Spiritual prepping: The fable of the ant and the locusts

While it is certainly provident to be prepared for short term or focused disasters or discontinuities in The System; the commonly expressed notion of 'prepping' is delusional nonsense when it comes to the kind of societal/ civilizational collapse that threatens The West (and probably The World). 

The preppers see themselves as the ants in Aesop's fable of the ants and the grasshopper. When times get tough, the ants will eat their supplies and the 'good-time' grasshopper will sing until he starves to death. 

But this fable has it that there is only one grasshopper and plenty of ants; whereas the equivalent in The West is a just a few ants, often just one ant - but a vast swarm of locusts. 

The fable of the ant and the locusts; raises the question of whether the vast swarm of locusts will immediately lie down and die of starvation - leaving the ant to subsist on his stores and build a new world. 

Or whether the locust swarm will immediately eat all the supplies of the ant at their first feelings of serious hunger; and probably eat the ant himself. 

Some preppers make a big deal of their supplies of 'guns and ammo' - but the locusts have plenty of those too, and vastly outnumber the ant. 

And some of the chief locusts also have bombs and rockets; and locusts will support their own kind. 

As I have said before, if things get really tough - as I believe they will; then prepping will merely serve to keep the locusts alive for a little bit longer.  

A Man should not aspire to be a metaphorical ant! - concerned only with bodily survival and reproduction; survival for what can only be a little bit longer, because all shall and should die. 

The 'prepping' we, each of us, absolutely need to do is spiritual - not physical; and that means being able to discern, detect, and understand the difference between the sides of Good and evil.

And it means knowing when, on a timescale of eternity; there are more important things than staying-alive for a bit longer than one's improvident neighbours. 

Furthermore: if/ when your faith in God is strong; you will realize that the perceived material realm is (merely) a sub-set of the spiritual; and that a single Man whose thinking, striving and choosing are in spiritual harmony with God; has a far more powerfully-beneficial effect on The World - than any conceivable number of well-armed but dubiously-motivated ants ever would or could. 

"Prepping" for Disaster, Collapse or Total Destruction

There is a considerable literature on disaster preparedness. The idea of a Disaster is one of some limited catastrophe that leaves intact the basic structures of civilization; and the problem is a matter of bridging the temporary gap that exists before civilization regrows to restore normality.

Beyond a Disaster is what currently is very likely: Collapse.

In a Collapse the basic structure of civilization is destroyed. This may be permanent (ie. may last many human generations) - or the gap may be filled, to a greater or lesser degree, by assimilation into a surviving external civilization - by being invaded, colonized, or whatever.


The gap caused by Collapse is far too great for preparations to be relevant - not to recognise this is to fail to understand the nature of a Collapse.

When a civilization goes-down, problems are too many, too unpredictable, and too severe, for planning survival. Think of being an Ancient Briton/ Celtic family when the Roman legions departed c. 410 AD. Trade almost ceased, the standard of living plummeted by half (which meant about half as much food), government evaporated, bandits and feuding warlords arose, technologies broke and could not be replaced...  

And if Collapse is Global, as it will be, nowadays; then it is essentially permanent.


Of course, if Total (planetary) Destruction is the prospect - something like a solar incineration, or an impact from space, or some kind of cataclysmic volcano-earthquake scenario; then nothing could be done to ensure survival.


So, what's the point of this discussion? Well, partly that 'Prepping' is of value for a limited span of possibilities, and when it comes to the main possibility confronting us here-and-now - which is civilizational Collapse; Prep is essentially irrelevant.

I also have a problem with the Prepping mind-set; which is focused on material, physical survival - on 'saving our skins'. Most Preppers are thoroughly materialist and hedonic in their world-view - they are 'survivalists' who regard death as annihilation and 'therefore' something to be postponed for as long as possible.

(Actually that 'therefore' doesn't follow; because if death is inevitable, it is also possible to infer that one might as well get death over and done-with; especially if the situation is one of suffering, fear, misery, boredom, despair...)

A further problem is that the survivalist mindset will lead to Christian Apsotasy in a world where evil controls all the social systems, all the institutions for survival. Sooner or later, the Christian will find himself in a situation where to survive would entail actively supporting institutions with evil motivations.

Indeed, we are surely here already? Anyone in doubt now knows-for-sure - from their explicit statements over the past couple of weeks - that all governments, bureaucracies, mass media... all the major social institutions are actively supporting Evil Liars - the forces of value-inversion. Yet we all rely upon these institutions to keep us alive...


If we regard the current world crisis, the totalitarian takeover, the increasingly overt and aggressive civilizational suicide; as essentially a spiritual phenomenon; then it becomes primarily important to think about salvation rather than survival; and about theosis rather than preparedness. 


The challenges are, or soon will be, to remain Christian when there are so many forces encouraging the support of that which is evil in its nature and motivation; and to learn the personal spiritual lessons from the many unprecedented experiences of this era.

Because our situation is unprecedented. The entire world leadership is corrupt and on the side of evil - and the mass majority are either supportive or passively compliant.

Hence we absolutely-must think for our-selves; each individual person must discern and evaluate the situation because (almost certainly) there is nobody else that we can (or should) trust to do it for us.


This is Not really "Preparedness", because we do not know what will happen nor when. Nor is it a matter of being prepared for a disaster 'at any moment' - which (if we are honest) would not be compatible with a good daily life.

It is more a matter of you and me being awake and aware, of learning from our actual daily experiences, of attuning to our own deepest thinking and genuine intuitions.

A matter of Not 'putting off' the main business of life.

If we don't do it now - we may never get the chance to do it at all.

 

What are "Their" plans for 2026 (if not sooner)?

As I have often said; I believe that since late 2020 "They" are fractured into two main factions of evil: 

1. The totalitarians - who are currently mainly interested in implementing "AI" on the basis that they believe it will serve for detailed mass population surveillance and control. 

2. The agents of chaos - who have now taken-over and occupy most of the senior "leadership" positions in the UK relating to population coercion: military, intelligence, law, regulations, police etc (this seems also to apply to the other major nations of Europe); and whose main agenda is currently to start an all-out war with the Fire Nation. 

It seems the balance of power between totalitarians and AoCs varies between nations and regions. 

The Eastern (and Southern) national leaderships are solidifying around totalitarianism - and try to expand and maintain systems of bureaucratic inter-national cooperation; aiming at stability, economic growth, mutual enrichment and long-term security of the elites.  

The West (especially EU and UK) are escalating the rhetoric of war; and explicitly and (with increasing detail) prepping the population for voluntary slaughter to a really extreme degree in recent days and months. These are much less cooperative one with another - having an attitude more like pirates than bureaucrats; and aiming at gratifying short-term lust, grabbing immediate personal power, and spiteful pleasures such as destroying, harming, tormenting, and killing.  

But it is much easier to pursue an agenda of chaos, than to create and sustain a sustainable System - so, I would predict that there will continue to be a qualitative shift towards destruction (and its consequences) - rather than a successful imposition of top-down surveillance and control. 

What can "we" (you and me) do, when Their plans are all evil, and all intended at our enslavement/ destruction?

First we must recognize the evils that are being pursued, and (while it is reasonable to recognize lesser and greater evils) we surely need inwardly to reject both sides.

And then disengage our best-thinking from both of Their agendas. 

Since there is no realistic basis for optimism in the cause of Good at a large scale; there can no basis for large scale material action in a positive cause. 

No basis for virtuous politics. 

OK... If not; then what? 

Lacking any generic and groupish agenda; we will need to work from the basis of a specific and personal agenda. 

And here we (each and all) have - indeed must have - specific and personal guidance for what to do. This guidance comes from our own divine and creative souls; and from the Holy Ghost. 

From these we know what we ought to do; which is why we are sustained alive; here and now. 

The great thing is that when we are following divine guidance; then every thing that we personally need to do - can be done, and by ourselves as we are, in the situation we find ourselves.  

And they will be effective: which is to say - spiritually effective. 

They WILL make a positive difference. 

This is why spiritual faith is absolutely necessary to being-Good and doing-Good here-and-now; and this must be a faith in the individual personal in alliance with the divine; and a faith the the spiritual is primary and the material is always and necessarily spiritual.  

There needs to be a faith that real spiritual work is objectively and permanently real. 

Faith that - as individuals, and without any political influence at all - we make a positive difference to the world always and whenever we think (including do) whatever is harmonious with God's creative plans. Whenever we add our personal creativity to that of God's.  

(And personal do-ability is one of the ways we know what these things we should do - really are!) 

The prepper delusion

This is from last year - but the delusion is getting worse: more common, more deeply deluded. 

This is because prepping is fear and pride based; fearfully aiming to save our mortal skins (for a bit longer...); and smugness at (mistakenly) regarding oneself as able to do so (with a sufficient supply of preserved foods, 'guns and ammo'.

(wrt. 'Guns and ammo'; there is also, very evidently, a covert lustful anticipation of having a 'good excuse' to shoot, maim and kill lots of other people against-whom one harbours a burning resentment.) 

'Prepping' is of value for a limited span of possibilities, and when it comes to the main possibility confronting us here-and-now - which is civilizational Collapse; Prep is essentially irrelevant... If we regard the current world crisis, the totalitarian takeover, the increasingly overt and aggressive civilizational suicide; as essentially a spiritual phenomenon; then it becomes primarily important to think about salvation rather than survival; and about theosis rather than preparedness.

The great and urgent need is for people to deal-with their overpowering (and sinful) emotions and motivations of fear and resentment; and to stop using these as a way of temporarily staving-off incipient despair. 

It is for this fear-less-ness that we should be striving - and not for the delusory goal of a world with nothing to fear. 

The proper answer to fear is simple but not easy. Not easy yet within the capacity of every individual; no matter how physically un-prepared they may be (and for most people, prepping is not even an option due to their age, health, physical condition, environment or other circumstances). 

The answer is Christian faith - and from that faith comes hope - and that hope is directed beyond our inevitable death and at the resurrected life in Heaven which no earthly power can take from us - should we choose to accept the gift. 

The evidence of history, and - if we try it - our own experience; is that Christian faith absolutely abolishes fear - always and everywhere. 

Of course we cannot individually always (or even mostly) be paragons of faith (we are, after all, all sinners); yet when we cannot have faith we can always repent its lack - and that will suffice. 

When we fear or experience resentment, we can always repent it - and that will suffice. 

Even if we despair (which amounts to a total loss of faith in the promises of Jesus Christ); we can always recognize and repent it - and that also will suffice. 

The major test of these times is Fear - the temptation is Safety

We are tested every day by the sin of fear. And the temptation - offering a delusory escape from fear - is safety. 

If we compare our post 2020 world with life a few decades ago; it is clear that we are now controlled primarily by the negative sin of fear (with a side-order of spiteful resentment: the stock-in-trade of socialism, feminism, antiracism and the other leftisms). These are negative sins because they are directed-against. 

By contrast to the fear-dominated present, in the past other, and more 'positive' sins - desires-for-something rather than resistance-to-something - were often more dominant: sins such as power/ conquest, (capitalist) greed and (sexual) lust.

 

It is pretty obvious that nowadays the world is 'managed' primarily by the inculcation of fears; and by attempting to trigger those in fear, to 'escape' by means of fake-solutions that promote the totalitarian-demonic agenda.  

Major examples are the birdemic fear - with totalitarian lockdown/ masking/ social-distancing and the (unnecessary, ineffective, harmful) peck offering pseudo-safety. And global warming as the fear - with world economic destruction with totalitarian control (aka. the 'sustainable' Green Economy) as fake-escape. 

(Non-coincidentally; 'economic suicide' is also the major policy-answer to fear of the recent Fire Nation/ Earth Nation.)  

Fear is also the stock-in-trade of the 'secular Right': fear of mass immigration, violent social breakdown, starvation, civil war, mass poisoning and other health threats... 

The temptations, the fake solutions, on the secular Right include personal survivalism (prepping), a type of rigorous healthism/ body-building, organized aggressive political resistance, a Strong Man leader restoring militaristic patriarchy...

The difference between the left and the non-religious Right; is that secular Right fears are based on broadly realistic threats and potentially effective answers; while the mainstream Left fears are manufactured from very little - or nothing at all; and the proffered 'escapes' from fear make matters worse. 

Also, in general, among those who are living in fear and strategizing to escape; the typical leftist advocates passive and Establishment-obedient responses; while the secular Rightist is more likely to respond to his own fear with (at least verbal) aggression and (at least threats of) defiance. 

Yet, discourse concerning the reality or fakery of the fear, and the effectiveness or counter-productiveness of proposed escapes, are themselves part of the problem. 

Because fear is a sin in and of itself, it compounds the sin to try and escape fear by attempting to eliminate that which is feared. 

In a practical sense; it will not work - because yielding to any fear creates vulnerability to other fears; so that all escapes lead into a positive-feedback loop of fear generating fear. 

Since, on the one hand, the supply of fears is unlimited; whereas, on the other hand, mounting any potentially-effective response to even a single fear is time-, effort- and resource-consuming; constrained by multiple personal, societal and technical factors. 

But in a spiritual sense, matters are simple - fear is a sin and must be identified as such; then repented, then itself defeated. 

The one-and-only appropriate and effective response to any and all fears - and a response that has unbounded scope - is to trust in the power and love of God; and to frame the fears of this mortal life in the context of eternal Heaven. 

The proper spiritual response to fear is to eliminate fear - the sinful delusion is to address the supposed cause of the fear. 

(Whether or not we, personally, should engage in an active or passive attempt to remove the specific source of any specific fear; is a secondary, contingent, pragmatic matter - and thus always contentious.) 

This, therefore, is the nature of the test of these times. On a daily basis we will be assaulted by fears, and probably these assaults will have some effect - and we will experience fear. 

We therefore need to identify 'the latest fear' as always an evil - whether it is real or fake. 

And instead of immediately seeking for 'safety' and escape-from-the-fear in some physical activity (regardless of whether that activity is potentially-effective, or not)...

The proper response is that we need to repent fear (any fear) and bring to mind that God is our loving parent and the ongoing-creator of this world - and that those who desire it, may follow Jesus Christ to everlasting resurrection after this mortal life. 

Fear is the recurring test, and love of God is the proper response. 

Only after fear has been thus conquered, may we attempt to address its supposed cause.  

As such; then testing-times may become learning-times; and every repeated and novel demonic assault and delusion, may be converted to an increase in the strength of our Christian orientation. 

There is no safe path to salvation - the way is by zig-zags

It has become rather obvious that anything pushed as safe today is bound to be dangerous, whereas "dangerous" things may actually prove to be "safe". This applies to Christianity and society. 

From a comment made by Francis Berger

To understand the truth of Francis Berger's comment requires making a very basic acknowledgement concerning the world of power and public discourse in 2020 - the recognition of purposive and pervasive global evil; which is an acknowledgment that, apparently, extremely few self-identified Christians are prepared to countenance.  

Yet, even among those Christians who do perceive the spiritual war, and realize that evil is now in control of the nations and social institutions; too-many are too-often still deeply-motivated by the desire to find a 'safe path' to salvation.

Even though salvation is always and necessarily rooted in an individual choice to follow Jesus Christ; safe paths to salvation were probably possible, and even normal, at various times and places in the past. One who diligently followed the path of his church was (more or less) 'guaranteed' (or at least highly-likely) to attain salvation - while those who rejected the path were probably/ usually aiming towards the choice of hell.  

But such safe paths always amounted to the individual being subordinated to some group who were substantially net-good - a valid church, in essence. The church described the path, assisted those who wanted to follow the path; and it was up to each individual to follow. 

This model of salvation assumes that the church is always (or, at least, nearly-always) likely to be the divinely-inspired and -regulated repository of Truth; whereas individuals were assumed to be more highly prone to sin. 

In other words - at the minimum - the 'safe path' assumption was that the individual was much-more liable to sin and error than was the church. 

Therefore, the 'safe' path was for individuals to follow the path set-out by the church. Anyone who strayed was behaving in an un-safe fashion. 

The Big Question is whether this assumption that the individual is more sin-prone than the church holds in our world post-2020? 

Does it seem true that institutions, or individuals, are more likely to follow truth? 

Are institutions advocating what is safe, while individuals are not? 

To ask is to answer:

All institutions - including all major churches - are corruptly-led and (overall) on the side of Satan - which evil strategy is implemented by the post 2020 totalitarian global establishment.

While at least some individuals have chosen to repent and reject corruption, and take the side of God and creation. 

All churches on the side of evil; some individuals on the side of good. 

Here and now; for an individual to follow a self-discerned path may lead to salvation; but for an individual to follow the church-prescribed path is to reject salvation and embrace hell. 

But is 'safety' even a valid goal for Christians? 

Was safety the basis of Jesus's life? (Or of the Apostles, the Saints; or anyone regarded as exemplary?)  

To ask that is again to answer: obviously not! 

(The ones who believed that safety was primary and believed in a safe path - were enemies of Jesus.) 

Safety is a snare - now more than ever. 

That does not mean that recklessness is a virtue! But that we should strive to be indifferent to safety.

Clearly we ought not to strive to be safe in this mortal world - that path leads to ineffectual birdemic-phobia on the left-hand, and futile prepping against global collapse on the right. But either way; the focus on mortal safety leads to a life of fear, a running-away-from life. 

Yet equally we ought not to strive for a safe route to the next world - a safe path to salvation. Why? Because this amounts to a refusal of personal responsibility for our own salvation - which amounts to handing-over our souls to the corrupted and evil institutions of this world.

We need instead to strive to understand what is right, get-on-with-it; then be prepared to acknowledge and repent our errors. 

Need to be decisive is thought and action; and humble enough to admit the inevitable sins and failures. 

Thus motivated; we shall zig-zag our way to salvation!  

  

The decline of the ideal of worship and obedient service

It is striking (to me) how the ideal values of worship and obedient service have declined to feebleness - or else to a legalism of worship and obedient service that disguises a pleasure-seeking/ fear-motivated loyal conformity to societal power. 

Worship-of and obedience-to God are the Old Testament ideal that permeate much of the Bible; including much of the New Testament such as the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. 

And this was (in most stable and effective Christian societies) transferred to a monarch (whether temporal and/or spiritual - or both) who would himself be motivated by the same ideal.  

If I think back about thirty and plus years; this broad framework of W and O was still, sometimes and somewhat but in a valued way, working for me - although on in rather specific times and places and occasions. 

What characterized such a situation was a sense of magical enchantment - a positive connection to past, place, instituion, and others present. 

But it was already clear that this ideal had not just lost its appeal to most people, most of the time; who were simply bored by such things. 

And there was indeed a reaction against it; such that an atmosphere of scornful mockery and embarrassment was becoming dominant whenever worship and obedient service was apparent or advocated - or against those who were more that way inclined. 

Also; those who most vehemently advocated that worship and obedience was a good, or essential, basis for the Good Life; were nearly-always being dishonest - they were just using this value-system for their own (and often sordid) self-gratification and benefit. 

 

Of course this decline and inversion is in some (important and valuable) ways a subtraction from life. This is why people like me fought against it. 

Yet it is also a fact of life that needs to be acknowledged; as is the requirement that something is needed to replace it as a source of motivation and enchantment -- if not of social cohesion...

Because it seems increasingly clear that appeals to (or enforcement of) social cohesion nowadays is rooted in negative and evil purposes - for instance when prepping nations and institutions for pursuit of an evil war, or an evil strategy 

In other words appeals to (de facto) worship and obedience, whether in religion or in secular life - the seeking of increased energy and motivation for societal groupings - is used for the purposes of Lawful Evil. 

This seem inevitable when the people involved have themselves and en masse rejected the reality of the Christian God and divine creation. 

How can people be corralled into pursuing a truly Good purpose, when they deny the very reality of Good purpose in the universe?     

And yet and yet... we must have something. 

If not worship and obedience then... something else: because the alternative is despair. 

And then either an obedience based on mere coping and survivalism (chosen slavery), or else here-and-now selfishness and indifference to consequences (psychopathy). 

Surely this is an unavoidable task for everyone? 

And a task where objective external assistance from a societal source cannot be expected - and where whatever "answer" we may find will inevitably be partial, temporary, and perhaps private and personal? 

For me, vital clues are the insight that God most desires of us is Not worship and obedience; but Instead a chosen, committed, and loving "friendship" type of relationship; analogous to that which forms the basis of a shared and harmonious, purposive living; and (sometimes, temporarily, and imaginably) characterizes the best of family life and marriage.    

However, the reassurance we have as Christians is that whatever we actually achieve is less important than knowing what we most need. 

Sincerely-attempting not successfully-accomplishing our ideals, is actually the basis of good-living now, and salvation to come.