Essays in Idleness

From the Devil’s point of view, things have been going well, lately. How better to lead us into a one-party state, than with the Batflu? For an important part of any tyranny, is to accustom a people to grimness; to make them hopeless, and certain they have lost; to “prep” them with an invisible fear.

The claustrophobia should not be overdone, however; at least not at first. There have been actual slave revolts in history, that weren’t always possible to put down. The taunting of one’s enemies, while some still remain at liberty, should stay within bounds. More: the oppression of one’s subjects should be moderated, lest they be left with nothing to lose. The good demonic leader will know some history; the downfall of so many was that they knew none. He must lead downhill gradually. He will need a five-year plan.

What if joy and good faith should break out, unpredictably? And at a time when he doesn’t have his troops in place?

Apparently, there is no risk of this at the Inauguration this week. Twenty-five thousand guardsmen have Washington boxed in. Special forces are disposed in state capitals across the country.

Forsooth, the program for demonizing the enemy has gone fairly smoothly. That was, in effect, the first five-year plan, and now we start the second. By now all the most powerful media of communication are on the One Party side. Some reliable information is still getting out, but as the weeks go by, more and more will be “cancelled.”

We’re in classical coup territory. Building a false “narrative” is essential preparation for the seizure of power. As Lincoln said, you can’t fool all the people all the time; but you must keep large numbers with their heads buzzing. Fraudulently overturning an election would never be enough; for the vote must be close enough to steal. As a rule of thumb, you need nearly one-third of an electorate psychically committed to your asinine socialist/fascist agenda; victory comes by attaching the abnormally stupid.

(This is where the urban vote comes in, for in modern, degenerated cities, there is a plentiful supply. Getting them to vote is your only real problem.)

But enough of numbers. They can only lead us into some sort of “conspiracy theory” — which one accuses dissenters of spreading, whether they have one or not. But I don’t believe for a moment that a conspiracy is possible for long, with more than a small handful of co-conspirators. In fact, it is hard to keep a secret between two people, unless one of them is dead.

I wouldn’t bother to allege a conspiracy, like “Q-anon” or whomever. I rank them with card sharks and other masters of prestidigitation. I could easily believe that most of our leaders are pædophiles. But they stretch my credulity to snapping when they say that these clowns could organize anything.

No: for the authorship of what looks so much like a conspiracy, I cannot credit any human being; least of all Joe Biden. He is just “riding the tiger,” as the Chinese proverb has it. The rider himself is afraid, to dismount. Even Lenin was inordinately dependent, on lady luck.

I believe in the Devil. He’s the only agent capable of pulling a big conspiracy off. Indeed, it is our loss of belief in the Devil, that makes us believe in human conspiracies. Atheism only gets us half way there; it is disbelief, in the Devil, that gets us the rest of the way to the Finland Station.

And yet, as one of my best-informed correspondents told me, yesterday:

“One, everything God permits is a gift, even if difficult to recognize as such.

“Two, history is the war of the world against the Church, death versus life.

“Three, the Church is going to get very small, perhaps very close to invisible. But there will be friends and the truth always has a future.”