia will not react with normal matter.
I used to have a guru. This was 50 years ago so don’t hold it against me please. I don’t accept much of what the guru and his current adherents believe but he did make one bold claim back in the early 70s. He said ‘pharmaceutical companies are run by rakshahsas’. A Rakshasa is a hindu word for demon. He claimed therefore demons ran big pharma. I thought it was a metaphor. Maybe he meant it just as it reads.
I think you’re correct in the last sentence.
Boy, do I love this article today, or series of… I especially love your plane analogy! One suggestion: progressive could use some quotation marks—“progressive” as in not really so progressive after all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Toby Rogers! So brilliant. So incisive. So (bloody) articulate. So glad you're among us, doing your thing. We need you!!
So funny the raccoon knew how to close his drawer. Lol
So, Bingo on your insight into Christianity. Pretty much the entire story is that we humans are limited creatures that require God's laws and perspectives to live good lives. Left to our own devices, and minus sincere humility (a reasonable assessment of our real selves), we are "utterly depraved." If not right off, surely after living the life of, say, Bill Gates or Joe Biden. Or Fauci, or Klaus, or Juval, or "W', or any of thousands of others who believe that they are the measure of things. This realization of our inherent flawed nature elicits deep skepticism of granting anyone or anything unregulated power. Hence the "perfection" of this idea inherent in the Constitution bequeathed upon us by our marvelously insightful Founders. Once we realize that none are above challenge, we can open at least the possibility of fomenting institutions and mores determined to permit human thriving and suppress the selfishness of our nature. When you create institutions as unaccountable and psychopathic as the CIA for example, and then grant it generations of conscienceless drunken revelry, you end up with a thoroughly toxic and nihilistic culture of arrogant leadership that can think of nothing to do but immiserate the innocent.
How is the U.S. Constitution the "perfection" of the idea of our inherent flawed nature? Through its separation of powers?
If I am understanding you correctly, I think the Brehon Law of the Ancient Irish (wrecked/wiped out by the English and the one-vote "victory" at the Synod of Whitby that brought Roman Catholicism to Ireland in place of its Irish Christianity) serves as a better structure for managing our inherent flawed nature. I think the formation of the CIA (and all the three-letter agencies found somehow to be legal under the Constitution) is evidence of the Constitution's serious flaws.
Note that I placed that word in quotes. What is perfect about it is the mature understanding that the flaw in human life is inescapable. The structure above all tries to prevent the perversion of government into the usual exploitation. The perfection lies in recognizing the impossibility of perfection. See?
I know nothing of the Brehon Law but seems pretty interesting. The CIA, and the horror it has become, is antithetical to The Constitution, or really any genuine moral document. It is itself a perversion.
Thank you, Charles. I did notice those quotes. :)
Of the two major documents of the American founding, I think the Declaration of Independence is the moral document. Its declarations come from the moral Law. The Constitution is "merely" a framework for a form of government. Were the Law adhered to always, it could be argued that monarchies are as legitimate a form of governing as a constitutional republic.
You are 100% right about the CIA. Repugnant.
.....could not POSSIBLY disagree MORE, Charles - what 'Christianity' (and more PRECISELY, evangelical Scofield Biblicalism) especially STRESS is the BELIEF of man's INHERENT (from who, WHAT then? Oh, THAT's right - 'Satan', 'The Devil', 'Lucifer' - BADLY-distorted ARCHETYPES, lacking ACCURATE cultural context - STILL.....my RESOLVED identification as 'gnostic' - NOTE the SMALL 'g', is entirely WITHOUT rituals; SIMPLY a recognition (OK, retrospectively) that the knowledge ALWAYS lay within ME as much as ANYwhere else - DECREASINGLY difficult to access, as PROPORTIONAL confidence was gained; SEE Matthew 6:22 for the BIBLE's own liberating CONFIRMATION of it) FAILURE being a 'fait acompli'; 'done deal'; conditionally-faithLESS state - to which I say, "HORSE-!!!"
Organized religion (as LONG 'constituted' - resembling though not at ALL, our Constitution - in MYRIAD ways) ITSELF's a PRIMARY instrument of JUST such narcissistic SADISTS inhabiting 'The COMPANY ' - to PRODUCE an entire PLANET full of masochists WHO, as I'll note in a Comment to Toby's NEWEST 'Thinking Points' (SUCH an IRONIC title of LATE) - are fundamentally DISCOURAGED from INDEPENDENT thought, and INCESSANTLY encouraged to unquestioningly DEFER (as BEST characterized by the infuriatingly-BLITHE trope 'let GO - and let GOD', similar modern 'New Age' advisories NO less so) to a 'higher', 'greater' POWER; promoting ESTRANGEMENT from OUR part OF same - thus increasingly DISempowering those NOT able to see BEYOND their MACHINATIONS (vocalized 'capitalistic' expectations to, 'EARN a living' - effectively VALIDATE one's very EXISTENCE, which BETRAY as much; associated 'work' / 'employment' but PERHAPS a mildER form of, 'SLAVERY' - indentured SERVITUDE) while others from an EARLY age NEVER caused to doubt, THEIR ability to - with SOME respectful DISCERNMENT, enhance quality of life - NOR innate VALUE they ALREADY possess, have no NEED to OVERCOMPENSATE for a SUBJECTIVELY-perceived LACK of it.....
But “ good lives” or “ God’s laws” were only put in place to remind us we aren’t perfect. The only perfect person to walk this Earth was Jesus. Luckily, there’s Grace from God to fill the void. God’s love and everlasting life is a gift that can’t be earned. Read C.S.Lewis “ Mere Christianity”. It’s the best & answers all the questions & leaves the unanswerable ones alone. God is the answr.