Agreed. Every day that I am standing means we live to fight on. Yes, there are 'hordes' of us, but at present, they will double and triple down on their evil.
The call to action is to never give in and never stand down. Find your people and rejoice. Learn a new skill. Find more people like Liz Reitzig that have the blessed attitude that nothing is beyond a mere challenge because we are clever!
It sounds contrite, but buy some seeds and plant a garden. Grow your own food and supplement what you don't grow with others skills. It will require a bit of effort, but the the joy of discovering new alliances will be your reward.
I so believe every word in your comment! For me, standing strong with God by my side will be my mantra. Every time these evil entities double down, I feel more conviction to stand strong and never give up or give in!
Faith is the excuse to abandon reason as you smite your presumed enemies. Pretty scary to people who prefer actual morality, which is attainable by reason.
That is kindof simplistic Jeremy, beneath the level of usual discussion here. Not understanding the complexity of faith is a very immature position. Are you a young progressive? In any case, I notice that you raise the question of indigenous. We have four tribes in our family, starting with Mohawk, marriages, children for generations. Most of the murderous behaviour began with the land rush created by post Civil War immigration. I have records. I bet you have propaganda and leftist crap history.
“We face a similar battle. Populists may not be being shot, but they are losing everything, as the J6 prisoners and hundreds of persecuted others, demonstrate. We stand within a massive majority, but we are facing the same evil that the American founders faced: people who want to force us into prison-cities as serfs, harvest our labor, eat our energy, and will do any foul thing they can, because if we win, they will be pursued to the gates of hell.
In the face of their evil, we must be sober-minded, methodical and implacable.
And take prisoners. Even if it takes fifty years to prosecute them all and flush out their crimes against us. Because this abomination, this Absurdistan, must never happen again.”
That’s what you said, ya vicious loony. Then (in wake of that bombastic discourse) you made the most pretentious comment I have ever heard on social media: “That is kindof simplistic Jeremy, beneath the level of usual discussion here.”
And what did I say to deserve that? Called you out to a T, you christofascist:
“Faith is the excuse to abandon reason as you smite your presumed enemies. Pretty scary to people who prefer actual morality, which is attainable by reason.”
I’ll stand by that until the atoms of my vessel join the heat death of the universe. You are scary and dangerous, clearly misguided: the sign on the box says UNITED states of America, not the fascist divisiveness that is the lifeblood of MAGA.
99.9999% of moral issues can be resolved simply by applying the principle of universality AKA consistency (as opposed to special privileges for an elite class).
Any moral rule is (by definition) a rule. A rule must apply to everyone (no exceptions) otherwise it is not a rule, which would make it moral hypocrisy.
The trick of all forms of tyranny (including statism) is to create a system of moral hypocrisy but convince the masses it is a set of 'moral rules'. Thus murder, rape, theft is immoral..... except when a special group of people in fancy costumes do it.
The majority of 'moral debates' can be resolved by not focusing so much on the morality per se, but on the issue of universality/ consistency. We just need to ask the question "can X be made into a universal rule or not?"
For example.... it CAN be moral for everyone to not murder, rape, steal etc..... whereas it CANNOT be moral for everyone to murder, rape and steal.
No moral rule can be formulated in favour of murder, rape or theft. This is because these acts are defined by the fact that they are VIOLATIONS of property or person - therefore they cannot be universalised as being 'justified' or 'preferable' behaviour without setting up a contradiction.
If an act of violence, sex or property acquisition is morally justified than BY DEFINITION it cannot be said to be an act of murder, rape or theft.
Given that murder/ assault, rape and theft cannot be universalised as virtuous behaviour (ie turned into a moral rule) we have already solved 99.99% of moral issues. Because almost all moral issues fall somewhere under the category or murder/ assault, rape or theft.
So Jeremy is correct. Morality is really no different to any other topic. It is simply a case of applying reason, common sense, logic and consistency. And perhaps most importantly of all, the correct use of language (no weasel words allowed!)
People only struggle with moral issues because they have been conditioned (by a bunch of moral hypocrites in costumes) to think that moral hypocrisy is the only way to enforce moral rules - which is obviously absurd and nonsensical.
The underlying cause of 99% of social justice in the world is having a group of people in costumes enforce (co called) 'moral rules' for the masses, while claiming exemption for themselves. This is not a moral system (as most people are trained to believe). It is a moral hypocrisy system. If anyone is exempt from the 'rules' then they were never rules to begin with.
Maybe by some it is. But reason isn’t available to everyone. The atheistic philosophies were more brutal than religious ones. Mao, Stalin, all the big lefties were brutal killers. Tens of millions of their own citizens too. You are an angry little guy. Your attack on the writer of ‘Absurdistan’ was completely unwarranted. Put 50 million angry ‘reason-heads’ into one region. Do you think your 50 million inner angers won’t spill out into war? Of you believe that you need to grow up a bit. Inner peace leads to outer peace. For many faith is a large part of this. Very few people throughout history came to true inner peace via reason. Shankara was one. But he was rare.
Sounds like you're bored~poor thing~anyway, I don't have to justify my faith in God, just as you don't have to justify your comment above. I don't agree with you but I respect you have the right to have that opinion. So, that being said, have a Happy New Year!
Yes - following false gods - say, Baal (ancient) or Climate Change (recent) - leads mankind to slavery and death. By contrast, the God of Jews and Christians has given Light to the world, greatly enabling our flourishing and lifting our souls to new heights.
And BTW... Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Amin, etc were not followers of God. But they applied their own "rigorous reason" to dominate their people as they destroyed millions of lives.
May God bless you and yours as we ALL pray for a truly Happy New Year!
And Muslims. Same god, but you left that branch out.
Here’s a fundamental expression of that Light you mention: do nothing to another you would not wish for yourself. Absent an iteration of golden rule, the god in question is false. And fwiw religion is basically a derivative function of geography. Take your pick, but the golden rule is the golden rule.
And you’ll be pleased to learn that the rational PROOF of the golden rule is to be found exactly where I pointed you: the most rigorous rational thought. I don’t mean the justificatory manifestos of dictators you reference. I’m talking about the leading edge of philosophy, which is profoundly more abstract.
You don’t need a god for the golden rule to work; yet in a world where we all follow that rule, it would be correct to say god is love.
KatWarrior: Kind words. Thank you! The ear biting bit is from "The Big Lebowski" movie. John Goodman's character bites off the ear of a nihilist in a bowling alley parking lot in LA.
I just spent the last 30 min giving my daughter an oft-repeated history lesson on the founding of our country and the mindset of the people, our Founding Fathers, who fought so hard to make it possible. We are born with our freedoms, inalienable rights, I tell her. Endowed by our Creator - not by government. For what the government giveth it can taketh. I told her, as I tell all my children, that we must never forget our history, and we must never become complacent; We must always fight to protect our freedoms, even to our dying breath. I’m sure she thinks I’m a bit dramatic, but never in my 45 years have I believed this to be more true.
I found an old series of Christmas Carols (on SoundCloud) recorded by King's College Choir in 1962. I swear I can 'feel' in these songs yes a religious reverence, but also a reverence for truth, for the past, for traditions, for Constitutions, for what it took to establish those. It pours out. So I've been listening to those 30 hymns daily for the past few weeks. I'll likely keep listening till February or so. This was real. Just as the history lesson you relate is. The truth is fortifying, inspiring, so worth the effort.
Sounds amazing. That is similar to the feeling I experience when I am in a MidWest state. We bought a travel trailer in 2016 and started making trips out of Oregon, where we lived for 40+ years: Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Washington, California. I think it was our second travel trailer when we first noticed that people outside the three West Coast states are different: more polite, more cheerful, more respectful, happier, etc. We sold the travel trailer in 2021 and bought a cabin on 20 acres in the Black Hills of South Dakota (30 miles south of Mr. Rushmore). WE vacation there 3-4 months each year. There is an air of freedom in Red States that is missing in Blue States. Americans have lost SO MUCH, in SO MANY WAYS, since the 1960s.
Yes, a sense of freedom is given by all the things that at first seem its contrary: responsibility, purpose, helping others, mentoring, traditions, history. I love Christmas b/c it has such layers of meaning. It's liberating feeling so enveloped in religious meaning. Your cabin in the Black Hills sounds idyllic.
Stephen: There are becoming fewer & fewer places in America where we can breathe free. Blue jurisdictions are becoming increasingly oppressive and, of course, so is the federal government. Diane
Jo HIghet: My ancestors didn't come from Ireland to the USA until the late 1800s. In three generations my family became successful in Minnesota and the Midwest. In Ireland it is total shite.
I'm fourth generation and I see the USA becoming the Ireland my ancestors fled.
Timothy, I am with you--7 of my 8 great grandparents came from Ireland in that same time. All became good and successful citizens with large, happy families. The last 20 years I see nothing but addiction and divorce due to the work of the cultural dementors and the slackening of faith. But I truly believe if we go back to God that
The Irish Wet Nurse: If your great grandparents were Irish citizens, I believe you qualify for an Irish passport. I know that my Dad could have applied for one. I tried but I'm one generation too far removed from the Old Sod.
Indigenous peoples of North America were horrendously abused in the name of your god. They are still waiting for their opportunity to share their wisdom and connection to the land, but we still aren’t listening. No doubt you’ll agree they did not experience Christ but rather were subjugated by christianists. Unfortunately, in North America these latter are the politically powerful and dangerous evangelicals. Currently that bunch support Israel for deeply antisemitic reasons, in hope that biblical prophecy will ultimately force Jews to convert or go to hell.
But do go on about the good, true version of the one true god lol.
Or, acknowledge faith readily becomes a trick to justify smiting the unfaithful while abandoning reason.
Forgive me if you're off on the dates and actual history here, but no Irish Catholics coming to the USA in the late 19th c. colonized or conquered anyone. And how a political regime (IMHO many of the exact same bloodline members) chooses to do so in the name of a 2000 yo god is nothing I can change as voting is rigged. Finally, I actually live in the Finger Lakes region to upstate NY and the 8th great-grandparent was of Iroquois descent so while you may love your righteous preaching, take it up with the fake anglo-zionist Prots running our government, and not those of us who have persevered despite our oppression.
And it's all intentional, was meticulously planned & executed. Yet it's all blowing up in their faces. But. They could still win. The hatred behind it is staggering. Hatred is a species of fear. They fear such self-made ordinary men & women of great achievement of the past. It reveals their own utter lack.
Dec 24, 2023·edited Dec 24, 2023Liked by elizabeth nickson
Outstanding piece - especially for its brevity. The message is clear and the majority of us are stronger than we even think. The Bolsheviks numbered, what, 14, 000 among millions and they managed to take over and murder millions. We cannot - and will not - let that happen here.
What an amazing legacy your families have, Elizabeth!!!!!
Tomorrow on Christmas Day, we shall cross the Delaware once again...
Merry Christmas to a bold, beautiful and brilliant writer. It’s beyond time to revel in our heritage and embrace our culture. My ancestor of prominence was TJ. 🎄✝️
There is nothing or no one that can rile me up for Freedom like a fresh dose of Elizabeth Nickson first thing in the morning. Spread this truth around, friends.
"we are facing the same evil that the American founders faced" So true. So true.
The glee with which Justin shut down the Truckers and went after them was a bit of a turning point for me. The protest was easily and enthusiastically squashed.
Is it going to have to come to this some day? As Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
It was what? Fifteen years ago or so when I met and spoke with you briefly in the clubhouse of the Bowen Island golf course. You were speaking to our civic group about your new book. You have revealed so much of the theft and malfeasance of our present “ruling class” and I thank you for that. I truly appreciate your depth of knowledge and your dogged dedication to exposing the crap we are wading through.
Merry Christmas Elizabeth and may your family gather so you may enjoy the reason we are all here on this earth.
My mind turns to the differences now in how and where food is produced. Also to the fact that, as you allude to in your story, they all new how to make things. In many casses they likely had direct access to raw materials with which to do so.
We've got some challenges ahead and possibly some steep learning curves.
This is the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and will shortly become Christmas Eve. I'm reminded of sitting in the nave in Westminster Abbey during an evening Mass celebrating the Translation of St Edward the Confessor, leaning on one of those enormous pillars and thinking "People like me have been doing this right here for over a thousand years" and my commitment to expressing my faith in the old Anglican way was profoundly deepened. Others of us will have a different background, of course, of which they can/should be equally proud and part of. Tonight we celebrate Our Creator entering into Time in a totally mysterious and wonderful way, a timeless way. For the past four weeks we've been preparing for His repeating the event in a Second Coming. Will it be soon? Is that what we're seeing all around us now? We know that no one knows. We can only live the time given us in a faithful, honourable and courageous way. May God bless us all! I'm off to Mass now. Bless you, Elizabeth!
I'm no theologian and mainly accept the Apostles' Creed and the word of the Gospels and Epistles and early Fathers on that, but from personal experience, having been saved by my baptism, I'm constantly forgetting that I'm a creature created by God, and I act on my own, often from one of the many forms of pride. That's why I say confession every day at Matins and Evensong, and every time I take the Mass. It seems that has something to do with why "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
The satanism in fairly blatant display, the celebration of demonic practices on the fringes, taking down certain statues & their replacement with statues of baal & the rest, the pedophilia (in Hollywood & political circles) - all of this shows the hard narcissistic core of evil in our time, slowly being normalized. So some sort Second Coming, literal or metaphoric, does seem to be needed. But I also should mention that nothing like this is happening here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I'm also shocked, heartened, at how normal & decent Russia & the RF now seem, it's restored national Christian ethos, its 1992 Constitution, its extensive electoral cycles to the Federation Duma & Federation Council, & those out in the scores of regions, all of it seems so 'normal' ... in contrast to what's happening across and in NATO states. Everything about our current world is truly surprising.
I'm glad to hear that Chiang Mai is peaceful - I was close to there in '73 and it was stressed then. And yes, it seems like there's a very good chance that Russia is on the right side of things these days. We pray and hold our breaths.
Ms Nickson I only became a member of Absurdistan this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed ever episode and have shared your wisdom with others. I love your often brilliant turns of phrase such as "Parasite leaders or government representatives". Our founding fathers and your ancestors lived in a wondrous time that makes our contemporary antics look tawdry and totally self interested. My ancestors came to this country to the Oglethorpe Colony as Scotch-Irish ne'er do wells (probably in chains) who definitely offended the 14th amendment by serving in the Confederacy. My family came to Texas before the glorious revolution of Texas Independence. I guess we have always been on the wrong foot of politics. In any case Merry Christmas and my wishes that you and your writing prosper as a patriotic symbol for all. Please come to Texas and lead the Texas Nationalist Movement.
Ronald l. Montgomery. Ahhh, Oglethorpe. He was the founder of Georgia. He wanted the colony populated with "the worthy poor" from Debtors Prisons in the UK. There is a statue of Oglethorpe on one of the town squares in Georgia.
Oglethorpe outlawed slavery and lawyers in his colony.
PS, I’ve tried and tried to contribute to your Substack, but every time my CU thinks it’s a scam and won’t put it through. Any ideas on how to navigate this?
This story of the founding of the United States is not exactly accurate in stating that the founders "were Christian and all equal under God." The founders were only tolerant of Christians but many of them viewed Christianity as a silly superstition. The philosophy of the founders was that of the Age of Enlightenment. They believed that science and reason were superior to religion. They rebelled against a Christian king who answered to a higher authority, God. The founders did not believe in a loving God, and so they used the term "Creator" instead of God. One of the "Intolerable Acts" listed in the Declaration of Independence is in the paragraph beginning with the words, "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government..." This was referring to King George establishing the Catholic Province of Quebec. The founders were fiercely anti-Catholic and opposed any influence of a Pope on their continent. In fact, the first place that the colonists attacked was the Catholic Province of Quebec. It is a popular myth that the United States is a Christian nation founded by Christians. Some were Christians but the founding documents are definitely not Christian. Men, and not God, are the supreme authority in the United States. The one thing that is lacking in the United States is truth, and truth comes from God. The nation was 'Absurdistan' from the beginning.
Yeah, I think you are reading the modernist re-interpretation. I have thousands of pages of primary research that reveals how deeply churched all were. Now I don’t know of the Tidewater crew, but my people, including Aaron Burr and Washington, were all raised Christian and their ideas permeated with that faith.
I agree, and the ENTIRE basis of our national belief that all of humanity is equal is from Christianity. Plain and simple. Buddhism accepted the caste system and counseled others how to live peacefully within it. Christ told us we are all equal under God.
Thank you. All the eastern faiths do that, and modernists who follow them detach from the world without trying to help, which is one of the reasons we are here noe. Entire generations of westerners were lost to Buddhism and its various sects.
Thank you for acknowledging this! The monastic life is fine for some, and I do believe the good work of constant intercessionary prayer can help the world through vibration change, but I completely agree. Too much "acceptance" without action. Good works matter.
Washington and Burr may have been raised in Christianity but neither of them signed the Declaration of Independence. Washington was a member of a Masonic lodge. In the 18th century men were often Protestant for political reasons but not Christians. Men like John Toland had spiritualized matter by making it God. God had been reduced to being only the creator. It may depend on what is meant by the term “Christianity.” For men of the Enlightenment science concluded that the universe did not need a God to govern it and they did not need a king. The Puritans viewed the English king as another version of the Catholic pope which they rejected. The god of the Protestant church was maintained as it was useful in keeping the peasants in line. Freemasonry played an important role in the American Revolution. Masonry was built on a universal morality that was suitable for every creed and by the late 18th century it had attracted many Jews who opposed Christianity. The grave markers of many of the founding fathers are Masonic obelisks, like the Washington Monument. We might ask how Christian is the United States when only small minority visit a church on Sunday?
Some of them could and did have private reservations about some aspects of Christianity but that doesn’t mean the entire worldview, the intellectual water they swam in, wasn’t thoroughly and inseparably Christian. The very concept of individual rights and dignity, and the institutional protection of the weak from the predations of the strong, begins and ends with Christianity. Read Dominion by Tom Holland.
Exactly, and that was true right up to the 70s, even if they were no longer church goers, their minds were cradled in the extraordinary values of Christianity. Every other faith creates an elite that eventually preys on everyone else. I am confining this to Protestantism.
Speaking of churches, I went to Midnight Mass at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria. Christmas Eve. I learned some things I did not know before. Jesus was born in occupied territories. Occupied by an invading Empire which forced the rightful inhabitants of the area out of Israel, through GAZA, into Egypt. I heard this from the Lady Priest who cut her hair exactly as lesbians do. (Not that there is anything wrong with that. I am tolerant of all hairstyles.) I also learned that the Anglican Church stands with all genders, and gender identities and expressions. It is good to go to Church every so often to keep up with how the eternal truths have been updated.
I also learned where there is wealth you will not find God. (Makes me feel a little bad). The church construction is amazing. I really should study how it is done. I doubt you could build that for $5,000 a square foot. And, the organ was spectacular. $3 million to build in 2003. Probably cost $10,000,000 today. I suppose they could have put in a $1500 organ with a half decent $5,000 sound system. But where is the Godliness in that?
To paraphrase Mr Jefferson, “ ... fight all forms of tyranny over the minds of man.” The founders recognized chains of servitude were all to often self imposed. It is time we recognized that as well.
I am very grateful to know you from your essays. Good stuff.
Ashli Babbit was shot. I think we are going to see more shooting before we win. And I believe God is with us.
The Declaration is my fav. I think there are a lot of problems with the constitution. Unlike the declaration and the articles of confederation, the constitution does not mention God. And as Lysander Spooner pointed out in 1874, the constitution has either authorised such a government as we have or has been powerless to prevent any of the things we are seeing.
God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas. Amen.
At this time of year my mother liked to remember the speech that George VI gave on Christmas Day 1939.
“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year-give me a light that I might tread safely into the unknown. And he replied- Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than another way. “
Agreed. Every day that I am standing means we live to fight on. Yes, there are 'hordes' of us, but at present, they will double and triple down on their evil.
The call to action is to never give in and never stand down. Find your people and rejoice. Learn a new skill. Find more people like Liz Reitzig that have the blessed attitude that nothing is beyond a mere challenge because we are clever!
It sounds contrite, but buy some seeds and plant a garden. Grow your own food and supplement what you don't grow with others skills. It will require a bit of effort, but the the joy of discovering new alliances will be your reward.
Plant your flag and move forward!
Thank you Elizabeth and Merry Christmas to all!
I so believe every word in your comment! For me, standing strong with God by my side will be my mantra. Every time these evil entities double down, I feel more conviction to stand strong and never give up or give in!
That is the key Rose! God is our armour and strength. Go boldly!
Faith is the excuse to abandon reason as you smite your presumed enemies. Pretty scary to people who prefer actual morality, which is attainable by reason.
That is kindof simplistic Jeremy, beneath the level of usual discussion here. Not understanding the complexity of faith is a very immature position. Are you a young progressive? In any case, I notice that you raise the question of indigenous. We have four tribes in our family, starting with Mohawk, marriages, children for generations. Most of the murderous behaviour began with the land rush created by post Civil War immigration. I have records. I bet you have propaganda and leftist crap history.
“We face a similar battle. Populists may not be being shot, but they are losing everything, as the J6 prisoners and hundreds of persecuted others, demonstrate. We stand within a massive majority, but we are facing the same evil that the American founders faced: people who want to force us into prison-cities as serfs, harvest our labor, eat our energy, and will do any foul thing they can, because if we win, they will be pursued to the gates of hell.
In the face of their evil, we must be sober-minded, methodical and implacable.
And take prisoners. Even if it takes fifty years to prosecute them all and flush out their crimes against us. Because this abomination, this Absurdistan, must never happen again.”
That’s what you said, ya vicious loony. Then (in wake of that bombastic discourse) you made the most pretentious comment I have ever heard on social media: “That is kindof simplistic Jeremy, beneath the level of usual discussion here.”
And what did I say to deserve that? Called you out to a T, you christofascist:
“Faith is the excuse to abandon reason as you smite your presumed enemies. Pretty scary to people who prefer actual morality, which is attainable by reason.”
I’ll stand by that until the atoms of my vessel join the heat death of the universe. You are scary and dangerous, clearly misguided: the sign on the box says UNITED states of America, not the fascist divisiveness that is the lifeblood of MAGA.
There is no morality without God
"There is no morality without God"
99.9999% of moral issues can be resolved simply by applying the principle of universality AKA consistency (as opposed to special privileges for an elite class).
Any moral rule is (by definition) a rule. A rule must apply to everyone (no exceptions) otherwise it is not a rule, which would make it moral hypocrisy.
The trick of all forms of tyranny (including statism) is to create a system of moral hypocrisy but convince the masses it is a set of 'moral rules'. Thus murder, rape, theft is immoral..... except when a special group of people in fancy costumes do it.
The majority of 'moral debates' can be resolved by not focusing so much on the morality per se, but on the issue of universality/ consistency. We just need to ask the question "can X be made into a universal rule or not?"
For example.... it CAN be moral for everyone to not murder, rape, steal etc..... whereas it CANNOT be moral for everyone to murder, rape and steal.
No moral rule can be formulated in favour of murder, rape or theft. This is because these acts are defined by the fact that they are VIOLATIONS of property or person - therefore they cannot be universalised as being 'justified' or 'preferable' behaviour without setting up a contradiction.
If an act of violence, sex or property acquisition is morally justified than BY DEFINITION it cannot be said to be an act of murder, rape or theft.
Given that murder/ assault, rape and theft cannot be universalised as virtuous behaviour (ie turned into a moral rule) we have already solved 99.99% of moral issues. Because almost all moral issues fall somewhere under the category or murder/ assault, rape or theft.
So Jeremy is correct. Morality is really no different to any other topic. It is simply a case of applying reason, common sense, logic and consistency. And perhaps most importantly of all, the correct use of language (no weasel words allowed!)
People only struggle with moral issues because they have been conditioned (by a bunch of moral hypocrites in costumes) to think that moral hypocrisy is the only way to enforce moral rules - which is obviously absurd and nonsensical.
The underlying cause of 99% of social justice in the world is having a group of people in costumes enforce (co called) 'moral rules' for the masses, while claiming exemption for themselves. This is not a moral system (as most people are trained to believe). It is a moral hypocrisy system. If anyone is exempt from the 'rules' then they were never rules to begin with.
You are mistaken. Morality is achievable by using the brain nature - god if you prefer - bestowed upon us.
Says it all~
Maybe by some it is. But reason isn’t available to everyone. The atheistic philosophies were more brutal than religious ones. Mao, Stalin, all the big lefties were brutal killers. Tens of millions of their own citizens too. You are an angry little guy. Your attack on the writer of ‘Absurdistan’ was completely unwarranted. Put 50 million angry ‘reason-heads’ into one region. Do you think your 50 million inner angers won’t spill out into war? Of you believe that you need to grow up a bit. Inner peace leads to outer peace. For many faith is a large part of this. Very few people throughout history came to true inner peace via reason. Shankara was one. But he was rare.
Sounds like you're bored~poor thing~anyway, I don't have to justify my faith in God, just as you don't have to justify your comment above. I don't agree with you but I respect you have the right to have that opinion. So, that being said, have a Happy New Year!
The difference being, all sorts of violence has been wrought by humans claiming god told them to or similar faith based insanity.
When people instead apply rigorous reason they don’t end up killing each other.
Here’s a major work that offers proof of this hypothesis, by one of the world’s leading contemporary philosophers:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/362515.Morals_By_Agreement?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_12
Yes - following false gods - say, Baal (ancient) or Climate Change (recent) - leads mankind to slavery and death. By contrast, the God of Jews and Christians has given Light to the world, greatly enabling our flourishing and lifting our souls to new heights.
And BTW... Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Amin, etc were not followers of God. But they applied their own "rigorous reason" to dominate their people as they destroyed millions of lives.
May God bless you and yours as we ALL pray for a truly Happy New Year!
And Muslims. Same god, but you left that branch out.
Here’s a fundamental expression of that Light you mention: do nothing to another you would not wish for yourself. Absent an iteration of golden rule, the god in question is false. And fwiw religion is basically a derivative function of geography. Take your pick, but the golden rule is the golden rule.
And you’ll be pleased to learn that the rational PROOF of the golden rule is to be found exactly where I pointed you: the most rigorous rational thought. I don’t mean the justificatory manifestos of dictators you reference. I’m talking about the leading edge of philosophy, which is profoundly more abstract.
You don’t need a god for the golden rule to work; yet in a world where we all follow that rule, it would be correct to say god is love.
KatWarrior: Great comment but at my age, I'm reduced to writing letters and being ornery. Hopefully I won't have to bite off someone's ear.
Everyone has an important role. It isn’t decided by you or me Timmy. Your thread in the tapestry is just as critical as all others!
Personally, I would love to see that ear biting act!! Hee, hee, ho, ho 😊
KatWarrior: Kind words. Thank you! The ear biting bit is from "The Big Lebowski" movie. John Goodman's character bites off the ear of a nihilist in a bowling alley parking lot in LA.
And you might like to do this?
Jeremy D: No. It's a joke just like in the movie. It is a take-off of Peter cutting off the centurion's ear in Gethsemane.
Ditto!
Meanwhile in Australia:
https://vicparkpetition.substack.com/p/where-is-the-australian-working-class
I just spent the last 30 min giving my daughter an oft-repeated history lesson on the founding of our country and the mindset of the people, our Founding Fathers, who fought so hard to make it possible. We are born with our freedoms, inalienable rights, I tell her. Endowed by our Creator - not by government. For what the government giveth it can taketh. I told her, as I tell all my children, that we must never forget our history, and we must never become complacent; We must always fight to protect our freedoms, even to our dying breath. I’m sure she thinks I’m a bit dramatic, but never in my 45 years have I believed this to be more true.
This article explains the nightmare We The People are facing better than any I have read.
I found an old series of Christmas Carols (on SoundCloud) recorded by King's College Choir in 1962. I swear I can 'feel' in these songs yes a religious reverence, but also a reverence for truth, for the past, for traditions, for Constitutions, for what it took to establish those. It pours out. So I've been listening to those 30 hymns daily for the past few weeks. I'll likely keep listening till February or so. This was real. Just as the history lesson you relate is. The truth is fortifying, inspiring, so worth the effort.
Sounds amazing. That is similar to the feeling I experience when I am in a MidWest state. We bought a travel trailer in 2016 and started making trips out of Oregon, where we lived for 40+ years: Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Washington, California. I think it was our second travel trailer when we first noticed that people outside the three West Coast states are different: more polite, more cheerful, more respectful, happier, etc. We sold the travel trailer in 2021 and bought a cabin on 20 acres in the Black Hills of South Dakota (30 miles south of Mr. Rushmore). WE vacation there 3-4 months each year. There is an air of freedom in Red States that is missing in Blue States. Americans have lost SO MUCH, in SO MANY WAYS, since the 1960s.
Yes, a sense of freedom is given by all the things that at first seem its contrary: responsibility, purpose, helping others, mentoring, traditions, history. I love Christmas b/c it has such layers of meaning. It's liberating feeling so enveloped in religious meaning. Your cabin in the Black Hills sounds idyllic.
Stephen: There are becoming fewer & fewer places in America where we can breathe free. Blue jurisdictions are becoming increasingly oppressive and, of course, so is the federal government. Diane
Jo HIghet: My ancestors didn't come from Ireland to the USA until the late 1800s. In three generations my family became successful in Minnesota and the Midwest. In Ireland it is total shite.
I'm fourth generation and I see the USA becoming the Ireland my ancestors fled.
Timothy, I am with you--7 of my 8 great grandparents came from Ireland in that same time. All became good and successful citizens with large, happy families. The last 20 years I see nothing but addiction and divorce due to the work of the cultural dementors and the slackening of faith. But I truly believe if we go back to God that
WE CAN REBUILD.
The Irish Wet Nurse: If your great grandparents were Irish citizens, I believe you qualify for an Irish passport. I know that my Dad could have applied for one. I tried but I'm one generation too far removed from the Old Sod.
Indigenous peoples of North America were horrendously abused in the name of your god. They are still waiting for their opportunity to share their wisdom and connection to the land, but we still aren’t listening. No doubt you’ll agree they did not experience Christ but rather were subjugated by christianists. Unfortunately, in North America these latter are the politically powerful and dangerous evangelicals. Currently that bunch support Israel for deeply antisemitic reasons, in hope that biblical prophecy will ultimately force Jews to convert or go to hell.
But do go on about the good, true version of the one true god lol.
Or, acknowledge faith readily becomes a trick to justify smiting the unfaithful while abandoning reason.
Correct reason otoh leads to moral outcomes.
Forgive me if you're off on the dates and actual history here, but no Irish Catholics coming to the USA in the late 19th c. colonized or conquered anyone. And how a political regime (IMHO many of the exact same bloodline members) chooses to do so in the name of a 2000 yo god is nothing I can change as voting is rigged. Finally, I actually live in the Finger Lakes region to upstate NY and the 8th great-grandparent was of Iroquois descent so while you may love your righteous preaching, take it up with the fake anglo-zionist Prots running our government, and not those of us who have persevered despite our oppression.
Jeremy Dangerhouse: Two words: "Oliver Cromwell."
And it's all intentional, was meticulously planned & executed. Yet it's all blowing up in their faces. But. They could still win. The hatred behind it is staggering. Hatred is a species of fear. They fear such self-made ordinary men & women of great achievement of the past. It reveals their own utter lack.
Good for you!!!
Outstanding piece - especially for its brevity. The message is clear and the majority of us are stronger than we even think. The Bolsheviks numbered, what, 14, 000 among millions and they managed to take over and murder millions. We cannot - and will not - let that happen here.
What an amazing legacy your families have, Elizabeth!!!!!
Tomorrow on Christmas Day, we shall cross the Delaware once again...
Merry Christmas to a bold, beautiful and brilliant writer. It’s beyond time to revel in our heritage and embrace our culture. My ancestor of prominence was TJ. 🎄✝️
There is nothing or no one that can rile me up for Freedom like a fresh dose of Elizabeth Nickson first thing in the morning. Spread this truth around, friends.
"we are facing the same evil that the American founders faced" So true. So true.
The glee with which Justin shut down the Truckers and went after them was a bit of a turning point for me. The protest was easily and enthusiastically squashed.
Is it going to have to come to this some day? As Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
Now,normal, sane, clean , good Americans will need to get comfortable with the idea of killing. Did I stutter?
It was what? Fifteen years ago or so when I met and spoke with you briefly in the clubhouse of the Bowen Island golf course. You were speaking to our civic group about your new book. You have revealed so much of the theft and malfeasance of our present “ruling class” and I thank you for that. I truly appreciate your depth of knowledge and your dogged dedication to exposing the crap we are wading through.
Merry Christmas Elizabeth and may your family gather so you may enjoy the reason we are all here on this earth.
Thank you!
This is wonderful.
My mind turns to the differences now in how and where food is produced. Also to the fact that, as you allude to in your story, they all new how to make things. In many casses they likely had direct access to raw materials with which to do so.
We've got some challenges ahead and possibly some steep learning curves.
But, we are also delightfully clever. 😊
Thank you for this wonderful newsletter!
Liz Reitzig: Aye. We are delightfully clever. That's why the Irish are still here.
Indeed!
This is the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and will shortly become Christmas Eve. I'm reminded of sitting in the nave in Westminster Abbey during an evening Mass celebrating the Translation of St Edward the Confessor, leaning on one of those enormous pillars and thinking "People like me have been doing this right here for over a thousand years" and my commitment to expressing my faith in the old Anglican way was profoundly deepened. Others of us will have a different background, of course, of which they can/should be equally proud and part of. Tonight we celebrate Our Creator entering into Time in a totally mysterious and wonderful way, a timeless way. For the past four weeks we've been preparing for His repeating the event in a Second Coming. Will it be soon? Is that what we're seeing all around us now? We know that no one knows. We can only live the time given us in a faithful, honourable and courageous way. May God bless us all! I'm off to Mass now. Bless you, Elizabeth!
David Smith: Why does Jesus Christ have to come again? Wasn't being saved once enough?
I'm no theologian and mainly accept the Apostles' Creed and the word of the Gospels and Epistles and early Fathers on that, but from personal experience, having been saved by my baptism, I'm constantly forgetting that I'm a creature created by God, and I act on my own, often from one of the many forms of pride. That's why I say confession every day at Matins and Evensong, and every time I take the Mass. It seems that has something to do with why "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
The satanism in fairly blatant display, the celebration of demonic practices on the fringes, taking down certain statues & their replacement with statues of baal & the rest, the pedophilia (in Hollywood & political circles) - all of this shows the hard narcissistic core of evil in our time, slowly being normalized. So some sort Second Coming, literal or metaphoric, does seem to be needed. But I also should mention that nothing like this is happening here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I'm also shocked, heartened, at how normal & decent Russia & the RF now seem, it's restored national Christian ethos, its 1992 Constitution, its extensive electoral cycles to the Federation Duma & Federation Council, & those out in the scores of regions, all of it seems so 'normal' ... in contrast to what's happening across and in NATO states. Everything about our current world is truly surprising.
I'm glad to hear that Chiang Mai is peaceful - I was close to there in '73 and it was stressed then. And yes, it seems like there's a very good chance that Russia is on the right side of things these days. We pray and hold our breaths.
Ms Nickson I only became a member of Absurdistan this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed ever episode and have shared your wisdom with others. I love your often brilliant turns of phrase such as "Parasite leaders or government representatives". Our founding fathers and your ancestors lived in a wondrous time that makes our contemporary antics look tawdry and totally self interested. My ancestors came to this country to the Oglethorpe Colony as Scotch-Irish ne'er do wells (probably in chains) who definitely offended the 14th amendment by serving in the Confederacy. My family came to Texas before the glorious revolution of Texas Independence. I guess we have always been on the wrong foot of politics. In any case Merry Christmas and my wishes that you and your writing prosper as a patriotic symbol for all. Please come to Texas and lead the Texas Nationalist Movement.
Ronald l. Montgomery. Ahhh, Oglethorpe. He was the founder of Georgia. He wanted the colony populated with "the worthy poor" from Debtors Prisons in the UK. There is a statue of Oglethorpe on one of the town squares in Georgia.
Oglethorpe outlawed slavery and lawyers in his colony.
I like his name, too.
Amen, cousin! (Because aren’t we all cousins in this battle?) May God bless us and give us the strength to continue on. Merry Christmas! 🎄
PS, I’ve tried and tried to contribute to your Substack, but every time my CU thinks it’s a scam and won’t put it through. Any ideas on how to navigate this?
I think if you go theough the website now the app, it works. If not let me know. You can also paypal me ejnickson@gmail.com!
I’ll try again tomorrow through Substack. I don’t have PayPal any longer, sorry. Merry Christmas to you! 🎄
This story of the founding of the United States is not exactly accurate in stating that the founders "were Christian and all equal under God." The founders were only tolerant of Christians but many of them viewed Christianity as a silly superstition. The philosophy of the founders was that of the Age of Enlightenment. They believed that science and reason were superior to religion. They rebelled against a Christian king who answered to a higher authority, God. The founders did not believe in a loving God, and so they used the term "Creator" instead of God. One of the "Intolerable Acts" listed in the Declaration of Independence is in the paragraph beginning with the words, "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government..." This was referring to King George establishing the Catholic Province of Quebec. The founders were fiercely anti-Catholic and opposed any influence of a Pope on their continent. In fact, the first place that the colonists attacked was the Catholic Province of Quebec. It is a popular myth that the United States is a Christian nation founded by Christians. Some were Christians but the founding documents are definitely not Christian. Men, and not God, are the supreme authority in the United States. The one thing that is lacking in the United States is truth, and truth comes from God. The nation was 'Absurdistan' from the beginning.
Yeah, I think you are reading the modernist re-interpretation. I have thousands of pages of primary research that reveals how deeply churched all were. Now I don’t know of the Tidewater crew, but my people, including Aaron Burr and Washington, were all raised Christian and their ideas permeated with that faith.
I agree, and the ENTIRE basis of our national belief that all of humanity is equal is from Christianity. Plain and simple. Buddhism accepted the caste system and counseled others how to live peacefully within it. Christ told us we are all equal under God.
Thank you. All the eastern faiths do that, and modernists who follow them detach from the world without trying to help, which is one of the reasons we are here noe. Entire generations of westerners were lost to Buddhism and its various sects.
Thank you for acknowledging this! The monastic life is fine for some, and I do believe the good work of constant intercessionary prayer can help the world through vibration change, but I completely agree. Too much "acceptance" without action. Good works matter.
Is the belief that all humanity is equal from Christianity or from Freemasonry?
Washington and Burr may have been raised in Christianity but neither of them signed the Declaration of Independence. Washington was a member of a Masonic lodge. In the 18th century men were often Protestant for political reasons but not Christians. Men like John Toland had spiritualized matter by making it God. God had been reduced to being only the creator. It may depend on what is meant by the term “Christianity.” For men of the Enlightenment science concluded that the universe did not need a God to govern it and they did not need a king. The Puritans viewed the English king as another version of the Catholic pope which they rejected. The god of the Protestant church was maintained as it was useful in keeping the peasants in line. Freemasonry played an important role in the American Revolution. Masonry was built on a universal morality that was suitable for every creed and by the late 18th century it had attracted many Jews who opposed Christianity. The grave markers of many of the founding fathers are Masonic obelisks, like the Washington Monument. We might ask how Christian is the United States when only small minority visit a church on Sunday?
Some of them could and did have private reservations about some aspects of Christianity but that doesn’t mean the entire worldview, the intellectual water they swam in, wasn’t thoroughly and inseparably Christian. The very concept of individual rights and dignity, and the institutional protection of the weak from the predations of the strong, begins and ends with Christianity. Read Dominion by Tom Holland.
Exactly, and that was true right up to the 70s, even if they were no longer church goers, their minds were cradled in the extraordinary values of Christianity. Every other faith creates an elite that eventually preys on everyone else. I am confining this to Protestantism.
And the Pope/Vatican city/state is also still involved
Am not a fan of the Catholic Church. They were all, ALL, Protestant.
Speaking of churches, I went to Midnight Mass at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria. Christmas Eve. I learned some things I did not know before. Jesus was born in occupied territories. Occupied by an invading Empire which forced the rightful inhabitants of the area out of Israel, through GAZA, into Egypt. I heard this from the Lady Priest who cut her hair exactly as lesbians do. (Not that there is anything wrong with that. I am tolerant of all hairstyles.) I also learned that the Anglican Church stands with all genders, and gender identities and expressions. It is good to go to Church every so often to keep up with how the eternal truths have been updated.
I also learned where there is wealth you will not find God. (Makes me feel a little bad). The church construction is amazing. I really should study how it is done. I doubt you could build that for $5,000 a square foot. And, the organ was spectacular. $3 million to build in 2003. Probably cost $10,000,000 today. I suppose they could have put in a $1500 organ with a half decent $5,000 sound system. But where is the Godliness in that?
Lolol
Me neither. The Jesuits are some real pieces of work!
To paraphrase Mr Jefferson, “ ... fight all forms of tyranny over the minds of man.” The founders recognized chains of servitude were all to often self imposed. It is time we recognized that as well.
Merry Christmas, Elizabeth, and write on!!
I am very grateful to know you from your essays. Good stuff.
Ashli Babbit was shot. I think we are going to see more shooting before we win. And I believe God is with us.
The Declaration is my fav. I think there are a lot of problems with the constitution. Unlike the declaration and the articles of confederation, the constitution does not mention God. And as Lysander Spooner pointed out in 1874, the constitution has either authorised such a government as we have or has been powerless to prevent any of the things we are seeing.
God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas. Amen.
Thank you Elizabeth.
At this time of year my mother liked to remember the speech that George VI gave on Christmas Day 1939.
“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year-give me a light that I might tread safely into the unknown. And he replied- Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than another way. “
Merry Christmas to All Freedom Friends......from Northern Ontario.
Friends
The journey began so long ago.
Senses tell us it’s seemingly so.
Wherever one is, in the midst of crowds
It’s You, one looks for, in the gaze of an eye
Of friends that appear with a smile and a nod
“The signposts say clear, this is the way,
a hand I can lend, some words I can say
Let’s press on together, day by day”.
Friends in a crowd.
Where hurrying, scurrying , milling about
In a seemingly randomly, blindingly way
Seems to be the disorder of the day.
True friends make it clear
That the light of their love,
In origin above
Will dispel any fright
Make right, any might
And let’s pray, end this night.
In that glorious sun rise
All Friends will Be
In the Light
Of the Love
That is Thee.
Francesco (1986)