“Foolishness is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.
Against such foolishness we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.
In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a foolish person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the foolish person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison, 1944
“War, a struggle between 'our people' and 'the enemy,' creates a polarized world in which 'the enemy' is easily objectified and removed from the community of human obligation. What the conservatives conceived of as sufficient measures overlapped with what were for the Nazis scarcely the first steps. Only a minority of nonconformists managed to preserve a beleaguered sphere of moral autonomy that emboldened them to employ patterns of behavior and stratagems of evasion that kept them from becoming killers at all. ”
Christopher R. Browning,
Ordinary Men, 1992
"When we are the victims of an illusion we do not feel it to be an illusion but a reality. It is the same perhaps with evil. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. As soon as we do evil, the evil appears as a sort of duty. Once a certain class of people has been placed by the temporal and spiritual authorities outside the ranks of those whose life has value, then nothing comes more naturally to men than murder. As soon as men know they that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles."
Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la Grâce, 1947
"Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour consciously to shape our future in accordance with high ideals, we should in fact unwittingly produce the very opposite of what we have been striving for?"
Friedrich Hayek
"When a war breaks out, people say: 'It's too stupid; it can't last long.' But though a war may well be 'too stupid,' that doesn't prevent it from lasting. Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were exceptional humans: they did not believe in plagues.
A bubonic plague is not made to fit in a man's mind; therefore we tell ourselves that plagues are a mere bogey of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't
always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the exceptional first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions.
Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be human, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that
plagues were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How could they have given a thought to anything like a plague, which rules
out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are plagues."
Albert Camus, The Plague, 1947
Stocks backed off a bit from their nearly parabolic rocket rally today.
We start getting a little more information as the BLS revises, and some say severely lower, the jobs data.
The Fed is meeting starting tomorrow at Jackson Hole, and the jawboning from there may move markets.
Gold managed to bounce higher while silver held its ground.
The Dollar fell to a yearly low I have included a second Dollar chart so one might see this.
The madness spreads like a plague, overwhelming some and silencing many.
The madness serves none but itself.
Lord, my brothers and sisters are sick, with a sickness unto death.
And I struggle with what to do, as the madness grows, and they surrender themselves to it.
All we can do is provide a little oasis of kindness and sanity, a light in the darkness. And continue praying for us all.
And to remain standing, even in fear and trembling, because that is what this is all about.
Have a pleasant evening.
