GAZlighting by Anarchists?

With the plethora of new tyrannical legislation under cover of COVID19, many are remembering and praising Ayn Rand's phantom character, John Galt. Thirty-three times in Atlas Shrugged, Rand asks the question: “Who is John Galt?” YET, it seems that, over the years, few have taken the time to reply, so I refurbish a portion of a Déjà Vu ~ Times answer¹ from 2012 to remind lamenting, budding rights-activists that their “anarchist” John Galt is probably not who they think he is.

For and from the record,² John Galt is:

the man who claims that Galt’s Gulch ... (Galt's Autonomous Zone, i.e., GAZ in latter-day parlance) has no rules (D:544) — EXCEPT the rule that there are no rules. OH, AND the rule “not to give to the world the benefit of [one’s] mind” (D:569). OH, AND since there are really no rules, there are several GAZ “directives” as in:

▪ the word “give” is forbidden in the valley (D:544)
▪ no one can leave GAZ during the month of rest from the world (D:578)
▪ no communication with the outside world is allowed while in GAZ (D:581)
▪ no disclosure of any nature or degree about GAZ to the outside world is permitted (D:615)
▪ there are to be no gifts or favors, only earnings in GAZ (D:578+; 544)
▪ no currency but Milligan mint is accepted in GAZ (D:554)
▪ one doesn’t ask for help (D:575)
▪ self-sacrifice is forbidden³ (D:769)
▪ the requirement to pursue self-interest and maximum profit prevails
▪ “there can be no collective commitments in [GAZ] and that families or relatives are not allowed to come here, unless each person takes the striker's oath by his own independent conviction.” (D:598)
▪ the law of the voluntary contract governs⁴ (D:810)
▪ everyone who enters GAZ takes the oath: "I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."⁵ (D:557)
▪ “Nobody stays in [GAZ] except by a full, conscious choice based on a full, conscious knowledge of every fact involved in his decision. Nobody stays here by faking reality^[6] in any manner whatever." (D:605)
▪ everyone MUST be a competitive, achieving person of ambition and competence
▪ violence (normally taboo) will be met with violence (no “turn the other cheek” nonsense) (D:779)
▪ there shall be no sloth⁷
▪ “moochers,” “looters,” “cannibals” are forbidden
▪ the support of “moochers,” “looters,” “cannibals,” is forbidden
▪ (plus how many other unexpressed expectations and directives might Galt pronounce to counter opposing expectations and beliefs of newcomers to GAZ?)

So, do we have any realists ready to move to GAZ? Or to other AZs that are cropping-up in 2020?

Just watch the attempted coverage of these “free” zones by disliked or independent media. Freedom from coercion is not the rule. The rule is replacement of abusive coercion and exclusion by one's preferred brand of coercion and exclusion. That is the reality.

So, could we term Rand's “GAZ” a form of GAZlighting of innocents who know-not the reality of human nature? Anarchy is a vacuum that fills almost instantly with tyrants. That's the reality of “mankind” and “human nature” in this fallen world. Just ask the Seattle CHAZ/CHOP innocents and “summer-of-love” mayor about co-opting and tyranny. In the beginning, all might seem calm, peaceful, respectful, inclusive, utopian, but reality soon intervenes as a new / old domination system invades the Shangri-La.⁸ SO

Wake Up

Governors | Mayors | theoretical Anarchists | Innocents | Citizens

Defunding / disbanding the police, even as abusive as some of them are, creates a vacuum into which bands of mercenaries will rush — mercenaries already visa-ed, prepped, weaponized, and waiting with baited breath for the order to roll-out the WO (camouflaged as World Order). And as horrific as recent events have been, they pale to what is planned unless WE, like Nineveh,⁹ wake up and repent.

Yes, anarchists, I think that perhaps 97% of our laws and “authorities” are unnecessary, excessive, abusive, AND often unlawful, but GAZlighting oneself and others about the benignity of “human nature”¹⁰ while also ignoring the inner and outer social half of the human quadrant of reality (vis-à-vis the inner / outer individual half) distorts the options and solutions. Let us honestly look at human nature as it really is, as it really has been, and as it will continue to be if we don't address unpleasant, galling truths about it and our delusions and obsessions with power, gain, and glory.

-------------------------/
1. https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2012/10/who-is-john-galt.html
2.  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: digital PDF version found at http://www.mises.ch/library/Rand_AtlasShrugged.pdf . The pages references (D:xxx) refer to pages in that PDF edition.
3. BUT, BUT, BUT didn't Francisco d'Anconia and Hank Rearden violate the sacred rules against self-sacrifice and the requirement to pursue only self-interest when they gave up their love and lover Dagny Taggart to John Galt?
4. BUT, BUT, BUT what if 3 or 4 people want to voluntarily make a collective commitment or contract when “no collective commitments” are allowed?
5. BUT, BUT, BUT didn't those other persecuted achievers (as in: Francisco d’Anconia, Hank Rearden, Ragnar Danneskjold, Dagny Taggart, et al.) go well beyond these directives by putting their own lives and futures at risk (altruism?) to rescue their adored, philosophical leader from captors? (D:874) not to mention (again) the giving up of a beloved paramour Dagny to the enamored Galt?
6. Who decides who is faking reality? And what if the Decider is ignoring / faking reality?
7. And who decides “sloth”? Would that include philosophers who sit and think? Etc.? Etc.?
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La . For a review of gaslighting, see https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/search?q=gaslighting
9. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death By Erika Belibtreu at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f4af/bb82f1b7920fa9444e29eb128bd13832cd46.pdf ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria . See also: https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-was-jonah-so-very-angry.html
10. Watch for a coming Post (probably at the sister site, Déjà Vu ~ Times) responding to Larken Rose's The Most Dangerous Superstition and his claim that: statists and those who fear or oppose anarchy have “a profound misunderstanding of human nature.”

Everyone Gets What He Deserves??

(Jedem das Seine = literally, "to each his own" |  figuratively "everyone gets what he deserves")

Main camp gate at Buchenwald

For photo attribution see * below

This German proverb was written over the main gate of the Buchenwald concentration camp.¹

The words “Everyone gets what he deserves” may sound just and true, but let us take a brief stroll through scripture and history. Remember Abel? Isaiah? Jeremiah? Zacharias? John the Baptist? Jesus? Stephen? Peter, James, John, colleagues, & converts? Abinadi?² the believers at Ammonihah?³ the Anti-Nephi-Lehies?⁴ the thousands of other Christian martyrs like John Huss, William Tyndale, et al.?⁵ the falsely accused and convicted? the numerous genocide victims of the ages? the millions of abused and trafficked children of this 21st Century?⁶ & on and on?

YET, this proverb — Everyone gets what he deserves — seems to have become the thesis and mantra of the “Right —  a “Right” that seeing, cannot yet see how its preferred economic system favors / encourages / rewards the psychopathic.⁷

Remember the phrase and professor of “You can buy anything in this world for money”? Could it be the same worldly professor of “Everyone gets what he deserves”? Could it be the same ground dweller who put these ideas into the mind and mouth of Korihor?

... that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime;⁸

the same inspiration for Cain?

Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain.⁹

Do we really think that competitive, natural men and women¹⁰ — those pursuers and protectors of power and gain in this world — have any just concept of who deserves what and when? Is this really a proverb that has been co-opted to justify “conservative” opinions about the undeserving poor, needy, downtrodden, and weak of this world? a proverb, that with honest study, can be seen to counter most of what the Savior said about the poor, the needy, AND the rich?¹¹

Whether conservatives are willing to admit it or not, this proverb expresses a core tenant of their “faith” in free markets, capitalism, and Randian “objectivism.”¹² BUT, what if this proverb, in reality, is a distortion of a higher reality? What if this proverb is a celestial construct torqued into a telestial sphere where natural men earn and / or administer “just deserts” according to the dictates of their own vain imaginations?

What if this proverb is only true in the hereafter for the unrepentant? Consider:

the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful. Therefore, my [children], see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again. For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.¹³

As for the repentant: Who of us can say we deserve what we shall be given through the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ? — the Master of gifts and giving.

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—
21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.¹⁴

We have been warned more than once that “deserts” in this world are unlikely to conform to God's truth and justice?

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.¹⁵

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.¹⁶

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.¹⁷

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.¹⁸

_____________________/
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedem_das_Seine
2. Book of Mormon | Mosiah 17:9-13 ~ Now Abinadi said unto him: I say unto you, I will not recall the words which I have spoken unto you concerning this people, for they are true; and that ye may know of their surety I have suffered myself that I have fallen into your hands. Yea, and I will suffer even until death, and I will not recall my words, and they shall stand as a testimony against you. And if ye slay me ye will shed innocent blood, and this shall also stand as a testimony against you at the last day. And now king Noah was about to release him, for he feared his word; for he feared that the judgments of God would come upon him. But the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying: He has reviled the king. Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain. And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yea, even unto death.
3. Book of Mormon | Alma 14:8-10 ~ And they brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire; and they also brought forth their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be burned and destroyed by fire. And it came to pass that they took Alma and Amulek, and carried them forth to the place of martyrdom, that they might witness the destruction of those who were consumed by fire. And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene?
4. Book of Mormon | Alma 24:21 ~ Now when the people [Anti-Nephi-Lehies] saw that they [the Lamanities] were coming against them they went out to meet them, and prostrated themselves before them to the earth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thus they were in this attitude when the Lamanites began to fall upon them, and began to slay them with the sword.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_martyrs
6. http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/search/label/Abuse ;
    http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Abuse
7. http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Corporatism
8. Book of Mormon | Alma 30:17
9. Pearl of Great Price | Moses 5:31
10. Book of Mormon | Mosiah 3:19 ~ For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
11. http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2009/12/economics-of-jesus.html
      http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2012/05/list-deja-vu-goes-on-on.html
      http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2009/10/to-sick-and-afflicted.html
12. http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand
      http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Corporatism
13. Book of Mormon | Alma 41:13-15
14. Book of Mormon | Mosiah 2:20-25
15. New Testament | 1 Peter 4:12-13
16. New Testament | 2 Timothy 3:12-13
17. New Testament | John 15:18-19
18. New Testament | John 16:33

* Image attribution:
By Motorfix at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,
Link By Motorfix at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18156970

The Sleep of Hell?

O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe. (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 1:13, bold emphasis added)

From my observations, most of us seem deeply asleep to the primary crisis of every age; to the déjà vu story of power and gain—despite scriptural witnesses and warnings.¹

WHEN will we, God-loving people, admit to the psychopathy of power and gain that is inherent in our economic system? Korihor put it succinctly:

And many more such things did he [Korihor] say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime. (Book of Mormon | Alma 30:17)

So when we hear appalling stories involving corruption, crime, and conspiracy by those pursuing power and gain, why do so many of us bury our head in the sands of denial? Why are we so prone to ignore (even side with, support with our $$, own shares in) powers that pursue self-interest and criminal intent at others' expense and harm? Why so prone to trust in the arm of flesh and the propaganda / disinformation of “professionals” and mammon-bloated bullies? Why so enamored still with the frauds of Randian philosophy?² Why do we continually cavort (without consciousness) in the boudoirs of Babylon never acknowledging the great deception / distraction we have fallen heir to?³

And why do we so readily believe or join in the castigation of “tinfoil-hatters,”⁴ and “conspiracy nut-cases” when

» history;
» political exposés;
» corporate culture;
» whistle-blowing;
» crime chronicles;
» court-room transcripts;
» plots of plays, novels, movies;
» real-life experience;
» etc., etc.

are glutted with tales of conspiracy by those protecting or pursuing power and gain?

Two current, high-profile, critical exposés of latter-day corruption, crime, and conspiracy concern vaccines⁵ and geoengineering⁶ which the Powers-that-believe-in-power-and-gain-above-all-else are, at this very moment, passionately denying and mocking.

If we

▪ sleep through these times;
▪ refuse to honestly look at the evidence;
▪ prefer to trust in the systems of the world;
▪ wait for other voices to speak out first;
▪ think that God is going to take care of it all without reviewing individual accountability;
▪ remain silent in the fear of “What will become of me?” (if I speak up / take a stand?)

should we be shocked if we find ourselves standing accused as accomplices at the pleading bar of God in a day not so far away?

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. (Book of Mormon | Ether 8:24, bold emphasis added.)

----------------------------
(All bold emphasis has been added in the scriptures below.)
1. Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 22:23 ~ For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet.
Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 26:20 ~ And the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled, because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many churches; nevertheless, they put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain and grind upon the face of the poor.
Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 26:29 ~ He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.
Book of Mormon | Mosiah 29:40 ~ And they did wax strong in love towards Mosiah; yea, they did esteem him more than any other man; for they did not look upon him as a tyrant who was seeking for gain, yea, for that lucre which doth corrupt the soul; for he had not exacted riches of them, neither had he delighted in the shedding of blood; but he had established peace in the land, and he had granted unto his people that they should be delivered from all manner of bondage; therefore they did esteem him, yea, exceedingly, beyond measure.
Book of Mormon | Alma 11:20 ~ Now, it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them; therefore they did stir up the people against Alma and Amulek.
Book of Mormon | Alma 43:8 ~ For behold, his designs were to stir up the Lamanites to anger against the Nephites; this he did that he might usurp great power over them, and also that he might gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage.
Book of Mormon | Helaman 2:8 ~ And when the servant of Helaman had known all the heart of Kishkumen, and how that it was his object to murder, and also that it was the object of all those who belonged to his band to murder, and to rob, and to gain power, (and this was their secret plan, and their combination) the servant of Helaman said unto Kishkumen: Let us go forth unto the judgment-seat.
Book of Mormon | Helaman 6:17 ~ For behold, the Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the world that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain.
Book of Mormon | Helaman 7:5 ~ Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—
Book of Mormon | 4 Nephi 1:26 ~ And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.
Book of Mormon | Ether 8:16 ~ And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms.
Book of Mormon | Ether 8:22-23 ~ And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not. Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.
Book of Mormon | Ether 9:11 ~ Now the people of Akish were desirous for gain, even as Akish was desirous for power; wherefore, the sons of Akish did offer them money, by which means they drew away the more part of the people after them.
Book of Mormon | Ether 11:15 ~ And it came to pass that there arose a rebellion among the people, because of that secret combination which was built up to get power and gain; and there arose a mighty man among them in iniquity, and gave battle unto Moron, in which he did overthrow the half of the kingdom; and he did maintain the half of the kingdom for many years.
Book of Mormon | Mormon 8:14 ~ And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, him will the Lord bless.
Book of Mormon | Mormon 8:33 ~ O ye wicked and perverse and stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain? Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might bring damnation upon your souls? Behold, look ye unto the revelations of God; for behold, the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled.
Book of Mormon | Mormon 8:40 ~ Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?
Doctrine and Covenants 10:56 ~ But it is they who do not fear me, neither keep my commandments but build up churches unto themselves to get gain, yea, and all those that do wickedly and build up the kingdom of the devil—yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, that it is they that I will disturb, and cause to tremble and shake to the center.
New Testament | JST, Matthew 16:29 ~ Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
New Testament | 1 Timothy 6:5 ~ Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
Old Testament | Proverbs 1:16-19 ~ For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Old Testament | Proverbs 15:27 ~ He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.
Old Testament | Isaiah 33:15 ~ He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
Old Testament | Ezekiel 22:12 ~ In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.
Old Testament | Ezekiel 22:27 ~ Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
2. Consider http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2012/10/handbook-to-hell.html ; http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/03/me-me-mine.html ; http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2012/11/comparatively-speaking.html ; or the entire labels: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand ; and http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand
3. See http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2014/12/deception-inc.html ; or the entire label: http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/search/label/Socialism
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat
5. Vaccines: Attend your local showing of the documentary, Vaxxed; watch it at http://vaxxedthemovie.com/ ; visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/vaxxedthemovie/ ; explore the numerous YouTube accounts for “Vaxxed” ; or review some Deja Vu ~ Times posts: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2016/08/bullies-bravehearts.html ; http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2016/08/imagine.html
6. Geoengineering: Study the abundant evidence at http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/ ; listen to weekly radio broadcasts titled, Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News found on that site under “Recent” in the right hand column or at YouTube ; visit his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dane.wigington.geoengineeringwatch.org/ ; or review some Deja Vu ~ Times posts under the label: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Geoengineering ; or a Deja Vu ~ TimesTwo post at http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2016/05/mayday-or-not.html

Arms Race?

aka: Colossal Squid
can be up to 46 feet long
from WikimediaCommons: author Rcidte

If a group of divers were attacked by a Colossal squid,¹ and became obsessively focused on disabling a single arm as the chief and all consuming danger, what would be their chances of survival? Slim to none?

Well, that seems to be the strategy of many defenders of freedom. They latch onto the parasitic system of socialist / communist tyranny and hack away, leaving other arms free to contort and captivate, seemingly oblivious to the danger or damage.

So, one last time (maybe),  I sound the alarm and lay it out as plain as I can.

Babylon is the body of the Colossal—the “brain,” the nerve center manipulating all the arms of destruction. Babylon—the whore of all the earth (God’s description²)—will co-opt, infiltrate, and corrupt everything she can lay her arms and tentacles to, and she has done so. Science, government, law enforcement, military, militias, politics, philosophy, entertainment, religion, finance, business, education, industry, you name it—she has a suckered arm for each. But perhaps the more far-reaching, dangerous tentacles are those devoted to that other (conjoined) parasitic system known as capitalism / corporatism.

It remains astounding that people with conscience and grey-matter cannot yet discern that corporate capitalism has done more damage to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness worldwide—at warp speed—than any other tyranny ever threatened to do. Of course, tyrannies have done enormous damage, but there are no countries or institutions that so market and manufacture deception and destruction (despite some real and perceived contributions) like those promoting  the primacy of profit and the supremacy of “competitive” capitalism. Capitalism has become its own tyranny, one we seem reluctant to investigate, because the perks and privileges of power and gain hide a multitude of sins—mostly in the third world, but more and more, sweeping round as a global flood.

Just take a look at the “dark side” of what power and gain and the desire for power and gain (the focus of corporate capitalism and its architects) have wrought and ask:

▪ Where would our world be and what incredible advances might be present IF our paradigm had been one of cooperation and compassion instead of competition, self-interest, and profit?
▪ What two words describe the way of iniquity (the way of the Natural Man³) more succinctly than these two: competition and self-interest?
▪ Can force or intimidation ever begin to match the captivity that freely-chosen iniquity will bring upon the soul who succumbs to the riches, enticements, images, and flatteries of Babylon?

As for Ayn Rand devotees, it’s past time to observe the science of self-interest and motivation.

As it is, there is probably no age, ever, since the beginning of time that has been as obtuse and blind to truth and consequence than this age obsessed with power and gain, competition and self-interest. The so-called dark ages might be considered a time of enlightenment in comparison for

… if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!
No man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
(New Testament | Matthew 6:23-24)

Do we really think mammon and materialism equates to communism / socialism or some other government tyranny? Why do we seem so reluctant to admit that Babylon has acquired her coveted wealth and power (and consequent captivation of others) through the corruption of our (so-called) free, capital markets? What other economic system is so saturated with money, merchants, riches, costly apparel, endless things, vain images, gross inequities, and unconscionable debt?

When will we awake to the great deception—to our awful situation?

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you,
when ye shall see these things come among you
that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation,
because of this secret combination
which shall be among you;
or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them
who have been slain;
for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it,
and also upon those who built it up.
For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up
seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries;
and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people,
for it is built up by the devil,
who is the father of all lies;
even that same liar who beguiled our first parents,
yea, even that same liar
who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning;
who hath hardened the hearts of men
that they have murdered the prophets,^[4]
and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.
(Book of Mormon | Ether 8:24-25; bold emphasis added)

And if we haven’t noticed that warp speed has warped again in these latter days, then maybe we should re-read New Testament Revelations, especially:

... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!  for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. (New Testament | Revelation 12:12, bold emphasis added.)

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid ; current estimates put its maximum size at 12–14 m (39–46 ft) long.
2. Doctrine and Covenants | Section 86:3 ~ And after they have fallen asleep the great persecutor of the church, the apostate, the whore, even Babylon, that maketh all nations to drink of her cup, in whose hearts the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign—behold he soweth the tares; wherefore, the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness.
New Testament | Revelation 17:4-5 ~ And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
New Testament | Revelation 18:2-3 ~ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 28:18 ~ But behold, that great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, must tumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof.
3. Book of Mormon | Mosiah 3:19 ~ For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
4. (Includes all those who speak truth to power and who lose life or liberty for doing so.)

Natural or Unnatural ?

(Trying to unpack the words)

Every so often, my Christian friends wax patriotic about Natural Law, and I have to take a time-out to calm myself. Here’s why:

1. In individual and corporate application, Natural Law, despite its various romantic definitions, often looks and acts like the Law of Nature.¹

2. When you live near a wilderness (or anywhere, for that matter), you quickly observe that The Law of Nature is “red in tooth and claw,”² as in

fight or flight kill or be killed survival of the fittest survival of the most cunning eye for eye, tooth for tooth might claims right prides and packs competition hording	theft ambush zero-sum domination oppression suppression war abuse etc.

3. In our world of opposites and opposition,³ “red in tooth and claw” is an opposite—one first chosen (and romanticized⁴) by a chap named Cain.

4. Yet, many believers (in likeness of many non-believers) seem to run their businesses and achieve their prosperity as if the Law of Nature were the chief and only law.

5. The Law of Nature is the law favored by the Natural Man; and this is the word on the natural man:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint [an unnatural man?] through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father (Book of Mormon Mosiah 3:19).

And here is an example of the Natural Man:

And many more such things did [Korihor] say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime. And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms—telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof. (Book of Mormon Alma 30:17-18; See also footnote 5.)

6. Natural Law is also oft equated with Natural Rights, except, these so-called, “Natural Rights” of life; liberty (freedom of speech, religion, association, press; etc); and the pursuit of happiness don’t seem to be very natural, as in: usual, normal, ordinary, expected, likely, etc—especially considering the déjà vus of history and the blood spilt to get or keep them. (Just ask Iranians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Syrians, Koreans, Russians, Americans—North & South, Chinese, et al. al. al.) So, could we stop calling our Rights “Natural”! How about Innate? There is a vast difference—chasm size—despite the equated synonyms. But no, that doesn't feel quite right either. Maybe the best word is Human Rights.

7. The Law of Nature (or what is deemed Natural) is not the source of “Human Rights”; rather, it is the nemesis. No one gets to freely exercise “Human Rights,” UNLESS the-powers-that-be transcend the Law of Nature / Natural Law into a Higher Law that honors “Human Rights.” (Just ask the world’s refugees, citizens of tyrannies, employees of out-sourced factories / farms, persecuted minorities, survivors of genocides, or pretty much anybody who observes the world.)

8. When “Rights” are touted as being grounded in the Law of Nature or Natural Law, it tends to encourage and justify the “ME-MINE” mentality romanticized by Ayn Rand’s Objectivism⁶).

9. The Law of Nature in the grip of the “rational⁷/natural” man becomes a wolf in sheep’s clothing, “pulling the wool” to justify disparity, avarice, inequity, excess, and all that stuff in 2 above;

10. The opposite of “Natural Law” (each creature/man for himself) may perhaps be termed “Unnatural Law” (love / respect for thy neighbor as thyself). Just observe the Natural Law of the average 2-year old or corporate CEO; or ask Ayn what is unnatural? (Could she mean altruism?) Or ask God. Strange as it may seem, Ayn and God seem to agree that altruism is unnatural the Natural Man.

11. In short, all life is protected and prospered in their Human Rights only when “eye for eye”⁸ is transcended by “eye to eye”⁹—the Law of Nature transcended by the Law of Love.

12. Alfred, Lord Tennyson said it poetically:

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed.

(From Canto 56)¹⁰

So, how about we “believers” get over our infatuation with “Natural Law” and all its confusions, conflations, and justifications and work toward the “Unnatural Law” of :

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (New Testament Matthew 22:37-39); and

[B]ehold, it is written, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; But I say unto you, that ye shall not resist evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away. And behold it is written also, that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good. (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 12:38-45)

And let us be more conscious in observing ourselves and our favorite pundits. Do our / their words, views, and actions favor the Law of Nature or the Law of Love?

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law
2. From Canto 56 of In Memoriam A. H. H., 1850 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/In_Memoriam_A._H._H.
See also Thomas Hobbes, “State of Nature” and “war of all against all” observations at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes (under “Leviathan” subsection).
3. Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 2:11-30 ~ For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first–born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God. And if ye shall say there is no [Divine?] law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon. And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other. And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the earth. And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit; And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom. I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen.
4. Pearl of Great Price Moses 5:33 ~ And Cain gloried in that which he had done, saying: I am free; surely the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands.
5. Book of Mormon Helaman 12:4-7 ~ O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world! Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom's paths! Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.
6. See http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/03/me-me-mine.html or
http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand
7. A rational decision is one that is not just reasoned, but is also optimal for achieving a goal or solving a problem. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationality ) This blogger's comment: And the self-serving reasons, goals, solutions for holding to the “Law of Nature” seem endless. Just ask the boys and girls on Wall Street, all their investors, and the proliferating HyPEs (Highly Paid Employees).
8. Old Testament Exodus 21:23-25 ~ And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
9. Book of Mormon Mosiah 16:1 ~ ... The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just.
Book of Mormon Alma 36:26 ~ For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God.
Book of Mormon Mosiah 12:22 ~ Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion;
10. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/In_Memoriam_A._H._H.  Additional, enlightening Cantos by Alfred, Lord Tennyson are found in blog post “Earth & Sky” to supplement this second post of 14 March 2014.

Transrational

(No, no! Not transNational—TransRational!)

To a young child, (yea, even to many a teenager), the rules, limitations, suggestions, and corrections of a parent often seem irrational, unreasonable, and malevolently designed to crush the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Well, guess what? Doesn’t life witness that what is irrational to the child is really transrational his/her juvenile perspective; that there is a state of higher awareness—a more encompassing view to consider? A similitude of:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Old Testament Isaiah 55:8-9)

So perhaps the déjà vu litanies of the rationally-bound man through the ages¹ are just irrational tantrums upon the hierarchy of man’s evolving identity and destiny. Of course,“rational” beings have many reasonable things to say and insightful observations upon many topics, but when they construct opaque ceilings, one wonders: What are the distortions when “Up” is excised from the quadrants of inquiry?

What would life be like if:

1. We inquired and observed full circle instead of excising our own offensive quadrant?
2. We allowed all to worship (or not), how, where, or what they might, without trying to expunge them?
3. We were free to speak our minds, but rational and transrational enough to agree to disagree agreeably?

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (New Testament 1 Corinthians 13:12)

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1. Modern manifestations of (self-confessed) rational imprisonment being Rand (msRIP), Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens (mhRIP), Stenger, et al.

“Same Old Story” (another SOS!)

In recent days, a commenter (#48, 53) at the TIMES AND SEASONS website¹ wrote how he had heard Ayn Rand quoted and recommended in priesthood meeting. And why not?! Despite her fervent atheism, didn’t she propagate profound truths? Just ask Paul Ryan.² Or Ron Paul. Or Rand(al) Paul. Or Alan Greenspan. Or scores of evangelicals. Or unnumbered current and former BYU students.

Ayn Rand for years was the most popular author by far here in the [BYU] bookstore. They would sell more of her books than any other [author's], and her books have such titles as The Virtue of Selfishness.³

It has been the same [old] story all along, only suddenly we have reached a new level. For the first time selfishness goes by its own name: "The virtue of selfishness" is the testament of Ayn Rand, the guru of Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, and James Watt, long the favorite reading of BYU students. "No other civilization has permitted the calculus of self-interest so to dominate its culture," writes R. L. Heilbroner; "it has transmogrified greed and philistinism into social virtues, and subordinated all values to commercial values." This is exactly what Thomas More said: "What has heretofore passed as unjust, . . . they have turned upside down, and in fact proclaimed it publicly and by law to be nothing less than justice itself." Mr. Ivan Boesky, in a college convocation, commended "healthy greed" as a virtue to be cultivated by the young.⁴

This was my response (#57) at the Times and Seasons:

(Re: # 48, 53) The love affair with Ayn Rand that “informs” the political economy of too many Mormons (and other Christians) is simply a déjà vu seduction—the latter-day version of God’s perpetual complaint against His chosen^[5] people (as detailed in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nephi, etc.). A condensed version of Rand’s philosophy can be found at Alma 30: 17. For the looong version read John Galt’s radio address from Atlas Shrugged. Or if you have [one has] the time and endurance, read the book and monitor the skill of seduction. Then do your own comparative; (mine is at http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2012/11/comparatively-speaking.html ). Considering the enduring influence of Rand, maybe more of us need to be informed enough to protest the co-mingling of Rand and God, which I suspect is anathema to both.

A digital PDF version of Galt’s speech can be found at pp. 767-814 http://www.mises.ch/library/Rand_AtlasShrugged.pdf

So you see, it’s the “Same Old Story” (SOS!). Seeing [snippets of Ayn] we see not; hearing [sound bites of Ayn] we hear not how utterly flawed her premises are. She was always advising others to check their premises. Her own premises, having emerged in her mind at the age of 2½ years,⁶ were beyond further scrutiny (or observation).

The altruism she despised, that had been preached for thousands of years, was, for her, the root of evil. If she had believed in God, she might have checked her premises against both His word AND “objective reality” (which we can all do). In scripture, she would have found the lament that evil arises, not by the failure of altruism, but the failure to live its precepts; by the insistence on doing and having things our own way; and through neglect of the two great commandments.⁷ But no, Ayn’s supposed solution was to espouse the same old selfishness (SOS! again) that has plagued the natural man⁸ since before Day One.

So yes, let us get informed about Ayn and her [faux-]Objectivism and refuse to sustain the unsustainable. Some of her criticisms of government have legitimacy, but her solutions have NONE. If we don’t understand that, her proffered solutions will only exacerbate the dire problems of selfishness that she falsely attributed to altruism.

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1. http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2012/11/still-outside/
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmW19uoyuO8&feature=endscreen&NR=1 . (There are other avowals of Rand influence, but Ryan backed off those in 2012 because of adverse publicity.)
3. Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon--Semester 1: Transcripts of Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988--1990 [Provo: Foundation for Ancient Religion, 310.
4. Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, edited by Don E. Norton [Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1989], 466-467.
5. “Chosen,” not in the sense of unearned favors, but chosen to be witnesses and examples to the world that there is more to life and eternity than power, fame, and stuff.
6. Ayn Rand interview with Tom Snyder (1 of 3) from 8:09 – 8:38 seconds at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc [Sept. 3, 2022: Since this video is no longer available, paste this link in the internet archive - WayBackMachine - to access it there.]
7. New Testament Matthew 22:36-40: Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
8. Book of Mormon Mosiah 3:19: For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Handbook to Hell?

And it came to pass that Adam, being tempted of the devil—for, behold, the devil was before Adam, for he rebelled against me, saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power; and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency; And they were thrust down, and thus came the devil and his angels; And, behold, there is a place prepared for them from the beginning, which place is hell. And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet— (Doctrine and Covenants Section 29:36-39; bold emphasis added)

Have you ever wondered what “the pitch” was that turned a third part of the hosts of heaven toward the opposition? Was it a mix of truth and lies? Did it contain more truth than lies? Was that the great persuasion—the truths so pervasive and apparent that the lies became lost in translation? Or was the truth so mocked, exaggerated, contorted and disparaged that good appeared evil and evil good? Perhaps it was a mix of both approaches.

If you want to experience a disturbing déjà vu of those pre-mortal times when the adversary pitched his case, you might consider John Galt’s lengthy radio address¹ (begins p. 767) from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

The alarming (though perhaps expected and déjà vu) thing is how persuasive² the pitch still remains in this world—our second estate.³

How persuaded are you?

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1. A digital PDF version of this speech can be found at pp. 767-814 http://www.mises.ch/library/Rand_AtlasShrugged.pdf . Galt’s devotee Francisco d’Anconia also gave a speech on money at pp. 313-316 (PDF) that could perhaps be considered a mortal addendum to the pre-mortal pitch. [The 35th Anniversary hard copy Plume Book version (© 1992) has 1168 pages; the PDF has 891.]

2. “In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club asked club members what the most influential book in the respondent’s life was. Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible.” [from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand under “Popular Interest” subheading.)

3. (Pearl of Great Price | Abraham 3:26-28) And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him [bold emphasis added].

(New Testament Jude 1:6) And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Ayn-alyzing ~ (3)

(More reflections on Ayn Rand for Christian consideration)

IF the history of mankind, as recorded in Scripture, is a déjà vu litany of man’s delusions of grandeur, as in this small sampling:
(CAPITAL emphasis has been added in all quotes below.):

And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Old Testament Deuteronomy 8:17-18)

They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their OWN WAY, and be filled with their own devices. (Old Testament Proverbs 1:30-31)

Woe unto them that are wise in their OWN EYES, and prudent in their OWN SIGHT! (Old Testament Isaiah 5:21)

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his OWN WAY; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Old Testament Isaiah 53:6)

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their OWN WAY, every one for his gain, from his quarter. (Old Testament Isaiah 56:11)

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine OWN WAYS, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: (Old Testament Isaiah 58:13)

Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their OWN WAY have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD. (Old Testament Ezekiel 22:31)

… the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their OWN WAYS, and did build up unto themselves idols of their gold and their silver. (Book of Mormon Helaman 6:31)

They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his OWN WAY, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 1:16)

Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my people—you have many things to do and to repent of; for behold, your sins have come up unto me, and are not pardoned, because you seek to counsel in your OWN WAYS. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 56:14)

And the anger of God kindleth against the inhabitants of the earth; and none doeth good, for all have gone OUT OF THE WAY. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 82:6)

WHY THEN, do we not recognize that Ayn’s “new, original” philosophy is neither new nor original? All her heroes are obsessed with pursuing THEIR OWN WAY according to their own “rational” judgments. But then so are her despised anti-heroes—the ones who abuse and misuse power in pursuing distorted, corrupted visions of “social justice.”

Of course there are unending reasons to complain about mankind’s failings. And Ayn does plenty of that because in her worlds (real and fictional), reliable, competent creators and employees are so despairingly scarce. Her heroes are the exceptional, rational, incredible few that everyone else is trying to use or destroy.

Here are a few quotes from (or about) her heroes in Atlas Shrugged:

Dagny Taggart: “There was no flattered pleasure in his voice, and no modesty. This, she knew, was a tribute to her, that rarest one person could pay another: the tribute of feeling free to acknowledge one’s own greatness, knowing that it is understood” (p. 86). “I think that only if one feels immensely important can one feel truly light” (p. 150, 236).

Hank Rearden: “We haven’t any spiritual goals or qualities. All we’re after is material things. That’s all we care for. … whatever we are, it’s we who move the world and it’s we who’ll pull it through” (pp. 87-88). [To Dagny] “It’s I who produced that wealth and it’s I who am going to let it buy for me every kind of pleasure I want—including the pleasure of seeing how much I’m able to pay for—including the preposterous feat of turning you into a luxury object” (p. 371). “I work for nothing but my own profit. I earn it” (p. 480).

Francisco d’Anconia: “We are the only aristocracy left in the world—the aristocracy of money. … It’s the only real aristocracy, if people understood what it means, which they don’t” (p. 90). “The code of competence is the only system of morality that’s on a gold standard” (p. 100).

John Galt: “By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man—every man—is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose” (p. 1014).

About herself, Ayn writes: “my life purpose is the creation of the kind of world (people and events) that I like—that is, that represents human perfection” (p. xvi).

Yes, Ayn and her heroes do expound many powerful truths about the dismal state of mortal affairs, but:

IF God is right that … “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7-8); and

IF we are in the middle of a three-act play,^[1] without memory of the 1st Act and subject to revelation^[2] (by a more advanced Being/Director) on how to play the 2nd in preparation for the 3rd,

then maybe Ayn’s rational, “my way” achievement isn’t going to achieve what she and her devotees think. What if, “my way” cuts off further achievement in Act Three because gifts and mercy were rejected by the perfect man’s preference for 2nd-Act earnings and justice?

Ayn seems to reject any concept of a third act, having become fixated with achievements in Act Two. If there is a third act, maybe it transcends (but includes) rational. What if trans-rational seems irrational only because from our present view, we can’t (or prefer not to) tell the difference?

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1. 1) Pre-mortal; 2) Mortal; 3) Post-mortal.
2. Or the “mystical, irrational,” as Ayn would call it.

Ayn-alyzing ~ (2)

(More reflections on Ayn Rand for Christian consideration.)

On the last pages of the 35th anniversary edition (Plume Book, 1992) of Atlas Shrugged, in a section entitled “About the Author,” we read:

“My personal life,” says Ayn Rand, “is a postscript to my novels: it consists of the sentence: ‘And I mean it.’ I have always lived by the philosophy I present in my books—and it has worked for me, as it works for my characters. …” (p. 1170).

She describes her characters, heroes, (and self) thus:

It is proper for a creator to have an unlimited confidence in himself and his ability, to feel certain that he can get anything he wishes out of life, that he can accomplish anything he decides to accomplish, and that it up to him to do it. (He feels it because he is a man of reason …) … [But he must] not place his wish primarily within others and does not attempt or desire anything that is of a collective nature, anything that concerns others primarily or requires primarily the exercise of the will of others. (This would be an immoral desire or attempt, contrary to his nature as a creator.) If he attempts that, he is out of a creator’s province and in that of the collectivist and the second-hander (p. xii).

The trouble with Ayn however, (and her enthusiasts) is at least twofold. Firstly, the “over-optimism” and “over-confidence” in “man as heroic being”—i.e., in the creators, prime-movers, “ideal men” of her philosophy. About such men she wrote:

“I trust that no one will tell me that men such as I write about don’t exist. That this book has been written—and published—is my proof that they do” (p. 1171).

[Wow! What a formula! “To write and publish = proof.”]

But back to “over-confidence” and “over-optimism.”

Ayn critiques her heroine Dagny for:

Over-optimism—in that she thinks men [second-handers, i.e. non-creators] are better than they are, she doesn’t really understand them and is generous about it.
Over-confidence—in that she thinks she can do more than an individual actually can [i.e., work with second-handers on a rational basis or as their motivator] (p. xi).

The parallel between the error-afflicted Dagny and the optimistic, idealistic Ayn might be written thus (= my proof!?)

Over-optimism—in that [Ayn] thinks men [“creators”] are better than they are, she doesn’t really understand them and is generous about it.
Over-confidence—in that she thinks she can do more than an individual actually can [i.e., accomplish many things of great import without some large element of the dreaded collective—like building/running a railroad, a steel mill, an oil refinery, a factory, etc., etc.]

All of which brings us to the second “trouble”: Ayn’s apparent inability to see inverse and parallels. She seems to have no awareness of “on the other hand.” Let’s take a small portion of John Galt’s radio address. He accuses the world he has abandoned:

… You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty (p. 1010).

In our corrupted, fallen world, some of that may be, too frequently, true, but what if we take the inverse? Might Christians not say to Ayn/John:

YOU [in your Objective/Subjective? style) have sacrificed mercy to [your sense of] justice. You have sacrificed unity to independence. You have sacrificed faith to reason. You have sacrificed need to wealth. You have sacrificed self-denial to self-esteem. You have sacrificed duty to happiness.

And might we not add? When is anything so cut and dried—so either/or? Isn’t most of life a synthesis? Justice AND mercy. Independence AND unity. Reason AND faith. Wealth AND need. Self-esteem AND self-denial. Happiness AND duty.

As admitted, Ayn profiles some unfortunate truths because our world is a revolving, recycling mess. And why is that? Is it not, in large measure, because too many of us are committed to having things/ ideas/ expectations/ rewards/ compensations/ relationships, etc. on OUR terms, in OUR way, according to OUR reason and nature, without acknowledging limited vision, comprehension, maturity, etc.—not to mention, our neighbor?

Ayn’s fictional elitists are convinced the world cannot exist without their “minds”—without their way of doing things. In short, Ayn is just one more in a long line of passionate, déjà vu advocates for “having it, doing it MY way.” Except, with her (God-given!) gifts, she has created epic, sympathetic anti-heroes—which leads us to a third “trouble.”

The third “trouble” is that Ayn’s deftness in comparing the worst corruptions of religion, society, and government to the superlative imaginations of “ideal man” has led many a good Christian down the garden path, past the tree of knowledge and into that twilight where John Galt “traced in space the sign of the dollar” (p. 1168).

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For thoughts about another Ayn enthusiast who was also inverse-/parallel-challenged, see: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2010/03/if-how-what.html

Ayn-alyzing ~ (1)

(Reflections on Ayn Rand*)

This year 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Ayn Rand—the controversial author/philosopher. Here is a fascinating quote from Wikipedia about her influence on our contemporary world:

In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club asked club members what the most influential book in the respondent’s life was. Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible.^[1]

The more fascinating thing is how many Bible readers are also Ayn Rand devotees without any apparent awareness of the incongruities. These devotees cannot be accused of halting between two opinions,^[2] for they seem able to champion both simultaneously without discomfort. On the assumption that most religious folk have an evolving intellectual and practical understanding of faith, hope, and charity, here are a few more Wikipedia quotes with which to juxtapose Biblical values.

In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion. In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic, and reason, which she described as “the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses.” She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or a priori knowledge, including “‘instinct,’ ‘intuition,’ ‘revelation,’ or any form of ‘just knowing.’”

In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should “exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.” She referred to egoism as “the virtue of selfishness” in her book of that title, in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of “man’s survival qua man”. ^[3]

In the brief “Introduction to the 35th Anniversary Edition”^[4] of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, we read in Ayn’s own words how she considered herself to be “creating a new, original abstraction and translating it through new, original means. This, as far as I know, is only me—my kind of fiction writing. May God forgive me (Metaphor!) if this is mistaken conceit! As near as I can now see it, it isn’t.”

She saw this as demonstrating “a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest.” And “in an interview with Mike Wallace, Rand declared herself ‘the most creative thinker alive.’”^[5]

The chief problem is: history does not substantiate her claims to originality. Her “new” ideas are really translations of “an old (known) abstraction (theme or thesis) … .” ^[6] And considering the universality of self-interest (often combined with self-focus), she and her creation, John Galt, are not the first self-anointed prime movers to feel unappreciated and persecuted. Nor the first to withdraw in strike (or sulk^[7], as the case may be)—to establish a more perfect union of devotees (in ironic imitation of Ayn’s dreaded collective). She scorned old ideas recycled, especially “through the medium of old fiction means”^[8]), yet her recycling of one of the oldest ideas (self-interest—even rational self-interest) and her sense of self-importance as a “prime mover” are as old as the Garden, if not older.

For readers of the Book of Mormon, Ayn is pretty much déjà vu Korihor. And Korihor, but déjà vu the lofty oaks and cedars of Isaiah and Zechariah:

And this Anti–Christ, whose name was Korihor, … began to preach unto the people that there should be no Christ. And after this manner did he preach, saying: O ye that are bound down under a foolish and a vain hope, why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things? Why do ye look for a Christ? For no man can know of anything which is to come. Behold, these things which ye call prophecies, which ye say are handed down by holy prophets, behold, they are foolish traditions of your fathers. … Behold, ye cannot know of things which ye do not see; therefore ye cannot know that there shall be a Christ. Ye look forward and say that ye see a remission of your sins. But behold, it is the effect of a frenzied mind; and this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers, which lead you away into a belief of things which are not so. And many more such things did he say unto them, telling them that … every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime. …And Korihor said …: Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. (Book of Mormon Alma 30:12-18, 23-24; underlined emphasis added.)

For Korihor, rules, regulations, and religious beliefs were bondage. Freedom was the liberty to do, see, pursue, and manage things in a personal, rational way—to be a law unto himself. For Ayn and her “Objectivism” (i.e., subjectivism in sheep’s clothing!?), it is “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”^[9]

But for Christian believers particularly, shouldn’t the question be: How does this recycled philosophy jive with the tenets of the Gospel? And a second question: Is not the pursuit of rational self-interest (blind and deaf to “the great commandment[s] in the law”^[10]), the recurring (déjà vu) offense that God and His prophets so repeatedly castigate?

They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 1:16)

If the BIG test^[11] in this phase of existence is between

□ GOD’S will (higher ways and thoughts)^[12]
AND
□ MY will (lower ways and thoughts)

which selection does Ayn commend? And how does reason, intelligence, and growth ever expand in those imprisoned in Flatland^[13] because they can’t (won’t?) see or fathom “cubic”?

Considering that Ayn’s “biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as “the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right”^[14] perhaps the right needs to do a lot more honest and forthright Ayn-alyzing!

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* For a previous reflection on Ayn Rand, see http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2009/11/romance-of-ayn-rand.html

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand under “Popular Interest” subheading.
[2] “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” (Old Testament 1 Kings 18:21)
[3] Wikipedia at footnote 1 under “Philosophy” subheading.
[4] Introduction written by Leonard Peikoff (September 1991), quote at p. xv.
[5] Wikipedia at footnote 1 under “Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism” subheading.
[6] See reference in footnote 4.
[7] Possible differentiation: Strike—when those of lesser power and income withhold their work and talents from those of greater power and income (usually their employers) in order to bargain for greater equity and fairness. Sulk—when those of great creativity, egoism, and self-confidence withdraw their resources and talents (God-given gifts?) from society as a whole—and second-handers, in particular—because they feel unappreciated, unacknowledged, and offended.
[8] See reference in footnote 4.
[9] Wikipedia at footnote 1 under “Philosophy” subheading.
[10] “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (New Testament Matthew 22:36-40)
[11] For example, see this blogger’s discourse on WILL in 3 parts found at http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2011/10/will-we-ever-get-it-part-1.html ; http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2011/10/will-we-ever-get-it-part-2.html ; and http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2011/10/will-we-ever-get-it-part-3.html
[12] “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Old Testament Isaiah 55:9)
[13] Read Edwin A. Abbott’s, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (pub. 1884).
[14] Wikipedia at footnote 1 under “Political Influence” subheading.