Governing by Narrative
Portraying weakness through strong messages
For Federal prosecutors of the January 6th protestors, the ship from Delos cannot return fast enough. That is because the narrative they are operating under has a shelf life, and its expiration date is fast approaching. What is the J 6 narrative? Well, it has been dubbed, "The day democracy almost died," "the insurrection," or "the assault on our Nation's capital." I have also heard media pundits compare the protest to the tragic attack on 9-11 where over 2,900 innocent people died and the hands of terrorists. I have even heard a talking head utter the absurdity that the J 6 protest was the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. From the government prosecutors’ point of view, the weak narrative is their strongest case against the citizens protesting government on January 6, 2021. And, they are working feverishly to condemn, by metaphorical hemlock, the J 6 protesters before their weak narrative unravels.
What is the J 6 narrative up against? The US Constitution. That is, if one still believes in the inspirational power of that dusty old document with the First Amendment enumerated:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
To find J 6 protesters guilty, the "insurrection" narrative has to be employed to supersede the "peaceably assembly" clause embedded into our governing document. Thus, we have Federalized and made harmful, parading, milling and, funny looking Viking-horned hats.
History teaches us how past democracies dealt with tumult. In 399 BC Athens, their democracy was struggling with several successive disasters. There was a plague (we call it a pandemic now,) internal political strife (we call hate speech now,) and an ass whooping by the hands Sparta, who were funded by the Persian empire (we call that doing business with China now.) Athenian political leaders were in a pickle because their grand Delian League narrative of spreading democracy about the Aegean Sea crumbled under the weight of internal spending on Athenian beautification projects and political class largess. Today, we simply call that governing and our funding mechanism is called a "continuing resolution." The grifters of ancient Athens were in jeopardy of being exposed as incompetent boobs and needed a narrative, and they needed one fast.
Who better to blame their kakistocracy induced malfeasance on than the "gadfly" of Athens himself, Socrates. Socrates had, after all, been “milling” about the Plaka every day, corrupting the minds of youth with his hateful speech, worshiping gods not approved by the State and, regarding Athenian democracy shortcomings, he was making the weaker argument seem stronger than the State issued narrative.
One of my favorites among Plato’s dialogues is the Apology. In it, Socrates (the insurrectionist,) defends himself against trumped-up charges of impiety and corrupting the city’s youth. Charges that basically amounted to parading, milling and hate speech violations. My guess is, had the powers of Athens figured out that they could control the masses ever more by accusing Socrates of denying that Apollo's chariot was the true source of escorting the sun on its westerly journey each day, they would have also tried him as a climate denier as well.
In the Apology, Socrates address his understanding of wisdom, more specifically, the he address the charges against him relating to being a wise pain in the ass. "For my part, as I went away, I reasoned with regard to myself: 'I am wiser than this human being. For probably neither of us knows anything noble and good, but he supposes he knows something when he does not know, while I, just as I do not know, do not even suppose that I do.'" Socrates proceeded to cross examine his accuser, Meletus, regarding his accusation of corrupting the minds of the youth. Although Meletus could make no argument that Socrates, or anyone for that matter, could corrupt the minds of the youth, nor could he substantiate that he was, in any way, capable of determining what the corruption criteria would be, the men of Athens, supported by the "Socrates is a cunning manipulator of words" narrative, condemn him to death anyway. For even in ancient Athens, the social media influencer, Aristophanes, in what constituted as his blog site, wrote the slanderous play, The Clouds, lampooning Socrates. The narrative of Socrates being an “up to no good” agitator of the state was well known and ultimately became the sole reasoning for his conviction.
Such is the case for historic democracies, when their society and its leadership falter, the inept leaders need only to get 51% of the mob to condemn innocent men to divert attention to the real problem – which can be easily ascertained by looking squarely at their reflection in the mirror. For a decrepit democracy to wash itself of all its sins and impurities, a “scapegoat” system of justice must be deployed. One innocent goat must be sacrificed to appease the gods while another, burdened with the sins and impurities of the State, is released into the wild thus to carry those burdens far away from the city walls. The men of ancient Athens scapegoated Socrates as atonement for their sins and yet the Delian League was never reformed. In similar fashion, the people of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Caiaphas, scapegoated Jesus to atone for their sins, and yet the Romans dismantled the Temple stone by stone less than 40 years. the same is occurring today as the DC swamp is scapegoating J 6 protesters to atone for the sins of our kleptocracy and yet, this action will not save our late-stage republic.
A government that rules by narratives instead of rule of law is destine to fall. Where the laws of Nature issued by Nature’s God were carved in stone, laws by narratives are squishy things. The J 6 “insurrection” narrative, when tested against the Constitution, holds water like a sieve. And, unless the swampy prosecutors can get the protestors quickly condemned via our District of Columbia court systems and memory holed by the narrative that unarmed “Capital parading” individuals are the greatest threat to our Republic since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the whole grift will unravel. It will unravel either by or in conjunction with, electing a just president in 2024 or by eventual appeals to higher courts.
History owes untold levels of gratitude to the gods that blew intemperate winds, thus delaying the return of the ship from Delos because that allowed for the temporary stay in Socrates’ execution. That delay allowed for Plato’s dialogues of Crito, which contained conversations with Socrates while he was imprisoned and awaiting execution and Phaedo, which recounted the day Socrates was finally ordered to drink hemlock. In Phaedo, Plato writes about Socrates arguments for the immortality of the soul. More specifically, Socrates argues that the soul is immortal and thus subject to post-mortem judgement. If that be True, one must be cognizant of their deeds on this earthly plain, because in death, one will account for their wickedness.
About 400 years after the death of Socrates, God placed his only son on earth to add one clarifying bit to the Socrates’ immortality of the soul observation. That being that all humans are awash in sin, and although the soul is immortal and all will be judged by their creator, the gates of heaven will be opened to those who repent their sins in the name of Jesus. For Jesus was greatest of all scapegoated individuals in human history and the one proved that those who operate on strong narratives indeed portray greatest weakness. He proved that strong narratives are merely cover for weak and fearful men. Demonstrating the Eternal power of Truth over narrative, Jesus, amidst suffering the pain of death through crucifixion, implores his Father to forgive His executioners, for they know not what they do.
John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” His dire prediction is playing out in real time in the courtrooms of Washington DC as immoral and irreligious individuals are acting on a preselected narration of events vs. the actual chain of events in their persecution of the protesters. Be it known that the flimsy J 6 narrative, so desperate in the minds of the Washington DC hegemony, will not save them from their fate of judgement nor will it save our decaying Republic from collapse. Quite the opposite, epic failures such as the fall of the United States, get added to the list of Biblically failed states.
To manifest real time impressions upon the consciousnesses of wicked people, God makes failure of the State necessary. Short of a revival and renewal of our sacred covenant with God, our country will be weakened by the judication by narration of the J 6 protesters. Thus, governing by strong narratives always portraits weakness. Weakness, along with broken covenant, must bring Divine wrath upon the conscience of a nation. In these cases, God’s conscience adjusters are dispensed by the likes of a Nebuchadnezzar, a Titus, or a Chairman Xi. The means of the hammer matters not, for the punishment of weakness is the point, and it is preserved for eternity through the immortality of the soul.