Who decides what is Good?

We have embraced Marxism in our government schools and school curriculum, in hiring practices for both government and the private sector, in finance, lending and contracting for both government and the private sectors, in identity and race through affirmative action and culture and finally now in corporate equity indices to measure corporate compliance. America has embraced an ideology of failure that eschews objective truth and belief in God. Simply stated Marxism is an anti-American Ideology. Maybe we should pause and ask if this full embrace of Marxism is “All Good?”

It’s an interesting point to ponder as we enter the 3rd year of the second decade of the 21st century “In The Year of Our Lord” 2023.  Are we collectively smarter than a 5 year old that clearly understands there is a biological difference between a man and a woman?  Are we thinking for ourselves or are we just conforming to the culture? You might find your reaction to this controversial in today’s culture. It’s no longer strange to hear someone at university seeking to claim that 2+2=5 and then call a wrong answer a right answer. When did we stop thinking for ourselves?  When exactly did we give up on liberty and freedom? Was it a conscious decision or is this what they meant by progress and we were misled?  Is this the progress we were promised? Did we have the idea or did the idea have us?  These are the questions we must ask to diagnose the identity crisis we find ourselves in today.

Ideological Possession as defined by Carl Jung is in my opinion what has led us to this identity crisis. The incremental acceptance of Marxism through cognitive dissonance and sheer pride or slothful decadence. Arguably Jung and Freud were at the top of the world in psychoanalysis and collaborated for several years before a parting of the ways over some salacious goings on. From what I’ve read Jung agreed with Freud on many things but rejected the sexual premises and fantasies Freud promoted. Jung’s diagnosis of culture that lead to several wars in the early 20th century was simply framed as ideological possession, or in even simpler terms group think. Many charlatans today are trying to rewrite history and claim the past wars were a result of right wing ideology but what Jung made plain was that it was neither left or nor right but psychological.  From this perspective I am writing not about left or right but about right or wrong which is the real polarization and always has been throughout the ages. Cain & Abel were brothers to keep this as simple as possible.

Growing up in the latter part of the 20th century there were clear moral and ethical boundaries that folks chose not to cross.  These boundaries were the bedrock foundation upholding a free and prosperous society. Not perfect by any means but free. Both of my Grand Fathers fought in WWII the war to end all wars and these men taught me a great deal about courage.  We were definitely not Marxists 50 years ago.  Author Gary North a great mind and great author who recently passed in 2022 wrote a great book in 1968 titled “Marxism a Religion of Revolution”. It’s marvelous how spot on he was in his depiction now looking at what we face today 50 years later. The societal norms of my childhood were forged and founded on the bedrock cannon of Western Civilization and one Most High God above all creation. We were by no means perfect but no generation ever is perfect. In fact no man save for one, can ever claim that mantel.

After the printing press the most printed book on earth and might have been the only or one of the few books a family might have with them as they settled the territories of early America. A book that many had learned to read from which is why most of our language still mirrors that of The Holy Bible. The culture was downstream from the church and biblical teaching as it should be.  As we entered the 21st century those boundaries have been upended and I would argue it began with the Supreme Court ruling in 1965 regarding prayer in school. The 1960’s was a turbulent time and by comparison fueled by Vietnam War not unlike the Ukraine “War” today that created a wild indiscriminate culture of peace mongers who are now in Ironic Fashion the warmongers of today. We now have a counter culture in reaction to the 1960’s counter culture emerging in reaction to the reaction. Go Figure. Some are calling it a fourth turning. With complete predictability we got fooled again and the new boss is the same as the old boss.  It begs the question “Progress to what?”

Because of technology we have crossed over into an artificial world enabled by our decadent prosperity and success that has made the foundations of our free society seem passé and no longer important to the new age spiritualists. The uber-rich are wanting to live forever in a transhumanist electronic dream world with no soul but still they fantasize.  In the 21st century the moral & ethical boundaries are downstream of culture and we are starting to see that this is a house built on sand. We now see the Marxist culture being used as a cudgel against the church and flooding or watering down the doctrines to please the equity gods. We have entered the realm of the fake, phony & artificial posing as morally superior. A realm that is clearly inferior to reality and we are starting to see the hollow fruits of a highly processed dystopian fantasy we refer to as artificial intelligence.  This isn’t the tomorrow land Disney promised.  We are finding out the hard way that artificial has no real meaning, no real purpose and no real substance. Peter Pan was just a great story not a lifestyle to be desired.

Karl Marx lived under Engle’s roof and off the benevolence and labor of others for most of his life which is best described in the country vernacular as a parasite or a pet.  He is famous for writings that can be summed up as a religion of revolution.  In theory his ideology was about helping the poor but he couldn’t even help himself and in practice the Marxist theories lead to more poor people and more misery not less. Why these theories from the communist manifesto are what prevailed in our schools universities and now our government over the bed rock founding documents of America and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s dream is the question laid bare before us today. I often wonder how long we will be on this collectivist track before folks wake up. It seems like we will continue down this miserable existential path until we are all poor and destitute. But hey at least we will all feel good about pursuing equity and group validation.  I have also noticed that this may not be a completely cogent argument since the so called elite and super rich never seem to be impacted by these Marxist policies and they likely profit handsomely. However it does fold nicely into the engineered path the World Economic Forum laid out where we will own nothing and like it.  Dr. Evil is blushing.

The social credit score touted by the Chinese as a technological innovation may not be a gift but the next installation or upgrade of the Marxist Trojan Horse. Marxism was sold to us as a solution to our guilt ridden self-imposed environMENTAL problems. In reality it’s just another Big Pharma miracle prescription that will make us feel better only to be authorized then recalled by the FDA once people begin to suffer the side effects after they rake in billions. Marxism has now infiltrated and permeated all facets of our lives in the name of civil rights and the Big Tech Oligarchs are more than happy to accommodate in order to achieve their technocratic dreams. Marxist ideology has worked hard at inverting the American dream of our founders that undergird the REAL Individual Civil Rights American Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Marxists have convinced us that our freedom and liberty are selfish and patriotism is akin to terrorism.  We are entering into a Technocracy akin to an “Electronic Panopticon” far more effective than those built with brick and mortar in India in the 1800’s. When we stop and think we begin to realize the good book reminds us yet again there is nothing new under the sun.

Basically our culture surrendered to feel good virtue signaling and the madness of crowds. We have accepted false premises in our temptations to embrace the new, hypnotized by clever marketing, repetitive conditioning and wanting to be always liked by others. People became more afraid of man than our creator. If you zoom out you can see the conformity bias in everything.  Ideological possession has a stranglehold on our culture when folks are always conforming to the collective and never challenging the premises of the arguments. The Post Moderns have taken God and the Spirit of Liberty that flows from the Christian Ethic for granted. They have convinced us to accept this dystopia as utopia because it has a softer gentler machine gun hand that everyone can be proud of. Anyone who does not agree with the group is an outcast or a traitor to the cause and will be bullied into submission by the social credit score coming soon to us as a digital currency. The mob rule of past democracies now white washed into oblivion as if democracy is now a good thing. Maybe we won’t need the guillotines this time because if you don’t help Marxists build the tower of babel you will not be able to spend your money.

Our culture now worships the golden calf and is sacrificing our children to idols just like the days of Moses.  Never calling a time out or questioning anything and always embracing the feel good do it lawlessness of the well intentioned Marxists who worship government and reject God and objective truth. Those with the loudest voice contend we should just go along with everything, and we hear once famous celebrities say things like “screw your freedom”.  The Government now pays for clever marketing on the radio and television like #AloneTogether and it’s “your turn” as a government sponsored public service announcements marketing group think and ideological possession as good. Thinking people realize that the advertising dollars keep media in businesses that would otherwise have already failed. Basically modern media is on welfare or if you prefer life support and is now being controlled by their own dependency.  Brought to you by Big Pharma! Even people who know better tell us as individuals we can’t make a difference just give in and accept things you don’t agree with. I often remind folks that standing up for God and truth is exactly how this nation was built and designed to operate where the individual is king and the government was supposed to protect our God given rights. Every individual is important and should not give in to temptation.  E PLURIBUS UNUM.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) uses the dialectic to focus on and deconstruct everything in its path. The claim is that deconstructing racism will help solve racism once and for all, but predictably only leads to more of it as we become what we focus on.  The old adage you become what you focus on is absolutely true.  Environmental Social Governance (ESG) embraces a false premise of scarcity and climate eschatology where the sustainable goals are ever changing.  Neo Paganism has the same definition as it seems that this ideology mirrors that ancient mythology. In our continuing failed efforts to save the environment we create more problems than we solve. Many profit from the failures so they continue to move the goal posts and the cost of everything goes higher and higher and higher with no end in sight. There are no objective measures to this fear mongering it’s just never enough.

Enter Diversity Equity and Inclusion also known as (DEI). In reality DEI only applies to influential groups and not to individuals or individual ideas. The alphabet groups capture minds and diminish the importance of individuals excluding those that disagree with the accepted group think, so much for diversity, equity & inclusivity.  Marxism leads to ideological possession in culture and works against all individuals who don’t conform to the group ideology while claiming to be inclusive its actually exclusive and diminishes individual freedom. These are all false appeals to authority. Real authority comes from the self-evident truth that all men are created equal which points to truth and our creator.  The premises of the Marxist arguments that are being made are false and don’t lead to equality. In the end each of us are individuals and our group status does not make us better than anyone else. Aristotle made a bold statement 300 years before the Birth of Christ when he made plain “The most unequal thing is making unequal things equal”. We will all face the Supreme Judge of the World depicted in the Declaration of Independence and our social credit score will not matter one wit.

The latest installment is Corporate Equity index (CEI) using lobbying to influence and put in practice these Marxist ideas to get a better corporate social credit score.  This is how the so called human rights campaign has captured corporations in this Marxist ideology.  We’re starting to see just how pervasive this humanist ideology has become as it permeates every type of media.  We now have transgender men dominating all women’s sports because it adds to the corporate equity index for example. When I grew up if a man was doing something obscene in public it was against the law, but now they just have to pretend like they are a woman or a unicorn and the law doesn’t apply to them.  So much for equity and equal justice as this snake eats its own tail eventually.

Just check out the latest beer or whiskey advertising for examples that adds 50 points to the corporate social credit score when it promotes the humanist agenda. Any corporation not adhering to or promoting the CEI responsible citizenship must deduct -25 points.  This is the “Marketing of Evil” right out of the pages of a David Kupelien’s book describing how to capture minds and how evil destroys real freedom. We have lost our way for sure. We have a really short memory and a terrible education system that ignores real history. The central planning progressive ideologies that lead to world war in the first part of the 20th century arrived through alliances of corporations, media and government.  Carl Jung studied and diagnosed this nearly 100 years ago and he called it simply ideological possession. Here we go again, buckle up we are only at the beginning stages. It seems we are now just a province of China who manufactures most everything. In fact it seems that if you adhere to the social credit score you get a discount on your imports from the Far East using the CEI.  This all seems to go in one direction away from individual freedom and towards collective ideology, central planning and World War.

The goal is no longer freedom or liberty but sustainability, whatever that means.  Sustainability is a floating signal and means whatever the person thinks it means at the time.  In short sustainability is yet another weasel word used to manipulate minds akin to sorcery.  There is no longer a normal customer or consumer profit motive but a special interest and government monopoly. Monopoly is now in its 89th year of production but the new versions might want to expand on Utilities enforcing Woke ratings as we struggle to get around the board to collect $200.   Seems as though we have not only monetized carbon a building block of life but also culture and we call it sustainability.  The new Monopoly will need to list rent discounts for higher social credit scores. Maybe you should collect $400 when you pass go if you are part of a favored group. It’s starting to look more and more like the Matrix movie was a documentary.

Remember we are now the product as Google envisioned.  When it’s a free app you are the product and the Department of Justice needs only to look at your Facebook page to keep an eye on you.  Alexa is there to make sure you stay on track for your own convenience because Artificial Intelligence is better than Intelligence. The new equitable world will be much better than the old tired and selfish ideas about freedom, liberty, responsibility and accountability.  CEI is what is behind the “go woke, go broke” ideological possession which has now become obsession. CEI nothing more than corporate bullying through threats of litigation while accepting payoffs or contributions to promote this nonsense called woke. Much like our media our corporations have been bought off too. Welcome to mafia government AKA Marxism. Woke ideology has possessed the masses as we commit public and private corporate suicide destroying whole markets and pension funds while undermining trust in our institutions and discarding freedom, liberty and rule of law. We no longer have truth or consequences we just claim we have our own truth as we continue our shameless decadence.

Possession they say is nine-tenths of the law and in this case ideological possession is no different as we embrace lawlessness in the name of equity, favoritism displaces objectivity and bias replaces equality and the social contract is destroyed.   There is a simple test you can use to better understand if someone is ideologically possessed. It’s a simple open ended question that must be asked.  “Did you have the idea OR did the idea have you?”   Another good way to test ideas is to simply ask “What does this lead to?” We will reap what we have sown nonetheless but maybe it’s time to ask some basic questions about the track we are on. Ideological Possession leads to revolution and civil war.

Cognitive dissonance is demonstrated when you do something wrong and then claim it was not your intention. The claim you did nothing wrong based on your feelings and intentions has little to do with your actions.  If your actions were wrong your intentions don’t matter despite your claims that you were trying to do good. Who decided that what you did was good? In a world that claims that “it’s all good” we lose all accountability and a dissonant culture thrives on what used to be called blame shifting. The difference here is that the blame is placed on society and that is a revolutionary faith in action. Laying claim to your goodness based on your intentions, despite reality, is a great working definition of cognitive dissonance.

Moreover if the actions driven by good intentions lead to destruction without cost or consequence it might also be defined as insanity. The world that works does not rely on good intentions. Your emotional validation does not add real value when it’s only virtue signaling at best and should never be validated or rewarded if it’s destructive.  In real life there is no get out of jail free card, but I’m starting to wonder these days if that has been inverted also.  Mercy for the guilty is cruelty for the innocent as Adam Smith opined in his excellent book “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”.   This is the path of zero accountability and is part and parcel to the broad way that leads to destruction. We find the narrow gate that leads to life in the Good book in the Sermon on the Mount.   As they say “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.  Same here as we see that good intentions does not make you a good person, it causes you to disconnect with reality to claim you are good person even if your actions may say the opposite.  Remember this is simply a discussion about self-discipline.  You can have all sorts of ideas and intentions but if your actions lead to bad outcomes, the ideas and intentions make no objective difference.  This leads to social justice and away from real justice and reality.

If we accept the false premise man can decide what is good. If we accept the lie of what man thinks is right or wrong those ideas often lead to destruction through temptation, vice, debt, dependency and tyranny.  There is a reason they call The Holy Bible the good book as it defines what is good.  In Genesis God creates everything and then calls it good. The examples of Vice and Virtue in the bible are there to define good and evil. What is good right and just is determined by a source outside of ourselves. Story after story show us that when man tries to step into this role and decide what is good it is a story of temptation.  When man tries to define what is good it violates the first law in the Ten Commandments when man appropriates the judgment seat it leads to destruction.  When we are tempted to judge one another we are really judging ourselves.

When we accept the basic principle of discernment in the good book we begin to understand what good means. We should all seek objective truth and embrace what is good right and just. When we use the word “should” are we appealing to the Holy Spirit that leads us on a path of creation, virtue, freedom and Liberty or to the small ‘g’ gods of equity. The Marxist embrace of indiscriminateness denies the virtue of discernment and leads down the path of the broad way and away from the Good and narrow path that leads to life.

Originally published in the Porterville Recorder's 4/19/2023 issue.