New in PJ Media:
The Biden regime seems hell-bent on celebrating and subsidizing the worst tendencies of human nature: not only every conceivable manner of perversion, but resentment, envy, the privilege of protected classes rather than advancement on the basis of merit, and so much more. It is not hard to suspect that Biden and his henchmen have some vested interest in encouraging Americans to become worse people, harder to get along with and more difficult to deal with. What could more effectively justify an authoritarian crackdown than a population that is as obstreperous as it is immature?
One outcome of all this will be that Americans will become worse people than they used to be. A government can’t expect to celebrate mental illness, demanding that everyone take it as normal on pain of ostracism, deplatforming and worse, and exalt skin color and gender over competence and expect that Americans will continue in large numbers to value being rational, competent, and capable.
There have been governments, however, that did what they could to make their people better human beings, rather than worse ones. “Empire of God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization” details how, in the Byzantine Empire of the sixth century AD, a story circulated that could have come from our own day. The sixth-century Byzantine chronicler John Malalas reports that early in the reign of the renowned emperor Justinian, “some of the bishops from various provinces were accused of living immorally in matters of the flesh and of homosexual practices. Amongst them was Isaiah, bishop of Rhodes, an ex-praefectum vigilum [commander of the watchmen] at Constantinople, and likewise the bishop from Diospolis in Thrace, named Alexander.”
In Justinian’s realm, no month was set aside to celebrate such behavior. Instead, Malalas continues, “in accordance with a sacred ordinance they were brought to Constantinople and were examined and condemned by Victor the city prefect, who punished them: he tortured Isaiah severely and exiled him and he amputated Alexander’s genitals and paraded him around on a litter.” Justinian did not disapprove of these harsh punishments, and actually seized the opportunity to institute a strong measure against pedophilia: “The emperor immediately decreed that those detected in pederasty should have their genitals amputated.”
Justinian’s wife, the Empress Theodora, also considered it part of her duties to support the public morals. Malalas records that she acted against human trafficking:
Brothel-keepers used to go about in every district on the lookout for poor men who had daughters and giving them, it is said, their oath and a few nomismata [the coins of the day], they used to take the girls as though under a contract; they used to make them into public prostitutes, dressing them up as their wretched lot required and, receiving from them the miserable price of their bodies, they forced them into prostitution. She ordered that all such brothel-keepers be arrested as a matter of urgency.=
There is more. Read the rest here.
tgusa says
And people say the Hunter is the degenerate crack head in the family.
You really should put up a content warning before you post a picture like that. That is a face that frightened a generation of kids.
deze MN bee says
Surely a President cannot and does not act as a normal human. A presidency is more like a Corporate Body and the committee-like decisions it makes are often paradoxically grotesque and against all common sense. In fact it was not long ago that you yourself, Robert Spencer, wrote an article which I (and I am sure many others) found very illuminating in the way it put a spotlight on the seemingly lemming-like rush of corporations to embrace the next craziest woke nonsense that the vast sane majority neither knows nor cares about.
Remember the Clock Boy. Hey that box with straggly wires going tick tick tick…is that a bomb? He ended up at the White House getting feted by Obama. It was obviously a fraud but the logical notions of true and false don’t seem matter at that political level.
More recently is the case of Sturgeon who a few months ago resigned as First Minister of the Scottish Parliament (yes Scotland is still part of the U.K. and there is no President because the Head of State is an unelected individual designated King Charles III whose mother was also unelected). Sturgeon’s resignation came shortly after the scandal of a Trans dude in a woman’s prison. The man was a twice-convicted rapist who found it convenient to declare he was a woman (actually a girl …pink tights, lots of pink). Sturgeon (a woman, not a mermaid, not a fish) was trying to drive the idea of de-facto self-proclamation of gender (which most people equate your sex at birth) through the Scottish Parliament and into law. That seems to be part of why she resigned. The British Parliament in London pulled rank and squashed it.
But this is another example of the mystery. Why did this “corporate body”, the Scottish Parliament, think that self-proclaimed trans dudes in schoolgirls bathrooms and changing rooms was the great sane emblem of a new Scottish Enlightenment when the sane vast majority of Scottish people thought that it belonged at the bottom of Loch Ness along with that other monster.
Yes, Robert Spencer’s article made some sense of these otherwise inexplicable phenomena but perhaps his next book could extend his ideas. Suggested title: Why Obama Made A Clock Of Himself. No? Okay….
PRCS says
Excellent post.
Thank you.
Westman says
When first reading the Bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah I could not imagine how any moral society could degenerate that far. Now I have observed it happen and the cause is, strangely, the personal security that comes with wealth, freedom, and the negation of consequences.
With time on their hands, a known meal tomorrow, and freedom from consequences, people can choose to serve others and protect society or serve themselves and their appetites. The West has an unprecedented ease of life that allows even those with evil intentions, like militant jihadists, to be on the dole while plotting the demise of their host nation.
We look at groups like the Amish who do real work, not paper shuffling, and observe their ability to maintain their standards for generations. Those who wish to ignore their standards are allowed to leave, that being the consequence.
The right of free speech is in our Constitution, however, a demand to accept it is not. The founders never envisioned that criticism of immoral behavior would be muzzled by government or that courts would denote orgiastic parades as “speech”. Government has helped turn too many youth into a swearing, immoral, tattooed, athiest, pierced with enough metal to attract lightning.
The surest way to ruin a child’s future is to give it everything it demands. The surest way to destroy a nation is raising sustained adolescents, accept their bad behavior, then have them teach the next generation, legislate the laws, and judge in the courts.
PRCS says
Other than the atheist reference, informative post.
Hoi Polloi says
“For Amish youth, the Rumspringa normally begins at age 16 and ends when a youth chooses either to be baptized in the Amish church or to leave the community.[3]: 10–11 For Wenger Mennonites, Rumspringa occurs mostly between ages of 17 and 21.”
This is a period when they are allowed greater freedom, concluding with an offered choice to remain or leave. Problematically, their education ends at 8th grade, which makes full function in the greater world more difficult and the choice to stay preferable. I’ve also read accounts of refusal to deal with sexual abuse in the community, exacerbated by the physically demanding way of life and consequent dependence on those who can provide.
SteveM says
It’s the old oligarchy billioanire trick. “let’s let you and him fight on the streets while we walk with all the marbles and mandate you buy solar, stripped out EVs, and 15min cities” I think they’ll take all our 401Ks too because we are not paying attention while looking over our shoulders for pervs and crimminals.
All this chaos from immigration to BLM to trans is makavelian divide and rule. Billionaires are immune to effects and getting richer. Grew wealth by 7 trillion in Covid alone.
SteveM says
Take Soros, agent of chaos. He also doubled he wealth in last 5 years despite paying for criminal loving DAs and many national democrats. The Davos elites are all like that. Europe too, despite populations resistance they are flooding Europe with Islm so blood runs in the streets. Ideal state for Soros et al.
Westman says
Sadly, Steve, you may be right.
In the next financial meltdown your 401(k), savings, CDs, etc, may be opted in, of, by, and for the government. It has already been discussed by the Fed banking system officials as a possible solution to save the banks, You will get a receipt, of course, and the government will pay it back right after the National Debt is retired – like never.
Hoi Polloi says
I have read that one of the weapons used to bring corporations into line on woke policies is pension fund issues. CALPERS, for example, remains underfunded.
Old Guy says
The end result will be a huge drop in the human population on earth. Most people today will not be able to survive a major collapse of the world economy and the destruction of the food chain. You might call it Back to the Dark Ages. Oh wait it’s now called The Great Reset. It has happened before and I don’t know what’s great about it.
SteveC says
And there is your mistake. Accepting the current shower of S**T in congress as ‘The Government’. We all know that is incorrect.