Every day the disorder gets worse. Every day there is a new psycho-religio assault on the world from the forces of disorder. When was the last time you were pleasantly surprised by someone? When was the last time someone you know, who you were expecting to fall, actually rose? They surprised you and rejected the evil disorder spreading over our world? Has it been years? It has for me. I can't remember a time when I was pleasantly surprised.
It doesn't take a heroic act to be against disorder. It doesn't even take an act. All it takes is saying no. All it requires is not "saying their words", to loosely quote Jordan Peterson. People can't force you to say their words. People can't force you to declare the degenerate blob, beautiful. People can't force you to believe something you don't believe. People can't force you to become a new hyper-cyber-sexual-neu-person. You, for the time being, are a free westerner and you can believe what you wish, refrain from saying that which you don't believe, dress the way prefer, beautify your home the way you desire, teach your children what you hold dear. You possess your conscience, not the mob.
Today, in our sad state, a heroic act is simply saying no. Refusing to lie. If you refrain from lying you will be a hero. How much are you required to lie in our society? How much lying is needed in order to not be cast out? Do you begin to lie to yourself? It's amazing how it works, the lies begin and they creep more and more, and all those around you begin to lie because it is easiest to do so, then they begin to forget that they ever knew different, the world begins to change before your eyes. It's all retconned. You are left behind.
The forces of disorder can destroy much but they cannot destroy your soul, unless you let them. They cannot destroy your self worth, your dignity, the knowledge and confidence you are right and good. They may try, but they only succeed if you let them. There is something dementing that happens to a person when you are forced to pretend your moral inferiors are in-fact your moral superiors. It drives you mad. The dissonance crashes so hard inside you until you give in. That is how it works for so many. It's too hard to resist that. It's too painful inside. Acknowledging the injustice of it is crushing for people, especially the weak willed who may have a spark of truth untrained. It is easiest to give in. You will receive validation by the whole outside society and you can forget that pain. It will be like a distant memory. Think of the final paragraphs of Submission by Houellebecq. You will have nothing left to mourn.
This is why many older people choose to forget the past. It pains them too much to remember what was. They intentionally forget it. It is better to lie to themselves, to mangle the past so as to imagine today is better, that today it is all just fine. People want to be on the "winning side" and they will deceive themselves and remake themselves from within to allow themselves to feel happy with how things are.
Today is the last day of 5781. Tomorrow is Rosh Hashana. Reflecting on the past year, the trials, the triumphs, the scene our world has embarked on, I resolve to not give in, and not give up. I will not say their words, I will not say the sick is healthy or that the ugly is beautiful. I will not allow the old virtues to become the new vices and the old vices the new virtues. I cannot change the outside world. I cannot. None of us can. I can still control the inside world. I can refuse to forfeit my refuge and I can tell the truth, for not only the sake of my soul, but the future of my children.
I can do my part by hopefully trying to be a force for good through my writing, my images, my thoughts and reflections. I hope and pray that it is a force for good and if not a force for good at least a force of neutral and perhaps comforting to others who may feel the same.
The coming decades will be difficult for all good, strong people of faith. Men must be strong and must teach their children well. They must tell the truth when it is difficult. As for myself I refuse to be a part of the disorder. I reject the disorder and I will not be broken into submission. I will continue to do my best, with the help of God, to bring some beauty and goodness into the world in the form of thought, idea, image and being.
Shana Tova.