I used to enjoy the popular television series, “The Simpsons”.  Again, USED to.  I’m sure some former watchers immediately identify my general sentiment about the show: it was once an absolute gem and a perfect satire of the world, but by season 8 or 9, it suddenly became unrecognizable.  I believe the series has had two separate phases: 1. The real Simpsons, brilliant American satire of the 1990’s, and 2. Zombie Simpsons, everything after the show essentially died circa 1999.  Everything that made it once great, it has not been in over 20 years.  It is unfunny, it is unrelateable, it is not clever, it is not endearing, etc…  Nevertheless, for 20 plus years it has been on television, just staggering along as a sad and sick version of its former self, in desperate need of brains.  It is un-dead and it is pathetic.

What was that wind up for?  Well, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, several of my students asked me for perspective.  They asked me to recall something I vividly remember from that day.  I told them that the night of September 11th, 2001, Republican and Democrat congressmen stood together on the steps of congress and sang “God Bless America” while serenely swaying side to side.  The kids responded, “CAP!” (new slang for “lie” or “no way”).  They were in total disbelief that such used to be America.  I believe that moment was truly America’s last moment.  9/11 killed America, most just didn’t know it at the time.  Everything since has been Zombie America.  Sure, the professional sports games still played, we continued in economic prosperity (kinda), the nation’s military still had the biggest and baddest weapons on earth, but what does America really have to show for itself over those last 20 years?

Over that time, we have lost trillions of dollars fighting and eventually losing a war against the agents behind the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban.  Americans became more spied on by their government than any other citizenry has ever been spied on by their own government.  The precedent of spending trillions of dollars at a time in order to “fix” the economy kicked off with Bush, and all of his predecessors have since made him look like a financially responsible and temperate man!   We endured a housing market collapse set up by greed and contempt for people whom sharks knew could never pay back their loans.  And we morphed from a respectably agrarian and rugged country to one of an effeminate culture whose number one exported good is pornography.  Drive down the highway and see the billboards one after another: weed, casinos, injury lawyers.  Ecce, Zombie America.

Many have been predicting this for generations now.  I recall the sentiments of Catholic economist E.F. Schumacher, who so unpopularly pointed out in Small is Beautiful, the inherent flaw in the American economy.  Back in the 1970’s, he noticed that this economy is, by it’s nature, necessarily fueled by excess and consumerism.  That’s an economy automatically missing one quarter of the cardinal virtues.  An economy without temperance leads to a culture without temperance.  

I recently listened to a William F. Buckley interview with Ron Paul in the mid 80’s.  At that point many Americans were clearly waking up to the excess, the irresponsibility, and the delusion of the “spend our way into prosperity forever” model.  Paul’s general critique was undeniable, America was already the “welfare/warfare” state.  Those not distracted by heavyweight fighting, pro-wrestling, and MTV, already figured out what America was at that time: a hallowing empire keeping alive and full of itself, in part, on the crimes of the CIA against Americans and foreigners.  Heck, all Paul wanted was for the CIA to stop infiltrating and subverting foreign nations and installing dictators who would serve the banking and corporate interests of America.  In hindsight, was that really such an unreasonable request?

So what eventually happens to an empire living the “welfare/warfare” model for 80 years that has also mainly measured its success and validation as a nation in terms of economic success?  We all got fat and happy, yes.  But ultimately we lost our ability to exercise temperance.  And our intemperance has been practiced both as deficiency as well as excess: In Iraq and Afghanistan, we couldn’t ever strike the enemy in surprise, as we could have possibly killed human shield non-combatants.  Simultaneously, here at home, we couldn’t become real men of resolve because we were too busy living up the excessive “good life”.  Hungry? Grab fast food and eat multiple cheeseburgers.  Sexually excited?  Watch porn.  Jealous of your neighbor?  Did he buy a big pick up truck?  Don’t worry, a commercial featuring the deepest country voice ever just told you that you can buy an even bigger pick up truck, even if you don’t have the money for it.  Excess, intemperance, greed, lust, sloth, etc…  No virtue means no men.  With no men, no wars can be won.  If wars cannot be won, then an empire cannot be defended.  History always repeats itself and God doesn’t have some secret affection for America that he just never had with every other empire that collapsed in misery and blood once it had run its course.  

I bring this all up not to depress you, but to help you focus on the current priority.  It is not in saving America, for America is already dead. Your priority needs to be in ensuring the salvation of yourself and your family.  It needs to be in helping to protect your community as far as your circle of influence reaches.  It needs to be, not in saving America, but in resisting the New World Order and being a part of the team that saves the world.  Considering that Christ already saved the world 2000 years ago, and he is our team captain, that should actually be really good news.  Just as it has always been the case, there is only one thing to fear, and that is being cast into the fires of Gehenna forever.  Honestly, I appreciate identifying the reality of the situation at hand (as much as it stinks) to help reinforce for me that all that matters is sainthood.  Thank God for such perfect clairvoyance.

Consider the words of Ezra (a prophet of Israel during Persian captivity) in last Wednesday’s first reading:

     My God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our        
     wrongful deeds have risen above our heads, and our guilt has grown even to the
     heavens.  Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and
     because of our wrongful deeds we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over
     to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to open shame, as it
     is this day

The reading ended with some hope, but I will get to that part later...

What has America been missing, that not only got us in this state, but keeps us doomed, unless it could be fixed?  Simple: virtue.  Look at the etymology of the word virtue.  It is derived from the Latin word “vir”, which means “man”.  I have talked to so many people over the last 18 months who say, “If only people knew what was really going on!…”  Guess what?  Most people actually know most of what is going on.  At least the ones who could  be doing more certainly do.  So what is holding them back from going all in on sainthood right now?  As St. Augustine tells us in On Free Choice of the Will, man is made in the image and likeness of God because he has intellect and free will.  He fails to be a man, not just when he refuses to exercise his reason, but when he fails to order his will according to what is reasonable, logical, and right.  And he fails to do so when he is too out of shape to do the right thing.  When doing right is not a “habitual and firm disposition” (CCC 1803) for him.  When he lacks virtue.  

With virtue, what can we do?  We can fight.  What kind of fighting are we called to today?  To be quite specific, we are called to resist.  A call to sainthood right now is a call to resist.  This starts with the spiritual interior order.  The more you fight the good fight, Satan gets upset.  And when Satan gets upset, he attacks you.  His demons put thoughts into your mind, they tempt you to be effeminate, to take the broad way, to give up, to sin.  Maybe you have been exercising holiness and virtue more now than ever before in your life, yet right now you are experiencing intense attacks from the evil one.  Well, thank God for the sacraments.  Thank God for sacramentals.  Thank God for the devotions of Holy Mother Church.  They renew our strength, courage, and energy for the battle.  Recourse to them is the putting on of armor.  Arm up, but then understand that you are still called to be a hero on the battlefield at the present moment. 

On that note, I would like to make a distinction between resistance and conscientious objection.  It is an extremely important distinction to make right now.  Bear with me...

I was smoking cigars with some men the other night when one man made a peculiar statement.  It went something to this effect, “While we are rightly opposed to the vaccine, I think it is important to understand that not everyone is where we are on the vaccine, and we need to be okay with that.”  I thought about that comment for the last few days and I didn’t know why it bothered me so much as I do now.  The comment, I believe, assumes that we who oppose the “vaccine” oppose it exclusively because of its ties to aborted fetal cells.  I also think the speaker assumes that our opposition is one of mere conscientious objection.  

As I have said hundreds of times now, 1. We should oppose this vaccine for many more reasons than just because of ties to aborted fetal cells and 2. Our opposition should not merely be that of conscientious objection.  It should be that of absolute resistance.  Conscientious objection is too passive.  Conscientious objection would only be appropriate if the “vaccine” was not being made mandatory and if the only problem with it was ties to aborted fetal cells.  I resist the “vaccine” with all of my being because it’s mandates, the attached “vaccine” passports, the never ending booster shots that will come, the new dependency everyone will have on new expiramental gene-editing big pharma products going forward, and simply the part that the “vaccine” simply plays in the installation of the “Great Reset” (the New World Order).  And those threats are all worth more than conscientious objection.  They demand a fight.  They demand full blown resistance against the spiritual enemies of this world so that we may be adequate fighters against the physical agents of evil in this world.  

This is new territory for most of us.  I admire Bishop Athanasius Schneider for his adamant conscientious objection to the vaccine itself.  I even more admire his assistance in securing religious exemption for Catholics being forced to take the jab from their employer.  That’s an example of NWO resistance!  It’s time to look toward other heroes too.  How about Cardinal Zen, who made a point to force Pope Francis to either accept and audience with him or deny him the time of day, for the whole world to see?  That’s not conscientious objection, that’s a heroic and saintly example of resistance to the CCP and its Vatican ties.  It’s the authentic witness of suffering through betrayal that many of us will soon be called to go through. The reward is great for such saints.  How about the real Catholic underground in China who don’t bow to the communist security state?  They fight through the great fire-wall of China and do everything they can to agitate evil President Xi and his CCP.  How about Jimmy Lai, a practicing Catholic and hero of the Chinese resistance to the CCP?  

Imagine if the world just conscientiously objected to Mussolini, Tojo, and Hitler, but did nothing to resist them?  You think St. Maximillian Kolbe was just a conscientious objector to the Nazis?  He was a resister.  He built radios with other  Poles and submitted them to science fairs.  He almost left the seminary to join the army.  He drew cross sections of tanks and planes during seminary classes.  He printed publication after publication against the Nazis until they came and destroyed his presses.  And then he upped the masses and rosaries once his ability to publish was gone.

Today, mankind itself is threatened by new totalitarians.  If we just conscientiously object, and we instead give in to this whole agenda, then we fail to hold our ground.  We allow our ranks, rather, the dignity of mankind itself, to be routed by the likes of Bill Gates, George Soros, Xi, Nancy Pelosi, Klaus Schwab, and all the other evil henchmen salivating over absolute control of the world.  And what will we get in return for pacifying their agenda?  We will be allowed to continue to live in a world that will now be a UN run, IMF one world bank controlled, bio-tech security state.  You want to stick around in that wasteland?  Honor, glory, blood, fade to black, and then beatific vision for all eternity sounds better.

So then… some action items for you starting today and ending on the last day of your life.  Listen, if you are still reading these articles, then I am going to keep pushing you.  Like me, hate me, I don’t care.  We will become better men, real men of virtue together on this team.

1. Are you still bouncing in and out of the confessional with a mortal sin or two that you keep “falling into”?  Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, whatever you need to do, do it now!  For example, does your cell phone cause you to sin?  Get rid of it.  Literally!  Better to enter into the Kingdom of God without a cell phone than into fiery Gehenna with the latest iphone.  Seriously.  If you need to, throw the damn thing away and start living the good life like you haven't in over ten years or so.  You’re welcome.

2. Are you STILL buying crap on Amazon?  Stop it!   For the love of the dehumanized poor souls running around the warehouse with double masks on and phones that essentially serve as tracking and tracing devices.  They can’t even take a pee on the job without their phone beeping a countdown to get back tot he workstation on the other end of the warehouse.  For the sake of these people who have a two strike policy on moving out of the way of the robots, or they get fired.  Stop feeding  THE BEAST and drop Amazon now!!  Your integrity as a man is worth it!  And if you think millions more people losing their jobs and having to take up new ones at Amazon isn’t part of the Great Reset agenda, you have another thing coming.  Treat others how you want to be treated.

3. If your wife tells you that you aren’t allowed to do any prepping or that she expects you to get the jab if it means losing your job otherwise, then I am going to challenge you hard right now.  Guess what?  As I have said before, just because you aren’t a Beta male, that doesn’t automatically qualify you as an Alpha male.  If your wife is calling shots like this over the fate of your family, then what is going on in your relationship that would allow her to defy you, the rightful head of the household and spiritual protector of your family, in such a way?  If you aren’t the St. Joseph of your household aka the “Terror of Demons” and the “Pillar of Virtue” who is respected by your wife and children as the most incredible man in the whole world, then you better figure out how to earn the respect and loyalty of your family right now!  Love your wife dearly and die to yourself everyday as Christ died for the Church, or suffer the same fate as Zombie America.  Get un-dead now!

Brother you aren’t Alcibiades, you are Cato the Elder.  You don’t aspire to be a “good enough” Catholic who stayed on the side of Orthodoxy and did not go Arian, you aspire to be St. Athanasius, the super-resister saint.  You aren’t comfortable enough being some random English bloke who kept his head because he never got involved in state affairs anyway, you want to be St. Thomas More, presenting his head to the executioner, but pulling out his beard and saying, “well at least my beard didn’t offend the king” in order to help the crowd get in a good laugh before your execution.  You don’t want to be Switzerland guy during WWII, you want to be ST. MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE, pouring out every last drop of your charisma, love, devotion, passion, energy, and blood for your fellow man.  You are a resister and you are a man. 

Actually, do you want to be fully man, or do you want to be a super man?  Do you want to be a saint?  When St. Maximillian Kolbe gave his life for his fellow man, he went over and above the natural law.  He could have kept his mouth shut and avoided execution and would have committed no sin.  But he chose to do that which only supernatural grace can propel one to do.  And just like the blood of every martyr, his blood still fertilizes the ground in which today’s saints grow.  You can be that man too.  You can be that saint too!

I will leave you with the second part of that reading from Ezra,

     But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us
     an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, so that our God may 
     enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. For we are slaves; yet
     in our bondage our God has not abandoned us, but has extended favor to us in the
     sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to erect the house of our God, to restore
     its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem

Be that remnant.  Be the instrument of God as he uses us, the resistance, to restore our own wall in our native land.  Physically speaking, it won’t happen today.  In fact, if you think it’s bad now, you need to study your history, because it’s going to get so much worse before it gets better.  If you already feel betrayed by clergy, just wait.  People will be hauled off to camps while those from who you expect the most support will deny knowing them.  But rest assured, such saints will not be abandoned by God, and his grace will always abound for those who accept it.  Accept it with courage and humility, and you will be satisfied.  

Keep getting stronger.  Keep becoming a saint.  Endure through this spiritual fight and accept the physical trauma that will be coming, and you will strike up the jealousy of even the noblest saints of our tradition.  Stay holy and keep resisting.

God bless,

Gadfly