“Know your enemy and know yourself. In a hundred battles you will never be defeated”
Sun Tzu
Notwithstanding the powers we are up against, I’m actually hopeful. Not because I think that we are on the cusp of a victory in one of the many battles in which we are involved, but simply by examining the sides in these skirmishes – skirmishes, I should say, which add up to an almighty war, for the future of our country and civilization. As I survey the strategies of the various groups, I cannot help concluding that the standards are very different, the traits of each side are noticeably and qualitatively disparate. In plain English, we have more style and panache, not to mention a sense of humour, than they will ever have; what they have is money, power and influence. And, above all, we have principle; we actually believe in what we stand and fight for.
What are we up against in the various “cultural wars” with which we are engaged? (These “wars” could be Convid, TRANS, education, migration, climate, and so forth) It’s a relief to know that what our opponents have are only plodding prose, hysteria-promoting jargon, and robotic non-interaction by hired interferers, both distracting and destructive. For example, on the topic of climate scare-mongering, there is no better image than Al Gore literally ranting about rising sea levels and other figments of his well-paid imagination.
First of all, their prose is exceptionally uninspiring, echoing whatever is the current theme. A typical example of this was the following: “The Covid-19 pandemic caught everyone by surprise. Suddenly, life as we knew it came to a grinding halt. In those first frightening days of March [2020], the spirit of national solidarity was striking. Few complained about the closure of schools, pubs and restaurants, or the need to wear face masks. Few complained when the money-spinning St Patrick’s Day festivities were called off. We were all in this together. United, determined, we would defeat this existential threat to our lives and livelihoods, as we had done with Foot and Mouth in the past”.
Now this kind of thing could only have been written by someone who gets his news from the mainstream media, so predictable, ticking all the right boxes – and I happen to know the author of the piece, who does indeed imbibe from the mainstream 24/7. But so much is amiss with the piece, so many things believed and accepted at face value. First of all, notice the gratuitously insulting reference to St Patrick’s Day as “money-spinning”. Well, it’s probably true that publicans and vendors of tricolour paraphernalia do make a good profit on the day, but so what? That’s their business. But that’s no reason to avoid giving any hint whatsoever of March 17 being a day of national, religious celebration. No mention of the history of Irish Catholicism, and the very real hardships endured by our ancestors in the faith. Sure, it’s all gone a fair bit secular in recent times, but why not afford the feastday some honour?
Secondly, it is most definitely not true that “life as we knew it came to a grinding halt”. No, it was made to come to a grinding halt by people who knew that what was being peddled as panicky breaking news was nothing of the sort. Some of us suspected this early in the “pandemic”, but we knew it incontrovertibly from their various parties (Phoenix Park, Downing Street, G7 in Devon, and so forth). They knew that we were not in the grip of some global-threatening disaster. The news anchors or “health” reporters may not have been in the know, but two groups of people were: (1) the globalist elites running/ruining our societies, and (2) the local minority who implemented orders since day one.
Thirdly, if there ever was an “existential threat to our lives and livelihoods”, it was not from any scary virus or pathogen. No: lives were lost and livelihoods destroyed by policies deliberately imposed.
For those arrayed against us, their tactics, and especially their range of vocabulary, are severely limited. Overall, the strategy is to repeat ad nauseam whatever is the slogan of the day. How different from Lewis Caroll’s Bellman in “The Hunting of the Snark ”, who said “What I tell you three times is true ”. In the hands of Lewis Carroll this turns out to be hilariously funny; with our current slogan- and slander-wielders, it is painfully predictable. Whether it’s “safe and effective” (false in that any jab didn’t stop transmission, false in the many who have suffered vaccine-related injuries); or “we’re all in this together” (arrant nonsense); or “build back better” (nicely alliterative, but absolutely menacing in reality), we have not heard these slogans three times, but three thousand times. And the name-calling is positively tiring: from far-right to racist to homophobic to anti-something or other – the sorry list hardly ever gets added to, but remains stalled at the same tired usual suspects.
If the slogans are unimaginative, those employed to attend counter-protests are entirely uninspiring and unconvincing, acting robot-like. And that is because they don’t have any real spirited belief in whatever event they have been recruited to attend, but simply betray their status as rent-a-crowd. They stand there, holding slogans given to them, either shouting to distract from the original rally or childishly refusing to engage with any questions asked of them. Or else they will try to intimidate those at the original rally; just paid nuisances and provocateurs. It’s a reflection of the new Ireland that is being created, that one has to go to various lengths so as to avoid their distracting presence at gatherings. The location of the event will only be revealed a very short time before the event begins, participants must register beforehand by email, names are checked, an identifying sticker is provided, and so on. Such necessary measures speak to a corrosive mentality that has been ushered into our society in recent times.
Another reason that gives me some satisfaction, if not exactly hope of victory, is that over time, the profiles of various groups have come more clearly into focus, and it’s always important to know your enemies.
(1) With very few exceptions, I think it fair to say that the political class does not have our individual welfare or our national welfare at heart. Notwithstanding any speeches they make, they are in politics either to feather their own nests or to do the bidding of their globalist overlords. The relentless inviting and welcoming of unvetted and undocumented foreigners into our country is just the latest example. Truly has it been said that “politics is the art of compromise” – not principle.
(2) It never fails to amaze me how people scan the pages of the national daily papers or listen attentively to radio & TV, expecting, in all instances, to receive honest, unbiased “truth”. I suppose they will never realise that we do not have an inquisitive or questioning media – not to mention an investigative one. What we do have are government-sponsored and probably pharmaceutical-sponsored outlets to spread and amplify the governing agenda – with an occasional toothless and consequence-free “scoop” involving some minor peccadillo or indiscretion. And this is solely to give the impression that they, the media, can be critical or can hold to account the powers that be. How could they, when those self same powers are their biggest sources of revenue, through advertising? No, it’s all illusory and simply provides timely distractions from what people should really be reading and hearing. For a long time now, it has accurately been said that the mainstream media should be renamed the “dinosaur” or “legacy” media, i.e., doomed to extinction.
(3) “Celebrities” or “Influencers” (what dreadfully hollow words). The list is quite long. I will just mention a few names of those who happily jumped on the bandwagon of Covid insanity: Paul McCartney, Elton John, Mick Jagger (a “vaccine passport” is required to attend Rolling Stones’ USA concerts), Dolly Parton, Arnold Schwarzenegger – and the miserable list could go on nearly forever. Thankfully there have been a few who have been willing to join the chorus of those who do not want any “new normal”: Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Ian Brown (of The Stone Roses), and others who have shown their true colours.
Unfortunately, the forces we are up against are not only instantiated in the above three examples; another is the apathy of so many. I mean, for example, those people for whom the last three years have had a limited impact, but who seem to have almost zero empathy for those who have genuinely suffered. “I’m alright Jack, and that’s my sole focus” would seem to be their motto. Put starkly by Gary Barnett: “the crisis of humanity lies at the feet of mass indifference”.