The New Bullies

Recently I was discussing with a newly published author the downside to reviews on Amazon. I related a learning experience I had had once with a book I published for a first time author. The small book was written as a tribute to and a catharsis for the young woman who had recently lost her pet, a pit bull she and her husband had rescued from the streets and sure death. But more than that, it was beautifully written analogy.

The couple, against their own better judgment, took in the stray, whom they named Pet Bully, feeding and nurturing him back to health. Among other things, they invested in vet visits with funds they could ill afford to spend. Over time, the dog responded positively to their kindness and became a good watch dog. But a pit bull is an unpredictable and often willful animal and since the dog had been on his own for an undetermined number of months, he retained a dark side that occasionally caused Pet Bully to viciously kill cats and behave in other socially unacceptable ways.

The author/owner tried and devised various disciplines that she employed to control those anti-social behaviors. Once, when Pet Bully had killed the neighbor’s cat, the carcass was wrapped around the dog’s neck and he had to “wear” the shame for most of a day. Another time, after the dog had threatened a neighbor’s child, the owner, in complete hysteria, removed a small plastic belt and unleashed her anger on the dog’s broad back. The belt wasn’t big enough to even make a mark but the moment described in the book was enough to cause a self-righteous back lash of outrage from animal rights/pit bull activists.

Again, the book was written as a tribute to a pet, the incidents shared each and all had a greater meaning for the author who loved and cherished the dog. But all of the reality of the book was completely lost on the dolts who only read in the text what they wanted to read, completely missing the point, i.e., that we all have a wild dark side and from time to time we each come to a moment of decision. Will we fight to control and contain our base destructive penchants or will we give in and do our worst, reaping the consequences?

The author, in her revealing of the belt incident, shared a defining moment for both herself and Pet Bully. She told the truth about her knee-jerk reactionary letting go and giving in to her human response instinct but she also recalled the split second decision that Pet Bully made. She described the dog’s eyes as deep black and cold as death, after the author had lost her cool and whacked him with the belt. As in a video in slow motion, she could measure the microseconds spent in conflict in those dark narrowed down slits. She could see the dog wrestling with his life before and after being rescued and cared for by the human who had just lashed him. She could see the raw animal struggle with what his instincts demanded of him and the better reason that spoke to the good side of the dog and of his potential future.

In a split second, Pet Bully, who could have easily maimed or killed his master, chose to be humbled by the discipline inflicted on him. His eyes went from evil to submissive. He hung his head and laid down. The author took a ragged breath and praised him for his choice.

But the more important lesson was lost on those who chose to rant and vilify the author. “I gave this one star because I couldn’t give it less,” one reviewer wrote. No amount of logic or rational explanation and reference to the greater message could sway those who were determined that the author was a ‘dog beater’. No counter with the reasoning of the rest of the story, the choice to save the dog instead of putting him down when he broke his leg, using the author’s meager savings to pay the vet bill. Nothing else mattered in the whole story, just the out of context telling of the beating. That became the narrow focus of the review bullies.

And thus the beatings of the review bullies took over and won because I caved and pulled the book. That became a defining choosing moment for me. I decided that the do-gooders would have to win that round because the shrill screaming was obfuscating the message anyway and, unfortunately, damaging the bewildered author.

So it goes, in this era, when truth as presented with a moral or a lesson that is not in any way acceptable to the new world order, the new bullies win by screaming louder, focusing on minutia, all the while donning the cloak of false righteousness. Rabid self-righteousness, as I refer to it, is an affliction nowadays. Opinions are rampant and bullies who are determined that no one can tell a story, a truth, or a life lesson unless it aligns with the new "feel good' groupthink dynamic, truly do have the louder voice. 

The moral is: If you have a truth to tell, an analogy to share, one that does not meet the current standard as defined by the new rules, be prepared for assault from the real bullies in this declining age. Then you will find that you have reached a choosing moment of your own and must decide, is the message worth the conflict? 

If so, stand. Bullies operate under the psychopathic desire to make others kneel and knuckle under. The irony is that those who would force others to be righteous as defined by them, whether in a humanistic or religious context, always present as better than good. 

But it’s always a facade and those who bully under the guise of goodness more often than not have a darker agenda in play. Wolves disguised as sheep, ready to devour in the name of goodness.

For Christ,

Meema

How clever is the god of this world into deceiving us into thinking that bowing to temporal consequences can be clothed in moral quality. God knows our hearts. We had better know them, too. ~ A.W. Tozer

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Credentialed To Destroy

It is painfully ironic and profoundly appropriate to post this on Columbus Day because in so doing a startling contrast is revealed. Once, not long ago, and only as far back as the school days of my older grandchildren, Columbus, the explorer who is credited with discovering the land mass that would one day become the United States of America, was celebrated on this day. The history was taught in schools everywhere as an outstanding achievement. Today, in our carefully, diabolically revised and socially engineered curriculums, Christopher Columbus is reduced to a miscreant blamed for the dissolution of the indigenous people who once roamed the land that was to become America. 

The subtle change from celebration to vilification of the beginnings of a new country is but one tell in the mysterious sorted story of how education has become a weapon used to conquer and destroy America from within. It is so subtle, in fact, few have noticed the reversal and the ultimate destructive impact on young minds. 

In her new book, Credentialed To Destroy - How and Why Education Became A Weapon, Robin Eubanks, an attorney experienced in due diligence research, stumbled on information that set her on a journey that would help her understand what was occurring in American education. 

Dumbing down, teaching to the test, teaching to the lowest common denominator, how do you feel not what do you think, the answer is not important, all of these concepts have been duly expressed by many and denounced with little if any progress in reversing. However, Eubanks gets to the root of the problem, not just moan about the symptoms of the disease, wherein are the dynamics of fundamentally changing American children from informed, individual thinkers, to “useful idiots” as Stalin referred to the masses he intended to enslave.

Although the book started as a blog, the documented research recorded goes far beyond what one could post in a blog. No one who is still able to think independently can read this intense and irrefutable collection of facts, links and data and still remain supportive of what is happening in the institutions that are redefining and irreversibly reshaping our children and, ultimately, our civilization.

Common Core Curriculum has been called other things, in other decades, the last was called Goal 2000. Nevertheless and regardless what it is called,  it’s the same Marxist song, one hundredth verse. However this time it has advanced much further than in the thirties, sixties and nineties. The question is begged, is it too late? Are the majority of Americans already so dumbed down this book might as well be written in Greek? Or is this book a life raft for those few remaining thinkers to grab onto and float to safety?

Though this book tells the tale, lays out the dark plan from its inception, it does not presume to present the solution. That must come from those who are willing to open their eyes and choose to speak out. Many are already doing so and experiencing push back because this time, the Agenda is more deeply in place than ever before. 

Sometimes we have to stand up and fight evil by calling it what it is and just saying no.  Robin Eubanks should be lauded for her bravery. 

For Chrst,

Meema

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.  ~ John Adams

Selfism

(Proverbs 16:18) Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

The rise and fall of a civilization has less to do with the influence of technological advancements and is more accurately attributable to the deficits and limitations of human nature. For all the change possible era to era, the singularly interminable condition is that of human self interest. It manifests in all manner of different forms, from blatant narcissistic selfishness to good looking puffed up self-righteousness, but the results of the repeating cycle–people rising up from altruism then declining by egotism–is predictable and precisely why man can never achieve, by his own efforts, the Utopian state regardless of good intentions and grand ideology. No matter how many times it is tried; mankind cannot make itself good. 

The open celebration of self love (pride) is the hallmark of a civilization having reached its peak and descent toward its inevitable destruction. Promotion of, advancement toward, and accelerated defense of the right to consider and satisfy self first is the death rattle of a terminally ill culture. Human nature is attracted to selfism like a drug addict to cocaine. And, in the same way addiction justifies itself, selfism dons the mask of ‘goodness that loves everyone’ to maintain its own perpetuation. 

Selfism is a great pretender and masquerades as individualistic but is actually the counterfeit of individualism and in a dying society replaces independent accountability with a shallow feel-good, sound-good imitation that strives to be the same in order to prove it is acceptable. If it feels good...do it. If everyone does it then you’re okay, I’m okay, no need for standards of ethics or morality established by a higher authority.

Unfortunately, historically speaking, civilizations do not recognize the peak and downward slide until it's too late to stop and reverse the process. At the point of no return many look up just in time to see the train without brakes go over the cliff. Most never know what hit them.

In hindsight, provided there are survivors, historians can cite all manner of reasons why a civilization imploded and scattered–war, economics, religious differences, climate change, but rarely do historical accounts point to the one constant–humans just being human. Humans creating their own god of self and worshipping it until the inevitable happens–self destruction. 

In a self-love society, self-esteem is promoted to a natural right and a way to feel rather than a value that must be earned. Therefore feeling good about oneself, rationalizing and excusing all behaviors, regardless how destructive, becomes the goal instead of holding oneself accountable to a high standard that then makes one worthy of esteem.

Here, in this waning era, watching the train pick up speed, racing toward the edge, I’ve been thinking back to the signs we missed. Thus far, among other things, I have noted the “me generation” years of the 70’s-80’s, subtly infecting the concept of self love as the first best love of all into children. Love yourself first and then you can love everyone is the smooth lie. Further, I have also noted that the poison seeps in easiest through the arts, especially music, because passion is the soft vulnerable entry spot of self and is best persuaded by those things that tap into the emotions. 

Of course, the poison appears good, like flavored sugar water, easy to swallow, but it is not only non-nutritious, it is designed to destroy health, both physical and spiritual.    

Selfism is a honey trap that is thematic and repetitive and devised by the one who is determined to take as many as he can with him into the lake of fire. 

For Christ,

Meema

(Psalm 26:2) Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my heart and my mind.