Counter Terrorism (An Apocalypse) and Mere Discipleship

Cancel Culture, Cancerous Culture

The various national and regional responses to the Coronavirus scourge have exposed a latent insanity. If panic buying and the many incidents of violent confrontations between customers is any indication, such as that observed in the wake of recent flooding in British Columbia (...which left grocery store shelves bare, gas stations empty of fuel, and led to fuel rationing...), people are behaving like animals, existing primarily on instinct. Because they lack virtue and psychological resilience that provides balance and understanding, they readily commit to panic, character assassination, etc. They have been robbed, by willful disobedience or capitulation or ignorance, of the former wisdom that has guided the world for centuries. That is, Judeo-Christian wisdom. Societal institutions are rife with an abuse of process, entitlement, and the weaponization of baseless grievances. On the last count, the weaponization of grievances, young people have become adept at creating victim circles that pulverize anyone they deem beneath them or a threat to them. They attack anyone who threatens to expose their self righteous, self-centered, and vengeful behaviour.

No manmade vaccine can inoculate people from the hazards of living a mortal life, which is not to say vaccines are useless. Certainly, some vaccines are more effective than others. That said, many societies are so rife with power plays of one kind or another, fear and self loathing, that it is difficult to imagine that the current course can be stopped or even slowed. Most likely the downward trajectory will only stop when, like someone enamoured and imprisoned in addictive behaviour, society hits rock bottom.

The complex mix of politics, pseudoscience, social stupidities (progressive ideology, cancel culture, narcissism) and enabling media, infected with fear, may eventually lead to a constructive result. Fear is a fuel that might just burn out of society the aforementioned behavioral diseases that are plaguing us as much as the biological plague itself. Fearmongers, deprived of easy targets, will then consume each other. Sadly, that stage in the process of cultural and social realignment may only come after the barracudas have shredded so very many decent people.

The tsunami that has impacted public discourse is an irrational fear that is practically untamable. Scientism, for example, has replaced science. How many politicians, in an attempt to appear reasonable and to justify public policy, have crowed the now well worn trope "I'm for the science," or some version of that phrase, even while the science - statistics (infection, recovery and death rates), properties of the virus and its variants, limitations of filtering apparatuses - frequently contradicts public policy in glaringly obvious ways.

Scientism 

An exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities). - Merriam-Webster.

Cultural Genocide

Little do today's cultural warriors - e.g., socialists, wokeists and their ilk - realize they are engaging in cultural genocide. Attempts to rid society of the civilizing energy of Judeo-Christian wisdom and culture by using the latest weapon of mass destruction known as decolonization, coupled with the insanity of political correctness, constitute nothing less than cultural genocide. What began as an attempt to rid schools of prayer in the 1970s, in Canada at least, has since exploded into a pathological hatred for anything that smacks of Judeo-Christian thought and practice. A society scoured of its civilizing force will soon resemble a war zone: Portland; Seattle. Democrat controlled cities are nosediving into violence: NPR Rising Violent Crime; LA Times; Politico.

Counter Terrorism

Common conversations are littered with mines that could go off if one happens to expose a raw nerve buried under a face mask. How, then, do we navigate the unpredictable circumstances made all the more unpredictable by Covid fear and frustration? We need a compass that orients us to a reasonable course of action.

Mere Discipleship

1. Hold fast to the teachings you have received (2 Thess. 2:15).
2. Prudent communication; no pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6).
3. Like a river, flow around obstacles. Practice Christian virtue (Matthew 5). Go the extra mile. The only way to rob evil of its territory ("terror-tory") is to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Seemingly consumed by death, an innocent man - the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity having become man! - having taken upon Himself the sins of the world, rose victorious, conquering death by death.
4. Give reason for the hope that is within you (1 Peter 3:15).
5. Don't go looking for a fight; do not engage craziness. Weigh the cost: measure your investment against the standard of truth, goodness and beauty.
6. When forced into confrontation, do not sacrifice truth, goodness nor beauty when encountering opposition. Don't use a hammer when a feather will do. Define the terms of engagement; gently (but firmly) insist on compliance with reason. Don't interrupt. At a cadence, ask permission to make an interjection. Excuse yourself politely should the other become disrespectful. Leave the outcome in God's hands.
7. Never despair. The God who can create good from nothing can bring about greater good from suffering. - Brian Niemeier
8. And at all times... keep Christ's commandments (John 14:15).

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν, θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας, καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι, ζωὴν χαρισάμενος!

Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling death, and to those in the tombs granting life!