Daily Reflection 4.1.21
Apr. 1st, 2021 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthings Let's back up a little bit, and discuss some of Sun Tzu's previous selections from The Book of Army Management.
To this the later commentator Chang Yu helpfully adds:
I've been focusing my commentaries on personal development and habits for the last little while. Today I want to shift attention back to the Spiritual Warfare.
I've recently learned, via JMG's blog, that the latest absurdity in the world of the demoniac Social Justice movement is an attempt to prevent white people from using tarot cards, because they're "cultural appropriation."
Now, reading that, I had the following reactions:
The first was anger.
The second was a mental debate.
The third was an attempt to figure out why the hell anyone would think anything like that, which led me to a pagan site on Reddit where some very concerned 22 year old was explaining the ways that white people can appropriately use tarot cards.
The fourth was a lengthy comment about the whole matter on JMG's blog, which comment was promptly devoured by the Internet when the site went down for a half hour.
Now, the thing is-- all of this was a waste of time.
There is no reason whatsoever to debate the Social Justice movement. The essence of that movement is racialized socialism enforced by surveillance, censorship, indoctrination and mob violence. We don't need to talk about whether or not that works or what outcome it produces. We have the whole history of the Twentieth Century to look at if we want to know. If you are driving in a car and your passenger tells you to drive into oncoming traffic, you don't argue about the reasons why you shouldn't do that, and you don't consider their point of view. You just don't drive into oncoming traffic. If they grow increasingly shrill and start shrieking about how you have to drive into oncoming traffic because they are an epileptic and don't have their medicine available, you still don't drive into oncoming traffic. You drive to a psychiatric hospital and have them committed. Later on, once their psychosis is under control, you can find out if they are actually epileptic and if you can help them get access to treatment.
To engage with insanity is to allow yourself to be robbed of your presence of mind. To engage with a public insanity, such as the Social Justice movement, while it is still at the peak of its enthusiasm is to engage the enemy's soldiers while their spirit is at its keenest. Only do it if you can get something out of it besides rage at the insanity of it all and a sense of powerless at being unable to stop it. Most of the time you can't-- so don't follow my example. It's best to avoid learning the news of the latest outrage, if all it will do is outrage you; if you are unable to avoid learning about it, it is still best to ignore it and do something constructive. Only engage with it if the force of the outrage will be sufficient to rally yourself or your own side to actually achieve something.
A whole army may be robbed of its spirit; a commander in chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.
To this the later commentator Chang Yu helpfully adds:
In war, if a spirit of anger can be made to pervade all ranks of an army at one and the same time, its onset will be irresistible. Now the spirit of the enemy's soldiers will be keenest when they have newly arrived on the scene, and it is therefore our cue not to fight at once, but to wait until their ardor and enthusiasm have worn off, and then strike. It is in this way that they may be robbed of their keen spirit.
I've been focusing my commentaries on personal development and habits for the last little while. Today I want to shift attention back to the Spiritual Warfare.
I've recently learned, via JMG's blog, that the latest absurdity in the world of the demoniac Social Justice movement is an attempt to prevent white people from using tarot cards, because they're "cultural appropriation."
Now, reading that, I had the following reactions:
The first was anger.
The second was a mental debate.
The third was an attempt to figure out why the hell anyone would think anything like that, which led me to a pagan site on Reddit where some very concerned 22 year old was explaining the ways that white people can appropriately use tarot cards.
The fourth was a lengthy comment about the whole matter on JMG's blog, which comment was promptly devoured by the Internet when the site went down for a half hour.
Now, the thing is-- all of this was a waste of time.
There is no reason whatsoever to debate the Social Justice movement. The essence of that movement is racialized socialism enforced by surveillance, censorship, indoctrination and mob violence. We don't need to talk about whether or not that works or what outcome it produces. We have the whole history of the Twentieth Century to look at if we want to know. If you are driving in a car and your passenger tells you to drive into oncoming traffic, you don't argue about the reasons why you shouldn't do that, and you don't consider their point of view. You just don't drive into oncoming traffic. If they grow increasingly shrill and start shrieking about how you have to drive into oncoming traffic because they are an epileptic and don't have their medicine available, you still don't drive into oncoming traffic. You drive to a psychiatric hospital and have them committed. Later on, once their psychosis is under control, you can find out if they are actually epileptic and if you can help them get access to treatment.
To engage with insanity is to allow yourself to be robbed of your presence of mind. To engage with a public insanity, such as the Social Justice movement, while it is still at the peak of its enthusiasm is to engage the enemy's soldiers while their spirit is at its keenest. Only do it if you can get something out of it besides rage at the insanity of it all and a sense of powerless at being unable to stop it. Most of the time you can't-- so don't follow my example. It's best to avoid learning the news of the latest outrage, if all it will do is outrage you; if you are unable to avoid learning about it, it is still best to ignore it and do something constructive. Only engage with it if the force of the outrage will be sufficient to rally yourself or your own side to actually achieve something.
