TR 522 - Essentials of the American Soul

Life happens.

Last night the power flickered on and off several times, as strong winds have gusted 30-40 mph, building up massive drifts of snow. This morning I awoke to the power being out, and I was more grateful than ever for my cozy wood stove. It’s moments like these that I can glimpse the hardships of a worse case scenario.

Lots of people talk about and even prepare for a potential EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse), which in theory could knock out the grid for an extended period of time. In my mind, a cyberattack is more likely, or a massive solar flare, but regardless of the cause, there is no denying that the convenience of electricity can be taken in an instant.

And then what? For how long?

Some time ago, when there was a summertime power outage, my wife and I ran through a scenario, pretending in our minds that the power would be out for a week or more. What would we need to do? What would be our priorities? How would our life change? And what would happen if the power didn’t come back on for months?

Such hypotheticals are helpful for developing a strong contingency plan, preparing for the possibility that the world as we know it, full of modern amenities such as electricity, running water, refrigeration, and warmth, could change in an instant.

Last night, my family watched the movie Hostiles. Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike did not disappoint, and though parts of the movie were hard to watch, the reality portrayed—the brutishness of warring tribes fighting for survival and resources—was tastefully done. I believe the battle between Native Americans and early American settlers was played out evenhandedly, contrasting between the “reds are savages” mindset and the “they were here first” sympathizers in a fair and balanced way.

In the end, as was deeply impressed upon the audience, we are all just savages.

Catching this flick on the heels of reviewing Thomas Jefferson’s exhortation to rebel and remind our would be rulers that their only legitimate authority comes from our willingness and consent to be governed—“God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion”—gave the movie a special sort of grit.

At the start of the show, this quote was on the screen:

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
—D.H. Lawrence

Setting aside the reputation of Lawrence, who I admittedly had never heard before, those words, “the essential American soul,” lay grip to my mind. What does it mean to be an American? Are we walking in the footsteps of our forefathers? Or have Americans been so duped and swindled that we resemble something different altogether? Clearly most Americans are no longer hard, isolate, or stoic, but do we as a population still have the necessary grit to overcome the forces of tyranny?

Again, Jefferson’s sage words ring in my ears:

“What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

It occurred to me that Jefferson was speaking to, and on behalf of, the sort of quintessential American soul that was, at its core, a hard, stoic, killer. Such attributes may offend modern sensitivities—and not by accident—but in reality, these are the very characteristics and attributes that have fueled the survival of our species since the dawn of time. Thinking it through, though time has changed many things, and though humanity itself has continued to evolve, we are essentially still the same.

For those who doubt this perspective, who pretend like humanity has somehow transcended our brutish tendencies with sophisticated civility, I’d say look around. Open your eyes. Cold-blooded killing, rape, abuse, trafficking, and war abound.

People are grouping up and killing other people, just as they always have.

Hostiles does an outstanding job of reconciling this fact, as two groups who have previously slaughtered the friends and families of the other ultimately find themselves as allies against a common hostile enemy. Yes, you killed my friends. Yes, I killed your friends. But now there is someone who is trying to kill us both, so let’s set aside our differences and work together so that we both might survive.

Through changing circumstance, the old Chief and the young Captain who were once eager to slay each other, found common ground in their shared humanity. The harshness of reality had humbled them both, and mutual respect was gained. In the end, from the depths of depravity and years of murder, a certain bond was formed. Both were hard, isolate, and stoic. Both were killers. Both were human.

The real beauty in this, as I’ve reflected on it, is that both embodied the essential American soul. These are our ancestors. The bravest of the brave. Those who did not fear death, who did not shy away from hardship, but instead delighted in the dangers of being wild and free, wrestling with the elements, and taming nature—these are the men and women who carved their existence out of the raw harshness of reality.

In doing so, over time, a new society was formed, a society of free individuals that would declare themselves Americans, those who chose to cast off the shackles of tyranny to live as free human beings, who would shout, “Give me liberty or give me death!” and live by the creed of “Live free or die!”

Life’s too short to live like a slave.

And yet here we are now, with unelected globalists working night and day to enslave the whole of humanity in the illusions of their own minds. While they erect the inescapable digital prison all around us, their relentless propaganda whittles away at the will to resist. The subconscious taming is nearly complete. Docile we have become.

With talks of a hung election and a civil war, with opaque predictive programming, with an unending chain of usurpations and abuses, with a daily deluge of angry young men assaulting women, children, and helpless elders, with hordes of young thugs ransacking businesses with unapologetic boldness, everywhere we look we see the words of Edmond Burke ring true:

“All it takes for evil to prevail, is for good men to do nothing.”

There was a time when people would be shot to death for less, and everyone in town knew that the criminals had it coming. The brutal truth is that life is a game of kill or be killed, and that is why the essential American soul must remain a stoic killer.

Not killing for pleasure’s sake, mind you, but killing out of necessity, to feed and protect one’s family, to defend one’s property, and to defeat the rising tyrants. Throughout all time, such killing has been necessary to liberate the oppressed, to cut down rulers who have succumbed to evil, and restore the natural balance of life.

This is the messy truth of freedom—that freedom is not free, that it requires sacrifice, hardship, suffering, and death. That the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, because that is the natural order of things.

Denying this reality does not bode well for the future.

And so it is that now is the time for men to reflect on these hard learned lessons, to search their hearts and discuss with their loved ones the if and when of what inevitably lies ahead. As the reality of current circumstance continues to sink in, as more and more people begin to see the truth that there are people who are “trying to kill us and take our stuff”—to quote Catherine Austin Fitts—and as a few brave men realize that there is no easy way out of the mess that we’re in, these essentials of the American soul will once again become aroused and come alive.

There are times in history when violence is the answer. Indeed, as history has repeatedly shown, at times violence is the only answer (as previously discussed).

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I believe the essential American soul must be revived if our nation is to survive. I acknowledge that this may mean different things to different people. I understand the public has been pacified and will largely disagree. But at the end of the day, as with the end of an epoch, we must look to the Laws of Nature to restore the balance of power—and we must be stoic in our endeavor to do so.