We lie to no one more than we lie to ourselves.

We believe lies from no one else more than we believe lies we tell ourselves. We deceive ourselves with the skill of a master craftsman. Self-deception is perhaps mankind’s most reliable skill, save rationalizing our own poor choices. We reflexively reaffirm our prejudices with willful ignorance, eschewing information that confounds our preferred worldview.

Until you have attempted to disabuse someone of a lie upon which they have built their identity and self-worth, you cannot fully understand the meaning of impossible, especially when the person who needs to be set right, is you.

One's past exists in two forms; the one that happened, and the one we wish had happened. Our lives then, from birth to this very moment, are shaped by both shadow and substance, each contributing their version of events to our story, with our character the primary determinant of which version wins out.

The deeper we plumb however, the more difficult the view becomes, as our memory casts a sparse, unreliable illumination - like reading the pages of a book by the reflected moonlight on a nighttime snow. We are prone to fallibility, and our greatest personal triumph is the acceptance...no, the determined realization of that fact. Once reconciled to our inherent imperfectibility, we may then become fit company for the Light that dispels the shadow, the Father of Truth revealing the truth of ourselves, to ourselves, an experience which must occur if we are to be made free.

One's story cannot be accurately told until the livery of self-love and self-deception are stripped away by the power of redeeming Love. We have donned rationalization, denial and a rebellious spirit, like clothing, adding one layer atop the other without ever disrobing; creating an ever-thickening shield to prevent the nakedness of our sin from dreadful exposure. It is this shell that must disintegrate, that must be reduced to tattered rags - if we are to stand awash in the light of Truth.

In the public sphere, this quirk of human behavior is nowhere more evident than in the resurgence of collectivism among otherwise sane people, like cicadas, emerging from their decadal slumber. Every so often, Collectivism, as a governing philosophy, sweeps into the imaginations of those too young to remember the havoc it wreaked when last employed, and reignites a dormant, but not dead, authoritarian urge among those who know the outcome, having tried it the last time.

Regardless of iteration - Communist, Socialist, etc - collectivism relies on an entire nation of people acting against their own best interests, and doing so voluntarily. The fact that people will do no such thing for any significant period of time leads inexorably to collectivism’s metamorphosis into a totalitarianism of increasing malevolence.

Socialism, a perennial candidate for worst idea ever, is indeed an attractive notion at first blush. But the promises and aspirations are the lure of a voracious predator, bait for the well-meaning, who merely want to see a happier world. The unobtainable nature of these promises are not lost on the would-be tyrants of humanity, who see clear opportunity in the corruptibility of the system. For them, the soaring promises are a knowing “wink and nod” from the orchestrators of revolution, a signal that their predations will soon be satisfied. It is frequently said, there are no past nor present examples of successful Socialism to examine, to which the believers respond, “We’ve learned from their mistakes!”

“It’ll work THIS time,” is the true believers cry, convinced those who tried before were deficient in knowledge or virtue, both of which the modern Socialist believe they possess exclusively. It is this over-inflated sense of self worth that permits the Socialist to easily dehumanize their opposition, to disdain the struggles of others and to over-emphasize their own. It is a singular flaw of character that predisposes the Socialist to commit acts of rage and violence, or at least turn a blind eye toward those who do.

Were it not for the idea “the end justifies the means,” Socialism would have disappeared into the fog of distant memory, alongside other equally useful concepts, like human sacrifice and chewing on glass. Absent a willingness to violate other human beings (physically, violently, exploitatively) Socialism cannot exist. It is the creed of the mendacious, the manipulative and the hypocritical, and requires injustice to function.

Sold with the promise of a more fair, more just society, Socialism instead installs an infrastructure that delivers a highly selective form of justice, with injustice routinely administered under color of “righting past inequities.” The notions of fairness, and equal treatment under the law that have informed western thought for millennia, are discarded in favor of a more manipulable goal of achieving an equitable “peace.” As with their fellow travelers on the path of tyrannical rule - Islamic supremacists - peace for the Socialist has a meaning entirely alien to the rest of us.

For both Socialism and Islam, “peace” is achieved in only one way, through subjugation. “Peace is upon us” when we have no further ability to resist our abuse and exploitation. Disarmed, dispossessed, discouraged, and if necessary, dismembered, we recipients of “justice” find peace only when our masters have decided we no longer have anything worth taking.

“No Justice, No Peace,” is not a demand, it’s an order. It’s directed at all those who have ever felt the sting of failure, but were unwilling to accept any personal responsibility for it. It’s meant to justify violent avarice among those who have less, by implying their poverty is due to another’s wealth. It’s an order to march, given to those who are convinced they were meant for a loftier station in life, but have never bothered to put in the work necessary for success, instead buying the fiction that their circumstances stem from the powerful holding a racial or social animus toward them. “Kept down by the Man.”

It’s always easier to blame, than to engage in meaningful introspection. Far easier to lie to ourselves, than face the awful truth in the mirror.

As the duality of our past - that which happened, and that we wished had happened - has brought us to our present selves, our future is shaped by these same forces, shadow battling substance, for ultimate control of who we will become.

The lies of the Left are merely scaled-up versions of the lies we tell ourselves when we cannot face our own inadequacies, our own failings, our own lack of character. All of us are vulnerable to the siren song of “what if,” but most of us recognize it as a mirage before trudging miles through the hot desert trying to reach that we know to be unobtainable. Consequently, the “oppressed” of our nation are mocked by those who have experienced true injustice, real systemic prejudice at the hand of their governments.

To these true victims, our pampered “revolutionaries” are overgrown children, role playing a revolution, as long as it doesn’t hurt.

Those lucky few who managed to escape from their Socialist or Communist overlords bear witness to the early stages of the collectivist error. They warn us of the peril ahead, painfully recalling their own journey of unspeakable horror and tragic loss at the hands of those who promised Utopia. The same circumstances they see here in their adopted home.

Czechoslovakia fell prey to the siren song of Socialism immediately following WWII, voting in a government that pledged to right the wrongs, fill their plates and make all notes come together in lustrous harmony. That was 1946.

By 1948, that same government had abolished opposing political parties, swept away all vestiges of democratic rule, and “fundamentally transformed” the nation from a Democracy into a Soviet-style repressive dictatorship. Czechs would not vote in another election for more than 40 years.

This is the real promise of the Left; subjugation, deprivation (through extreme mismanagement of resources, and a strident unwillingness to admit “Party” mistakes) and in the end, decimation, once the “excess population” has been identified.

How is that done? In those days, loyalty to the Party trumped a commitment to the truth. Any who failed to adopt and support those disordered priorities were “denounced,” and arrested. Presto! Easily identified “excess population.”

We see this same tactic playing out in the United States, as black-clad, masked modern-day “Brownshirts,” demand people take a knee before them, and raise their fist in solidarity. We would do well to remember, for now the “excess population” is still a governing majority in this country, and we need to deal with the Marxist provocateurs swiftly and decisively, before they gain power sufficient to achieve their definition of “peace.”

The Left, through the Democratic Party, has made a decision. This will be their final stand, as they know they will not survive another four years of Donald Trump dismantling their money-laundering, kickback schemes and general looting of the national treasury. He has hit the “deep state” hard, and will likely finish them off if given another four years to do so.

The Left intends to drum Trump out of office, regardless of the results of the election. They will “find” (read: manufacture) ballots favoring Biden until they reach a threshold where claiming victory is possible, then will demand Trump leave office, or else. The Republican party will be faced with a choice; to resist and stand for the integrity of elections, or to fold, falsely believing they will live to fight another day. The Left will stop at nothing to remove Trump, including massive street violence, and (it is my contention) bringing in United Nations troops to lay siege to Washington DC until they get their prize.

They cannot be permitted to steal the White House. If the Left gains control of the government, like in Czechoslovakia, it’ll be decades before we are able to vote in a real election again. The question you must ask yourself is a difficult one…

What will you do about it?

I pray substance outweighs shadow in your answer.