This post continues the theme from yesterday’s What We Can Know versus What We Can Do.
I left off with the assertion you should attempt or aim to live by the ancient tribal social structure as much as possible. Not the popular image of clannish and hateful distrust of anyone outside your extended family household, that was never the biblical concept. You’ll notice even today many Near Eastern folks are still quite hospitable, trying to be helpful to strangers who are no obvious threat. That is a carry over from ancient times when God’s Laws were widely known and practiced. We aim to cultivate that sort of graceful living, even if we must modify it some for a context in which human predators are far more likely to be active. You can be guarded without hatred.
So does that guarded-but-gracious living mean avoiding like the plague all interaction with an evil government? Of course not. That would call for entirely too much effort for too little gain. On the one hand, we justly regard all government agents with suspicion. For example, I have no trouble referring to TSA as ridiculously expensive security theater, with absolutely zero benefit in terms of actually making things any safer. By God’s standards, the whole thing is a complete ripoff, because the people in charge know it’s not doing any good, and they are blatantly lying about it. And so it is with almost every form of enforcement activity, because the theory is perverted, the people running at are often singularly arrogant and unaccountable, and far too many LEOs you encounter will simply act the part of armed thug. I’ve always said don’t ever dial 911 unless you are ready to die, or at least lose everything you value. But, you shouldn’t jump through a hundred hoops to avoid every encounter.
If what you do in this world calls for encountering the idiots who work for TSA, then do so with grace and peace. There is nothing to gain by forcefully standing up for your rights, simply because what those rights may be on paper hardly matters in the real world any longer, if they ever did. We are justly cynical and skeptical any of them can ever learn from even the most glaring court victories. We’ve seen TSA only backs down when they are utterly shamed on YouTube or the like, and it has nothing to do with what is just or right. Even when they know they are wrong, it won’t change their determination to exercise their authority with the most egregious petty abusiveness. Plus, we have substantial evidence they have no conscience in the first place, which seems to be a condition of employment. Resistance might serve some purpose, but it’s not very practical. If you decide you must resist, go right ahead, because nothing I write will help you.
By no means do I counsel you to ignore it all, and pretend it’s okay. What I’m hoping you’ll understand is not allowing their petty meanness to rule you. The danger here is building a system of social interaction which assumes truth is objective and concrete. It is not, but only those who have the insight of mysticism realize it. Western Civilization is but a passing fling, a seduction of humanity into some insane notion reality can be fully addressed from mere concrete logic, that the human intellect is capable of handling all truth. Mysticism admits right away things that really and truly matter most are beyond words, and certainly beyond human logic. The best we can hope for is a tolerable negotiation for any given moment between Ultimate Truth beyond logic and some particular necessity to act and react for this moment. Yes, all human governments today, so far as we know, are utterly abhorrent to God, but it’s His problem. He is crushing them each in turn, according to His own agenda and schedule. It’s not in your hands.
So when you walk through the see-you-naked scanners at the airport, what can you really do? It works best if you act as if it won’t matter — because it doesn’t. That is, unless you have some obsession with fixing everyone else’s problems. Sure, write your congressional delegation, agitate for political change, write ugly things about TSA. But don’t expect that to fix anything. Instead of making a scene, find out what is most likely to get you through quickly and adapt. Let it all slide off.
Have you ever seen slate floors? People can walk on them with almost anything on their feet, but after literally years of heavy foot traffic, a slate floor is hardly even worn. Give it a couple of decades, and about the most you’ll see is the slate surface is polished and shiny. A couple of centuries and maybe it will be thinned just a bit. People are going to walk on you, but you get to decide whether you’ll be slate or something much weaker.
Indeed, not only do I recommend gracious interaction with the Police State, but you can even take a government job. It won’t hurt to have a few mystical minds making someone’s day just a little sweeter. Of course, you know if you remain true to the mystical nature, it will annoy your fellow government employees. It might even get you fired. But neither taking nor losing that job should make any difference in you.
The best you can hope for in this insane world is simply keeping yourself sane by not taking it too seriously.
