Hold Fast Good People! Our Time Comes

It’s common to feel blackpilled today. Anyone following world news is aware that the structure of society seems to be disintegrating, and that the human race appears to be regressing back into savagery. This is a terrible reality to confront but, underneath it all, there sprouts the seed of what will one day grow to be a new and healthy order. This essay explains.

Yes, this is how the Romans felt when the barbarians overran them. Watching helplessly from afar as mobs of strange young men beat people to death in the streets and the law enforcement authorities kneel in submission. The Westerners of 2020 share this experience with Romans from 1,600 years beforehand.

It’s an exceptionally depressing feeling, knowing that the great peace is over and that many years of war and deprivation lie ahead of us. A great many people feel it physically, in the form of restlessness, anxiety, loss of appetite and insomnia. The dread that so many feel is little different to the dread of a student approaching the date of an important exam that they haven’t studied for. We aren’t prepared for what’s coming.

All things go in cycles.

It is true that the world is falling into chaos and the old order is collapsing. We have been wealthy for so long that we have forgotten what it means to truly suffer. As such, our desires are no longer grounded in reality. Conflating our instinctual and artificial desires with our true will, we no longer have any common conception of morality.

Having lost a common conception of morality, there is no longer any way to unite in furtherance of a common goal. No-one can appeal to any value that is shared by all, and anyone who tries to is attacked by those who don’t share it. Anyone who tries to lead is torn down, and true leaders get replaced by opportunists, grifters and demagogues.

The inevitable result of this is disintegration, as the subfactions of society battle to impose their conception of morality on the others, while the genuine leaders who could bring unity are marginalised. Painful failure is the eventual outcome as the social fabric, the skin that holds the body politic together, is torn asunder.

Yet life will go on. The pain will burn away people’s ego-driven unwillingness to co-operate. The prickly narcissism that keeps people apart in wealthy times will fade away. A shared experience of great suffering will have the effect of creating both solidarity and humility. This combination will be the bricks and mortar that constitutes a new order of the world.

The factors that are today co-operating to spear tackle the West into the ground are the same factors that will co-operate to lift it up again. The Great Pendulum of History swings from the masculine to the feminine, and then back again, for ever. As there have been prevailing tendencies towards order, and then towards chaos, so will there be tendencies towards order once more.

The suffering of the coming years will make people snap back to reality. Wealth and prosperity allows delusion to go unpunished. Poverty and misery force people to see the world accurately and to think clearly. Reality is about to shirtfront us, and the end result will be much harder, sharper minds.

In the meantime, it has never been a better time to meditate. When things are easy, there’s little need to meditate, because one would rather be enjoying life. And why not? Life is hard enough as it is, so if there’s a chance to enjoy it one might as well take the opportunity.

When things are hard, meditation is immensely beneficial. In the same way that physical hygiene becomes extremely important during wartime lest one become physically sick, psychological hygiene becomes extremely important during times of stress lest one become psychologically sick. As the world is collapsing around us, it becomes imperative that we learn to control our emotions.

Here we speak of meditation in the pure sense, performed with no intent to achieve anything. One simply sits comfortably in silence and observes the rising and falling of one’s thoughts, without judgment and without getting too attached. Allow them to rise and fall, rise and fall, and practice observing them with dispassion and detachment.

Over time, one learns in this manner not to react strongly to thoughts and desires. The ideal is to allow thoughts and desires to enter consciousness without making an emotional impact. One learns to be the unwobbling pivot, around which all the impressions of the mind revolve. Eventually, one learns that the prima materia is consciousness itself, infinitely resolute and utterly unaffected by mere physical phenomena.

A person who knows how to meditate will have a much easier time of the coming few years. They will find the incessant media hysteria much less aggravating, and will be less inclined to participate in chimpouts. This relative absence of stress will leave them much happier and healthier than the average person.

Then, when the pendulum swings back towards order, the skilled meditator will find themselves in possession of spiritual knowledge. In the new age of order, spiritual knowledge will be as gold nuggets. Thus, the person who takes measures now to win the spiritual battle will find themselves in a strong position in the new order of the world.

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If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

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How God And Evil Can Coexist

One of the great philosophical and theological conundrums is how God and evil can coexist. This question has been discussed for over 2,500 years, and no resolution has been agreed upon. This essay will describe how the conundrum is resolved by the philosophy of Elementalism.

This conundrum is usually expressed in the words of Epicurus (see image at top of page). Believers in God often make the claim that God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent. This creates a paradox in the mind of non-believers, on account of that evil and suffering exist in the world.

If God is unable to prevent evil, then God cannot be omnipotent. If God is able, but not willing, then God cannot be omnibenevolent. This paradox could be called Epicurus’s Fork, on account of that the believer in God cannot easily reconcile their belief in God’s omnipotence and omnibenevolence with the fact that evil and suffering exist.

Reconciliation of this paradox is easy for the Elementalist, however.

The first thing to state is that Elementalists have a particular conception of God and creation. The Elementalist believes that all individual consciousnesses are fragments of God, and therefore God is not something separate to ourselves. It’s more accurate to say that we, collectively, are God.

Likewise, Elementalists have a different conception of creation. The material world is not something that we woke up in – the material world is a dream that we collectively manifest through our will and karma. More specifically, our experience in the material world is considered to be an infinitely small subsection of something called the Great Fractal.

So how does that relate to the coexistence of God and evil? The answer lies in understanding what existence would be like without the illusion of a material world.

Our consciousnesses only feel suffering because we identify with our bodies. Our bodies are transitory phenomena, and like all transitory phenomena they are in a constant state of flux. This flux is usually painful. As a consequence, we need to act to balance it out. When our bodies get hungry we eat, when they get tired we sleep, when they feel pain we need to attend to it.

Without the illusion of a physical body in a physical world, our consciousnesses would exist in a state of perfect bliss, united with God. Absent a body, we would not have any cause to feel pain or fear of death. Absent a mind, we would not have any cause to feel anxiety or fear of the future. The only thing that would exist would be consciousness.

And it would be as boring as shit.

What would it be like to not suffer? It would be to live a life that was utterly devoid of meaning. Without the possibility of suffering, it wouldn’t matter what actions we chose. Every choice would lead to an identical outcome, at least as far as suffering is concerned. As such, our choices would be totally meaningless. We’d simply drift senselessly through life, like a leaf on a river.

This absence of meaning is the root of spiritual suffering, a worse affliction than any physical suffering could be. People rarely kill themselves from physical suffering, but they kill themselves from spiritual suffering every day. The physical suffering inherent to life, then, is not the worst thing in the world. Neither is the emotional suffering that is also inherent to life on account of that we cannot possibly satiate all of our desires.

We might have to act like physical and emotional suffering is ultimately terrible in order to give life meaning, but the reality is that an absence of meaning would be an even greater suffering.

It’s possible, then, for an omnibenevolent God to allow a minor suffering in order to prevent a major one. If the meaninglessness that accompanies existence in a state of perfect bliss can only be overcome by casting individual fragments of consciousness into a world of eternal misery, then so be it. Cast us, O God, into eternal misery!

At this point, some people will ask: “If Elementalists think that suffering is good, what’s stopping them from deliberately acting to increase suffering? If suffering gives life meaning, then why not go around raping and murdering? After all, it would create plenty of meaning in people’s lives as they struggled to resist you.”

Such questioners must be referred to the Law of Assortative Reincarnation. Elementalists believe that the energy one expresses into the world becomes the energy of one’s consciousness, and that the energy one receives from the world is a reflection of that same consciousness. As within, so without, and as without, so within.

An Elementalist would only act to increase the level of suffering in the world if they themselves wished to incarnate in a world of beings who behaved in that manner. Because this is extremely unlikely, it’s also extremely unlikely that an Elementalist would knowingly act to cause more suffering. The Elementalist belief is that there is enough suffering in the world naturally to give everyone’s life meaning, and so it doesn’t need to be added to.

In summary, Elementalists see no contradiction in believing in an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God despite the presence of evil. It doesn’t matter that a will to cause suffering exists in this world, because that will ameliorates a greater suffering: that of living a meaningless life.

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If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

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Why One Should Be Sceptical Of Labour’s Recent High Polling

Recent opinion polls in New Zealand suggest that the Sixth Labour Government is utterly triumphant. Labour’s polling dominance is such that it has led directly to a change in Leader of the Opposition. However, as this article will show, Labour’s high polling numbers need to be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

Labour supporters have been effusive in their praise for Ardern, claiming that her excellent crisis leadership has been the reason for the polling rise. She has been the very model of calm, collected control, and her high polling is simply because people have come to realise how great she is. She has communicated clearly, listened to the scientists and oh isn’t she marvellous.

The reality is that sitting governments everywhere have received a significant polling boost in recent months as their populace has swung in behind them out of a wartime mindset.

The Social Democrats in Sweden, who had recently suffered the humiliation of falling behind the neo-Nazi Sweden Democrats in the polls, have now leapt back into the lead. Since the coronavirus pandemic began in earnest, they have increased their share of expected voters from 23% to 31%. In other words, the sitting government’s vote share increased by about a third – as it did in New Zealand.

It’s worth noting here that the Swedish approach to the pandemic was almost the opposite of New Zealand’s. Sweden did not have lockdowns, choosing to rely on the inevitable herd immunity of the population. So it’s not simply a matter of sitting governments being rewarded for making the right move. No-one knows yet what the right move was.

A Labour supporter might interject here. They might claim that the Swedish Social Democrats are also a centre-left party, and so their success combined with New Zealand Labour’s success shows that the time has come for the politics of kindness. Regardless of how the coronavirus should have been dealt with, many voters now agree that the time of miserliness and keeping other people down is over.

These are lovely sentiments, but the reigning Union Government in Germany is conservative, and they have also seen a poll boost since the coronavirus pandemic started – in their case of some 12% (see image at top of page). So the populations of Western countries have fallen in behind centre-right governments as well as centre-left ones.

Final proof comes from the fact that the Scott Morrison Government in Australia, despite being mired in scandal and accusations of incompetence, has also climbed some 6-7% since the pandemic hit. Morrison had fallen behind Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese on the Preferred Prime Minister polls, but has now regained his lead.

There’s an obvious conclusion to draw from all this data. It’s apparent that the public of every Western nation has fallen in behind their leadership on account of anxiety from the coronavirus pandemic. This is clear from the fact that, despite handling the pandemic in very different ways, all sitting governments have seen massive boosts to their polling.

Kings have long known that their underlings plot and scheme against them less when the castle is under siege. Dictators have also long known that their position is never more secure than when the nation is under threat from an outside enemy. In fact, it’s a law of social psychology that group cohesion is a function of the group’s anxiety about external threats.

This is why criticising Jacinda Ardern has become a social misdemeanour. At a time of great need, such as this coronavirus pandemic, it’s almost seen as treason to criticise the leader. This is an emergency, and that demands that everyone put their grievances aside and work together for a greater goal.

The true measure of Labour’s polling will come after the siege mentality brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is lifted. There’s good reason to expect that Labour will fall back to within 5% of their pre-COVID mark of around 42%. If they do, and given that the ACT Party is now polling at 3.5%, then this September’s election could still be very close, despite how high Labour and Ardern are currently riding.

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If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

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Clown World Chronicles: What Is A ‘Chimpout’?

Some of the most graphic images of recent times have come from the rioting sparked by the killing of George Floyd. The sight of rocks and sticks smashing into human skulls evokes primal feelings of horror. These primal feelings are capable of evoking other primal feelings, and when there are enough of these, a total chimpout is possible.

Primatologists have long been aware of the propensity of chimpanzees and monkeys to become over-excited. Because primates are highly social animals, we are susceptible to emotional influence from others of our kind. When one of us feels an emotion, it’s common for others nearby to come to feel it as well. This is true of joy, of anxiety, of sociability – and of rage.

When enough mutual excitement goes through a group of primates, they can appear to lose their minds completely. Certain monkey troops, upon encountering human outsiders, will shriek loudly, retreat to the treetops, and begin to fling their feces at the intruders. Chimpanzee troops can also become extremely aggressive quickly when meeting others.

This mob mindset is biological. Primate troops that quickly became excited and aggressive when observing novel stimuli were better adapted to dealing with threats to their territory or safety. As such, they survived and reproduced more effectively. When in doubt, it’s much better to chimpout than to be caught passive and on the back foot.

It isn’t much different for us hairless primates.

Wise men love to point out that human civilisation is by no means a deeply-rooted institution. No-one can remember who said it first, but it’s often been stated that society is only nine meals away from a revolution. Machiavelli observed that human nature has never really changed from the beginning of history. It seems that, at the bottom of our hearts, few of us are fully convinced that civilisation is a good idea.

For one thing, the human animal is still a primate. Although human brain capacity has rapidly evolved since we split off from the other apes, the architecture of those brains is basically the same. As with the other primates, the human animal evolved to survive in a world where physical threats were common and often demanded immediate and extreme action.

Under enough stress, the brain circuitry that evolved to make us more effective pack fighters on the plains of Africa can spark to life again. Human history has been so violent that the old chimpout circuitry has never gone away. There has never been any real selective pressure against it, because those who could not chimp out kept getting killed by those who could.

Understanding this brain circuitry is the key to understanding when and why chimpouts happen.

The recipe for a chimpout begins with increased excitement on the part of an individual, perhaps because they have spotted or anticipate an enemy. If that individual’s increased excitement becomes contagious, and begins to heighten the excitement of the individuals around them, then it becomes a social phenomenon.

Should the excitement become so great that members of the group start to lose their composure, and then if no leader among them settles them down, a chimpout is underway.

The definition of a chimpout is when all pretence to civilisation is suddenly abandoned by a large group of people. In popular language, a chimpout is a term that describes the onset of mob mentality. It’s when a large number of people become a hooting, hollering horde, the higher functions of their brain having shut down.

Chimpouts tend to be destructive. The rioting that followed the George Floyd killing in May 2020 led to the destruction of dozens of American inner cities. The Parisian chimpouts of 2005 saw thousands of cars set on fire. That veneer of civilisation, thin though it may be, suppresses some very malicious impulses.

Implicit in the idea of chimping out is that one gives vent to one’s basest and most venal instincts. One takes the opportunity afforded by the cover of the crowd to indulge in temptations that one would otherwise resist. This involves actions like throwing bricks through windows, setting cars on fire, looting, robbing and beating people.

Psychologists consider chimping out to be an example of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness. It’s a subset of what is known as herd mentality. Humans are not sheep, but much of the brain wiring that makes sheep behave the way they do is shared with other mammals. Most social animals are capable of chimping out in some sense, but in primates the potential for excitation is much greater.

The primal nature of the chimpout is evident from what triggers them. In Clown World, news of a pedophile gang that raped 1,000 young girls will not cause a chimpout, but if a white Police officer kills a black man in the process of making an arrest, then it’s time to park your car off the street.

The more depressed, desperate and nihilistic a population is, the more liable it is to chimp out. The simple rule is that the less a person has to lose, the more willing they will be to engage in mindless destruction. Young, disenfranchised males, especially low-IQ ones or ones with histories of childhood abuse and neglect, are the most prone to do so.

The nature of Clown World means that the threat of chimpout is ever-present. One lives in dread of the next act of Police brutality, because the social environment is tinder-dry and any spark could cause a flashfire. Worsening economic prospects raise the terrifying prospect of the Chimpout to End All Chimpouts.

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This article is an excerpt from Clown World Chronicles, a book about the insanity of life in the post-Industrial West. This is being compiled by Vince McLeod for an expected release in the middle of 2020.

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If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

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