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Chapter Nine. God: The Commercial

There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. —Walter Lippmann[183]

Arthur Blessitt sits with his large dark wooden cross, a wheel attached to the base, on a couch in the studios of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in Tinicum, California. He and the host, Paul Crouch Jr., watch as Paul’s younger brother Matt finishes an interview in the studio in Hollywood. The two men wait for the cue signaling they are on the air.

Blessitt, who has just completed a book called Give Me a J, is a frequent guest on the network’s most popular nightly two-hour variety show, Praise the Lord. He played a role in the conversion of George W. Bush after meeting him in 1984 in Midland, Texas. The owners and founders of Trinity Broadcasting, Paul Crouch Sr. and Jan Crouch, have carried out fund-raising appeals so Blessitt, who has a citation in the Guinness Book of World Records for “World’s Longest Walk,” can carry his cross along roadsides in foreign countries. The show this evening, filled with the usual uplifting Christian music and interviews with Christian celebrities, such as the former NBA basketball star A. C. Green, is about to turn to the supernatural portion of the program, the moment when the power of Jesus to perform miracles is, the hosts say, made visible and real.

“There is more excitement and joy in living with Jesus for one hour than all the carnal pleasures in a lifetime,” Blessitt says into the camera when they begin.

“Amen,” Paul Crouch Jr. adds.

The conversation centers on Blessitt’s campaign, which began on Christmas day 1969, to traverse the globe carrying the wooden cross on his shoulder. Blessitt, with a mop of gray hair, explains that he has walked “over 37,000 miles, almost one and a half times around the world, through 305 nations, island groups and territories” and taken “over 64 million steps.

“When you calculate the weight of each step with the weight of the cross,” he says, he has carried “over 8 billion pounds, and I don’t have one callus, one bunion, and I’m 65 years old and I never felt better in my life.”

The taped applause track prompts the small studio crowd to clap.

“The obvious question is: Why?” asks Crouch, leaning toward his guest.

“Because Jesus spoke to me, I love Him,” Blessitt answers. “And in 1969 one night I was praying and Jesus said, ‘Take the cross off the building on Sunset Boulevard’—where I had a Jesus night club on Sunset Strip—‘put the cross on your shoulder, and carry it on the roadsides of the world and identify My message where the people are.’ And by the grace of God, I’ve walked through 50 countries at war. I’ve been in jail 24 times. I’ve been through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sudan, Somalia, everyplace, lifting up the cross, preaching Jesus. There are no walls. There are no barriers. The world is open. Jesus said, ‘Go,’ and you go to live or die, but you go to do His will.”

“You took the great commission literally,” Crouch says, referring to the belief that Christians must leave their homes to convert nonbelievers.

“Yes, yes,” Blessitt says.

“To go into all the world. And you are just about to do that,” Crouch adds. “You have a few little island nations—”

“—well, they are not nations,” Blessitt says. “I have been to every nation, but there are a few remote islands, like the Chatham Islands and Zanzibar and some of these places. To have been in every inhabited place—”

“—Wow—”

“—and Jesus has given the strength to do that and it is just amazing,” Blessitt says. “I look at the pictures on my wall. I look at everything and it is a living miracle of what God has done.”

Blessitt and his wife, Denise Irja, have just adopted a baby and recently moved to work out of the Heritage Christian Center in Denver, Colorado. He is on Praise the Lord to give tips on how to witness and “reach a hurting world,” but first Crouch promises dramatic video footage from a TBN documentary called Arthur Blessitt: A Pilgrim.

The men sit back and watch the clip.

NARRATOR:(Over pictures of a younger Blessitt) In 1979, Arthur journeyed into one of the most politically unstable areas of the world, Central America. The trip was sponsored by the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

PAUL CROUCH SR.:(Over dark, ominous music) We saw the phones ring and the money pledged to buy what we lovingly dubbed the Holy Roller, the little four-wheel drive vehicle that had been given by the partners to assist Arthur in his travel and his journey down through Central America.

(Paul and Jan Crouch, who is wearing a flowing dress that looks like a square-dancing outfit, climb out of the cab of a jeep that is pulling a small caravan and hand the keys to Blessitt.)

PAUL CROUCH SR.: This absolutely unreal drama unfolded, and we were to learn later the most frightening and dangerous experiences of Arthur Blessitt’s entire life.

(Jan Crouch, her champagne-colored wig cascading down her shoulders, sits on a bed under muted lighting.)

JAN CROUCH:(Speaking in a breathless whisper) I really wasn’t thinking about Arthur Blessitt…. when all of a sudden I looked up and the entire ceiling in the bedroom where we were sleeping had lit up. And I saw like it was a movie screen what was going on, what was happening in Nicaragua.

ARTHUR BLESSITT: I heard a banging on the side of the trailer. I opened the trailer caravan door, and gunmen burst into our trailer.

JAN CROUCH: When I opened my eyes to look at it, I saw Arthur and he was just looking at me, and I had never really seen that look before. There was no fear. It was just like, “Pray, Jan, pray.”

ARTHUR BLESSITT: They took me near the side of the van, the four-wheel drive vehicle, and they stood me there and they lined up, seven gunmen and two on a truck with machine guns. They said they were going to kill me. When they raised the guns up and took aim, I realized at that moment, “They are going to literally shoot me now.”

JAN CROUCH: And I stopped and I said, “Honey, Arthur Blessitt is in trouble and we have got to pray.”

PAUL CROUCH SR.: All of a sudden, Jan descended on me and half frightened me to death…. She seized my arm and said, “Honey, Arthur’s in trouble, and we’ve got to pray for him.”

NARRATOR: Blessitt explains that he decided he would not die without a Bible in his hand.

ARTHUR BLESSITT: In a momentary decision, as I heard the guy say, “Uno, dos,” I turned instantly with my prayer: “Jesus, help me hit the keyhole.” And I turned and stuck the key into the door, right in the hole first time, right in the door, and they were saying, “Don’t move” in Spanish. I thought, “It doesn’t matter if I get shot in the front or the back.” I opened the door, picked up a box that had Bibles in it. I set the box down and started tearing off the top of the box, and it had these cords on it. It was very difficult to get the box open. I could see the gunmen’s feet around me. They were pulling on my shoulder trying to get me to stand up. Finally, I got a whole load and put the Bibles in my arm and thought I would give them all a Bible. I was really anticipating getting one for myself, but I thought I would give them all a Bible before they shot me.

PAUL CROUCH SR.: We fell to our knees, right there in the bedroom in that little cottage in Phoenix, and began to cry out to God and pray and receive, knowing nothing about what Arthur was experiencing at that moment.

JAN CROUCH: We jumped down by the bed very quickly…. We held hands across the bed and prayed for our friend Arthur. And all of a sudden I said, “Father, I ask you to send 12 big angels to fight for him right now.”

ARTHUR BLESSITT: And when I stood up, there wasn’t one gunman standing there. And I looked and there were six on the ground about 15 feet away and one with his feet sticking out the door of the trailer who had been knocked inside. I didn’t know what had happened. I heard nothing. I saw nothing.

NARRATOR: Blessitt says he went over to the ones on the ground and offered them a Bible and some water, but they were terrified and ran for the truck and sped away. When he walked in the trailer, his friend Don said he thought he had been killed.

DON: I have just been saved a couple of years, and I grew up in bars. I know meat against meat. I heard blows and then the gunmen fell by the door, and one fell into the door. Didn’t you hit them?

ARTHUR BLESSITT: I said no, I didn’t do anything. The people in the village came running up and said they saw God here. They said they saw a bright flash of light and God was here. And all I could do was stand in the midst of that whole situation and say, “Somebody must have been praying for me.”

“Oh, man,” Paul Crouch Jr. says as the camera switches back to the studio amid heavy applause.

“It is very moving to look at that,” Blessitt tells his host.

“What are you feeling?” Crouch asks softly.

“I feel the love that Paul and Jan had,” he says. “I don’t understand all about prayer, but God had them pray.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“And there was a literal miracle that took place,” Blessitt says. “I feel the presence of God.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“The only thing I can say is, I have lived now for 36 years of walking around the world in the presence of God,” Blessitt says.

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“I carried the cross,” Blessitt says. “I know His presence.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“And really, that is how I live,” Blessitt says. “I know Jesus is with me. I know that I know that I know that I know.”

“How do you know?” Crouch asks in a whisper.

“I know because His word says so,” Blessitt says as the applause track is again turned up, prompting the audience to clap. “Jesus said, ‘I will be with you always.’ I believe what He said.”

“Tell them,” Crouch encourages.

“And I believe another scripture: ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.’”

“Amen,” Crouch says, as an electric piano plays soft music in the background.

“And Paul, I have been so many times in places where there is not one believer around me,” Blessitt says. “I have been with soldiers. I have been with terrorist groups. And I will just say to them, ‘Would you say the name “Jesus”?’ And when they say the name ‘Jesus,’ the presence of Christ comes into that atmosphere. And really, that is how I share Christ; that is how I witness.”

The scene, with its high drama and emotion, its story of a miracle and the divine intervention mediated by Paul and Jan Crouch, is typical fare for Trinity Broadcasting. As Blessitt launches into a short pitch on the importance of knowing and accepting Jesus into your heart, Crouch reminds viewers that they can call prayer counselors at the toll-free number shown on the bottom of the screen. It is a short step from a prayer counselor to making a “love gift” and becoming a partner in Trinity Broadcasting. Above all else, this is a business, a huge one, and those who know how to run it well, the Paul and Jan Crouches, the Pat Robertsons and Benny Hinns, have grown wealthy and built massive media and personal empires on the gospel of prosperity.

The Crouches, who began their television evangelism with the disgraced Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, wear gaudy costumes and sit during their popular nightly program in front of stained-glass windows that overlook faux Louis XVI sets awash in gold rococo and red velvet, glittering chandeliers and a gold-painted piano. The emblem of the station, which Paul Crouch wears on the pocket of his blue double-breasted blazer, is a crest with a British lion and unicorn on each side and a white dove of peace in the middle. The couple, who collect nearly $1 million a year in salary from the network, also have use of 30 ministry-owned homes, including two sprawling multimillion-dollar oceanfront mansions in the resort town of Newport Beach, California, a mountain retreat near Lake Arrowhead and a ranch in Texas. They travel in a $7.2 million, 19-seat Canadair Turbojet, drive luxury cars, and charge everything from dinners to antiques on company credit cards, according to former employees. They run their empire with 400 employees, out of walnut-paneled offices with plush velvet furniture. The offices occupy half of the top floor of the network’s headquarters in Costa Mesa.[184]

Jan, who is caked in makeup and appears to have undergone extensive plastic surgery—including, allegedly, breast implants—wears garish outfits and huge, flowing wigs. Her tear-filled stories of miracles—such as how her pet chicken was brought back to life when she was a child—or her accounts of prayer requests from listeners, are used to extract money from viewers.[185] She and her husband speak as if they have a direct connection with God, an implication reinforced by constant stories of their personal involvement in divine miracles, such as the event involving Blessitt.

Their message, however, also has a dark side. Those who do not support their ministry, the Crouches often say, will see God turn against them. Viewers who have struggled with deep despair, and who believe that the world of miracles and magic is the only thing holding them back from the abyss, often find the threat potent and frightening. Better, many feel, to send in money and not take a chance.

“If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed to [the] station, you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven,” Paul Crouch said in a Praise the Lord broadcast on November 7, 1997.[186] Couch said: “God, we proclaim death to anything or anyone that will lift a hand against this network and this ministry that belongs to You, God. It is Your work, it is Your idea, it is Your property, it is Your airwaves, it is Your world, and we proclaim death to anything that would stand in the way of God’s great voice of proclamation to the whole world. In the name of Jesus, and all the people said, ‘Amen!’”[187]

Trinity Broadcasting Network is the world’s largest televangelist organization, with programming beamed from some two dozen satellites and thousands of cable and terrestrial channels in some 75 countries. It owns interests in stations in El Salvador, Spain and Kenya and has contracts with numerous other cable and satellite companies and station owners. Its programming is carried on more than 6,000 stations in the United States and abroad as well as the Internet.[188] The network is the platform for some of the movement’s most reactionary and bizarre preachers, including many from other countries. The success of the network lies in its array of programming and the variety of different “faith” messages it is willing to incorporate. It provides religious entertainment, children’s programming, gospel music concerts from Nashville, live coverage of Christian events, lifestyle shows, health and beauty tips, financial counseling and prosperity tips, news and current events, Christian documentaries and feature films, teaching programs, worship services at megachurches and spirited revivals. The messages range from the theologically conservative—embodied in the Southern Baptist preachers Charles Stanley and Adrian Rogers—to Catholic Ministries’ Father Michael Manning, to those who preach the gospel of prosperity, such as Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and John Avanzini. The network broadcasts Dr. D. James Kennedy, who is at the forefront of the movement to create a theocratic America, and it gives a voice to some of the outer fringes of the movement, such as the Christian exorcist Bob Larson and the popular healer Benny Hinn, who says that Adam was a superhero who could fly to the moon and claims that one day the dead will be raised by watching TBN from inside their coffins.[189] In a Praise the Lord broadcast on October 19, 1999, Hinn told viewers that he will one day be able to raise the dead through his television broadcasts, that soon those who have lost loved ones will refuse to bury them but

place him in front of that TV set for 24 hours. I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set, and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set, and as people are coming closer I see loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen, and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen.[190]

Hinn, who says he is a prophet who speaks with God daily, also tells followers that he has been transported to heaven and regularly receives visions and revelations. He has predicted that one day Jesus would appear at one of his crusades. He claims to be able to heal the sick and told Larry King he had healed himself by watching a previously recorded broadcast of one of his sermons.[191] He also, like the Crouches, angrily lashes out at his critics, once saying: “Sometimes I wish God would give me a Holy Ghost machine gun. I’d blow your head off!”[192] This sentiment was echoed by the elder Crouch, who has attacked critics as “heresy hunters” and lambastes them as enemies of God who will soon feel God’s wrath.

In an April 2, 1991, “Praise-a-Thon,” Crouch let loose on his critics:

To hell with you! Get out of my life! Get out of the way! I say, get out of God’s way! Quit blocking God’s bridges or God’s going to shoot you—if I don’t. I don’t even want to even talk to you or hear you! I don’t want to see your ugly face.[193]

The Crouches have repeatedly been embroiled in scandals in their three decades on television, including battles with the Federal Communications Commission over the legality of some of their station licenses.[194] Lonnie Ford, Paul Crouch’s chauffeur, said he had a homosexual relationship in 1996 with Crouch, something Crouch has vehemently denied. But Ford was, the network admitted, paid $425,000 and given housing in settlement when he threatened to go public with the charges shortly after the affair allegedly took place. The story was first reported six years later by the Los Angeles Times.[195] Disgruntled former employees complain about the lavish lifestyles of the Crouches, paid for by contributors who are often of modest means.

None of this seems to dampen the enthusiasm—or lessen the coffers—of the network. The promise of miracles, coupled with the fear of falling out of the favor of God (and the Crouches), compels loyal “partners” to mail in monthly “love offerings.” The network, expanding in areas such as the Middle East, dubs its programs in 11 different languages. It is watched by viewers in more than 5 million households in the United States each week and millions more overseas. And televangelists such as Pat Robertson, despite having networks that once dwarfed TBN, now buy time on the TBN network to reach a wider audience. The network generates more than $170 million a year in revenue, according to tax filings reported by the Los Angeles Times. Viewers’ contributions make up two-thirds of the income, and the rest comes from fees imposed on those who want to buy airtime.[196]

Crouch encourages viewers to send in checks for $1,000, even if they cannot afford it. Write the check anyway, he tells them, as a “step of faith,” and the Lord will repay them many times over. “Do you think God would have any trouble getting $1,000 extra to you somehow?” he asked during one Praise-a-Thon.[197]

The constant appeals for money, the fantastic stories about angels and healings and miracles, and the opulence of the Crouches’ lifestyles are defended by many viewers who cling to the network. The Crouches’ wealth is merely proof, many say, of God’s blessing and a sign that such blessings will one day flow to them as well, as long as they mail in their prayer offerings and love gifts and have faith.

The triviality of American popular culture, its emptiness and gossip, accelerates this destruction of critical thought. It expands the void, the mindlessness that makes the magic, mythology and irrationality of the Christian Right palatable. Television, the movement’s primary medium, allows viewers to preoccupy themselves with context-free information. The homogenized empty chatter on the airwaves, the banal amusement and clichés, the bizarre doublespeak endlessly repeated on cable news channels and the huge spectacles in sports stadiums have replaced America’s political, social and moral life, indeed replaced community itself. Television lends itself perfectly to this world of signs and wonders, to the narcissism of national and religious self-exaltation. Television discourages real communication. Its rapid frames and movement, its constant use of emotional images, its sudden shifts from one theme to an unrelated theme, banish logic and reason with dizzying perplexity. It, too, makes us feel good. It, too, promises to protect and serve us. It, too, promises to lift us up and thrill us. The televangelists have built their movement on these commercial precepts. The totalitarian creed of the Religious Right has found in television the perfect medium. Its leaders know how television can be used to seduce and encourage us to walk away from the dwindling, less exciting collectives that protect and nurture us. They have mastered television’s imperceptible, slowly induced hypnosis. And they understand the enticement of credo quia absurdum—I believe because it is absurd.

Arlene Jacques, wearing dark-framed rectangular glasses and with her hair pulled back, is wearing a bright red sequined shirt, flashy red sequin earrings and fire-engine red fingernail polish. She is browsing with her 35-year-old daughter Brandy in the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh gift shop on the ground floor of the Costa Mesa TBN headquarters, situated next to the San Diego Freeway. The headquarters is a gaudy, white wedding cake of a building with a dramatic front lobby that holds two spiral staircases winding upward, their railings ornate, gold-painted iron-work. Set in colored marble at the foot of the staircases, directly in front of the double glass doors, is the imperial-looking emblem of the network. Above the shoppers, the staircases converge on a huge white statue of the archangel Michael slaying the dragon, a 13-inch replica of which is on sale in the gift shop. The walls have gold-tinted mirrors and huge windows that allow visitors to look at the fountains, reflecting pools, sculptures, neoclassical colonnades, manicured lawns and white lights that outline the building and the shrubs. It’s Christmastime: elaborate light displays outline reindeer and hug the palm trees. On the top of the building, lights spell out “Happy Birthday Jesus.”

Jacques, from Visalia, California, looks at the displays of books by various members of the Crouch family, the clothing with the TBN emblem, and trinkets such as the Mary and Baby Jesus Decorator Plate or the Coming King Medallion. This is her first visit to TBN, although she has been a “partner” of the network for many years and has long made regular monthly contributions. She busily snaps pictures, including shots of herself in front of a gold grand piano on the second floor, with her daughter Brandy, who is a nurse. They visited the virtual reality theater earlier in the day and walked through the re-creation of the Via Dolorosa, the route through Jerusalem by which Jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion. In the 50-seat theater she has seen one of the End Time movies, which portray the apocalyptic end of the world, the death of nonbelievers and saving of the righteous, and she has felt the seats tremble during projected quakes and storms. She is about to head to the Heavenly Bistro for something to drink. The network has a similar complex near Dallas and a Christian entertainment center outside of Nashville. But there are few visitors today and the headquarters is nearly empty.

Jacques turned to the network 30 years ago at a time when she was “in a lot of pain.” She was living in a tiny, run-down apartment with her two small daughters, Brandy and Raquel, and had been recently divorced.

“I had never been a working parent,” she says. “I was scared to death to go out into the working world. I was not real churched at the time. They were speaking to me, Paul and Jan and the people at TBN, about my spiritual side. I knew Jesus, but I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. God could know you personally, they told me, and I could know Him personally.”

She met with a neighbor to pray and talk about changing her life. She watched the broadcasts, the promises of salvation, the stories about how finding God changes lives, melts away problems and leads to financial and emotional security. The broadcasts gave her comfort.

“I got down on my knees by myself by the couch,” she remembers. “I got a great big Bible, a 90-pound Bible that my husband got overseas, it was a big white one with gold print, and I put my hands on it and said, ‘God, please touch me, my life and children.’ Then I cried for three hours. I saw a slide show in front of my eyes. It seemed like every single wrong thing I had ever done flashed before my eyes and I was truly sorry.”

She visited various churches, but nothing gave her the glow of the TBN broadcasts. She began to pray daily, sometimes for long stretches. And she began to watch, slowly drawn into the culture and the message preached by Paul and Jan Crouch.

“I was taking a load of clothes down to the washing machine in the basement of the apartment building,” she says. “We were poor, living on welfare and food stamps, and when I came back upstairs I felt that I wanted to kneel by the bed and pray. I lifted up my hands and started to talk in a loud language I had never heard before. I thought, ‘It’s happening. My mind is thinking one thing and something different is coming out of my mouth. I am speaking in prayer language.’”

She found a job driving a school bus, but her emotional life remained in turmoil and the family often had a hard time paying bills. She struggled with depression. There were nights she could not sleep. She felt as if she was hanging on by her fingertips and there were few people listening or willing to help.

“I don’t know if you have ever been in a place in your life where it takes effort to walk from one room to the next,” she says. “It takes so much effort. I was in those places several times. But just by hearing the worship on TBN, by listening to different people speak the word of God, it gave me strength. The network is on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The pastor of your church and all your wonderful friends do not want you to call them up at four a.m. in tears when you feel such total despair. But you can call TBN. You can call TBN and there are people who actually speak to you. You can speak to a real, live person. They ask who you are and what you want to pray about. You can do this 24 hours a day.

“There is power in prayer,” she says. “Not only do you feel different; you feel more peaceful. In time you see answers to those prayers. Nothing happened instantly, but you know you can actually live another day, and you get to a place where you can keep on living.”

When she called the toll-free “prayer line,” the number of which is always visible at the bottom of the TV screen, she was asked by a “prayer warrior” on the other end for her name and address. The information was put into a direct-mail database, one of the network’s most successful fund-raising tools. Her calls to prayer partners, she says, gave her strength. But they also led her, a young, single mother on welfare, to take some of her meager income and mail it to the network.

“I was living on welfare, collecting food stamps,” she says, “and I would tape fifteen cents to one of their little cards and mail it back.”

Her life had always been turbulent. She started working very young, in her father’s restaurant. There was little time for school. She says she came from a “dysfunctional family” in which there was “no value of people, no value for life, for relationships and how to talk and relate to people.

“I didn’t know kids didn’t work,” she says. “My parents were divorced early on, and I lived with my dad and my stepmother since I was about 10. I did not know some kids got to eat dinner with their family, do their homework and go to bed.”

She barely made it through high school and eloped a couple years later with a man in the Navy. They went to Los Angeles and got married. He was sent to Vietnam. When he came back from the war, the marriage was tempestuous. They split and reconciled numerous times until they finally gave up.

“I remember as a little girl living in that apartment,” says Brandy. “My mom was a total Jesus freak. She used to bring homeless people in from the park and feed them and pray over them. She loved everybody with the love of God.”

Arlene baptized homeless people who visited in a small inflatable children’s pool. The pool was where she also baptized her daughters. She taught her daughters that, as Paul and Jan Crouch said, faith alone would be enough to let them survive. Jesus, if you had enough faith, would take care of you.

“For us, for my sister and I, to this day we know that God is so real,” Brandy adds. “We know God brought us through and protected us. One time me and my sister and mom got on our knees and prayed for our rent money. We left. We went to do the laundry at the laundromat. When we got back, there was a check in the middle of the floor, not like it was pushed under the door, but right in the middle of the floor. It was for our rent, and it was signed by Jesus Christ, and Wells Fargo cashed it.”

But the gospel of prosperity has a more insidious effect than the personal enrichment of leaders such as Paul and Jan Crouch at the expense of gullible, desperate and often impoverished followers. When it is faith alone that will determine your well-being, when faith alone cures illness, overcomes emotional distress and ensures financial and physical security, there is no need for outside, secular institutions, for social-service and regulatory agencies, to exist. There is no need for fiscal or social responsibility. Although many of the followers of the movement rely, or have relied in the past, on government agencies to survive, the belief system they embrace is hostile to all secular intervention. To put trust in secular institutions is to lack faith, to give up on God’s magic and miracles. The message being preached is one that dovetails with the message of neoconservatives who want to gut and destroy federal programs, free themselves from government regulations and taxes and break the back of all organizations, such as labor unions, that seek to impede maximum profit.

The popular Christian textbook America’s Providential History cites Genesis, which calls for mankind to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26–27) as evidence that the Bible calls for “Bible-believing Christians” to take dominion of America and the world: “When God brings Noah through the flood to a new earth, He reestablishes the Dominion Mandate but now delegates to man the responsibility for governing other men.”[198] The authors write that God has called the United States to become a Christian nation and “make disciples of all nations.”[199]

The book fuses the Christian message with the celebration of unrestricted capitalism. It denounces income tax as “idolatry” and property tax as “theft,” and in a chapter titled “Christian Economics,” calls for the abolishment of inheritance taxes.[200] This indoctrination is designed to form a cadre of young believers who will follow biblical rather than secular law. They are told that when the two laws clash, they as believers must defy secular authorities. And they are taught to judge others not by what they do but by their fidelity to Christian doctrine.

“Even if Christians manage to outnumber others on an issue and we sway our Congressman by sheer numbers, we end up in the dangerous promotion of democracy,” the book reads. “We really do not want representatives who are swayed by majorities, but rather by correct principles.”[201]

The book also teaches students that a Christian’s primary responsibility is to create material wealth. God will oversee the increase and protection of natural resources. America’s Providential History belittles secular environmentalists, who see natural resources as fragile and limited, and says of those who hold these concerns that they “lack faith in God’s providence and consequently, men will find fewer natural resources…. The Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God’s earth.” The book blithely dismisses the threat of global warming and overpopulation, saying, “Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people.”[202]

Nietzsche wrote that man needs lies. And the Jan and Paul Crouches of the world are perfect emissaries of the belief system needed to dismantle the power of the federal government and unlease the fetters on corporations. Moral life is reduced in their ideology to personal, individual piety. All well-being lies in the hands of God—or, more specifically, the hands of those who pose as ambassadors for God. The power of the supreme collective, of the corporation, is increasingly unchecked when a society accepts that fate is determined by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In this world individual rights—once safeguarded through the competing collectives of diverse social, religious or ethnic groups, trade unions, government regulatory agencies, advocacy groups, independent media and judiciaries, and schools and universities that do not distort the world through an ideological lens—are neutered.

This new world of signs and wonders, of national and religious self-exaltation and elaborate spectacle, makes people feel good. It offers the promise of God’s protection and service. This new world promises to lift them up and thrill them, all the while calling on them to do away with the dwindling collectives that in fact heretofore have protected them. When individuals are finally emasculated and alone, bereft of the help of competing collectives, they cannot defend their rights or question the abuses of their overlords. When there is no other place to turn for help other than the world of miracles and magic, mediated by those who grow rich off those who suffer, when fealty to an ideology becomes a litmus test for individual worth, tyranny follows.

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aceofspades4 · 3 months ago

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Humanity is so big it’s insane. Like 8 billion people, 8 billion on our planet. And it’s like, with that many people, how can we ever truly know we experience the same things? Has anyone else taken a walk in the morning light with dew on the grass, enjoying the quiet yet loud woods? Has anyone else sat on the porch and watch the sun come up and think “this is what life is”? Has anyone else imagined what it would be like to be someone else? Has anyone stared up at their ceiling and listened to a song with the quiet feeling of melancholy? Am I alone? Do I share this with a stranger across the globe? We have 8 billion people and so many languages, cultures, ideas, identities, bodies, ways to cook, ways to say “I love you”, ways to play a game, ways to make a house, ways to make a toys. We have 8 billion people and we all cry. We all laugh, sing, love, feel bad for the worm on the sidewalk, wrinkle our nose at a bad smell, smile at babies and children, comfort those who need it, make sure the ones we know are safe. “Do you know I am here for you? Do you know I pick up your traits and they will stay a part of me even if you don’t? Do you know I love you?” There’s 8 billion people and we’re all humans. Why would anyone want to destroy someone else? Why is hatred so common when we all are human? Why can’t they sit back and think about how crazy it is that we’re on this planet together, a space rock hurling through space that we play on together. I want to sit in a field and watch life pass me by as I chat with people I don’t know, learn their languages and how to play their games. I want to sit back and watch someone dance because they love the feeling, sing because they enjoy how it makes them feel. I want to sit back and be a human, not a robot or a machine or a cog in something I don’t like. I want to love and live.

#I’m not sure what possessed me to write this #But I’m not sure I like it #I lie #i wrote it because I woke up at fucking #FIVE INT EH MORNING #EHAG THE FUCK?!#I don’t even get up this early in school days or willingly!#Why the duck is my body oukw #“Oh you took two sleep pills then stayed up to one? While get ready to wake up at ducking 5:50!”#??? What the fuck me???#Also my wallet is definitely missing #And for some god forsaken reason ISNT IN MY ROOM! Where else would it be?? Between the board of the floor?? Fucking Narnia???#How did I not notice it go for like

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healthyworldera · 4 months ago

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8 Side effects of using earphones for a long time:

Technology is shaping our world, connecting humanity, driving progress, and innovation, and offering advancement. But technology also comes with its cons. Earphones are one of the most used technology nowadays. However, people are unaware of the side effects of using earphones for a long time.

It has been estimated by the World Health Organization(WHO), that around a billion young people across the globe could be at the risk of hearing loss due to unhealthy listening habits.

Excess use of earphones can cause serious health issues like hearing loss, ear infections, brain damage, hyperacusis, etc. Read More.

#Earphones #Side Effects #Hearing Loss #Brain Damage

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mariacallous · 10 months ago

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for House Republicans to get behind a supplemental spending bill that would send $60 billion to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. He warned that opposing it would play into “Putin’s hands.”

“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin, Opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” Biden said. “History is watching.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate early Tuesday passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, pushing ahead after months of difficult negotiations and growing political divisions in the Republican Party over the role of the United States abroad.

The vote came after a small group of Republicans opposed to the $60 billion for Ukraine held the Senate floor through the night, using the final hours of debate to argue that the U.S. should focus on its own problems before sending more money overseas. But 22 Republicans voted with nearly all Democrats to pass the package 70-29, with supporters arguing that abandoning Ukraine could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and threaten national security across the globe.

“With this bill, the Senate declares that American leadership will not waver, will not falter, will not fail,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who worked closely with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on the legislation.

The bill’s passage through the Senate with a flourish of GOP support was a welcome sign for Ukraine amid critical shortages on the battlefield.

Yet the package faces a deeply uncertain future in the House, where hardline Republicans aligned with former President Donald Trump — the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and a critic of support for Ukraine — oppose the legislation.

Speaker Mike Johnson cast new doubt on the package in a statement Monday evening, making clear that it could be weeks or months before Congress sends the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk — if at all.

Biden in a statement urged the House to urgently act: “We cannot afford to wait any longer. The costs of inaction are rising every day, especially in Ukraine.”

“Already, we are seeing reports of Ukrainian troops running out of ammunition on the front lines as Russian forces continue to attack and Putin continues to dream of subjugating the Ukrainian people,” the president said.

Schumer said the strong bipartisan support should pressure Johnson to advance the bill. McConnell has made Ukraine his top priority in recent months, and was resolute in the face of considerable pushback from his own GOP conference.

Speaking directly to his detractors, the longtime Republican leader said in a statement, “History settles every account. And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”

Dollars provided by the legislation would purchase U.S.-made defense equipment, including munitions and air defense systems that authorities say are desperately needed as Russia batters the country. It also includes $8 billion for the government in Kyiv and other assistance.

“For us in Ukraine, continued US assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media. “It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war.”

In addition, the legislation would provide $14 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas, $8 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and $9.1 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, and other populations caught in conflict zones across the globe.

Progressive lawmakers have objected to sending offensive weaponry to Israel, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, as well as two Democrats, Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont, voted against it.

“I cannot in good conscience support sending billions of additional taxpayer dollars for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza,” Welch said. “It’s a campaign that has killed and wounded a shocking number of civilians. It’s created a massive humanitarian crisis.”

The bill’s passage followed almost five months of torturous negotiations over an expansive bill that would have paired the foreign aid with an overhaul of border and asylum policies. Republicans demanded the trade-off, saying the surge of migration into the United States had to be addressed alongside the security of allies.

But a bipartisan deal on border security fell apart just days after its unveiling, a head-spinning development that left negotiators deeply frustrated. Republicans declared the bill insufficient and blocked it on the Senate floor.

After the deal collapsed, the two leaders abandoned the border provisions and pushed forward with passing the foreign aid package alone — as Democrats had originally intended.

While the slimmed-down foreign aid bill eventually won a healthy showing of GOP support, several Republicans who had previously expressed support for Ukraine voted against it. The episode further exposed divisions in the party, made more public as Trump dug in and a handful of lawmakers openly called for McConnell to step down.

Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican, argued that the U.S. should step back from the conflict and help broker an end to it with Russia’s Putin. He questioned the wisdom of continuing to fuel Ukraine’s defense when Putin appears committed to fighting for years.

“I think it deals with the reality that we’re living in, which is they’re a more powerful country, and it’s their region of the world,” he said.

Vance, along with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and other opponents, spent several hours on the floor railing against the aid and complaining about Senate process. They dug in their heels to delay a final vote, speaking on the floor until daybreak.

Supporters of the aid pushed back, warning that bowing to Russia would be a historic mistake with devastating consequences. They pointed out that if Putin were to attack a NATO member in Europe, the U.S. would be bound by treaty to become directly involved in the conflict — a commitment that Trump has called into question as he seeks another term in the White House.

In the House, many Republicans have opposed the aid and are unlikely to cross Trump, but some key GOP lawmakers have signaled they will push to get it passed.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, traveled to Ukraine last week with a bipartisan delegation and met with Zelenskyy. Turner posted on X, formerly Twitter, after the trip that “I reiterated America’s commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.”

But Speaker Johnson is in a tough position. A majority of his conference opposes the aid, and he is trying to lead the narrowest of majorities and avoid the fate of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted in October.

Johnson, R-La., said in a statement Monday that because the foreign aid package lacks border security provisions, it is “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.” It was the latest — and potentially most consequential — sign of opposition to the Ukraine aid from House GOP leadership, who had rejected the bipartisan border compromise as a “non-starter,” contributing to its rapid demise.

“Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

The Republican speaker has repeatedly pointed to a sweeping set of hardline immigration measures passed by the House last year. But that legislation has gained no Democratic support — essentially dooming it in the politically-split Congress.

Schumer at a news conference called on Johnson to put the foreign aid package on the House floor, saying it would pass with “strong bipartisan support.”

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rawralittlerawr · 2 years ago

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Read the first three Episodes for FREE!

Episode. 15 - “The Monster in the Mirror” is live on Kindle Vella and Episode 16 - “ ? ” is on the way!

In Episode 15 - Surprise! Readers will be reunited with a character in Jericho that hasn’t been featured since very early in the story. But will it be a double feature? Stay tuned to find out.

The Event: Season One of The Portal War

Science Fiction / Action and Adventure series with a little fantasy and romance sprinkled in

There is really only one thing anybody can say for sure, with certainty, ten days after the Original Event in Egypt: No matter what happens from here on out, whether the outcome is good or bad - nothing will ever be the same for the citizens of Jericho or the eight billion people who call Earth their home.

Strange things are happening in the small town of Jericho. When similar extraordinary reports start popping up all over the globe, a brilliant young geneticist is compelled to return to her hometown.

The Event: Season One of The Portal War

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#kindle vella #kindle #kindle unlimited #serialized fiction #serials #episodes #season one #reading #books #science fiction #action and adventure #fantasy #second chance romance #new reads

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beardedmrbean · 1 year ago

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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu rejected a City Council proposal that would have cut funding for the city's police department and veteran services.

"Our budget must be responsive to the needs of our constituents, fiscally responsible, and built on a foundation of effective delivery of City services that are central to our residents’ quality of life," Wu said in a letter to members of the Boston City Council on Friday, according to a report from the Boston Globe.

The Democrat mayor's letter comes after the council approved a $4.2 billion operating budget for the city that would have reduced funding for the Boston Police Department by $31 million and $900,000 in cuts to veteran services. Along with the proposed cuts were an $8 million increase funding for participatory budgeting, a city process that allows for more engagement on how tax dollars are spent by Boston residents.

The figures came in vastly different from Wu's proposed budget, which only included $2 million for the participatory budget process. In her letter to members, the mayor said the council's proposed cuts to the police budget "are illusory, as the City is obligated to cover salary and overtime expenses incurred by the department."

The veto means the budget will now be sent back to the council where it will need two-thirds of the members to override Wu. With 12 members serving on the council, that would mean eight members would have to vote to override the veto. Seven of the 12 members voted to approve the proposal sent to Wu.

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, chair of the city's Ways and Means Committee, told the Boston Globe on Friday that the council's proposed cuts would not have led to any city employees losing their jobs, instead arguing that her analysis found the Boston Police Department could have close to $25 million in extra funds next year.

Fernandes Anderson also blasted the Wu administration for not providing more transparency, saying the "administration does not work well with the council."

But Fernandes Anderson, who has a son who serves in the Marines, expressed regret about the proposed cuts to veteran services, noting that funding would not have been affected because the proposed cuts were a line item that was eligible to be reimbursed by the state.

"I want to extend my apology, I don’t want to send that message," she said.

Fernandes Anderson's office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

Wu's veto was also criticized by the Better Budget Alliance, a group that has advocated for more participatory budgeting.

"It is unacceptable that Mayor Wu vetoed a higher $10 million [allotment] for participatory budgeting and used false criticisms to undo the council’s critical investments in Boston’s underfunded working class, BIPOC communities," the alliance said in a statement, adding that Wu "has chosen to protect unused police funds and excessive overtime in the bloated BPD budget instead of funding real community investments."

The decision to veto the proposal was praised by the head of the city’s largest police union.

"Undoubtedly, we’re grateful the mayor saw fit to reject the council’s misguided efforts to dramatically and disproportionately impact the BPD budget, and, by extension, the department’s ability to effectively protect and serve the people of Boston," Larry Calderone, the president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said in a statement, according to the Boston Globe.

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

#nunyas news #bet we see some people being really racist and sexist

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filmsfromreel · 2 years ago

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Wizarding World Universe Ranked Worst to Best

You can listen to our discussion this list on our podcast, available here.

With the release of Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore we thought it would be a good idea to revisit all the films that have come from the Wizarding World Universe. All the way back to 2001 from the franchise's start with Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone to the prequel films we’ve seen in the past few years, the franchise has made billions worldwide and become one of the most beloved franchises of all time. But, with a total of 11 films to its name, just how good are the individual instalments?

11. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Elements of the second Fantastic Beasts film worked but overall it was a static and oddly paced film that struggled to find its personality. Whatever the first film had done to create a slicker, more adventurous look into the wizarding world felt low on the agenda as Crimes of Grindelwald struggled to find wonder, instead opting for choppy sequences and lengthy scenes of dialogue that aim to shock and allure but merely bore.

One aspect that the Fantastic Beast films have achieved is the interesting exploration of different wizarding eco-systems across the globe, more specifically the fantastical elements of a magical Paris are the highlight of this particular film - it’s just unfortunate that the exploration becomes bogged down by everything else around it. While David Yates could probably recreate the tone of the universe in his sleep by now, Crimes of Grindelwald suffers more from its dodgy pacing and lacklustre story which often leave the final product devoid of anything magical.

10. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016)

Like with most successful franchises Warner Bros. maintained a ‘never say never’ attitude towards the Wizarding World which meant an obvious rehash was inevitable. There was no doubt that something new was going to come after the behemoth franchise made such a stamp on popular culture and it was a nice surprise to see a film that maybe didn’t blow people away, but gave enough entertainment to merit its existence.

The film comfortably paddles in the shallow end without ever really taking a dive into something deeper, the world it is building expands on a world that people know and love and much like the title suggests, explores the interesting creatures in the hopes of finding commerciality. With it mostly being set in New York, the Americanisation of such a British product was jarring but as stated earlier, it was just exploring something new while never daring to go too far. It was a well balanced welcome back into the world, albeit a safe one.

9. Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

The newest film to the franchise, Secrets of Dumbledore is by no means perfect. What it does do however, is understand where to grow and how to maintain consistent levels of entertainment. It expands the world into a more political landscape while never sacrificing the ingredients that make the world so entertaining. Arguably its biggest faults are its complete demotion of what seemed like an important story, as well as being unable to find the small moments of literal magic that made Harry Potter so great to watch as a younger viewer.

Sometimes the film feels like it’s rushing through its story despite a runtime of 2 hours 20 minutes, but the reason it’s able to sit above its predecessors is its ability to interject a lot of scenes of fun in and around its more political backdrop. To add to that a new and improved Grindelwald in Mads Mikkelsen, what you have is a film that broadens its world without over stretching, while never forgetting to have a little fun.

8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

It may seem a little transparent to have all eight Harry Potter films in the final eight spots, but the truth is that the newest films struggle to match the originals in a lot of aspects. One is character, the source materials are able to ignite a connection to the characters on screen before the film has even come out and it’s hard to match something that has that advantage. While the characters of the film were well established and beloved in Order of the Phoenix, it’s the tone that makes it the weakest out of the Potter saga.

When the franchise started it felt much more kid friendly, but as the stars got older and the stories demanded more maturity the films had to adjust. The third and fourth instalments are great examples of slow change, moulding to a new style each time but with Order of the Phoenix it felt too dark and gloomy to really capture any kind of magic or humour. That’s not to say it wasn’t an enjoyable film that honours its source material, as well as adding some great actors to it’s cast, but as the franchise slowly ascended to a darker tone and mood Order of the Phoenix felt a little too much.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

In the latter stages of the franchise when tone was fully established and it was all about story, the studio opted for the Part 1 and 2 split of the final book. While that allowed the final film to flourish, what happened to Part 1 was it became an overly stretched film fighting to justify its 2 hour 20 minute runtime. It was honest to the scenes that fans awaited and ended at a tear jerking part of the story, but long stretches in between felt endless and less than exciting.

This film was always a precursor to the finale, with its intentions much more about establishing anticipation, as well as grabbing the money along the way, rather than being about creating a well balanced film. When the scenes of action do arise they are filled with popcorn entertainment of the highest order, but it is a shame it can’t find the same engagement in its connecting scenes, as well as giving us one of the most uncomfortable dance scenes you’ll see between Harry and Hermoine.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

The sixth instalment to the franchise felt like one of the better films to come from the Potter series. It was entertaining, tonally consistent and managed to balance its humour and maturity well. Harry Potter has always been a family friendly franchise and Yates understood that Half-Blood Prince needed to feel lighter, while never allowing the more mature and character defining moments to suffer.

It sits pretty in the middle of the list because, although it’s a good Potter film, it’s not a great one. It doesn’t stick with you as much as the very best do and it does fall victim to some very stale dialogue that even the very best of British acting can’t salvage. However, Half-Blood Prince felt like it captured a tone that would be the benchmark going forward for the franchise.

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)

The film that ignited the worldwide cinematic phenomenon, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a joyous experience for younger ages that was able to capture the wonder of the wizarding world in a very warm way. This is partly because of Chris Columbus' direction, someone who’s experience directing child-driven stories was well established, who visualised the book with a wonderful insight which allowed the film to imprint on popular culture with instant impact.

The first film is by no means perfect, with its three main stars still finding their feet as performers and the franchise still in its infancy, but it still opened up the Harry Potter world to those who hadn’t already experienced it from the books. If you go back now and watch the first film in the franchise you may not find the giddy immaturity or lighter approach as entertaining, but it will more than likely grasp at your nostalgia as you fondly remember where you were when you first experienced the charming world.

4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Stakes were high when Chamber of Secrets was released, it demanded a similarly lighter tone because of its characters' ages but also demanded a rougher exterior as its story and fantasy became bolder. This one is often regarded as a personal favourite for many people because of the time it was released, but also because it felt like the film in which everyone became sold on Harry Potter as a cinematic icon and not just a literary one.

The performances from its younger actors felt more seasoned and the grizzlier plot points served as the foundations in which the rest of the franchise would follow, add to that a cast of adult actors all having copious amounts of fun with their roles and what you have is a sequel that surpasses its predecessor comfortably. The franchise was always going to be a goldmine, but Chamber of Secrets proved that the Harry Potter story stretched further than the title of a ‘kids film’.

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2004)

Arguably the instalment with the most popcorn entertainment, Goblet of Fire boasted a step away from the usual school life we had seen from the franchise and gave us a new branch of the world with the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Dragons, underwater creatures and a mystical maze were all a part of a film that felt more fun and also broadened in scale.

It was also the first time we got a taste of our main characters feeling the angst and romance of their youth, with Harry getting his first taste of attraction as well as Hermoine and Ron offsetting their awkward relationship. Like a lot of the Potter films, the runtime is a little bloated, but the reason this film is high on the list is its ability to further story and character while never lacking in blockbuster entertainment.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

You can have the smoothest take off of your life but the most crucial part of any franchise, or saga, is sticking the landing. With the split of the final story across two films the last one was able to really shine with epic proportions. Fans eagerly awaited to see the Battle of Hogwarts chapter be brought to life and the film delivered by making nearly the entire runtime dedicated to magical warfare.

Like all the Potter films the final one isn’t without its hiccups but it manages to find pockets of heroism, humour and sadness amongst the chaos in order to give the multitude of characters their own sense of closure. Very often franchises feel scattered and incomplete but Deathly Hallows: Part 2 allowed Harry Potter to feel well-rounded, bringing the episodic films to one complete halt and giving the franchise some finality.

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003)

The third instalment to the franchise excelled on multiple levels, as the cast were growing up and becoming adults the style and story had to feel akin to the people we were watching without ever losing the charm that the first two films had. What Prisoner of Azkaban had though was the classy touch of Alfonso Cuarón. A director that nervously approached the project, not being familiar with blockbuster filmmaking before this, and executed a film with a sense of personality that would also please the millions of fans waiting for it.

In a list of Cuarón films ranked this wouldn’t sit too highly, but as a Potter film it surpasses all others in entertainment and precision. Its sense of humour felt maturer and its time hopping climax felt light, not getting bogged down in logic but instead rejoicing in the fun that can be had with such a plot. There is a reason that the worldwide phenomenon has captured so many hearts across the globe, and Prisoner of Azkaban feels like the poster child for everything that is great about the Harry Potter franchise.

#harry potter #wizarding world #film list #movie list #ranked list #movies #film #letterboxd #film review #movie review #review #filmsfromreel

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theculturedmarxist · 1 year ago

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Having read the below article in Scientific American, I have to confess it actually addresses many good points. It drives home the facts that endlessly growing consumption (capitalism, essentially) is unsustainable and a declining human population would help solve many of our greatest challenges.

It also goes on to note that we (read: our leadership and ourselves) have to get our shit together on a number of fronts, including putting human rights square in the center of the overall solution of reducing population growth, consumption, etc.

But here’s the problem: our world is run by a bunch of greedy, thoughtless wealthy elites who don’t see us as human, who don’t give the slightest fuck about us. The politicians are just puppets they manipulate.

We keep asking things like why has COVID been allowed to run rampant? While many of us have surmised the answer – the mass culling of us proles – here we have it now laid out in a major publication, in Scientific America. The authors don’t point fingers, but I’m happy to do so.

COVID was a gift to the Davos crowd (the billionaires, essentially). They’re perfectly aware of how dangerous SARS-CoV-2 is, and they’re also perfectly aware of how transmission can be prevented. And even those who aren’t in the Davos league but are rich enough know better send their kids to Davos-safe schools (e.g., Ashish Jha and Rochelle Walensky).

But the oligarchs tell us – the proles, the worker bees, the expendables – through their bought and paid for politicians and media outlets that it’s just a cold, just the flu, nothing to worry about! Masks are bad. Vax and relax! Or don’t vax at all. It’s all good. You do you!

Just like from the movie “They Live,” our purpose in life is to breed, to work, to consume, to enrich the billionaire class, and maybe create a few more Davos scions who are seen as sufficiently morally bankrupt as to be worthy of elevation.

“But how long can mass disablement and death go on before even the Davos elite are impacted?”

Good question. I don’t have a specific answer, but let’s consider: there are currently around 3,000 billionaires (depending on which source you read) in the entire world who’ve amassed over $12 TRILLION in wealth. And remember, that’s only what those 3,000 or so individuals have in their pockets, it says nothing about additional assets – and power – they may directly or indirectly control, including politicians across the globe.

That 3,000 works out to about 0.0000375% of the world’s population; I figure it’s likely more like 100 to 500 families, as some of the billionaires are in the same family groups. Even if you added in the 56 million or so millionaires globally, that’s only 0.7% or so of the population. And let’s face it: in the eyes of the billionaires, the millionaires are just higher-ranked proles, nothing more. Even our wealthiest politicians are nothing more than boot-licking kapos to the billionaires.

So, do you think the billionaires and their families NEED anywhere close to 8 billion people to build their yachts, service and fly their private jets, or – when the climate becomes so extreme we proles are dying by the millions – to raise their atmosphere-controlled gilded domes and ivory towers? Of course not. Somehow, I’m sure they’ll have the “human resources” they require.

I doubt the super wealthy want to live in cages, though, even gilded ones. They must realize how the endless human growth and consumption that has made them wealthy beyond dreams is also poisoning their world (yes, to them it’s “their” world, not ours). Granted, some won’t give a damn and want to do the ultimate YOLO in their own lifetimes. Others, like Musk, think they’ll find salvation on Mars; I suspect he and his followers will be badly disappointed. Still others, I suspect, would like to salvage this planet. They don’t want to live in a shithole any more than we do.

To do so, however, billions of proles globally must die. Yes, billions. But this is a difficult problem to solve. While war could do it (and would make a LOT of money in the process), war is messy, has a great deal of uncertainty (you don’t want someone blowing up any of YOUR yachts or mansions!), and the only way to kill billions in a reasonable amount of time is the generous use of nuclear weapons, which are *really* messy.

Starvation can help, but typically works only on impoverished countries: most of the problems (e.g., climate catastrophe, pollution, etc.) beyond raw “surplus population,” as Scrooge might say, are actually created by the wealthy countries, and starvation isn’t going to work on them. The same with water: while some countries in the northern hemisphere (the rich) are going to suffer under the coming water shortages, they won’t suffer enough. A few million dying here or there simply won’t do.

What about…a plague? A pandemic? Hmm. Now that has some possibilities. We’ve had several major human depopulation events stemming from plagues in the past. You could argue that SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t have a high enough fatality rate to really “do the job” (and I’m not being glib as I write these awful things: I believe this is the cold calculus the Davos elite are using to compute our fates). That would be true, perhaps, if we only take into account deaths from acute infections – a few tens of millions in three years is hardly a dent, after all!

On the other hand, mass disablement leading to latent sudden death, infections by other pathogens due to compromised immune systems, premature death, the collapse of health care services leading to more deaths, plunging life expectancy among the proles…now we’re talking!

And yet, one set of problems remains: how to get people to embrace mass infection, disablement, and death when viral transmission can be broken fairly easily? If people were properly informed about the virus, the pandemic could be brought under control with a proper layered strategy enabled globally, which would cut the party short.

How to get past this conundrum?

That’s an easy one: lie to the proles! Terminate collection and distribution of the data showing what the virus is doing. Demonize or outright prohibit masking and other mitigations, along with the people promoting them or trying to get the proles to see the truth. Demonize vaccination for one demographic, and make it difficult to get vaccinated/boosted with vaccines that already do little to prevent infection, transmission, and long COVID for another. Have the billionaire-owned politicians and media outlets censor information about the pandemic except to say it’s over, COVID is no worse than a cold or the flu, vax and relax. Live your best life! YOLO!

This is what they’ve done, and on a global scale. SARS-CoV-2 may not be THE solution…but it could go a long wy. Consider where we’ll be in 10 or 20 years with multiple infections per year if we don’t globally try to stop it: hundreds of millions, and quite possibly billions, will die of the sequelae or other infections, if not from the acute infections themselves, or being left to die after being disabled, or “humanely euthanized.”

Even climate change: could that be intentional? The rich and shameless know it’s real and what’s causing it (us, primarily from using fossil fuels), but they’re doing nothing to change course. Why?

A workable theory is that they WANT it to happen, because it will likely kill hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in a matter of decades. There will still be habitable, even nice, places left, and that’s where the billionaires will have us proles build their new ivory towers.

But what about supply chain disruptions? Grain and food shortages? Water? Fuel? Energy? Surely the “big issues” are going to disrupt the rich and shameless as millions or billions die, right? Right?

No, they’re not. Remember, these are people who buy blue water yachts on a whim, often have multiple personal helicopters and private jets, plop down millions of dollars for a warehouse full of fancy cars, have mansions on every continent but Antarctica, and enjoy a lifestyle that most of us literally can’t even imagine. They see themselves as lords and act like it.

Do you think ANY of the things that affect our survival are going to affect the Davos elite? Don’t be foolish: they simply buy their way to the front of the line for anything and everything they want. When it comes to it, they’ll have their own personal armies just like feudal lords of old. There’s no “competing” with this demographic: they take what they want, when they want. They don’t even see us as real people. The only value we provide in their world is whatever we can do for them. And right now, the vast majority of us are nothing but useless eaters in their eyes and just need to die, the faster, the better.

But what about productivity? If too many of us die, won’t we stop making them rich? Again, literally billions of us could die and there would be plenty of proles to keep them in comfort: they control the system, they control the dynamics, and they’ll rearrange things to suit their needs. When you own all the assets that are worth owning (that’s called “privatization,” folks), the nature of “income” and wealth change, and the rest of us be damned.

That’s what it really boils down to: this small group of people (and those who are really pulling the levers are no doubt only a small subset of this group of 3,000 or so) have damned the rest of us to suffering and death. They have embraced SARS-CoV-2 and likely climate change as at least part of the solution to planetary overpopulation. They’re driving this agenda, which is a long-term one, home through their influence over and ownership of our leaders, media, and various proxies who have been waging a war of information to convince us that mass infection is good, that mass disablement and death are normal, that there’s no reason to worry about climate change. Everything’s going to be okay. For them, at least.

Finally, if you think this is limited to one party or another, or one segment of the political spectrum, you’d be sorely mistaken. The Davos crowd aren’t liberals or conservatives. As I said earlier, they see themselves as lords unto themselves, and we are here only to serve them.

#davos #capitalism #social murder #covid pandemic #class war

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