I have been having a debate in my mind (which should scare anyone that knows me) between intellectual rationalization and emotional reaction…Friends, relatives, and people in general have been voicing a variety of hopeless sentiment; “They’re going to ban you and jail you,” “I’m done. Now it’s time for me to look after #1,” ” Justice is a pipe dream, utterly impossible to manifest and unattainable.” Personally, if I see one more retired General, political pundit, or talking media head say, “Buy my books, read our white paper, buy the products our advertisers sell, sponsor these conferences, or give us more money” I think my head will spontaneously combust.
To a certain extent, elections have failed almost everybody, depending on who is in power at the moment. Or at least they have become less meaningful as there is a permanent administrative state, a government in stasis, and an amoral political elite. Power becomes an end unto itself, the pendulum will swing back and forth as totalitarianism rises and our rights diminish and the spiritual, moral, legal, and political crisis in our country spirals out of control.
James O’Keefe, Project Veritas, explains that Dostoevsky wrote in the “Dream of a Ridiculous Man” about the hopeless man who had a great spiritual awakening after experiencing a transformative dream. When the man awoke again in this benighted world, he understood universal timeless truths that awakened his spirit. He understood how important it was to love others as much as he loved himself. “Nothing else is required. That would settle everything. Yes, of course it’s nothing but an old truth that has been repeated and reread millions of times – and it still hasn’t taken root.”
O’Keefe continues that Dostoevsky also wrote in “The Brothers Karamazov”: “Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to the passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself.”
O’Keefe is saying the fight for the truth is so much bigger than this moment in time. Holding people’s feet to the fire and shaming them by creating righteous indignation matters. “Fighting for what is right and standing on principal matters. Exposing them is the only thing they fear and we must make a conscious choice to live not by lies otherwise we become a nation of feckless cowards giving into corruption and feelings of nihilism and futility.”
If “nothing matters” then our view of life is reduced to what; material pleasures and political outcomes. The only choice is integrity regardless of outcome, if not what’s the point of existence? Without integrity and purpose is life even worth living? O’Keefe said Dostoevsky, “in one day, in one hour – it could all be set up at once!” Just imagine, if all of us stood up together, took out our cameras and exposed them all! Our job is to expose the truth. Why does the truth matter? On a basic level, public sentiment “is everything,” said Abraham Lincoln. “With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions.”
All we could ask for, “to die on our feet rather than live on our knees.”
“Then out spoke brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods”
