#now its uvwxyz

[arytha]

slapping this down so i can remmeber it more

Wyst, a case worker from the UC assigned to Xena (and to a lesser extent, Yuri) after she blows up the lab that created her and her brother and gets taken in by the UC. Ends up being a superior/parental type figure for them ?

This literally came from a joke I made that we had almost all of the main OCs in an alphabet crew- Ultima, Vita (u, v), then Xena Yuri Zero (XYZ) but not a W to connect them fhdjsk

threw out a few names that have 4 letters, liked Wist/Wyst, and then was struck with the problem of. How are they going to be equally relevant as the rest of the uvxyz crew. What is this family lacking

Well!

get yourself a parent

[walaw717]

After graduation from college (1980) I quickly realized that a bachelor’s degree in History of Art mainly qualified me to drive a cab. Having a wife and child and a future to look after I quickly returned to school to obtain a teaching certificate. It was there that I had my first encounter with neo Marxism in Education allied with an early post modernism. The encounter went like this. 

Professor Z – Everything taught before now was simply miseducation. They simply did not know how to teach and most of what they taught was incorrect.

After two weeks of lecture along this line I held up my hand and asked.

Me – Professor Z, during what years were you educated?

Professor Z – the 1950’s.

Me - So if we are to follow your logic then you were obviously miss educated and therefore, we cannot trust or believe anything you say.

At which point a received a round of applause from the class. (true story)

I share this anecdote (in a very shorted version) to point out some things that have gone wrong in the west since the birth of Jean Paul Sartre, the Bolshevik revolution and M Foucault. 

First, if we cannot know anything except through the narrow lens of Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism then in the end we can really know nothing and everything that has gone before in human thought for at least 6000 years is wrong. That thought leaves me wondering how those earlier poor bastards survived, let alone built Stonehenge or the pyramids or about 30 other historical high cultures we know about and thousands we will never discover.

  Second, the purpose of education is to preserve and pass on culture and prior learning. Education gives us stability and continuity.  It used to be the most conservative of all the liberal arts. Today education  sees its role as the deconstruction of any sense of values or historical continuity, especially higher education in the humanities, social sciences and now into the hard sciences. (we have all heard the specious arguments that there are more than two biological sexes in humans. ) 

The arguments of philosophical Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism in the end undermine all of the history and experience of humanity and actually in an effort to level mankind by its focus on power and a theory of non- knowledge and a theory of knowledge creates a power differential in which those who believe Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism are the only source of authority and knowledge  and in the end our thoughts, speech and feelings must align with an existential nihilistic view of life that states that the only things of importance are your place in an oppressive power system and the idea that the only things we can know are that we cannot know anything but our personal experience.

The ancient Greeks had a term for that, “hubris” and modern psychology calls it narcissism. 

Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism and feminism are based in the same belief - that we are all victims of power and that all prior knowledge is biased because it came from people of power.   I know this is a simplification, but it is a simplification that holds a high degree of truth. 

The greatest threat to all of us is the arrogance of the Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism/feminists and I might add the LGQBT (uvwxyz) who would make the world small by defining it through the lens of  their personal needs and everyone else who does not agree with  them will end up in prison. I think the Russians already had that experiment and failed causing as much or more personal horror as any colonial efforts by the west. 

In fact, as someone who was trained as a historian and later as a psychologist, I would say the failure of Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism/feminists and I might add the LGQBT (uvwxyz) is their lack of any real understanding of history or psychology and a world view based like Professor Z in a narcissistic hubris that lacks any semblance of simple logic. 

Of course, we should work toward treating each other decently, should help those who are not surviving as well as “us” and care for each individual and try to lift each other from suffering. The failure of Marxism/neo-Marxism/post modernism/feminists and I might add the LGQBT (uvwxyz) is that they are trying to legislate behavior and cannot accept that what they want is actually a psycho-spiritual effort of the individual.  You cannot legislate the human heart. It is that simple. Efforts to legislate tolerance inevitably lead to intolerance. 

Now being this is a post on social media do not expect that I threw out a fully detailed defense of my arguments, but I do think it is time we all step back and take a look at where the left and postmodern Marxist thought is taking us.  I for one do not relish a repetition of the socialist paradise of Soviet Russia with it gulags, or a Maoist  regime in which freedom of expression is such a threat to those “socialists” in power that unless one is a member of the party one’s freedom of speech is curtailed at the end of a gun. 

[gduncan969]

Don’t Get Caught

Psalm 9:15: “The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.”

I’m sure we have all seen those disturbing  videos that frequently pop up on YouTube showing seals, whales, dolphins and other hapless sea creatures ensnared by a piece of fish net which has wound itself tightly around them and cut deeply into their flesh.  The pain and suffering this obviously causes the animals, probably over a long period of time, stirs within us a sense of compassion that makes us want to run to the rescue and bring relief, so we rejoice to watch the video end with some brave diver or fisherman with a sharp knife remove the restriction and send them on their way, free at last.  I was watching such a video the other day involving a young seal resting on shore at low tide.  His flesh was deeply cut by a piece of fishing net and he was in obvious pain.  A couple of beach-walkers spotted him and ran towards him to remove the net but as soon as he saw them coming he made a desperate dash for the water, not realizing that what he now feared the most was the very thing that would set him free!  His rescuers got to him just as he reached the water’s edge and the battle for his deliverance began: two adult males trying to hold down a squirming mass of blubber that just wouldn’t lie still and was doing everything he could to escape their clutches.  With great effort they finally managed to hold him still, cut away the net and release him, whereupon he scampered off into the sea without so much as a look or nod of thanks to his rescuers!

I was struck by the similarity to our own human condition in the face of the restrictions we all face in our lives, not just recently because of the pandemic but more generally in the frustration we feel in a world that is changing so rapidly in a bad way and which we feel helpless we can change for the better.  The frustration we feel is like the fish net that has tightly wrapped itself around our minds, cutting into our lives and restricting our ability to think and act freely and unless someone comes along to release us, we are doomed to live in that frustration.  Even worse, the net for many has been there so long, they are no longer aware of it and are unwittingly living with it so that even if someone did come along to free them they would fight just as ferociously as did the seal against its rescuers.  Change can be very threatening even when it is change for the better.  Thankfully, there is One who has freed us from whatever binds us and has promised to keep us free from whatever nets are out there waiting to ensnare us.  His name is Jesus.  

The trouble with many of these nets is that they are not particularly visible.  Indeed, we call the invisible ones snares, something that is set to entrap us:

Job 18: 8, 9 “For he is cast into a net by his own feet and he walks into a snare.  The net takes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him.”

These snares entrap individuals, communities, governments and nations alike so that they can no longer tell right from wrong or good from bad.

Psalm 9:15 “The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.”

Psalm 35:7 “For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, Which they have dug without cause for my life.”

Psalm 140:5 “The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set traps for me.”

Have you ever felt that living successfully in today’s world with all its demands and restrictions is becoming more and more impossible?  Who can possibly keep up with all the latest left-leaning causes of gender pronouns, gender disphoria, sexual orientations (LGBT..uvwxyz), white supremacy, critical race theory, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), WEF, etc.  People today, including many, many Christians, are afraid to speak out in case they offend someone or worse still, end up being criminally charged for a viewpoint they hold.  In other words, there are so many hidden nets waiting to ensnare us, we are afraid to speak out what we know to be true—and we should be ashamed of ourselves!  There may be many snares trying to trap us but God has promised to rescue us from them all, especially the ones we don’t recognize.

Psalm 25:15 “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

Psalm 31:4 “Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength.”

Not only has God promised to keep our feet out of the net, He has promised to ensnare in it those who are trying to ensnare us!

Psalm 35:8 “Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, And let his net that he has hidden catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall.”

Psalm 141:10 “Let the wicked fall into their own nets, While I escape safely.”

This is no time to be complacent or fearful.  We know the Truth and the Truth has made us free (John 8:33) and must proclaim it.  Ecclesiastes warns us:

Ecclesiastes 9:12 “For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.”

If ever there was an evil time, this is it and it is ensnaring many who are ignoring the dangers they see happening around them and remain silent or, even worse, opposing those who are speaking out against these evil schemes.  The corruption, lies and deceits being daily poured out upon the people of the world are immeasurable and the suddenness of their falling upon us is almost overwhelming.  The answer to all of this is to “Seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon Him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).  We need to be clear-sighted and fully informed of these matters but the information we need is not from the news media or even the experts but from Him who saved us and will rescue us.  May the sword of His Spirit cut us free from all nets and yokes of bondage that so easily entangle us as we stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free (Galatians 5:1).  Remember, there is a difference between being made free and being set free. We have been set free by the Lord Jesus but many are not living in His freedom. Being set free is an act that grants us release from whatever binds us.  Being made free is the condition we live in as a result of being set free.  Many a person has been set free from something that has bound them but they refuse to live in the freedom they have been granted, somewhat like a dog that was chained to a post all of its life until someone cut the chain and set him free but the dog spent the rest of his life sitting on the same spot at the end of the chain that once held him.  He had been set free but was not made free to live in the freedom that was his to enjoy.  Our challenge is that having accepted the freedom we have been granted by the Lord Jesus, we must now live in it as the free people we are.  There is nothing in man’s restrictions that need bind us, nothing in man’s threats that need trouble us because “whom the Son makes free is free indeed”.  We can indeed speak out without fear what we know to be true.  Thankfully, there is a rising tide of righteousness that is pushing against the “new normal” being forced upon us but there is a cost attached to this which we must be willing to pay.  Some have lost their careers, some their reputations, their friends and their standing by speaking out the truth.  Some have even lost their lives.  

If you recognize there’s a sense of frustration, even anger, within you over all that you see going on around you then the only answer is to seek the Lord in prayer and find out what He is planning to do about all of this.  Maybe it’s time to join with others of like mind and combine your prayers to heaven on behalf of your family, your neighborhood or your country until you hear from Heaven what God has in store.  Once that is made known to you, the snare of frustration and anger will fall away and you will be free to rejoice in the victory you know is coming to pass.   As John Wesley said, “God does nothing except in answer to believing prayer” but prayer not answered, or answers not believed bring only more frustration.