Erect the Mental Barriers

“Watch me, Mommy. Watch me!”

This is a meta-post. It’s about the process of sharing information and inspiration.

Sometimes I want to share a word from the Lord. In keeping with the wisdom of Solomon, I try to be terse about that, because it’s not me you need to know, but the Lord. If you then want to get to know me, there is time for that later.

And those times do come, where I divulge as much of me as this medium permits. I’m trying to make it a habit to give you a clue at the top of the post so you’ll know where we are going, and you can skip the posts that don’t meet your needs in the Lord. Pray for me when I fall below that standard.

If I start sharing about how I’m convinced that this whole COVID-19 policy mess is nothing more than a thinly disguised plan to depopulate the Western world, there is nothing I can do to convince folks of that unless they already have a strong measure of cynicism in the first place. Thus, that’s not a topic for discussion, but an underlying assumption to admit as I go on to discuss something else.

The real topic, then, would be how the system is going to become insidiously hostile to those of us who refuse to play along with the edicts coming out of government. Yes, you have some hope, in that some state and local officials are actually doing their jobs and pushing back against bogus federal mandates. But that doesn’t change the underlying threat, in that the system itself is your enemy.

It used to be that we could count on a certain amount of bureaucratic resistance, alongside the wide presence of individual mercy residing in human souls. That’s being squelched very quickly. The oppressors have mobilized the troops, so to speak, and there’s no allowance for individual variations. I characterize it like that so you’ll give it the emphasis it deserves.

And it’s not as if you don’t see this yourself. Rather, I am seeking to confirm what you know, to give it a stronger shape in your mind. More importantly, it’s to help you think about how we should pray. Most of you are already primed for the passive resistance that stands so strong as the preferred path in the New Testament. The really sad part is that a number of us will end up having to fight something that we dare not let pass, because the threat is to all the people we strive to protect under our spiritual covering. You simply must stand for your convictions.

I’m sure you get that, but here’s the point of this post: We need to be very discerning about whom we grant our attention when it comes to information and advice about the broader context. There is a major cultural problem here, and I know some of you haven’t been able to put your finger on it. There are way too many people out there only pretending to be helpful, when their true goal is to get your attention, without giving any back to you.

I can’t write this off as merely a standard flaw of the fallen fleshly nature. This is something our culture promotes, something we need to fight. You’ll see people putting out these long videos, claiming to have exclusive information that will help you, but only at the cost of giving them your attention as they blather needlessly, and quite unprofessionally, for an hour to put out five minutes worth of information. If you try to contact them for more details about this or that aspect, they won’t respond to you individually. You might get a quick blurb, but there won’t be any real response. At most, they’ll just use it as an excuse for another long video.

I’m not complaining about advertising, where the host(s) of the video mention something they want to sell. I accept that as part of the transaction for the time being.

The flaw is that they have zero interest in you. All they want is to bathe in the spotlight. These aren’t your friends. They are intentionally avoiding the situation where they would have to reciprocate socially in a healthy conversation. Granted, they aren’t the only people making videos, but it’s not hard to figure out who these people are. They pretend this is a formal setting where we’ve all agreed to some rules so they can do their thing and not get eaten alive by the masses. That has its place, but it also comes along with it the moral obligation that they not waste your time. It’s not about them, but the information.

So a good example is Ben Davidson at Suspicious Observers. His daily videos are short and sweet, and if you want more, he has lots of links below the video. It seems clear that he shares what he honestly believes. Only reluctantly does he try to put himself into it. Alex Jones is the opposite. He uses information to get attention, and puts out these long, droning videos where it’s all about him. Worse, he lies knowingly about some things.

So be discerning about this when someone recommends a video. Don’t jump on the bandwagon, where someone urges you to waste time, as if it was some sacred duty to bow before the altar of some “wonderful” speaker. If you think there’s no other way to get the information you seek about something, then do us all a favor and summarize what you got from it. That’s something I’ve tried to do in the past; you don’t need to wade through everything I do. I’m a specialist in certain things that God called me to explore. I try to extract the pertinent information to save you the trouble.

May the Lord guard your hearts and minds.