Author: B. K. Neifert
An Unsung Private on the Front Lines Has the Best Chance at Winning the Medal of Honor.
Corporate America
I think, people aren't meant to do this kind of stuff. We're meant to grow things in soil, and build things, and dig, and hunt, and gather. Mostly, I think that's the major issue here. It's just unnatural. Which, with AI, we're going to actually have to be forced back into that kind of craft economy, where most work is the creation of objects, or gardening and farming. Economies will have to be local again, and not large corporations. Instead of Nike, you'll have a local cobbler, or instead of Abercrombie and Fitch, you'll have a local tailor. What's different, is that we have very advanced logistics, that can bring someone's product from California to Ethiopia if we wanted to in under a week, and that will only get faster. That's where the real money would come from, and whoever had the logistics or warehouses would be on top. Which, those would be automated. But most people need to feel a part of their company, and the Corporate mindset turned it into a cult, but generally, the local business should be more like a community: that's what people need.
It's weird, but I just don't believe Corporate America is what makes people happy. Just the commute alone, of driving 45 minutes or more a day, and then being regimented every second and not allowed to make autonomous decisions, or really have any ownership or onus over the products. That's kind of why this is happening.
The Fledgling
The Fledgling author,
Like me, like you, like us all,
Struggles to make sense
Out of everything. Thus, speaks
In long paragraphs, unknown
What he is saying.
Thus, if he continues, and
Breaks plateaus, he will
Excel above the rest. Push
Past the wall of writer's block.
He struggles to say
What he really means; embers
Of subconscious swear.
Unconscious, until words will
Become a true part of him.
70 x 7
Forgive your debtors.
For if you are poor, trodden
In the mire; weak.
If your life is destroyed by
Someone, rest assured, heaven
Ought to be your true pearl.
Therefore, forgive all
Your debtors, and rest on heaven's treasures.
Let them be rich, son.
Give them the world they crave.
And lay the bedrock
Of Christian counsel. Forgive.
Trowel heaven's golden streets.
Church 2026
Bread and circuses, trapeze and line dances;
Vulgar pop songs remade with Christian lyrics.
A little Magic by mixing oils in water
And enhancing them---for water has memory
I suppose, so the more you dilute it,
The stronger its healing properties get.
The Lutheran Church's liturgy is out of order.
The Baptist preaches platitudes.
The hard line pastors are trying to appeal to the youth.
But, the youth want the world, and its weird.
The preacher drop kicks a bible--literally--
Bathes in maple syrup, gives away fancy cars at a lottery.
Charity is also a sin... and there is only this life.
So get it, and get it well.
Church is a party, and not a place of peace.
Sermons are psychology;
Hymns are one dull sentence repeated a dozen times.
Sunday school? Where can you find it?
Where will they teach you the basics?
No, kids have soccer, and swimming,
For that is more important than reading, writing and arithmetic.
So doubly the children are illiterate and can't read their Bibles.
They date the Rapture, and sell all they possess, only to be thwarted
And left destitute. Unknown to them, is Jesus told them they couldn't.
They cry for war, power, money, fame, fortune...
Go to war... for war is good. There is only this life.
Christianity is about the strong prospering.
It is about the weak being kicked.
It is about fighting war, and swords, and crushing the impoverished.
It is about winning. It is about loving life.
Why Do I Believe?
That’s actually a very good question. And I’ll tell you exactly why.
So, let’s just take it back to “I think therefore I am.” Like Descartes. And what I think, can be either true or false. I can look at a fact on the internet or in a book… what establishes said thing as a fact? Could be the book or internet are lying to me. You know? I can also be wrong about what’s on page 7, or even that the book has a page 77. So, my mind is not capable of holding together reality. And whose is? A cadre of really smart people, or extra terrestrials? They just establish the laws? Well, what if I don’t trust them to establish the laws? What if science is wrong? Or what if everything we know now is wrong, but 20 years ago it was all correct? So that’s the first reason, is to have a bedrock of reality, independent of some being that isn’t entirely good. God is Light, and God is Good and God is Love. I’d rather have Him hold together my reality, than a couple of random scientific studies or peer reviewed papers.
Another thing, the moral law that God proscribed is better than anyone else’s. What I read in Jesus, is better than ten sages, and what I read in the Old Testament, seems to be solid, and built our very first civilizations. The fact that it kills everyone is good, as God’s Ark kills by the touch. Even touching perfection, kills us. So, you have two testaments, of the Conqueror and Sentence in the old, and the Rescuer and Defender in the new. And that balance in life, of having breath, so always being enabled to cross the threshold into a righteous person, or making the decision to be bad. It makes sense. Either trusting God for our righteousness, or trusting in ourselves. Either agreeing with the Moral Law that is higher than us, or creating our own moral law, which is insufficient.
Then, I’ve seen the religion as it is authentically expressed. I’ve felt the Holy Spirit in me, and move me. I’ve known myself with the religion, and without it. And I got to say, knowing God is good, and has dominion over all things, including the evil… that nothing evil happens without God’s word, it is a comfort to me. Because it gives sense to the world, and it doesn’t just throw it all into the blender of human judgment. It doesn’t leave things under the power or jurisdiction of people who are fallible. It doesn’t leave right and wrong up to a bunch of men to create or decide upon. It’s built in nature, and designed by God, and Evil is what destroys the things that cause man to suffer, and Good is what helps those who abide in God’s authority, and choose to accept grace.
As, without Grace or Mercy, we starve. And we lose what is good in us. Like a Vine or Rootstock, it gives sap to the Scions. We need that sap, or we grow weak in doing what’s good, and we die. And that’s what happened to you. You grew weak in righteousness, because you rejected God’s law. So, it will sap you, and soon God’s divine order will be stripped from you. As for me, I hold onto that order, so I can be taken to a better world, where suffering and sin make an end. As without that new world, life is utterly pointless, and dejected, and feral. And there is no true justice because there is no truly good power to uphold it. Only man and his callous judgment.
We need a teacher. Otherwise we're lost in the weeds of our own thoughts. And my teacher is Jesus. I am also no one's teacher. Just trying to interpret what my Rabbi said.
I always say, I would be agnostic if not for Jesus. I would never be an Atheist, because I don't find their arguments satisfactory. Just everything is so contrary to good reason, that you'd have to annihilate every shred of wisdom, and never build up to a single principle again. It'd be pimps getting run over in the street, and their carcas decaying into a mass of flesh if Atheism were true. Which, it's not for that reason. I would be Agnostic, but would be a lot like my character Marc in The Fifth Angel's Trumpet.
But, it's Jesus and Jesus alone, gives me satisfactory answers to life's biggest questions. Not even Buddha, he's a little spooky and self centered and denies reality a bit. And Muhammad isn't very good. And Moses would have every man, woman and child killed down to the letter.
On Goodness and God
I believe in goodness without God. Although, it's impossible to prove good without Him. It's kind of a conundrum Nietzsche trapped the whole atheist community in, and also Hume. But, generally, they force the argument, that if you prove there's good, there ha to be a God. Because if there's good without God, then it remains subjective, and determined by human opinion, which then it can't be called good, can it? But, I think good is so self evident, that we can move up to God's existence.
But, generally, I think atheists can indeed understand it. I would be doubtful to say that they can't. We all do, that's written in the Bible. And Christ aligns with that natural conscience better than anyone else. But the danger here... and here is the true danger... is saying good is not self evident. And that's a trap both Atheists and Christians fall into. When, I'm aware that both good and evil are self evident, and necessarily proves God exists. Because it relies on superior judgment, existing outside of human consciousness. It's a Law of Nature, not a Law of Human Choice. And since nature proves what's ethical and moral, based on what will create the most beneficial society for all, and naturally create patterns of healthy attachments and material prosperity, which God's grace will achieve, and has achieved, we move to Christ Jesus.
The Acolyte of Destruction
The church, no matter where you go,
To one church, 'tis a liberal snow
Of platitudes, and their one thing
They might get right, they get all wrong.
For, Arks must be carried on poles,
Ceremony a holy show.
And I go, not seeking sermon,
But rather my most holy bread,
And the acolyte proceeds not
Down the aisle at his hour.
No, he lights it yor the service.
For ceremony must be right.
Another church, speaks hour's long
Deep theology, talks too long;
And no liturgy do they have
But long winded sermons and dead
Anxiety in pews. Many seats filled.
And long winded, with many words
And hypocrites who love to curse;
One has no sermon, and no rites.
The other a long winded strife.
No song or bowing knee, showbread
Comes out with no splendid belief.
Just many words and no order.