Tag: Jordan Peterson

Honesty, Finally. For the Whole World to See.

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

“…there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” — Jesus Christ, Luke 10:26

In a bitterly ironic way, Trump’s reckless arrogance is to be welcomed. Because he is inadvertently exposing the Western system for what it is – a criminal imperialist regime with absolutely no respect for international law, human life, and peaceful coexistence. He has discarded the Western mask of duplicity and pretense, which at least makes it clear what the Western system is all about. What we see is something barbaric and ugly, like the fascism of former times. — https://strategic-culture.su/news/2026/01/09/trump-turbo-charged-rogue-regime-exposes-pathetic-european-vassals/

Donald Trump has spilled the beans, knowingly or not. America has finally gone rogue without any trappings of respectability or any effort made to preserve its so-called “sanctity” built up over the decades and centuries about democracy, the rule of law, justice, and liberty. No, that carefully constructed and long maintained edifice artifice has just been exposed for the whole world to see and “our” man in the White House has been very direct and open in proclaiming the message. Frank Zappa’s long-standing prediction has arrived.

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

This is not entirely a bad thing. There are no longer any reasons for anyone to make excuses for his actions, just call them for what they are–naked, raw power manifestations. No one, except those who are willfully blind, can justify what is happening according to an ethical moral code unless they also share in Trump’s desire for power over others, for the power to determine what is right and wrong, for the power to create their own “values” and to say, with Trump, “We can do whatever we wish.” Jordan Peterson has addressed the motivation this way.

“This is the elevation of narrow self-will to the highest conceivable place, in the guise of ultimate freedom. (“I can abide by whatever values I choose”–something that almost immediately deteriorates into “I can do whatever I want” or, more accurately, “Whatever impulse grips me rules.”) This is simultaneously the presumption of subjective omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. (“I have the capacity to determine the very definition of right and wrong, valuable and contemptible, good and evil.”)1

Trump has explicitly stated this before (see here), his sycophantic staff and advisors parrot the same line (see here), and the authority has even been expanded to the police who can now “do whatever the hell they want”. Somewhere, somehow, the man has gotten the idea that because he was elected selected to hold down the cushy chair in the Oval Office, there are no limits on his behavior and that no one can tell him to “stand down”. There are millions of Americans, many of them so-called Christians who ought to know better, who cheer him on and virtually worship him as, if not God Himself, then as representing God because they have themselves embraced a violent religion of power and control. They are subject to the idol they have raised up.

Unfortunately, this attitude does not guarantee righteous success, but instead drives the already low moral status of the United States even lower. If the President can do anything he wants and get away with it, then, as one of his subjects, I can also act that way and, hopefully, escape any judgment and punishment myself. When Trump acts in an immoral manner as the representative of the people, it does not mean that he is immune to consequences, instead it shows that the moral character of the populace at large is degraded and rotten. These points (“I’m the President. I can do whatever I want.”) and (“If the president is free to act any way he wants, then so am I.”) are symbiotic and feed off each other, making excuses for all sorts of behavior, refusing to take responsibility, and blaming others for the fallout.

What is to be done by the average person in the US who is appalled by the goings-on?

  1. Recognize that you cannot change Donald Trump nor the way he thinks. This is God’s prerogative, however, you can ask God to work a miracle.
  2. Recognize that you may have such tendencies within yourself and, if so, confess them, ask forgiveness, cleansing, and healing, then change the way you think and act.
  3. Recognize that you do not have the authority nor the power to determine what is right or wrong. That was fixed a long time ago and is immutable. It cannot be changed, adapted, amended, added to, or altered. It can only be obeyed and adhered to, or disobeyed and ignored at your own risk and those who follow after you.
  4. Make a difference for righteousness in your own sphere of influence, your family, church, neighborhood, community.2
  5. Refuse to support the evil which is pervasive throughout this society. Call it out whenever it appears, beginning within your own soul. Eliminate every evil! If this means you have to change your politics to fit your belief structure, then…well? Do I need to draw you a picture?3
  6. Prepare yourself for what is coming4. Other nations have been here before. Where are they now? Why should we expect to receive different treatment?

As average, everyday Americans, we do not have much influence, hardly any at all, over the machinations of the powers-that-be who own and run the government. That does not let us off the hook. When the shit hits the fan full force, as it will, we are going to be held responsible for the part we played in the shaping of our society. It does no good to claim ignorance nor to say that we are blameless.

“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him will they ask the more.” — Luke 12: 47-48

As the common saying in jurisprudence says, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Whether we acted deliberately or ignorantly, we are going to be beaten. Truly, a day of reckoning is due America and, as the society which has been given more than any other in history, the stripes will be proportionate.

Live not by lies! It may save your skin.

  1. Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God, Penguin Random House, 2024, chapter 2.5 ↩︎
  2. Glen Campbell put it this way. We need to take the message to heart. ↩︎
  3. One of my father’s favorite questions. ↩︎
  4. See Psalms 2. If you listen closely, you can almost hear God laughing uproariously. Or, maybe He has done and is wiping the tears out of His eyes. Either way, not good for our future. ↩︎

The Source of Our Beliefs

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

 “What he wished to believe, that is what each man believes” — Demosthenes

On multiple occasions in the past, and always in response to some person stating that he (or she, usually a he) has no religion, no god, and is, therefore, fully and sovereignly in control of his life, I have said that everyone has a god, a religion, whether they acknowledge it or not. What is the one thing, the value, the idea which you hold in highest regard, which is most important to you, and which reigns supreme over everything else in your life? Regardless of its nature or being, that is your god and the pursuit of it is your religion. You place your faith and your belief in it and you worship it. No one is exempt. No one can rise above this fact nor escape its certainty.

I have been vindicated. In his book, We Who Wrestle with God, Jordan Peterson, yes, that Jordan Peterson, writes this, barely a few pages into the foreword.

“We elevate what we most highly regard to the utmost place of supremacy or sovereignty. We aim at the upward target we deem central, however momentarily. We bring our consciousness itself to bear on what we define as worthy of the expenditure of our attention and the efforts of our action. We begin our continual journey forward by positing a good–a good that is at least better than our point of departure. This is an act of faith as well as one of sacrifice: faith, because the good could be elsewhere; sacrifice, because in the pursuit of any particular good we determine to forgo all others.”1

Nature abhors a vacuum, it is said, and those who state that there is no god and that religion is for fools literally create their own spiritual vacuum which must be filled with something. That something is usually themselves. “God does not exist, therefore, in the absence of God, I become God.” This is commonly known as atheistic humanism and its most basic tenet is that Man can determine truth for himself without any “help” from outside. The major problem with this line of thinking is that it is impossible to prove that God does or does not exist. Instead, the concept must be taken on faith, which is an aspect of a religious belief.

Some “believers” in the non-existence of God become nihilists, believers in nothing, who work toward the destruction of anything good and positive so that something else can be built in its place, subsequently to be destroyed. (See here for a good description of nihilism.)

“Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life–the passion for destruction is also a creative passion!” — Mikhael Bakunin

This is perpetual, unending destruction for the sake of destruction, until Utopia is reached. Somehow, Utopia will be attained. The devil is in the details.

“Deeper down, at the core of our dilemma, is a self-perpetuating crisis of thought. In a sense the difficulty is a very simple one, adequately captured in the story of Adam and Eve. Mankind, tired of dependency on its creator, seeks to strike out alone.” — John Waters

Yes, mankind seeks to strike out alone, to chart his own course, to become his own arbiter of truth. This is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden, metaphorically or literally, and mankind is still suffering from the action taken. Mankind also suffers from the actions taken today because we have never recovered from The Lie that we could be like God, equal with Him in the determination of what constitutes and defines good and evil. We see it everywhere throughout society. It is in the forefront of the news constantly, as evidenced currently by Israel’s ongoing slaughter of her weaker neighbors, countenanced by the assertion that this is, somehow, God’s desire and, therefore, to be supported without reservation.

“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” — from the Melian Dialogue

Yet, in spite of this, in the midst of all the chaos, din, and confusion, there is that still small voice which whispers quietly to us, which we cannot drown out or silence, no matter how hard we try: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

What is God? Who is God? Who shall declare himself as God? There is only one answer and it is seen in the immediate quote above. Even this, though, is subject to interpretation because if Man is God, then however Man loves his neighbor is right and proper, as in, “Do to your neighbor, but do it to him first”, which is pure aggression, or “Love your neighbor, but more especially his wife”, because in all probability, your neighbor is “loving” your wife, even as we speak.

This whole conversation thus reverts back to the beginning: what is truth, and who will define it. Shall I submit to a higher authority and align my life with its (His) decrees or shall I make the vain attempt to go my own way and declare myself God, regardless of the cost?

Does it really matter who or what we worship as God? Does it really matter whose word becomes law? The difference is stark. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”, and its total opposite, “I am the president. I can do whatever I want.”

Well, yes, Mr. Trump, you can, but there are always consequences which follow.

  1. We Who Wrestle With God, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Penguin Random House, 2024, page xxvii.
    ↩︎