Calm Down

This is your elder/pastor writing, the shepherd who loves you because God taught him how to love: You need to calm down.

Okay, some of you need to calm down, or maybe you can try to help folks who aren’t in on this virtual parish. Let’s offer a gift of love that doesn’t really require our religion to understand. Honestly, it’s already been explained, but we live in a culture that values moral outrage as a distraction from moral living. The Spirit of God brings peace, not tumult.

Once more: I’m citing Glennon from his book, National Security and Double Government. Not his words, but the contextual awareness that our society is under the thumb of some broad collective consensus so that we cannot blame any one person for the insanity of our government. It’s intentional — create an atmosphere that dehumanizes and instills a petty fear in just that one sphere of human activity of people in the workplace as bureaucrats in government service. I have served in this atmosphere; I did so after getting a very good education in psychology and other social sciences. Not only was I morally aware of the serious danger, but I could trace the very structure of this thing from several angles. Glennon’s book simply added a refreshing explanation that helped crystallize what I already knew.

Example: Over the past few years, we have seen stories where public education officials have called police on parents who had the gall to approach the school facility as pedestrians. The parent(s) notified us all via news stories and social media of this utterly senseless act. When someone managed to get the school officials to explain, it comes out that it is a security policy: You are required to approach the building in a motor vehicle, even if you live across the street. You may not exit this vehicle while in the proximity of the school facility, but must wait for school employees to direct your child(ren) to your vehicle. You are considered a threat in this environment.

I understand this. That doesn’t make it sensible.

Please, try to understand that these officials belong to that Trumanite bureaucratic culture. They exist in an alien environment detached from the reality almost everyone else experiences. The bureaucrats do not realize just how freaking insane it is, and will flatly argue that you are the one who is nuts. The world of bureaucratic consciousness is an alien place, rather like Hell. I mean that literally in some ways — Hell. This beastly state of mind is precisely what Satan wanted and he loves it. Bureaucrats are the true Church of Satan. Everyone who worships at that shrine — every bureaucrat — does not realize that their lord is Satan. They are convinced it’s all impersonal, that it’s just “common sense.” They cannot imagine why in the world you would object to their policies, but they sure as Hell don’t mind punishing you for it.

Here in the US, we are particularly devoted to this peculiar insane religion. Think of the worst horror stories of government oppression in, say most European countries, and that is our routine. This is why I often say nasty things about child welfare policies in the US. On average, even by state policy definitions, the handling of children while in direct custody of the government is often worse than whatever “abuse” they are trying to resolve. In other words, social workers are some of the most horrific bureaucrats in the world, utterly lacking in anything that resembles a conscience. The process for vetting foster parents guarantees that hard-core child abusers are often the first ones approved for the program. Again, this is by the state’s own definition of what constitutes “abuse.” People with a functioning conscience find the child welfare programs abominable. Good moral people cannot tolerate the system, and only the low-level psychopaths will tolerate the bureaucracy.

You want to change this? Make sure you understand what Glennon says: You would have to slaughter at least 100,000 bureaucrats just to get their attention in one state. Want to reform the federal government? I estimate that it would require the public execution of roughly 2 million bureaucrats. That means every single armed, badge-bearing federal enforcement officer, and the vast majority of those who rely on their armed presence to force us to obey their edicts. If you somehow managed to isolate any particular individual from the herd for a long enough time, they might be saved from this insanity. Do you have the resources to do that to some 2 million all at once? Because it’s worse than any drug addiction you’ve ever seen. From personal experience, I’m telling you with all seriousness it is just that bad.

Now, take a deep breath and think: This is the “normal” for our world. It might be less of an issue in other Western countries, but still bad enough in their own way. And our God says in His Word that He is in charge and we are not to attempt changing this situation until He gives us a calling and authority to carry it out. Are you willing and able to slaughter a few million folks? That’s the only way you can change things in this fallen world. If you believe God has called you to that, don’t say it publicly because you’ll be a target for all kinds of awful. God has not called me to that, I can assure you.

God has called me to help my fellow believers learn to live with this. Part of learning to live with this is that you stop reacting with shock and froth. Yes, it’s crazy, but we can do without that “Ain’t It Awful” game. That distracts from the work of mercy in our lives. Instead, get used the idea that it will get steadily worse. The bureaucratic hive-mind cannot turn around; it can only run farther down the slope into Hell. Bureaucrats are increasingly out of touch with the folks they rule. And while the bureaucratic hive-mind is aware in the sense of making intelligent preparations for resistance, their discernment is limited. They simply do not realize that there is a breaking point. Their calculus excludes the very notion that this could all come to a screeching halt. Their bureaucracy is sacred; they aren’t allowed to imagine it ending. They will all be utterly shocked when the society they rule erupts and starts destroying the system.

The only question left is just how discerning the revolt will be, and thus the accuracy of their targeting and tactics. I predict that the populace at large is no smarter than the bureaucracy, so it will be long, ugly and painful. In fact, most folks will not discern when it starts or when it ends, nor much of what it really meant.

Now, one more complication: Bureaucrats will fight with each other. That is, once a bureaucrat is outside his/her official domain, they tend to become rather ordinary victims of the other bureaucrats in other domains. So the shit-head principal at school who had you arrested for walking up to get your children will complain and threaten to raise hell when the county raises his property taxes to give a pay boost to some other bureaucratic office. Now that is really insane.