Summary: So far as I can tell from reading the media, the mood of America – both Left and right – is depressed. The situation looks bleak, so it’s time to consult the pros for advice. (This is an update of a post from 2012.)
It’s an article of faith on the FM website that only cold analysis can provide the basis for accurate diagnosis and treatment of the Republic. That is the best bet to restore our lost liberties and return us to the path of wisdom and prosperity. With 4,500 posts and 55 thousand comments since 2007, its authors, guest authors, and commenters have provided analysis totaling tens of millions of words. Combined with the work of greater writers elsewhere, also working for the reform of America, the Republic would be saved by now – if words alone sufficed.
But as Spock reminds us in Star Trek IV, “logic is only the beginning of wisdom”. Logic gives us no motivation, no energy, no drive. But worse, if relied upon alone it can lead to despair. Fortunately, we can turn to the sages for the solace and inspiration that reason cannot provide. First, let us consider the wisdom of despair. And then the see the necessity of hope, which is our greatest resource.
For Roman Catholics, despair is a sin against the First Commandment. Rightly so.
“By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice – for the Lord is faithful to his promises – and to his mercy.”
— Article 2091 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Doctors of the Roman Catholic Church, asks “Is Despair the Greatest of Sins?” His answer can help us all.
“If, however, despair be compared to the other two sins {disbelief or hatred of God – or, in this context, Liberty} from our point of view, then despair is more dangerous, since hope withdraws us from evils and induces us to seek for good things, so that when hope is given up, men rush headlong into sin, and are drawn away from good works.
“Wherefore a gloss on Proverbs 24:10, “If thou lose hope being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished,” says: “Nothing is more hateful than despair, for the man that has it loses his constancy both in the every day toils of this life, and, what is worse, in the battle of faith.”
“And Isidore says (Sententiarum seu De summo bono, ii, 14): “To commit a crime is to kill the soul, but to despair is to fall into hell.”
Even popular fiction sometimes has wisdom. There is much of it in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
“Despair or Folly? It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.”
— Gandalf at The Council of Elrond, in Fellowship of the Ring.
“Do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unknown. Rede {council} oft is found at the rising of the Sun.”
— Legolas, in The Two Towers.
“The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or for others. There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.”
— Aragorn, in The Two Towers.
“For thus it is spoken: ‘Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.'”
— Legolas in The Return of the King.
A darker perspective about despair and hope
While that good news is inspiring, much of the time these demotivational posters better express my mood. Which is why we need faith to keep us moving even when despair has driven away hope.
For More Information
Ideas! For shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
f you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more information see some of my posts about good news for America and the world, and especially these …
- Some good news (one of the more important posts on this blog) – We need not fear the future. This remains a great nation, not because of our past but because of us and our polity. We differ from almost every other nation because of our commitment to our political order, of which our Constitution is the foundation.
- An important thing to remember as we start a New Year — As we start a New Year I find it useful to review my core beliefs. It is easy to lose sight of those amidst the clatter of daily events. Here is my list.
- Is America’s decline inevitable? No. – Why be an American if one has no faith in the American people? How can you believe in democracy without such faith?
- Let us light a candle while we walk, lest we fear what lies ahead — Many people look to the future with fear. We see this fear throughout the web. Right-wing sites describe the imminent end of America: overrun by foreigners, victim of cultural and financial collapse. Left-wing sites describe “die-off” scenarios due to climate change and ecological collapse accompanied by takeovers of theocrats and fascists. Most of this is nonsense, but not the prospect of massive changes in our world.
- Good news about the 21st century, a counterbalance to the doomsters.
- Some thoughts about the economy of mid-21st century America — Optimistic words from the greatest economist of the 20th century.
Not bad but it needs a few more. Jeremiah in Chapter 10 verse 2 writes:
And no Eastern Orthodox, especially despair and amartia, missing the mark?
DerMaiden,
“And no Eastern Orthodox, especially despair and amartia, missing the mark?”
Are you asking why no Eastern Orthodox quotes? I cite from what I have in my tiny box of knowledge.
As a Christian, I always favor hope over despairs, because it is in the nature of Christianity to have faith, to pray, and always hope.
But since 2016, probably one of the best political years since 1980 (when I was yet to be born), the hopes of many Conservatives/Traditionalist Christians (Biblical, patriarchal kind) has soured. It is hard not to.
When Trump was elected, the fact that an unabashed patriotic Alpha male could defeat a radical globalist FemiNazi in a national election was unthinkable to most around the world. That is why the left and all the media was in shock. I will never forget Megan Kelly’s despondent face on election night as Trump is projected the winner and as the Fox team pans their broadcast top the Hillary “victory party”.
We won a slight majority in the Senate, many governorships, and a huge majority in the House. Trump was going to work it out with beta cuck Pail Ryan and the permanent DC figure of Mitch McConnell. But then trouble began when the Globalist Progressive “Republicans” managed to worm their way into the Administration. They sought “conciliation” with Paul Ryan, a huge mistake.
The two critical components of MAGA, The Wall and immigration enforcement via deportations, was completely shut down to this very day, as we approach the lame-duck Congress budget fight of Dec 2018. Now we have 4 massive caravans of Central Americans trying to storm into the country and show the world that anyone can “come to America, storm the gates, and sign up for welfare the next day”, with a political party (the Democrats) fully funding and abetting the invasion. We could be flooded with tens of millions of illegal aliens in months, not years.
Anyone who understands the US Immigration laws and the impacts of mass immigration has had in the American economy, society, and elections since 1965, knows that we are one amnesty away from a permanent Democrat Super Majority, of a radical type that will make Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez seem like reasonable moderates. :-o
Anyone who tells you the illegal aliens from 3rd world hellhole countries are “natural Conservatives” because they SOMETIMES oppose abortion are insane or completely misinformed. Looking at almost every poll on the matter will tell you over 85% of illegals in America today want all guns banned, want higher taxes on the middle class to fund welfare for them, think the government “should do more, not less”, and want the UN under control of “global bodies” (like the UN).
The reason the illegal immigrants’ home countries are raging shitholes, to quote The Don, is because these people continually vote in Socialist governments over and over again and demand massive welfare benefits that these countries cannot afford (and neither can the USA with $21 Trillion in debt growing at ~$11 Billion a day). Don’t believe the polls on illegal’s voting trends? Then look at Brazil electing Socialist Lula for 8 years and then the Communist Presidenta Dilma was elected for 4 years and re-elected, after destroying the economy completely in Brazil. Look at Hugo Chavez and his successor, Maduro, who before becoming dictators were elected and re-elected so many times they became dictators. How about Mexico with Obrador, a Marxist or Argentina and Chile with their Presidentas who ruined formerly prosperous countries with their feminist-socialist gov’ts?
These illegals in America today are natural Socialists, they are almost all on welafre. to Think the Republicans can “out-welfare” the Dems is folly. They will never beat the Left on welfare, gun confiscations, and high taxes. The only solution is to deport and enforce laws to reduce illegal population from the current 22-30 million illegals to a number that could be managed electorally.
Simply put, thanks to Congressional inaction the GOP lost the House and many governorships because so many voters are dispirited and angry that Trump was outmaneuver by the stealth RINOs that wormed their way into his cabinet and talked him out of confronting losers like Paul Ryan. They did not come out to vote, and the Senate was saved by Trump really rallying up the base and dragging these Senators over the finish line. New leadership and pushing hard for reforms in immigration, including the Wall and attrition enforcement that causes illegal aliens to leave (like happened in 2001 after 9/11, I personally saw the impact of enforcement and aliens just packing up and leaving), would have started to turn the tide and allow the American electorate to remain more Conservative.
As it stands now, we are literally one amnesty away from making Texas, Utah, and Arizona into bitter battleground States. Florida becomes deep blue, making it mathematically impossible for anyone to the right of Karl Marx from being elected President and shifting the House and Senate into Sanders territory forever.
That is why people are dispirited and some have begun to despair. I personally have decided not to even have kids, since I am widower after being married 12 years (no kids), because I understand the costs and legal dangers of having a child today and do not see the point given out current situation in The West today. I travel a lot, have girlfriends on the side, and have an awesome time in Vegas 3-4 times a year and spend my free time mentoring young men to give them a slightly better chance at life in the future. But as of right now, marriage is akin to financial suicide and guaranteed slavery and jail and having a child is financial servitude for 18 to 26 years, depending on the State.
Who is ready to take my place and sign up for that??! :roll:
Alright, I’ll give a few here
DerMaiden,
Those are great! Thanks for posting them.
I’m reminded of a song by 801 from their ‘Listen Now!’ album:
Is it any wonder you’ve got no power
When you pay a thief to keep it for you?
Is it a surprise that your wine is sour
When you let a liar choose the brew he pours you?
Talk on the wire about force and choice
It’s uncomfortable to raise your voice
Everybody whispering behind their hand
Selling their despair to any stronger man
Don’t have to listen now
Steve,
That’s great! Thanks for posting it.
For what its worth, I’m far less despairing than I was in 2012. I stopped embracing the standard message from the major political parties that they were the only game in town and found a vastly better range of possibilities beyond black and blacker. Now the only questions are which best and how best to achieve it.
Sadly, I believe we need to destroy both political parties (a process well under way) and perhaps the national government (also a process well under way) to get to a better place.
Pluto,
“I believe we need to destroy both political parties (a process well under way) and perhaps the national government (also a process well under way) to get to a better place.”
Wow. That’s a pretty terrifying prospect, imo. History shows that such processes almost always have ugly outcomes. Britain and the US have done so well because we have usually managed evolutionary reforms.
Whenever I hear people discuss such things with joyful attitude, I remember the enthusiasm with which people in the early 20th century looked forward to the coming big european war. It will invigorate and re-energize society!
The saying in the Middle East is wiser: better a century of tyranny than a day of chaos.
Agreed on all counts, FM, but the prospects offered by continuing with the current 2-party oligarchic lock on national power are even grimmer. As you’ve pointed out in previous posts, the governmental system that was very well designed for a 3rd world agricultural power in the 18th century does not serve the US very well in the 21st century. The wondrous joy is that we managed to get so far with it before the political and monetary elite managed to permanently hijack it.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for revolution, just letting the current self-destruction continue unabated until the national government has weakened itself to the point where it can hear the rest of the world again. In the meantime, the state and regional governments must pick up the slack find ways to keep the economy moving in the right direction. Since “the right direction” is subject to interpretation, the state and regional governments will essentially serve as petri dishes.
Some will succeed and the national government can build off their successes and some will fail (I’m look at the deep South here) and need to be rescued from their folly by a re-energized national government.
I fully recognize that this is a gamble that doesn’t have a high percentage chance of success but we’re rolling 50+ dice and we only need a few winners.
All good for the Roman Catholic Saints. Self pity seems to lead to despair and depression.
Latter Day Saints consider Faith, Hope and Charity the fundamentals of a good meaningful life.
Love your Creator. Fear not. Those guide me as well as the aforementioned wisdom.
The scene looks bleak when the media only reports the ugly. If it bleeds, it leads! I go out in the real world and see vastly more good than bad. So many people are doing good everywhere it overwhelms the bad.
If only more did. Maybe more will. Maybe not enough are reading fabiusmaximus.com.
Longtail:
Read my reply on this topic. This is not “if it bleeds, it leads” news. This is about electoral math. Once the Left has total control of the national gov’t (after any amnesty is passed in America and the new permanent Leftist electorate is in place), the left will re-write the laws and pack the judiciary with activist judges nationally.
Any rights you have under the US Constitution will be re-interpreted by Ruth Bader Ginsburg judges and will vanish from existence. Legal Precedent comes from English Common Law, and leftist judges know this and that is how they “create new laws”. Leftist judges will find new rights, such as abortion and gay marriage, as we have seen and impose them in the country, and will do away with rights, such as free speech and gun rights under mysterious activist views of the Constitution.
Even if you try a “Benedict Option” lifestyle, you will not escape the claws of the Left. These people are totalitarians and they will clamp down using police force on individuals.
http://c2.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/uploaded/Dreher600x600.jpg
Intolerance will not be tolerated. Or as one of Hillary’s heroes, one of the “early 20th Century progressives” she identifies with has said best:
https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-ideas-are-more-powerful-than-guns-we-would-not-let-our-enemies-have-guns-why-should-joseph-stalin-28-6-0670.jpg
The Left will clamp down HARD on any thought, speech, or dissent. #MeToo and the other public hysterias today are simple “warm ups” for what the left has in mind for Americans, especially Christian ones.
Bottom line: being a sunshine optimist does not erase the reality we are facing in the future and we are one amnesty away from that reality. Prepare, because trouble is coming.
My thanks to Steve Crook. I shall hunt down that group and that song. Good music, like gold, is where you find it, I’m not finding it on the radio much, so there’s YouTube and the suggestions of others.
My only thought is that things look pretty bad, but they looked positively dire in the depths of the Depression, and they didn’t look exactly spiffy the day before Washington marched what was left of the army to Trenton. One thing that stays with me is an essay by Douglas Southall Freeman called Leadership In The Enforced Defensive. It was in book called Douglas Southall Freeman On Leadership, which was a series of lectures he gave at the Army War College back in the 50s. The Korean War was still going on. Freeman advised the Army officers he spoke to to never believe in a chosen people, but not to doubt that the right would prevail. His advice to the officers he spoke to was “Be right in your life, work always to make our country right, and then take no counsel of your fears”. (Old Jack’s dictum is good advice for these times.)
Incidentally, Freeman is not an easy writer to get to know, since most of his works are these huge multivolume things, with the result that he gets a bad rap because I don’t think half the people who comment on his work have ever read it.
When I was a young lawyer in the 1970s, I commented to one of the partners how bleak the country’s prospects appeared (and they did). Mr. Martin, who enjoyed homespun wisdom, said “Well John, lots of people worry whether the Russians are going to drop a bomb on us. My view is this — If they’re right then we’ll all be dead and it won’t matter; if they’re wrong, some other guy, who pays no attention to such things, will have run ahead and made a great success in life and the guy who spends all his time worried about the future will find something new to worry about.”
HOW PRIVATE PROPERTY WAS POLITICALLY MARGINALIZED
Here’s a puzzle: how did the populist party of Abraham Lincoln end up being elitist and capitalist, while the elitist party of Jefferson Davis come around to populism and socialism? That’s a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is a way of raising the question as to why neither party today appears to care one bit whether ordinary people can own capital as well as labor and lead productive lives instead of being dependent on a private sector ownership élite or a bureaucratic State élite. . . .
https://just3rdway.blogspot.com/2018/06/why-not-ownership.html
Please review the website “www.cesj.org” for an approach to the current situation.
Rudolf,
The Republican party was never populist. Lincoln was one of the top corporate attorneys in Illinois. It’s strong capitalist backing powered the Republican’s meteoric ascent.
I don’t know how the current polarization happened. From what little I know, it was in two stages. First, the Dem’s moved to the Left to gain strength during the Great Depression. FDR’s platform in 1931 was in many ways more conservative than Hoover’s. He condemned Hoover’s fiscal deficits.
The second move came as the two parties polarized on race when LBJ signed the great Civil Rights bills in 1964.
Spock’s quote was to Valeris in Star Trek VI.
And yes, we should abandon hope.
— SL
Scarlet,
The future will be made by those that don’t abandon hope. It is a form of Darwinian selection, where those that despair don’t deserve to shape our world. And won’t. That’s a good thing.
‘The future will be made by those that don’t abandon hope. It is a form of Darwinian selection, where those that despair don’t deserve to shape our world. And won’t. That’s a good thing.’
No species has the ability to prevent its own destruction indefinitely. If you’re arguing otherwise, then you’re deliberately assigning to humanity a supernatural destiny that is entirely incompatible with your constant appeal to logic and facts. If you place that faith above facts, bene, but please own it.
Scarlet,
Yes, everything dies eventually. Even the universe. Giving that as a reason for inaction as an individual, nation, or species, is sophomoric. It is merely another demonstration of my point.
“No species has the ability to prevent its own destruction indefinitely.”
What evidence do you have that human species destruction is likely in the time frame relevant to this conversation?
John,
It is a classic argument of the young after their first exposure to knowledge.
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