{"id":13734,"date":"2021-10-05T18:49:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T01:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=13734"},"modified":"2021-11-09T10:49:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T18:49:29","slug":"christians-its-later-than-you-think-pray-without-ceasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/christians-its-later-than-you-think-pray-without-ceasing\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians, It’s Later Than You Think, Pray Without Ceasing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hard by James George Jatras –
\nSimply being what used to be considered normal and leading a productive life is becoming the most revolutionary act one can perform. With that in mind, find the strength to be revolutionaries indeed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I accepted the invitation to speak with you today only with great trepidation. This was for at least three reasons.<\/p>\n

The first <\/em>is that, both for self-protection in an increasingly unfree country and my growing sense that nothing I or anyone else can say will make much difference in averting the horrors I believe are coming our way, I had ceased my public writing and speaking life, such as it was. I reluctantly have made an exception to that less than momentous recusal but plan to resume it at the end of today.<\/p>\n

Secondly<\/em>, I was loath to contaminate the naturally ebullient optimism of youth with my crotchety Boomer pessimism. At your age you should feel that the world is, if not quite your oyster, at least pregnant with possibilities. How do I tell you that, in the layman\u2019s terms, your lives will probably suck? At least in the near future. But there is hope. I will return to that.<\/p>\n

Thirdly<\/em>, I thought it would be derelict of me not to provide you with some sage, old graybeard advice of a practical nature. If I were in your shoes today, what would I do, specifically, to try to make a positive contribution to the world around me? How best to serve God and my neighbor? To make my country and the world a better place? And to do it in relative safety, in a modest degree of economic sustainability, perhaps even comfort? To marry, start a family, and see your offspring rise in peace and prosperity?<\/p>\n

This last is most daunting, because the world has changed so much, in such a short time, and the pace of change is accelerating. Back in the olden days of yore, in my case the late 1970s, when I entered government service, that was an honorable thing to do. (Allow me to note that there are some who still spotlessly preserve that honor, such as The \u2013 literally \u2013 Honorable Thomas Massie, who will address us today. But such examples are rare sightings nowadays. In the institution in which he serves, you could probably count them on one hand, and you might not need your thumb.)<\/p>\n

…
\nNo less dismaying is the propensity of many people, perhaps most, to go along with all this, running the gamut from sullen submission to loving embrace of their shackles and enthusiastic willingness to force others\u2019 compliance. What explains this? Fear of reprisal, fear of being thought of as a crank or \u201cconspiracy theorist,\u201d terminal law-abidingness, a misplaced virtue of charity regarding others\u2019 intentions, na\u00efve trust in \u201cauthority,\u201d \u201cexperts,\u201d \u201cscience\u201d and claims of necessity to keep us and others \u201csafe\u201d? Or even worse, a sense of joining the worthy elites in their domination of lesser, insufficiently obedient and \u201ccaring\u201d mortals? A totalitarian mindset is not solely an elite phenomenon.<\/p>\n

In any case, these measures and their justifications, though constantly changing and often contradictory, are all the more obligatory. Taken together they have all the appearance of a controlled demolition of all established human interactions in anticipation of their replacement by something we are assured by our betters will be an improvement. The contours of the \u201cnew normal\u201d in the post-American America hurtling in our direction have already become so familiar as to need little elaboration:<\/p>\n

…
\n(Let me also mention in passing one of my pet peeves: while government at all levels bears a YUGE responsibility for all this, most of it is being carried out by private corporations. This leads some free market advocates to shrug their shoulders: \u201cweeeell, they\u2019re private businesses, they\u2019re within their rights.\u201d I say: bunk. To start with, corporations are inherently creatures of the state. They wouldn\u2019t even exist were it not for legislation making them under the law \u201cpersons\u201d \u2013 though they have neither body to be kicked nor soul to be damned. Given the incestuous \u201cpartnership\u201d between government and the corporatocracy, the distinction is increasingly academic.)<\/p>\n

…
\nIn the end, my young friends, the impact any one of us can expect to have in the face of world-historic trends before which the fates of nations and empires fly like leaves in the autumn winds is vanishingly small. Already baked into the cake will be, I believe, hardships for you that we\u2019ve become accustomed to think only happen to \u201cother people\u201d in \u201cother countries\u201d far away, not seen here since the Revolution and the Civil War, or maybe in isolated instances during the Great Depression: financial and economic disruption and, in some places, especially in urban areas, collapse; supply chains, utilities, and other aspects of basic infrastructure ceasing to function (what happens in major cities when food deliveries stop for a week?), even widespread hunger; rising levels of violence, both criminality and civil strife. These will be combined, paradoxically, with the remaining organs of authority, however discredited, desperately cracking down on the enemy within \u2013 no, not on murderers, robbers, and rapists, but on \u201cscience deniers,\u201d \u201creligious fanatics,\u201d \u201chaters,\u201d \u201cconspiracy theorists,\u201d \u201cinsurrectionists,\u201d \u201cgun nuts,\u201d \u201cAmerican Taliban,\u201d \u201cpurveyors of \u201cmedical misinformation,\u201d and, of course, \u201cracists,\u201d \u201csexists,\u201d \u201chomophobes,\u201d and so forth. It\u2019s the late Samuel Francis\u2019 \u201canarcho-tyranny\u201d nightmare come to life with a vengeance.<\/p>\n

As I say, I think your ability to impact the \u201cbig picture\u201d regarding any of this is slim to none. Even our ability to discern the signs of the times in an era of pervasive Gnostic deceit abetted by technologies unimaginable just a few years ago is limited.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, for what it is worth, I put before you three practical tasks for your consideration.<\/p>\n

Firstly<\/strong>, be vigilant against deception, in a day when assuredly evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. Admittedly, this is a tough one, given the ever-present lying that surrounds us and the suppression of dissent. Try to sift truth from falsehood but don\u2019t become obsessed because, in many cases, you won\u2019t be able to be sure anyway. Focus most on what\u2019s proximate to you and on the people most important to you. It sounds terrible, I know, because everyone who\u2019s denoted as an \u201cexpert\u201d or an \u201cauthority\u201d isn\u2019t necessarily unreliable, but that\u2019s a good starting assumption. Be skeptical \u2013 about everyone. In communist countries, this was the norm: listen to what the establishment media say, to foreign sources if you can access them, and to anti-establishment dissidents (then it was samizdat, now it\u2019s internet \u201cconspiracy theorists\u201d \u2013 but don\u2019t get sucked in by Trojan Horses like the infamous Q.): then triangulate and take your best guess. There may be a cost. As Solzhenitsyn said, \u201cHe who chooses the lie as his principle inevitably chooses violence as his method.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondly<\/strong>, as stewards of every worldly charge placed on us by God and by other people\u2014as fathers and mothers, as husbands and wives, as sons and daughters, as neighbors, as students, as workers, as citizens, as patriots\u2014we must prudently care for those to whom we have a duty within the limited power and wisdom allotted to us. Start with yourselves. Be as self-sufficient as possible. Get involved in your community; that leftist slogan is actually a good one: think globally, act locally. Befriend your neighbors. Learn a real skill \u2013 electricity, plumbing, carpentry. Farm! DON\u2019T go to law school, for goodness\u2019 sake. Get in shape. Eat and sleep right. Have plenty of the essentials: food, fuel, gold, ammunition. Learn to shoot. Limit computer and phone time. Cultivate healthy personal relationships \u2013 real ones, not virtual ones. Marry young, have kids \u2013 especially women, don\u2019t get seduced by all that \u201ccareer\u201d nonsense. Read old books. Cultivate virtue. Go to church.<\/p>\n

Simply being what used to be considered normal and leading a productive life is becoming the most revolutionary act one can perform. With that in mind, find the strength to be revolutionaries indeed!<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen the meme: Hard times create strong men; Strong men create good times; Good times create weak men; Weak men create hard times. Well, take it from the weakling generation that brought them to you: the hard times, they is a-coming. But they won\u2019t last forever. If you live through them \u2013 and some of you will not \u2013 we\u2019ll see what possibilities, as of now literally unimaginable, might then exist. But you will need to be personally fit to take advantage of them. You will also need to be part of some kind of sustainable community of likeminded people.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, for those of you who are believers, particularly Christians, we must pray without ceasing, firm in faith that, through whatever hardships may lie ahead, even the very hairs of our head are all numbered, and the final triumph of Truth is never in doubt.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014
\n(Remarks delivered to the Ron Paul Institute Student Seminar, September 3, 2021)<\/em>
\nHT: LewRockwell.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by James George Jatras – Simply being what used to be considered normal and leading a productive life is becoming the most revolutionary act one can perform. With that in mind, find the strength to be revolutionaries indeed! I accepted the invitation to speak with you today only with great trepidation. This was for at … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113,67,37,142,15,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-persecution","category-conservatives","category-culture-war","category-leftist-tyranny","category-moral-issues","category-orthodox-christianity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}