I used to say that I just wanted to live a simple, unassuming life. I didn’t want to be famous. I didn’t want to do anything heroic or even particularly special. I didn’t want a big house, a high salary or lots of consumer items. I didn’t want to interfere with how anybody else lived and I didn’t want them to interfere with me either. I just wanted to live and let live.
In general, I still don’t think this is unreasonable and you would think that people who seek all of the things I don’t would be happy with my aspirations of mediocrity. In hindsight, I was hopelessly naive to think that I would be allowed to live like this and this has become all the clearer because of the events of this year.
Now this isn’t something I’ve just realised this year, it has been something I’ve noticed for years but has now become very much in my face with centuries of written and unwritten law suddenly becoming redundant due to what is clearly a rather minor health crisis. There are various theories behind the nature of this global overreaction, but one thing is clear; the elite (whoever they are), are not content to live and let live.
One might counter that I am exaggerating and I am still free largely to do and think as I please. This is true to the extent that I go along with the status quo which really isn’t very free at all. In fact, I have to put myself out quite a bit more than others to practice what I believe. I can’t send my children to public or even most religious schools because they promote values opposed to my own. I am quite limited where I can work within my profession because of these same beliefs. If I were willing to compromise these beliefs, life would be much easier for me but I can’t do this in good conscience.
Although for most of the history of my people, the views I now hold were totally normal, I will readily admit that they are far outside the mainstream today. That said, even people that have compromised or abandoned the beliefs that shaped their society are not immune from the elites. Even those who send their children to public schools, go along with what the elites want and simply pursue wealth and pleasure are not left alone.
Reasons for rules, regulations and recommendations that become rules and regulations are ever being thought up by the elites and promoted by lackeys in the media and political class. The leading opposition is only ever a few election cycles behind what is being promoted and all (if any), opposition to a given issue falls away once it is passed into law. This isn’t a simplistic left/right binary I am speaking of either. Take the Australian GST legislation from the late 1990s and recall the opposition to it. Can anyone recall the politicians that were so hostile to it bringing it up at all since it was passed? The only time anything the elites want ceases to be an issue is when they have got exactly what they want and the Overton window quickly shifts to their next project.
It is not enough even for those that passively accept or even promote each new outrage on our civilisation. The elite, despite all their wealth, are simply unable to leave people alone to live their lives no matter how humble and harmless. There seems to be an insatiable need to interfere, experiment, exploit and change us. Even their most devoted acolytes will one day run afoul of them.
I have mostly spoken here in generalities but the question I began this post with is not rhetorical. I do believe I have an answer though I won’t claim it as my own. The simple answer is that evil cannot leave innocent alone. I don’t mean innocent in the same sense as sinless but simply in the sense of being good in the most human sense of the word. Evil can not bare happy families, laughing children or even people simply enjoying themselves. Despite their enormous wealth and power, they are unable simply to live their vacuous lives. Much like their master, they derive pleasure from turning people into beasts like them and especially by causing suffering to those who actively work to not succumb to them.
If evil were not real, the rich and powerful of our world would simply leave the rest of us alone. There have been many savage and evil rulers throughout human history. They have generally openly sought treasure and power and openly killed for it. If nothing else, I can respect that they faced their victims and mostly did their evil deeds openly. I would rather face a savage blow from an evil thug than suffer the never-ending manipulation of people claiming they want to help me.
Christians suffered direct attacks by the Romans who would deal with their internal enemies violently and more importantly — publicly. Today, elites claim they are helping their targets and don’t have the courage to get their hands dirty. They attack with the proverbial thousand cuts. They don’t face their victims and they often aren’t courageous enough to openly reveal their power and instead operate through proxies.
Despite the claims to live in democracy, we don’t truly know who rules us. They can only in fact be seen when something doesn’t go their way. The great positive to take away from current times is that they are likely the result of a mad serpent thrashing for prey. This in the long run is preferable to it slowly curling around us and preparing to strike.