Large Fierce Mammal

Dr. Rachel Leland Levine, US Assistant Secretary of Health since 26 March 2021 (Source: Here)

Discussion of any topic demands an agreed upon definition of terms, which is something that has, and seems hell bent on continuing to, become more fraught with every passing day. It’s easier to “win” you see, when you have claimed the right to redefine every word in the dictionary, obviously also including what “win” means. In stark and unrelenting contrast to this bad behaviour, let tonight’s Dark Sentiment stand as the launching point for one key ingredient that will inform what you encounter as these nights unfold.

“You see, Goode Reader, for Communication to be real, its crafting and utterance must contain one vital ingredient — CLARITY — even when the purpose of the message is subterfuge.” ~ The Bullshitter’s Grimoire

We hear that society has become “polarized” on every meaningful level, and I will posit that what this means is the abandonment of personal position or choice in subservience to the demand that one must declare a side. Certainly this casts aside all tenets of The True Arte of Intelligent Discourse and no quarter is given to rational thought lest it be weaponized by the rational to force the shrill into some form of blessedly quiet reflection of their own choices. No counter argument may even be mentioned if it came from the lips or pen of anyone on the CANCELLED list! All are of a piece who ever expressed by thought, word, or deed any cause for condemnation under current sensibilities, and History is no longer a foreign country where people did things differently as they saw fit.

On this battleground, no True analysis against a framework of observable reality is permitted. In short, chaos is distilled into the cacophonous drive not only to WIN, but to force anyone daring to hold a dissenting opinion or openly follow a different path into a state of defeat they will never forget or recover from.

No room there for the kind of normal personal development that permits recognizing the error of one’s ways, is there? There’s a line from this really old book some of you may have heard of, one translation of which goes something like this:

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” — 1 Corinthians 13:11, King James Version

On the road to this Clarity of which I speak, let us regard this example.

Witness how hard it is to get a straight answer to this simple question which, if it doesn’t end the conversation outright, exposes where comfort may be found among a loudly influential component of society:

Q — “What is a woman?”

A — “Anyone who identifies as a woman.”

Q — “But if they’re identifying as a ‘woman’, what exactly are they identifying as?”

A — “A woman.”

To accept that this in any way represents an answer to the question is to embrace intellectual, moral, and ethical bankruptcy, and I do not make that assertion based upon anything as basely trivial or superficial as can be waved aside by a convenient label, let alone one bearing the suffix “‘ist” or “”phobia”. My enmity for that line of thought lies in the deep rooted need of its adherents to have it accepted wholesale as a defining cornerstone of society at large. That for such a circular argument to be accepted, let alone normalized or entrenched in law as unassailable, requires a reprehensible thing — abandonment of every adult human female — every WOMAN — to the status of less than. A square peg that must fit the round hole offered by those who claim womanness absent understanding beyond a construct built from feelings, however deeply held, and superficial appearances. This is not, “We admire you,” “We want to be just like you,” “We feel kinship with you,” “We want to join you,” or, “Please show us the way,” but rather, “We ARE you, whether you like it or not.”

I take few exceptions with how others may find their own individual way of Being in the world, but one arises when that way can only flower if fertilized by the subjugation of others to sing from the same hymn book. I do not demand that of others and will not have it demanded of me.

In conclusion, I once wrote this of my own Way, and offer it here as the kind of foundational advice that the lost may wish to examine. Don’t be afraid. It’s only ideas.

“Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Pagan, Wiccan, Atheist … you name it. It makes no difference what label you apply to yourself, nor even if you apply one at all, for the name holds far less significance than the fundamental and visible expression of your beliefs, and by that I mean the way in which they govern your behaviour. On those rare occasions when someone, learning that we LFMs are not Christians, inquires as to what then, exactly, we are, my reply is usually an iteration of this question – ‘Why don’t you watch me, see how I treat the world and how I live my life, and then decide for yourself from there?’

“On even rarer occasions, when I feel the tone of the query calls for it, I fix them with a look that lasts until they start to seem uncomfortable, and then answer, ‘Noble Savages.’

“So then, in the face of a question that doesn’t come with any tone of insult, judgement, or enmity; my answer isn’t born of any ire that someone had the temerity to ask such a personal question, nor is it intended to belittle or deliver a sarcastic barb. Simply put, there is no label, nor any 30 second sound bite I can deliver, that will even come close to explaining to a casual passer by the depths of my mind and Spirit. What truly matters to me, and the kind of Man I am, will be revealed in the expressions of those things, as found in my words and deeds. Anyone truly interested in knowing the answer to the riddle that is me, you, or anyone else; of any Tribe, Clan, or Nation – and yes, of any Species – will find their answers there without even uttering a word of inquiry.” ~ A Long Winter’s Night 2013 – Day 2: Of Pagans, Heathens, and the Noble Savage