Saturday, August 18, 2018

"The Delight of Dishonest Men"

(The déjà vu of every age?)
Solon*
Solon*: " ... It is the townsfolk themselves and their false-hearted leaders who would fain destroy our great city through wantonness and love of money. But they are destined to suffer sorely for their outrageous behavior. They know not how to hold in check their full-fed lust, or, content with the merriment the banquet affords, to take their pleasure soberly and in order. . . . They are rich because they yield to the temptation of dishonest courses. . . . They spare neither the treasures of the gods nor the property of the state, and steal like brigands one from another. They pay no heed to the unshaken rock of holy Justice, who, though she be silent, is aware of all that happeneth now or hath happened in the past, and, in course of time, surely cometh to demand retribution. Lo, even now there cometh upon the whole city a plague which none may escape. The people have come quickly into degrading bondage ; bondage rouseth from their sleep war and civil strife ; and war destroyeth many in the beauty of their youth. As if she were the prey of foreign foes, our beloved city is rapidly wasted and consumed in those secret conspiracies which are the delight of dishonest men. "These are the evils which stalk at home. Meanwhile the poor and needy in great numbers are loaded with shameful bonds and sold into slavery in foreign lands. . . . Thus public calamity cometh to the house of every individual, and a man is no longer safe within the gates of his own court, which refuse him their protection. It leapeth over the garden wall, however high it be, and surely findeth him out, though he run and hide himself in the inmost corner of his chamber."1
Do we imagine that "those secret conspiracies which are the delight of dishonest men" have not been the déjà vu of every age, in every nation? So why are we afraid / ashamed of being labelled a "conspiracy theorist? The reality of world history is conspiracy upon conspiracy of those pursuing and protecting power and gain. The truth, as some have noted, is "conspiracy realist."

Whistle-blowers, truth tellers, and conspirators know this reality: how secret conspiracies have risen to the top of both the right and the left; how intimidation, fear, suppression, and murder attempt to keep the secrets (and the power and the gain); how unwilling most are to see and hear the full truth about people without conscience (PWOCs); how easily we are manipulated into the agendas and attractions of power and gain; how "private calamity" is already upon tens of thousands who resist or who try to expose the conspiracies; how near we are to full-blown "public calamity"; how dire is our peril if we do not, individually and unitedly, wake up, speak up, and stand up for transparency, accountability, and justice.

NB: This is not to say that every conspiracy allegation is true for the enemy of all righteousness knows that mixing false and true is the most effective means of deception, and thereafter to suppress, censor, or malign any attempt to sort out the mix-up!!. See “Mix-up?” at http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2017/11/mix-up.html

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*Solon: “( c. 638 – c. 558 BC) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon); a contemporary of Jeremiah and Lehi.

1. https://ia800504.us.archive.org/23/items/solonathenian00linf/solonathenian00linf.pdf : pp. 141-142 (bold emphasis added).