morality – The Burning Platform

The Metaphysics Underlying The Sunset of the West

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

-Proverbs 16:25

The heart is deceitful above all things…

-Jeremiah 17:9

When small men cast big shadows, it means the sun is setting.

– Lin Yutang, Chinese philosopher

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Upon the recommendation of a blog commenter, I recently read “The Crisis of Modernity” by Italian professor and philosopher, Augusto Del Noce (1910 – 1989). The book was published in 2014 and is a brilliant compilation of twentieth-century essays and speeches by Del Noce. His philosophical insights are profound and his conclusions and societal predictions, especially regarding Scientism and the Technocracy, are eerily similar to those of English author and theologian C.S. Lewis – see my previous posts entitled “The Abolition of Man Amid the Consequences of Reality”, and “Gnostic Parasitism in the Post-Modern Simulacrum”, and “A Postmortem on Postmodernism”.

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The Pragmatic Musings of an American Nobody Trying Not to be Evil

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor…

– Ezekiel 28: 15-17

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation. I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

– Revelation 3:14-17

It’s been said the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist. And, subsequently, perhaps the next greatest deception ever perpetrated on earth occurred when Fractional Reserve Banking was invented to create money out of nothing. Bubbles are created from thin air; as are the dreams of those who measure wealth by the fading fumes of fiat currency.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said: “The facts of life are conservative.” By definition, “facts” are real. Therefore, Thatcher’s quote could also be translated as: The realities of life are conservative.

Typically, conservatives do, in fact, try to live according to values and principles that have sustained people through the centuries: by telling the truth, acting honestly, producing more than they spend, saving for a “rainy day”, living on a budget, and fairly giving back to their communities by paying taxes and practicing charity.

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Five Insights Gleaned From The Movie “Unplanned”

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

Over the weekend, I was where I needed to pass some time and thought an early afternoon matinee would do the trick. Although I was not overly enthused to see any of the films currently showing, I chose to see “Unplanned“. Mainly because the title seemed apropos just then and the movie’s starting time fit my schedule. Moreover, it looked to be a political film about the controversial subject of abortion and was, in fact, based on a true story.

The tale told of the life and times of Abby Johnson, a headstrong young lady from Texas who became one of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic directors in the United States. She resigned in 2009 after seeing a fetus at 13 weeks gestation recoil in pain during an ultrasound-guided vacuum aspiration abortion.

The film portrayed the abortion industry, as exactly that, an industry whereby Planned Parenthood profited most from procedures terminating pregnancies; even to the point of demanding quotas from its clinics. Furthermore, distinct and contrasting parallels were drawn between those who believed they were advocating on behalf of women’s rights with those who believed life began at conception.

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When Running From the Devil You Better Be Faster than Hell

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

– Benjamin Franklin

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

– John Adams

I’m of the opinion that many today are throwing the “baby out with the bathwater” when they claim the conservative versus liberal (right vs. left) construct is phony, or bogus.

Conservatives have lost political ground because they have accepted the moral premises of the Political Left. However, liberals use deception to hide their real motives while, simultaneously, blackmailing conservatives by means of conservative values.

How typical was the mainstream media’s “poor immigrant children” narrative that played the emotional heartstrings of dummies everywhere, like violins.

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NO WAY OUT

I know there are many people out there who don’t watch the daily drivel emanating from their 72 inch HD boob tubes. I don’t blame them. Most of the shows on TV are dumbed down to the level of their audience of government educated zombies. The facebooking, twittering, texting, instagraming generation is too shallow, too self-consumed, and too intellectually lazy to connect the dots, understand symbolism or learn moral lessons from well written thought-provoking TV shows. But there have been a few exceptions over the last few years. Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and Walking Dead are intelligent, brilliantly scripted, morally ambiguous, psychologically stimulating TV shows challenging your understanding of how the world really works.

The Walking Dead is much more than a gory, mindless, teenage zombie flick. Personally, I find myself interpreting the imagery, metaphorical storylines, and morality lessons of Walking Dead within the larger context of cultural, political, and social decay rapidly consuming our society today. I don’t pretend to know the thought process or intent of the writers, but I see plot parallels symbolizing current day issues plaguing our empire of debt. Their mid-season opener was one of the most intense shocking episodes of the entire series. It was titled No Way Out, as the main characters appeared to be trapped in a no win situation with long odds and little hope of surviving.

From my vantage point I see four explicit types of characters inhabiting the world of the Walking Dead. There are the infected mindless zombies roaming the countryside in search of flesh to consume. They are oblivious to the world around them, unable to think, feel, or act human. They can be distracted and led in different directions by loud noises or other diversions. Then there are the still human zombies inhabiting the walled city of Alexandria who are sentient, thinking, frightened men and women, not prepared to face the harsh reality of an unfair brutal world and the consequences of not fighting the forces of evil. They cower behind their walls and hope for the best.

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CORRUPTION

Guest Post by James the Wanderer

In 1981 I was a fresh young fellow, just out of college, and needed a job. I joined the Port Arthur Research Laboratories of Texaco Inc. in Port Arthur, TX, which was the most lucrative offer I had gotten out of college. It was one of a couple of offers I had received at the time; another was a company that made fibers for carpets and other things, Millikan. There was something of a stigma on them at the time, for periodically the owner would fire an entire corps of engineers if something went wrong, and was known for it; other companies would eagerly hire the fallen, since it was known that Millikan did this, despite having only hired the best he could find. But I was not interested in this, so I went for stability, which was TXC (their stock exchange symbol back then, hereafter a handy shortcut for the name); they were known for their veteran employees, and rarely fired anyone except for theft, incompetence or similar good reasons. I was neither a thief nor incompetent, so I took their offer.

Here I must apologize; despite the passage of over a quarter-century, I have not been able to establish that ALL the people I worked with are dead, retired or otherwise employed. And TXC had people of honor, character and discipline, which I have come to value wherever I find them; so EVERY name here is a pseudonym, to protect those who might still be serving in some capacity for their successor company, which turned out to be mainly Chevron, or somewhere else. I have no interest in gossip, nor maligning by association those who honorably do their jobs in this world. The worst perpetrators in these stories are dead, so it serves no purpose to name them either.

This article is to demonstrate by example the challenge of working honorably for an organization that is corrupt at the top. And how, despite the existence of honorable men and women (such as those who worked for TXC all over the world), a corrupt organization is doomed eventually.
I didn’t work at PARL for long; about eighteen months. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers were restless; there was strike fever in the air at the oil refinery next door, but the Research lab staff didn’t think there would be one; after all, they had “gone out” a few years earlier, and several members of the union had lost cars, boats, even homes when they had insufficient funds coming in to keep up their payments; they were too hurt from the last time to go out again so soon, so if there was a strike it would be short, a kind of face-saving gesture.

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Whatever Became Of Morality?

Paul Craig Roberts
June 5, 2014

What are we to make of this? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/index.html

Two 12 year-old white American girls who look perfectly normal stabbed their 12-year old friend 19 times in a murder attempt. By murdering their friend the girls hoped to win the acceptance of a totally fictitious cartoon character on a website.

Does this mean that not only has the enculturation process in the US deleted morality but also that American kids can no longer tell the difference between fiction and reality?

On several occasions I have written that Americans live in The Matrix, just as in the movie, only there is no “The One” to release them. Has the electronic existence in which children are raised destroyed their humanity?

I would bet that crimes that result from life in virtual reality will be used by governments to shut down free expression on the Internet. The Internet is the last medium in which criticism of the US government can be made. As criticism is a constraint on unaccountable power of government, expect the Internet to become a member of the Ministry of Propaganda, just like the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, etc.

The 12-year old girls’ attempt to murder their friend does offer insight into why the American population, including the “christian” churches, has been mute for the entirety of the 21st century while the US government and its military have murdered, maimed, and displaced millions of people
in 7 countries that have been destroyed in whole or part, entirely on the basis of Washington’s lies. There is scant sign of any American remorse over these extraordinary crimes against humanity.

We see no sign of any moral conscience in Congress’ curtailments of the social safety net or in the constant stream of lies that intend to lead to more wars for the sake of the military/security complex’s profits and the neoconservatives’ agenda of US supremacy, which risks nuclear war and the extinction of life on earth.

I don’t think we can dismiss the 12-year old girls’ murder plot as just another aberration the way “law and order” conservatives do every time the police employ violence against the innocent citizens who pay the salaries of the goon thug police who body slam infirm 92-year olds, shoot down usually innocent “suspects,” kill the family pets, and throw grenades into the cribs of sleeping babies.

It is a mystery how the US masquerades as “a light unto the world,” when morality is totally dead in Amerika.

Can morality be resurrected?

Don’t hold your breath.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.