This feels like someone giving a homeless fentanyl addict a lecture about the importance of nutrition, exercise and getting a good nights sleep. You’re not wrong, but we’re so far past all of this that it doesn’t matter.
True. America needs to come back on Team Humanity...
Correction: The "Elite" of America need to be given the chance to either Repent (& stop worshipping Demons & come back to Team Humanity) OR... they can be 'dealt with'.
As to WHO does the latter (in the case the former is rejected)... that's what is up in the air at present given the current Geopolitical climate (domestic & abroad)!
To have Christ crucified we need a Bible that is historically reliable and inerrant. Without that, we do not know what Christ said and did. We also need Christ risen. Paul says in I Corinthians "We preach Christ crucified," but he writes elsewhere in the same letter "now is Christ risen from the dead." And there must also be conviction of sin and the reality of judgment, without which we do not see the need of Christ's sacrifice.
So long as Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) is not Adored as one of God Almighty's Noblest of Messengers, America will continue the slide down to "Team Demon"... yes!
He is NOT a noble messenger. He is the Son of God, the Lamb slain from before the creation of the world to redeem God's creation and mankind from sin and destruction. There is no other way to the Father except through Him. The whole of creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God through Jesus Christ His only begotten Son.
Something as one of the younger people crowd, that might be an additional point in getting the younger crowd to embrace tradition and not be such doomers, encourage mentorship or the passing of practical skills down.
For that matter to get this to catch on in said younger crowd - just my two cents - I think there needs to be a vision of positivity and what a high social trust society might look like. As an example, growing up I saw a last holdout of the way highschool kids used to make money mowing lawns in the weekend for say twenty bucks - an entrepreneurial endeavor - but he had to quit partially due to immigrant labor but also multiple homeowners reneging on the deal and only paying five dollars instead of twenty not living up to the deal. Then I as a kid heard all of how smart the homeowners were or how stupid the kid was for not getting a contract, thus by association painting entrepreneurial endeavors as stupid. Thus I think painting an image or overcoming that baked in cynicism is the way to go, to get them invested.
I really appreciate you sharing this view. It's easy for those of us in the second halves of our lives to lose sight of the perspective of the first half. I agree that we need to offer a positive vision. I've been working towards it with physiocracy, but man it's a lot of work!
Thank you. I really enjoyed your post about physiocracy and look forward to any more of it (or perhaps a continuation of the petrodollar running in empty post the red sea events, or an epistemology for those relatively new to it).
Much respect for juggling this and Acks (looking forward to seeing if I can rig that for a bronze age collapse style setting).
Grant, you are absolutely right about the need for a positive vision. Fortunately, professionals have already produced that vision! As I wrote a while back:
"I used to be a utopian visionary. These days I'm just fighting for the America I was promised as a child. Sure, I'd like to sprinkle in bits of libertarian and other creative goodness, but right now I'll just settle for the mainstream vision that was sold to me by popular culture: by teachers and television. Most of the propaganda I need for that once mainstream vision has already been produced. Just take about any television show produced before 1970! Once upon a time, Hollywood celebrated The American Way: sitcom dads were wise, daring spies defended liberty against communism, police played by the rules, doctors still made house calls, and a working class man could afford to support a family.
"For a positive Reactionary vision, break out DVDs of The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters, Family Affair, Gilligan's Island, The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch, Batman, and all sorts of family based sitcoms going back to the 1950s.
"Here is the fuzzy, cuddly version of my Reactionary vision. I want a high trust America where:
*Herman Munster can legally take a walk in the park at midnight
*Where Otis can check himself in jail when gets too drunk and out when he sobers up
*Where Barney Fife gets only one bullet
*Where Thurston Howell III can travel with suitcases of thousand dollar bills and not be arrested for money laundering
*Where Bruce Wayne can buy parts for his underground lair without being flagged as a terrorist
*Where hillbillies can brandish shotguns at busy bodies -- and in Beverly Hills at that
*Where the trials of growing up don't involve sex change surgery
*Where being a rebellious teenager means growing long hair and listening to groovy music
*Where 6 year old Jody from Family Affair can safely walk around Manhattan by himself and quiz construction workers
"OK, OK, America was never as idyllic as the vision portrayed on lite TV. But this vision was once within the Overton Window. This was a mainstream vision, not some far out ism!"
At the risk of sounding like a small screen Phillistine, I had to look up a number of those shows from before my time. It is amazing how different television shows were between then and now.
I suppose I should redo my statement, one of the reasons I subscribe to your substack is you have much practical advice and its none of this handwringing 'times are bad, getting worse, can't wait to check out guess it sucks to be under 50 let alone under 40'. Like the rule of chemical harms, well written and practical.
What I am seeing, is a lot of 'checking out' and copium. Men around 30 who are drifting after say one too many rejections, be it for jobs or in dating. I try to bring some people out of the iron prison matrix, and its limited success. A big part of it I think is communicating vision (which is being provided or filled in I think), but providing a jolt, something to jerk them awake. A younger guy I know as an example, seeing how he and his finance can live in a rented room and work a dead end job has after several rounds of trying to get promoted at his warehouse job, given up about the future, about going anywhere or doing anything. It's a bad state, and I think as part of achieving a more positive change the Lotus-Eaters need something better than 'bootstraps' or 'trades' to inspire them to not lay down and let it rot.
Anyways just my two cents. Looking forward to the book and the other rules.
There are times I feel pretty goofy pushing old TV shows, but it's the easiest way to boycott modern Hollywood. Pre 1970 television had kid friendly shows that are often entertaining for growups. And dads weren't universally idiots. As a dad, I consider that important. And physical comedy largely died out on TV in 1970. Too expensive. Disney kept making physical comedies until then end of the 70s. If you have kids, treat yourself to the live action comedies that Disney made in that era. Some of them are hilarious.
Wow. As an attorney acquaintance of mine likes to point out, "a verbal contract is every bit as much of a contract as any other... but try enforcing it if something goes wrong."
Absolutely flabbergasting to think that homeowners would actually pull this, especially with neighborhood kids. Talk about engendering low trust!
I rarely come here, so I don't know what crowd gathers here. In addition I'm far away from USA so I don't really know how life is over there. Nevertheless, I can offer a comment, I think.
The essay strikes me as hopelessly doomed. The first problem is American exceptionalism that simply oozes out of it. America isn't exceptional, it's just another also-ran. I got to admit the plan of "talking over politics" is interesting and might work, perhaps, if enough warm bodies can be found. But on what time scale? It took the Woke 10 years to go from "annoying social justice warriors" to "usurping menace of the Woke". Ten years to go from a joke to the shaker. Does "Team R" have ten years? It might have only one or two, if USD undergoes hyperinflationary collapse (it's aready in the first stage: quasi-fiscal deficit of the central bank).
There is also a litany of problems in the essay on changing people's minds. There's the obvious problem of "how can you free these people if to free them you first have to make them think in a particular way?" AKA "how can you be free if you're told what to think?" There are also a myriad other problems regarding the overall inability of Americans to change people's opinions. Was there any particular concrete case of Americans changing other people's opinions and having it stick? Even assimilation of people entering USA failed, which we know because high-immigration areas (coasts) are all "Blue". I guess all those Italian and Irish immigrants ultimately ended up not changing, right? :)
Ultimately, if *THIS* is the best America has to offer on the eve of it's second existential crisis, then maybe I should take that bet on USA disintegrating this decade. But you guys do what you think you should and try to keep your country together and sane.
Regarding thinking: nothing totalitarian about exposing people to valid data. A huge problem with our current educational system is that it is far less data driven than in the old days. Asking children to write essays criticizing an article or idea without first given them a wide backdrop of data IS brainwashing.
Regarding assimilation: the most competent conservative running right now is a descendant of Italian immigrants. Plenty of conservative commentators of Irish descent.
I read the four parts of your writings on Rule 8. I found them very informative. I rarely think about politics in that way. :)
Your rebuttal on assimilation is valid, I'd think. Your approach to thinking, that you explained in the first paragraph, is something I can see the wisdom of and agree with. :)
I agree that infiltrating the environmental movement is one such way that America First can get in and begin bringing common sense back to what should essentially be a "don't $#!t in your own backyard" message that most people should agree upon. A lot of "environmentalist-leftists" are not really democrats, per-se, but a combination of left-leaning libertarians, anarchists, along with the outright socialists. I had fun sabotaging a recent "climate change" summit after the "big wigs" opened the floor to questions, and an environmentally-minded small business owner asked what THEY could do to help? The big wigs answer was "I don't know, don't do business?" and the questioner sat down. But I didn't let it sit at that. I stood up and asked how we the people, who outnumber them 20,000 to 1, are supposed to take these "experts" seriously when their only "solution" is to "go fuck off and die." Yeah, THAT sat like a turd in the room. But it also got them back-pedaling, and people in the audience thinking, realizing, that it really is a "big business only cult."
I have some juicy material coming soon. Given the surge of subscribers from this guest post, I think I will skip the controversial Rule 10 for now, and jump to Rule 11: Exploit the Environmentalists. Stay tuned!
It's more "category error" than optimism, I'm afraid, and what we think of the policy proposals isn't really relevant.
Solutions for a 2020s G3P globalist oligarchy that is very clearly intent on mass murder cannot be framed through a 1980s participatory national democracy lens.
The old Protestant denominations attended by our old elite have gone low church and lite. They need to be repaired or replaced.
This is indeed a pressing issue. But is there a single denomination out there that didn't go along with the lockdowns, mask mandates, and forced vaccinations? We got to see how everyone behaved in a crisis, and almost everyone failed the test. This is valuable data because rebuilding America will be much harder than fighting off the flu. There were a few individual churches / leaders who were courageous, but they were the rare exception. I think that the Orthodox church performed the best overall, but I'm willing to be corrected on that.
A good synopsis, much appreciated. I would add land reform. Rentier land ownership has led to absent landlord syndrome to the nth degree. There is no shortage of young people who would return to farming, marriage and kids if they could operate a working farm. It is hardly possible at all now because of land costs.
Yes, land reform is an important subject. An America in which most people are renters to BlackRock is not going to be America. Need a large landed yeoman class...
But this is a tricky subject! I briefly got on the geolibertarian bandwagon. But then I got schooled on the consequences of some of the Georgist proposals by a former Chair of the Libertarian Party. He was right and I had to go back to the drawing board. One of these days I'll do an in depth post on the subject. But don't hold your breath. It's a tricky and technical subject.
There is a program - I am forgetting its name - where young men can prove their farming skills and in return they get GIFTED a ready-made farm by elderly farmers looking to retire and pass on their farms to competent successors. We need more of that!
I read that there is a small Island off the coast of Ireland that is offering a program along these lines to young people. They want to revitalize their community.
If you survive the next few years, remember to teach your kids to prepare to survive.
A quantum shift has happened and it is not stoppable with newly awoken utopian dreams of a solution. We are in a suspension. Until the suspension settles their really isn't any point theorising about solutions to the fundamental problem of the human mould; the inherent biological trait to pick the low hanging fruit to conserve energy for crisis. This trait has made the herd easy to corral and cull.
Solutions to that natural occurring apex predator? Yes the current one is the psychopath, but prior to the pen conquering the sword, the Apex predator was the man with the sword. The pen is now joystick controlling the drone, but the sword looks like making a revival.
Surviving requires creating a survival community. Even if retreating to some rural backwater is your option, some of the actions I suggest are relevant to hardening your community. What's the BPA level in your canned emergency preparedness kit? Might want to consider dried beans and grains + vitamin pills instead. And many of my proposed education reforms are relevant to home school.
And what's the Atrazine level in the local water supply? (I live in a small town with lots of Trump signs, but it it's still a freak show working the cash registers at the local Food Lion. Filter your water and make sure your community does so as well.)
If you are going to do the survivalist route, don't be a turtle. Be a honey badger.
Not many people where I am have the slightest clue. I've attempted the community thing and had my rainwater poisoned by a local x-con psychopath that the police are protecting. ( I'm assuming he's a police informant)
I am being intimidated by police helicopter for informing dissident senators of the plan to burn us alive with targetted wildfires later this summer.
Invitations to like minded people to share my farm, free of rent or obligation have failed because no one seems to understand that subsistence living requires addaptability and labour. People are slaves to convenience, or a just too damaged.
I have no misconceptions of what is to come (I had no children) and I will not take it
too seriously anymore.
Survival isn't that attractive to me. I suggested it only as a targeted option, an alternative to being distracted by bullshit.
I have lived a good life and will not lose my sense of fun or humour, or succumb to actions based on fear.
I just feel for the young people that will only know this horrorshow as normal, and only for a limited time.
Thanks for your advice. I will have a look at your substack.
A few thoughts on the business end of it, since we won't (initially) have Federal Reserve funny munny to fund this:
1 - Buy from friendly businesses as much as possible. Yes, it's inconvenient and generally more expensive. Sometimes you get suckered into buying, say, Ultra Right Beer. But we need dollars moving.
2 - If you have a business, start a trade association. You'll be able to bring a bigger stick to negotiations and legal fights with a few friends.
3 - Make noise. Fill out surveys, call consumer affairs, leave reviews. I've seen Fortune 500s change direction on a startlingly small amount of customer feedback. Keep up the pressure on Bud Light/Target, for example, but don't just quietly stop shopping.
We definitely need a plan, other than retreat to the country and hope to survive. This may not be a perfect plan, but it is, at least, a plan. Good on the author for trying to suggest practical steps, however tentative and small. One thing is sure -- we have to focus on the long game. Any positive change will be very slow and gradual -- it is tempting just to give in to despair, but imperative we do not.
Back when I was physically active in the game, there were still conservative blue bloods sticking with the Anglican communion in some form or another. Sticking to traditions is a conservative trait...
My immediate interest is getting the sincere Christians out of converged churches. I'll worry about the actively converged later. As a WASP with roots going back to the Jamestown settlement, the prospect of converting to Orthodoxy is alien -- far more so than joining yet another new Protestant denomination with American roots. I threw in the Orthodox option as our host has Greek roots and there are many in the Dissident Right who see some form of Eastern Orthodox as the way to go. I leave it to the readership to mull over this question.
Sure and of course I’m trolling a bit. But my real point is ~how~? How are you going to revive episcopalianism? If there’s no mechanism to achieve these goals it’s just wordcel wishcasting
I don't think the Episcopal church can be revived. Indeed, I am skeptical of saving any well-endowed charitable or religious organization. Churches and charities need to be funded on an ongoing basis to stay run by true altruists.
Personally, I left the Episcopal Church to join one of the many tiny sabbath and holy days observing churches which came out of the Worldwide Church of God. My inner Vulcan prefers sermons that resemble college lectures to sermons that resemble home movies. But I miss beautiful church buildings, stately ceremony, and old hymns with proper voice leading. I have idle dreams of combing the best of the old Episcopal church with the sounder doctrines of the sabbath keepers.
But it's an idle dream unless someone else picks it up. I'm not saintly enough to be starting a church.
"Mark realised that from Feverstone's point of view, this was like the suggestion that he should become Headmaster of a small idiots' school." - That Hideous Strength, C. S. Lewis
Yellow pill: pick up the low hanging fruit overlooked by Conservatism Inc. because small victories increase mojo. (This will be my next post, on my own blog.)
Oof. If team D and team R duke it out then America’s enemies will only rejoice. That’s why the people in charge are trying to get your enemies to fight each other. At the same time, your own enemies want you to fight each other. Remember the sack of Constantinople… by cHrIsTiAns. The Turks won that one, and good for them.
The strategy depends on the game. If the game is “make Americans fight each other so that China can take Australia” then it’s going very well. Your leadership is trying hobble China but it’s logistically problematic, and TBH who cares about Australians anyway.
The masses are fickle and will follow whoever appears to be winning, regardless of what bedtime stories they were told. Education only works on the educable, and half the population is below IQ 97 and falling fast. All you can say is “I’m going to win, follow me and I will give you stuff.” Or better, “I’m winning and you better follow to make it look like you were on the right side all along.”
If you want to win, spend your money on your own kind. It will go a long way. Starve the beast. Be nice to truckers. Stay healthy and boycott all jabbish healthcare providers. Homeschool. Be polite to pretty ladies. Buy food from farmers, no matter what colour. Keep your money out of the banking system, because every dollar you give them is their asset and they don’t owe it back to you. The greatest weakness of the banking system is that it can’t cover withdrawals.
Come to think of it, only the last thing really matters. Bank runs, outing pedos, and developing drone artillery. That might even do it.
You are absolutely correct! Reforming Team D is VERY important, especially in the deep Blue areas. There are sane Democrats. We just need to get them to disavow their loonies just like Team R is expected to disavow their loonies.
There may or may not be sane Democrats, but such cannot even remotely be said of the Republicans - look at the all-the-way-down-worse-than-awful mediocrity of the Republicans lining up to be the next President.
Biden is of course worse than awful too.
And of course the fact that the culturally and religiously illiterate nihilistic barbarian Trumpen-fuhrer is hugely popular with Bible believing Christians, especially amongst Evangelicals who somehow believe that the Orange Haired Monstrosity is going to re-Christianize Amerika.
The possibility of cultural renewal under a Trumpist regime is an impossibilty.
A second Trump regime would simply buy time. I much prefer DeSantis, but Trump fanboys like Trump's mojo. They cannot tell the difference between talking tough and taking action.
But the true means to fix the Republican bench is to BE the bench. Back when I was a Libertarian, I did a study of participation in state house races. Of the states I studied, about a third of the seats were uncontested between the major parties.
> They cannot tell the difference between talking tough and taking action.
I suspect this is the source of many of our problems.
The people demand leaders who talk tough about helping them and standing up to the powerful. The powerful demand leaders who take actions that benefit them. Both get what they demand.
-> I, your friendly neighbourly DOOM-Merchant am ergo auto-summoned to the Thread. <-
I agree with most of the sentiments expressed; with only One primary disagreement:
Christianity is the Past; Islam is the Future.
No doubt, the Mormons & *insert some other High TFR groups here* will do well, but for the most part Christians in the US (& most of the West) have failed in the most important aspect: Defending the Sacred Honour of Jesus (peace be Upon Him).
Go to any US State today & there will be people openly mocking Him, be it in 'plays', adverts, other media, etc. In the Blue States, this is so grotesque that American Muslim groups (i.e. the most 'liberal' Muslims on the planet) have begun crackdowns on said Vile Sacrilege.
A nation cannot be "Christian" if Jesus (peace be Upon Him) can be openly mocked. Therefore, the natural tendency will be towards Islam & to the Muslims, i.e. those who do not Tolerate such Disrespect. Our numbers will therefore exponentiate inevitably so.
I could certainly 'nitpick' some of the other points made; but I agree in general with most of them, so that would be disingenuous on my part, so I shall simply leave it at that.
Per usual, Thanks to the Wonderful Mr. Macris for publishing a terrific Guest Essay!
& thank you to Sir Fabius for the wonderfully penned response!
First, press X to doubt outside of places where extrajudicial Islamic enforcement is possible. Second, not without an explicit religious-based understanding of, and refusal to participate in, Globohomo's biological leninism strategy. I see the first as more likely to change than the second, which equals a future as janissaries not opposition.
An Islam that could implement an "Assad strategy" that reached out to and protected Christians under its umbrella, while offering an international lifeline of cooperation and opportunities, would accomplish many things at once for the long-term benefit and prosperity of both sides.
Our Civilizational record is Great; but it needs to be measured with regard to the Axes of Piety & Justice. Measuring it by "Tech & Economics" (like Westerners do) is not something we accept nor Condone.
Individual Muslims will certainly sin & fall prey to "Team Demon", no doubt. But ultimately we as an Ummah (i.e. 'community') always Amputate & cauterize; something that Christians either don't do at all or don't do Enough.
So they are most welcome to try & "seep in"... they will never succeed. The Boyz will always have enough Toys to kick em out.
And Yes: Standard Sacred Law (per the 4 madhabs) is quite clear... Christians & Jews are People of The Book; ergo they get protections & whatnot under the Islamic Polity.
They are barred from mandatory military service & positions at the 'very top'... (so for example a jew could be the chief physician & a christian could be Prime Minister; but neither could be the Caliph)... but overall they are Citizens still.
We do not hesitate to say: "They are Citizens with fewer rights"... but the reason is simple... "It is Because they have fewer responsibilities to uphold".
This is not a bad thing. Frankly, the West is in this mess because it gave "too many rights" to folks who have little to no responsibilities to society to begin with (observe for instance how "citizen" has become a meaningless term nowadays).
>> Not equal are the good deed and the bad deed. Repel evil by that which is better, and then the one who is hostile to you will become as a devoted friend. But none is granted it except those who are patient and none is granted it except one having a great fortune. <<
I had a look, yes. It is similar in principle to Surah Fussilat, verses 34 & 35. Relevant:
>> Ibn Abbas commented on this verse, saying: 'Allah commands the believers to be patient when they feel angry, to be forbearing when confronted with ignorance, and to forgive when they are mistreated. If they do this, Allah will save them from Satan and subdue their enemies to them until they become like close friends.' <<
So... If one is 'subjected to' injustices, he ought to forebear.
HOWEVER, this does not relate to when God Almighty, His Prophets & Messengers, etc. are themselves 'subjected to' injustices (such as Mockery).
Anger is a Grave Sin in Islam... when it is exercised by One who 'feels that he has been wronged'. But if it involves God Most High, His Prophets & Messengers, etc; Anger is a positive force. Action coming from it therefore, can also be positive.
Upon further contemplation, here are more relevant scriptures:
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Mat 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
And then, the parable of the dishonest manager:
Luk 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
Luk 16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
Luk 16:3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
Luk 16:4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
Luk 16:5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
Luk 16:6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
Luk 16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
Luk 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts). [Bukhari 2476]
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When any human being is born. Satan touches him at both sides of the body with his two fingers, except Jesus, the son of Mary, whom Satan tried to touch but failed, for he touched the placenta-cover instead." [Bukhari 3286]
Narrated Ibn `Abbas:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham (on the night of my Ascension to the heavens). Jesus was of red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest. Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt." [Bukhari 3438]
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all the people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one." [Bukhari 3443]
Narrated `Umar:
I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary, for I am only a Slave. So, call me the Slave of Allah and His Apostle." [Bukhari 3445]
This feels like someone giving a homeless fentanyl addict a lecture about the importance of nutrition, exercise and getting a good nights sleep. You’re not wrong, but we’re so far past all of this that it doesn’t matter.
“saying America needs ‘civic renewal’ is like saying a cancer patient needs health-- fair enough, but a step has skipped somewhere”
Michael Anton
True. America needs to come back on Team Humanity...
Correction: The "Elite" of America need to be given the chance to either Repent (& stop worshipping Demons & come back to Team Humanity) OR... they can be 'dealt with'.
As to WHO does the latter (in the case the former is rejected)... that's what is up in the air at present given the current Geopolitical climate (domestic & abroad)!
America needs Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else matters it that is not first, nothing!
To have Christ crucified we need a Bible that is historically reliable and inerrant. Without that, we do not know what Christ said and did. We also need Christ risen. Paul says in I Corinthians "We preach Christ crucified," but he writes elsewhere in the same letter "now is Christ risen from the dead." And there must also be conviction of sin and the reality of judgment, without which we do not see the need of Christ's sacrifice.
So long as Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) is not Adored as one of God Almighty's Noblest of Messengers, America will continue the slide down to "Team Demon"... yes!
He is NOT a noble messenger. He is the Son of God, the Lamb slain from before the creation of the world to redeem God's creation and mankind from sin and destruction. There is no other way to the Father except through Him. The whole of creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God through Jesus Christ His only begotten Son.
It matters in the sense that when the Carnage begins, it can stand as a record that not all Men lost Reason & began the Total Slaughter.
But yes, being the DOOM-merchant that I am, I agree- TIME is always the key element that is sorely lacking...
Thank you to both for the guest essay.
Something as one of the younger people crowd, that might be an additional point in getting the younger crowd to embrace tradition and not be such doomers, encourage mentorship or the passing of practical skills down.
For that matter to get this to catch on in said younger crowd - just my two cents - I think there needs to be a vision of positivity and what a high social trust society might look like. As an example, growing up I saw a last holdout of the way highschool kids used to make money mowing lawns in the weekend for say twenty bucks - an entrepreneurial endeavor - but he had to quit partially due to immigrant labor but also multiple homeowners reneging on the deal and only paying five dollars instead of twenty not living up to the deal. Then I as a kid heard all of how smart the homeowners were or how stupid the kid was for not getting a contract, thus by association painting entrepreneurial endeavors as stupid. Thus I think painting an image or overcoming that baked in cynicism is the way to go, to get them invested.
I really appreciate you sharing this view. It's easy for those of us in the second halves of our lives to lose sight of the perspective of the first half. I agree that we need to offer a positive vision. I've been working towards it with physiocracy, but man it's a lot of work!
Thank you. I really enjoyed your post about physiocracy and look forward to any more of it (or perhaps a continuation of the petrodollar running in empty post the red sea events, or an epistemology for those relatively new to it).
Much respect for juggling this and Acks (looking forward to seeing if I can rig that for a bronze age collapse style setting).
Grant, you are absolutely right about the need for a positive vision. Fortunately, professionals have already produced that vision! As I wrote a while back:
"I used to be a utopian visionary. These days I'm just fighting for the America I was promised as a child. Sure, I'd like to sprinkle in bits of libertarian and other creative goodness, but right now I'll just settle for the mainstream vision that was sold to me by popular culture: by teachers and television. Most of the propaganda I need for that once mainstream vision has already been produced. Just take about any television show produced before 1970! Once upon a time, Hollywood celebrated The American Way: sitcom dads were wise, daring spies defended liberty against communism, police played by the rules, doctors still made house calls, and a working class man could afford to support a family.
"For a positive Reactionary vision, break out DVDs of The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters, Family Affair, Gilligan's Island, The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch, Batman, and all sorts of family based sitcoms going back to the 1950s.
"Here is the fuzzy, cuddly version of my Reactionary vision. I want a high trust America where:
*Herman Munster can legally take a walk in the park at midnight
*Where Otis can check himself in jail when gets too drunk and out when he sobers up
*Where Barney Fife gets only one bullet
*Where Thurston Howell III can travel with suitcases of thousand dollar bills and not be arrested for money laundering
*Where Bruce Wayne can buy parts for his underground lair without being flagged as a terrorist
*Where hillbillies can brandish shotguns at busy bodies -- and in Beverly Hills at that
*Where the trials of growing up don't involve sex change surgery
*Where being a rebellious teenager means growing long hair and listening to groovy music
*Where 6 year old Jody from Family Affair can safely walk around Manhattan by himself and quiz construction workers
"OK, OK, America was never as idyllic as the vision portrayed on lite TV. But this vision was once within the Overton Window. This was a mainstream vision, not some far out ism!"
https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/a-kinder-sillier-reactionary-vision
At the risk of sounding like a small screen Phillistine, I had to look up a number of those shows from before my time. It is amazing how different television shows were between then and now.
I suppose I should redo my statement, one of the reasons I subscribe to your substack is you have much practical advice and its none of this handwringing 'times are bad, getting worse, can't wait to check out guess it sucks to be under 50 let alone under 40'. Like the rule of chemical harms, well written and practical.
What I am seeing, is a lot of 'checking out' and copium. Men around 30 who are drifting after say one too many rejections, be it for jobs or in dating. I try to bring some people out of the iron prison matrix, and its limited success. A big part of it I think is communicating vision (which is being provided or filled in I think), but providing a jolt, something to jerk them awake. A younger guy I know as an example, seeing how he and his finance can live in a rented room and work a dead end job has after several rounds of trying to get promoted at his warehouse job, given up about the future, about going anywhere or doing anything. It's a bad state, and I think as part of achieving a more positive change the Lotus-Eaters need something better than 'bootstraps' or 'trades' to inspire them to not lay down and let it rot.
Anyways just my two cents. Looking forward to the book and the other rules.
There are times I feel pretty goofy pushing old TV shows, but it's the easiest way to boycott modern Hollywood. Pre 1970 television had kid friendly shows that are often entertaining for growups. And dads weren't universally idiots. As a dad, I consider that important. And physical comedy largely died out on TV in 1970. Too expensive. Disney kept making physical comedies until then end of the 70s. If you have kids, treat yourself to the live action comedies that Disney made in that era. Some of them are hilarious.
Wow. As an attorney acquaintance of mine likes to point out, "a verbal contract is every bit as much of a contract as any other... but try enforcing it if something goes wrong."
Absolutely flabbergasting to think that homeowners would actually pull this, especially with neighborhood kids. Talk about engendering low trust!
Sounds like a boomer move
I rarely come here, so I don't know what crowd gathers here. In addition I'm far away from USA so I don't really know how life is over there. Nevertheless, I can offer a comment, I think.
The essay strikes me as hopelessly doomed. The first problem is American exceptionalism that simply oozes out of it. America isn't exceptional, it's just another also-ran. I got to admit the plan of "talking over politics" is interesting and might work, perhaps, if enough warm bodies can be found. But on what time scale? It took the Woke 10 years to go from "annoying social justice warriors" to "usurping menace of the Woke". Ten years to go from a joke to the shaker. Does "Team R" have ten years? It might have only one or two, if USD undergoes hyperinflationary collapse (it's aready in the first stage: quasi-fiscal deficit of the central bank).
There is also a litany of problems in the essay on changing people's minds. There's the obvious problem of "how can you free these people if to free them you first have to make them think in a particular way?" AKA "how can you be free if you're told what to think?" There are also a myriad other problems regarding the overall inability of Americans to change people's opinions. Was there any particular concrete case of Americans changing other people's opinions and having it stick? Even assimilation of people entering USA failed, which we know because high-immigration areas (coasts) are all "Blue". I guess all those Italian and Irish immigrants ultimately ended up not changing, right? :)
Ultimately, if *THIS* is the best America has to offer on the eve of it's second existential crisis, then maybe I should take that bet on USA disintegrating this decade. But you guys do what you think you should and try to keep your country together and sane.
Regarding thinking: nothing totalitarian about exposing people to valid data. A huge problem with our current educational system is that it is far less data driven than in the old days. Asking children to write essays criticizing an article or idea without first given them a wide backdrop of data IS brainwashing.
Regarding assimilation: the most competent conservative running right now is a descendant of Italian immigrants. Plenty of conservative commentators of Irish descent.
As for time, it might be too late. However, there are Rule 8 measures that are fast acting if applied. https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/rule-8-leave-no-district-unchallenged
I read the four parts of your writings on Rule 8. I found them very informative. I rarely think about politics in that way. :)
Your rebuttal on assimilation is valid, I'd think. Your approach to thinking, that you explained in the first paragraph, is something I can see the wisdom of and agree with. :)
Assimilation of people entering USA failed, because we more or less quit insisting on it.
TIME is the element that is Sorely Missing per usual, Yep.
I agree that infiltrating the environmental movement is one such way that America First can get in and begin bringing common sense back to what should essentially be a "don't $#!t in your own backyard" message that most people should agree upon. A lot of "environmentalist-leftists" are not really democrats, per-se, but a combination of left-leaning libertarians, anarchists, along with the outright socialists. I had fun sabotaging a recent "climate change" summit after the "big wigs" opened the floor to questions, and an environmentally-minded small business owner asked what THEY could do to help? The big wigs answer was "I don't know, don't do business?" and the questioner sat down. But I didn't let it sit at that. I stood up and asked how we the people, who outnumber them 20,000 to 1, are supposed to take these "experts" seriously when their only "solution" is to "go fuck off and die." Yeah, THAT sat like a turd in the room. But it also got them back-pedaling, and people in the audience thinking, realizing, that it really is a "big business only cult."
I have some juicy material coming soon. Given the surge of subscribers from this guest post, I think I will skip the controversial Rule 10 for now, and jump to Rule 11: Exploit the Environmentalists. Stay tuned!
It's more "category error" than optimism, I'm afraid, and what we think of the policy proposals isn't really relevant.
Solutions for a 2020s G3P globalist oligarchy that is very clearly intent on mass murder cannot be framed through a 1980s participatory national democracy lens.
Read Hyde's Dedication and Leadership. We need to form our own conspiracy.
Conspiracies takes too long. Jim Cramer is bullish about 2024 so you have a few months at most to prepare for DOOM!
Good point!
But I prefer to fight. More fun.
The old Protestant denominations attended by our old elite have gone low church and lite. They need to be repaired or replaced.
This is indeed a pressing issue. But is there a single denomination out there that didn't go along with the lockdowns, mask mandates, and forced vaccinations? We got to see how everyone behaved in a crisis, and almost everyone failed the test. This is valuable data because rebuilding America will be much harder than fighting off the flu. There were a few individual churches / leaders who were courageous, but they were the rare exception. I think that the Orthodox church performed the best overall, but I'm willing to be corrected on that.
No there is not. A few individual congregations/pastors did, but that's all.
A good synopsis, much appreciated. I would add land reform. Rentier land ownership has led to absent landlord syndrome to the nth degree. There is no shortage of young people who would return to farming, marriage and kids if they could operate a working farm. It is hardly possible at all now because of land costs.
Yes, land reform is an important subject. An America in which most people are renters to BlackRock is not going to be America. Need a large landed yeoman class...
But this is a tricky subject! I briefly got on the geolibertarian bandwagon. But then I got schooled on the consequences of some of the Georgist proposals by a former Chair of the Libertarian Party. He was right and I had to go back to the drawing board. One of these days I'll do an in depth post on the subject. But don't hold your breath. It's a tricky and technical subject.
Eager to read it. I don't think it is a tricky or technical subject necessary, but then those who rule the land would disagree with me.
There is a program - I am forgetting its name - where young men can prove their farming skills and in return they get GIFTED a ready-made farm by elderly farmers looking to retire and pass on their farms to competent successors. We need more of that!
I read that there is a small Island off the coast of Ireland that is offering a program along these lines to young people. They want to revitalize their community.
Prepare.
Survive.
Remember.
If you survive the next few years, remember to teach your kids to prepare to survive.
A quantum shift has happened and it is not stoppable with newly awoken utopian dreams of a solution. We are in a suspension. Until the suspension settles their really isn't any point theorising about solutions to the fundamental problem of the human mould; the inherent biological trait to pick the low hanging fruit to conserve energy for crisis. This trait has made the herd easy to corral and cull.
Solutions to that natural occurring apex predator? Yes the current one is the psychopath, but prior to the pen conquering the sword, the Apex predator was the man with the sword. The pen is now joystick controlling the drone, but the sword looks like making a revival.
Bla bla bla...
Surviving requires creating a survival community. Even if retreating to some rural backwater is your option, some of the actions I suggest are relevant to hardening your community. What's the BPA level in your canned emergency preparedness kit? Might want to consider dried beans and grains + vitamin pills instead. And many of my proposed education reforms are relevant to home school.
And what's the Atrazine level in the local water supply? (I live in a small town with lots of Trump signs, but it it's still a freak show working the cash registers at the local Food Lion. Filter your water and make sure your community does so as well.)
If you are going to do the survivalist route, don't be a turtle. Be a honey badger.
Not many people where I am have the slightest clue. I've attempted the community thing and had my rainwater poisoned by a local x-con psychopath that the police are protecting. ( I'm assuming he's a police informant)
I am being intimidated by police helicopter for informing dissident senators of the plan to burn us alive with targetted wildfires later this summer.
Invitations to like minded people to share my farm, free of rent or obligation have failed because no one seems to understand that subsistence living requires addaptability and labour. People are slaves to convenience, or a just too damaged.
I have no misconceptions of what is to come (I had no children) and I will not take it
too seriously anymore.
Survival isn't that attractive to me. I suggested it only as a targeted option, an alternative to being distracted by bullshit.
I have lived a good life and will not lose my sense of fun or humour, or succumb to actions based on fear.
I just feel for the young people that will only know this horrorshow as normal, and only for a limited time.
Thanks for your advice. I will have a look at your substack.
A few thoughts on the business end of it, since we won't (initially) have Federal Reserve funny munny to fund this:
1 - Buy from friendly businesses as much as possible. Yes, it's inconvenient and generally more expensive. Sometimes you get suckered into buying, say, Ultra Right Beer. But we need dollars moving.
2 - If you have a business, start a trade association. You'll be able to bring a bigger stick to negotiations and legal fights with a few friends.
3 - Make noise. Fill out surveys, call consumer affairs, leave reviews. I've seen Fortune 500s change direction on a startlingly small amount of customer feedback. Keep up the pressure on Bud Light/Target, for example, but don't just quietly stop shopping.
We definitely need a plan, other than retreat to the country and hope to survive. This may not be a perfect plan, but it is, at least, a plan. Good on the author for trying to suggest practical steps, however tentative and small. One thing is sure -- we have to focus on the long game. Any positive change will be very slow and gradual -- it is tempting just to give in to despair, but imperative we do not.
Oh sick we’ll just convince American elites to embrace Greek Orthodoxy. Why didn’t I think of that.
“saying America needs ‘civic renewal’ is like saying a cancer patient needs health-- fair enough, but a step has skipped somewhere”
Michael Anton
Back when I was physically active in the game, there were still conservative blue bloods sticking with the Anglican communion in some form or another. Sticking to traditions is a conservative trait...
My immediate interest is getting the sincere Christians out of converged churches. I'll worry about the actively converged later. As a WASP with roots going back to the Jamestown settlement, the prospect of converting to Orthodoxy is alien -- far more so than joining yet another new Protestant denomination with American roots. I threw in the Orthodox option as our host has Greek roots and there are many in the Dissident Right who see some form of Eastern Orthodox as the way to go. I leave it to the readership to mull over this question.
Sure and of course I’m trolling a bit. But my real point is ~how~? How are you going to revive episcopalianism? If there’s no mechanism to achieve these goals it’s just wordcel wishcasting
I don't think the Episcopal church can be revived. Indeed, I am skeptical of saving any well-endowed charitable or religious organization. Churches and charities need to be funded on an ongoing basis to stay run by true altruists.
Personally, I left the Episcopal Church to join one of the many tiny sabbath and holy days observing churches which came out of the Worldwide Church of God. My inner Vulcan prefers sermons that resemble college lectures to sermons that resemble home movies. But I miss beautiful church buildings, stately ceremony, and old hymns with proper voice leading. I have idle dreams of combing the best of the old Episcopal church with the sounder doctrines of the sabbath keepers.
But it's an idle dream unless someone else picks it up. I'm not saintly enough to be starting a church.
Definitely don’t vote though
"Team R needs a new braintrust, and we're it."
...
"Mark realised that from Feverstone's point of view, this was like the suggestion that he should become Headmaster of a small idiots' school." - That Hideous Strength, C. S. Lewis
I need to reread that one. It's been a while.
White pill: a “Long March through the institutions” can correct the one performed by the Left.
Black Pill: the laundry list cannot be completed, short of limited use of tactical nuclear weapons (Hollywood, Wall St. to start).
Yellow pill: pick up the low hanging fruit overlooked by Conservatism Inc. because small victories increase mojo. (This will be my next post, on my own blog.)
Oof. If team D and team R duke it out then America’s enemies will only rejoice. That’s why the people in charge are trying to get your enemies to fight each other. At the same time, your own enemies want you to fight each other. Remember the sack of Constantinople… by cHrIsTiAns. The Turks won that one, and good for them.
The strategy depends on the game. If the game is “make Americans fight each other so that China can take Australia” then it’s going very well. Your leadership is trying hobble China but it’s logistically problematic, and TBH who cares about Australians anyway.
The masses are fickle and will follow whoever appears to be winning, regardless of what bedtime stories they were told. Education only works on the educable, and half the population is below IQ 97 and falling fast. All you can say is “I’m going to win, follow me and I will give you stuff.” Or better, “I’m winning and you better follow to make it look like you were on the right side all along.”
If you want to win, spend your money on your own kind. It will go a long way. Starve the beast. Be nice to truckers. Stay healthy and boycott all jabbish healthcare providers. Homeschool. Be polite to pretty ladies. Buy food from farmers, no matter what colour. Keep your money out of the banking system, because every dollar you give them is their asset and they don’t owe it back to you. The greatest weakness of the banking system is that it can’t cover withdrawals.
Come to think of it, only the last thing really matters. Bank runs, outing pedos, and developing drone artillery. That might even do it.
You are absolutely correct! Reforming Team D is VERY important, especially in the deep Blue areas. There are sane Democrats. We just need to get them to disavow their loonies just like Team R is expected to disavow their loonies.
It's simply a matter of balancing Principle with courting swing votes. In the quest for Principle Team R has basically abandoned many districts, allowing the lefty nutcases to have a field day. Details -- with diagrams -- here: https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/rule-8-leave-no-district-unchallenged
There may or may not be sane Democrats, but such cannot even remotely be said of the Republicans - look at the all-the-way-down-worse-than-awful mediocrity of the Republicans lining up to be the next President.
Biden is of course worse than awful too.
And of course the fact that the culturally and religiously illiterate nihilistic barbarian Trumpen-fuhrer is hugely popular with Bible believing Christians, especially amongst Evangelicals who somehow believe that the Orange Haired Monstrosity is going to re-Christianize Amerika.
The possibility of cultural renewal under a Trumpist regime is an impossibilty.
A second Trump regime would simply buy time. I much prefer DeSantis, but Trump fanboys like Trump's mojo. They cannot tell the difference between talking tough and taking action.
But the true means to fix the Republican bench is to BE the bench. Back when I was a Libertarian, I did a study of participation in state house races. Of the states I studied, about a third of the seats were uncontested between the major parties.
The bad guys and bozos are winning by default.
> They cannot tell the difference between talking tough and taking action.
I suspect this is the source of many of our problems.
The people demand leaders who talk tough about helping them and standing up to the powerful. The powerful demand leaders who take actions that benefit them. Both get what they demand.
Nice satire
Did somebody just say... DOOM?
-> I, your friendly neighbourly DOOM-Merchant am ergo auto-summoned to the Thread. <-
I agree with most of the sentiments expressed; with only One primary disagreement:
Christianity is the Past; Islam is the Future.
No doubt, the Mormons & *insert some other High TFR groups here* will do well, but for the most part Christians in the US (& most of the West) have failed in the most important aspect: Defending the Sacred Honour of Jesus (peace be Upon Him).
Go to any US State today & there will be people openly mocking Him, be it in 'plays', adverts, other media, etc. In the Blue States, this is so grotesque that American Muslim groups (i.e. the most 'liberal' Muslims on the planet) have begun crackdowns on said Vile Sacrilege.
A nation cannot be "Christian" if Jesus (peace be Upon Him) can be openly mocked. Therefore, the natural tendency will be towards Islam & to the Muslims, i.e. those who do not Tolerate such Disrespect. Our numbers will therefore exponentiate inevitably so.
I could certainly 'nitpick' some of the other points made; but I agree in general with most of them, so that would be disingenuous on my part, so I shall simply leave it at that.
Per usual, Thanks to the Wonderful Mr. Macris for publishing a terrific Guest Essay!
& thank you to Sir Fabius for the wonderfully penned response!
You aren't wrong about Islam being the alternative if Christianity continues to fail.
I do think you're wrong about Islam being the solution. Its civilizational record is charitably described as spotty, and observable trends like this (2017, note) make me doubt Islam's immunity to Globohomo infection. https://www.hrc.org/news/majority-of-american-muslims-now-support-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-people.
First, press X to doubt outside of places where extrajudicial Islamic enforcement is possible. Second, not without an explicit religious-based understanding of, and refusal to participate in, Globohomo's biological leninism strategy. I see the first as more likely to change than the second, which equals a future as janissaries not opposition.
An Islam that could implement an "Assad strategy" that reached out to and protected Christians under its umbrella, while offering an international lifeline of cooperation and opportunities, would accomplish many things at once for the long-term benefit and prosperity of both sides.
Our Civilizational record is Great; but it needs to be measured with regard to the Axes of Piety & Justice. Measuring it by "Tech & Economics" (like Westerners do) is not something we accept nor Condone.
Individual Muslims will certainly sin & fall prey to "Team Demon", no doubt. But ultimately we as an Ummah (i.e. 'community') always Amputate & cauterize; something that Christians either don't do at all or don't do Enough.
So they are most welcome to try & "seep in"... they will never succeed. The Boyz will always have enough Toys to kick em out.
And Yes: Standard Sacred Law (per the 4 madhabs) is quite clear... Christians & Jews are People of The Book; ergo they get protections & whatnot under the Islamic Polity.
They are barred from mandatory military service & positions at the 'very top'... (so for example a jew could be the chief physician & a christian could be Prime Minister; but neither could be the Caliph)... but overall they are Citizens still.
We do not hesitate to say: "They are Citizens with fewer rights"... but the reason is simple... "It is Because they have fewer responsibilities to uphold".
This is not a bad thing. Frankly, the West is in this mess because it gave "too many rights" to folks who have little to no responsibilities to society to begin with (observe for instance how "citizen" has become a meaningless term nowadays).
Rom 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
>> Not equal are the good deed and the bad deed. Repel evil by that which is better, and then the one who is hostile to you will become as a devoted friend. But none is granted it except those who are patient and none is granted it except one having a great fortune. <<
~ Surah Fussilat 41:34-35
You have a point, alas. But see the passage I just copied in my previous comment.
I had a look, yes. It is similar in principle to Surah Fussilat, verses 34 & 35. Relevant:
>> Ibn Abbas commented on this verse, saying: 'Allah commands the believers to be patient when they feel angry, to be forbearing when confronted with ignorance, and to forgive when they are mistreated. If they do this, Allah will save them from Satan and subdue their enemies to them until they become like close friends.' <<
So... If one is 'subjected to' injustices, he ought to forebear.
HOWEVER, this does not relate to when God Almighty, His Prophets & Messengers, etc. are themselves 'subjected to' injustices (such as Mockery).
Anger is a Grave Sin in Islam... when it is exercised by One who 'feels that he has been wronged'. But if it involves God Most High, His Prophets & Messengers, etc; Anger is a positive force. Action coming from it therefore, can also be positive.
Upon further contemplation, here are more relevant scriptures:
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Mat 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
And then, the parable of the dishonest manager:
Luk 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
Luk 16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
Luk 16:3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
Luk 16:4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
Luk 16:5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
Luk 16:6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
Luk 16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
Luk 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts). [Bukhari 2476]
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When any human being is born. Satan touches him at both sides of the body with his two fingers, except Jesus, the son of Mary, whom Satan tried to touch but failed, for he touched the placenta-cover instead." [Bukhari 3286]
Narrated Ibn `Abbas:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham (on the night of my Ascension to the heavens). Jesus was of red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest. Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt." [Bukhari 3438]
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all the people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one." [Bukhari 3443]
Narrated `Umar:
I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary, for I am only a Slave. So, call me the Slave of Allah and His Apostle." [Bukhari 3445]