Voltaire – The Burning Platform

Gladness and Silence amid Chaos and Violence

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts.

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.

… The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes, and of the abominations of the earth.

– Revelation 17:1-5

I had been emotionally involved a few times with women with enough of a record of promiscuity to make me vaguely uneasy. It is difficult to put much value on something the lady has distributed all too generously. I have the feeling there is some mysterious quota, which varies with each woman. And whether she gives herself or sells herself, once she reaches her own number, once X pairs of hungry hands have been clamped rightly upon her rounded undersides, she suffers a sea change wherein her juices alter from honey to acid, her eyes change to glass, her heart becomes a stone, and her mouth a windy cave from whence, with each moisturous gasping, comes a tiny stink of death.

native advertising

― MacDonald, John D. (1966). “Darker Than Amber”, Travis McGee series, Random House LLC, 2013, pgs 56-57

We live in an age of wizards and whores where souls are sold in the pursuit of material pleasures. Time-honored principles have been traded for profit and power as lawlessness intensifies.

The word “mystery” is defined as “something not understood or beyond understanding” or, in a religious sense: “truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand”. This would imply more than simply not knowing. A mystery can be that which exceeds human understanding.

There is a saying I’ve heard over and over in my life that has… for the most part… been stated by older men with whom I’ve been related and/or acquainted: “The older I get, the less I know”.

Continue reading “Gladness and Silence amid Chaos and Violence”

Modern Meanderings in the Fire’s Light

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

For the most part, I’ve lost interest in the news. Ukraine war? Don’t care. Lost submarine? Yawn. Pride Month? Good luck with that. Canadian wildfires? So what. Russian civil war? Whatever. Elections? Been there, done that.

I believe it was French Philosopher Voltaire who defined “cynicism” as armor against despair, but, honestly, it’s not that. On the contrary, I am enjoying life more than ever and my days are meaningful and well-spent.

One year ago, I wrote about helping a former business associate by driving a dumptruck a few days a week. In that moderately metaphorical article, entitled “Building Roads While the World Wilts”, I described my perception of America’s remaining attributes, particularly, out here in the “fringe” and mentioned how people “here on the edge seem to be ignoring The Borg”, then wondered…. “For how long?”

Now an entire year has gone by… and in spite of all the new headlines… very little has changed in my world. So far.

Continue reading “Modern Meanderings in the Fire’s Light”

DANCING ON THE CRUMBLING PRECIPICE

Dancing on the crumbling precipice
The rocks are coming loose just at the edge
Are we laughing? Are we crying?
Are we drowning? Are we dead?
Or is it all a dream?

The bombs are getting closer everyday
“That can never happen here” we used to say
Have these wars come to our doorstep?
Has this moment finally come?
Or is it all a dream?

Rise Against – The Violence

This recent song by Rise Against, inspired by the turmoil since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, captures the feeling of angst and uncertainty engulfing the world today. This Fourth Turning is entering its most violent stage, where blood will be spilled in vast quantities as an epic conflict between good and evil plays out across the globe. Eighty years ago, the bloodiest conflict in human history began, as the social mood turned dark and compromise was no longer a viable option.

It wasn’t a coincidence World War II began exactly eighty years after the onset of the American Civil War, which began as compromisers died off and hearts hardened on both sides. We are now eighty years gone since the outset of World War II and a global mood of impending doom overshadows our daily lives. The inevitability of conflict, domestically and internationally, eclipses all efforts to bridge the ideological differences of competing interests around the world. The cycles of history will not be denied and this Fourth Turning will play out as those before, with clear victors and clear losers.

Continue reading “DANCING ON THE CRUMBLING PRECIPICE”

As the Games Begin: The One about the Jews, the Baby, & the Bathwater

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

Certainly any one who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

– Voltaire. (1765). “Questions sur les Miracles”.

This blogger has posted over 120 original essays since the fall of 2016. With topics ranging from politics to philosophy, I’ve strived to be true for the most part; and, at the very least, accurate. In so doing, I would attempt to find three separate ways to vet source material – and, in my mind at least, I’ve built some trust with the readers and believe my essays, so far, have stood the test of time. But if I ever wrote anything blatantly false, everything written henceforth by me, as well as my past articles, should be viewed with greater suspicion by the readers; and for good reason.

Accordingly, we are very fortunate to have the internet; at the very least, for its processing capabilities. It is in the digital rooms of the interwebic blogosphere where intelligent people face-off in a virtual mixed-martial-arts cage fight where free thought and speech, link attributions, and interactive media, are traded like jabs, uppercuts, body-blows, and roundhouse kicks. Using the ethernet to test ideas could also be compared to running software at the speed of light, with multiple programming variations, and zero real life consequences; until, that is, we choose to apply the computations. And this is when it becomes risky business.

Continue reading “As the Games Begin: The One about the Jews, the Baby, & the Bathwater”