Introduction
This article will argue that we have left the age of reason and entered the age of indulgence. It will look at the root causes. It will explore how the effects of this have damaged society and how it is getting worse.
Indulgence is a fundamental theme and a major building block that goes to so much of what is wrong with modern society. It is a rallying cry against the forces of authoritarianism where arguments can be framed to our advantage, instead of defending ourselves against their wrong-headed ideals. Unless we win this battleground (and the MSM will ignore as much as possible) it will be very difficult to gain much traction among the general populace. Already indulgence is so ingrained there are probably very few of us that still believe we can survive standing on our own feet, let alone thrive.
Standing on our own two feet doesn’t mean living without a support structure. It means the support structure evolves naturally to help rather than interfere. There is a massive natural support structure to tap, far bigger than authoritarianism can provide.
A successful political movement for us needs to have a strong moral background underpinning it, rather than offering gifts. Not requiring gifts and being a net contributor to society has to be seen as morally superior.
Although this is an article in its own right, it is also partly a prequel to a series on the Seven Deadly Sins which I have in mind, and trying to flesh out. It looks at the need for us to exercise self-control, and for that to be seen as a thing again to admire, not to denigrate as an almost autistic trait. That by exercising self-control you are more human, not less. That being less human by controlling oneself is the protest of those that cannot exercise hardly any self-control at all.
I will then look at religion and how it confuses good things in one’s self but indulges those around us.
And finally thoughts on using this as a weapon against siren calls of easy living. And the way to be emotive about it, as rational on its own, always loses to emotional diarrhoea.
I will refer to socialists as an umbrella term for authoritarianism rather than left and right. As most on here know, left and right in this country are deeply socialist by historical standards.
Socialism goes to infantilization, and then on to Wokism
The problem with Indulgence starts with people wanting to be good virtuous persons. People look at simplistic actions rather than deeper thinking. Unaware that the kindness causes more pain long term.
People also want a comfort blanket away from the harsh natural world – and if told they don’t have to pay for it, then they have nothing to lose. Before the welfare state, unions would provide the blanket, but at a cost, very similar to insurance. They had to operate in the real world of what was possible. Non-union members could get similar through friendly societies. To get help when needed, of very scarce resources, you had to show you were worthy of the help. Even so, in Victorian times it was noted that those that were made to sort themselves out the hard way were soon on their feet again, whereas those given charity generally became hooked on it and their behaviour became surly and demanding, much like a spoilt child. In essence it changed their mindset. It is the mindset that becomes the problem and leads to changed behaviour. And this is the mindset now instilled in a big chunk of the population.
Socialism fails economically as it doesn’t cost for the marketplace. Also decision-making is systematically discouraged.
There are morals behind socialism – wrongheaded ones yes, but they are there nevertheless. It is the moral crusade behind it that has led to it overrunning our institutions. They genuinely believe they are helping. We are being destroyed by stupidity rather than any sinister intent.
What are these morals and why are they wrong?
These are the lauded ideals of the socialists.
- The need to be good and work together for a better society.
- Those that fail shouldn’t suffer for it
- Stop having to think for themselves
- No cost to lack of self-control
The socialist needs to change things through power. They have a negative view of the status quo. They only see things that are wrong, hateful even and they need to mobilise against it – the freedom people know not to meddle, they find and focus on things to love rather than hate. And it is this trait that has allowed the socialists to march through our institutions.
Your worth is judged on how you help others, whatever the cost. Better you share food and all starve than ensure at least your own family survives.
Removal of boundaries and running away from distress & failure as they are considered harmful and not character building is another one. This indulgence simply leads to a lack of discipline.
Forgiveness now means letting someone get away with any wrongdoing, there being no consequences as long as the person is contrite. Unless it is a hate issue, then forgiveness will never be given.
Forgiveness used to mean, when wronged, putting it behind you and moving on, or to put it another way, not going out for revenge. An important part of that was that justice has to be seen to be done!
Equality of outcomes is another biggie. They believe that everyone should end up as well off as everyone else regardless of hard work and ability. It is too obvious to need pointing out the disaster that that creates – it has been better written about elsewhere.
How indulgence has fed through into society
Indulgence by avoiding hard facts and learning to cope with adversity now permeates through most people’s lives. There are now few alive that remember the time before the welfare state.
Indulgence in children
Children mollycoddled – what happens
Children aren’t given a chance, parents are too preoccupied with screens to give them the attention they require. They do not even play together but watch screens too.
Adults that are too soft and afraid to stand up to their little darlings. The children grow up, undisciplined, rowdy. No boundaries. Unable to develop emotions and, unable to continue in the face of adversity and persevere. Also necessary to watch parents doing exactly that, as they learn from what they see of their peers, not from what they are told.
Leads to a need to be better brought up – to learn to cope and only channel emotions where needed.
Parents now are even on the lookout for their children being trans as toddlers and full of anxiety about how to deal with it when it duly appears!
At school – all must have prizes. All must have the same qualifications. Children that would prosper learning a craft or trade are imprisoned and told to value emotion and to fear the big wide world, and their futures. We used to shelter children from the worst excesses of those things.
Indulgence in the workplace
On the one hand workers mollycoddled. Cannot be told their work isn’t good enough. Put on improvement plans.
On the other hand companies are authoritarian and face having to be virtuous rather than merely honest. Companies feel the need to intrude on employees’ private lives, because indulged people cannot separate the two. If an employee is not seen to live a virtuous life in the eyes of the general population then the company is seen as damaged. This is very dangerous, especially as it has moved from the bounds of the criminal to the political. And you are effectively representing the company values outside of work hours. This needs to be legislated against. Regardless of what they have done, if society is to function, once you have paid your dues (end of life for some, therefore for those the issue is mute), people must be allowed to carry on their life unhindered. People cannot be allowed to get away with bullying companies into fashionable values.
All quotas must be abolished. If a company doesn’t want to employ the best for the job, it is their loss. Very few larger companies would do anything discriminatory now.
Indulgence in the private life
We are now entertained, rather than living. We seek pleasure rather than happiness – the author has certainly lived his life somewhat more along these lines than is maybe good for society – and I’m very much on the restrained side of the population.
Seen as natural and exciting, living in the moment is all the rage. Take on debt, so as a consequence, enslaved.
People rent rather than buy, so little to no jobs are done around the house or for pleasure. Very little DIY.
Fast food rather than cooking from scratch is the norm for many.
No budgeting, therefore living beyond means. Again living lives where choice is restricted as debts need to be worked off.
Unsafe sex is an unusual one. Screens have meant less experimentation and fewer teen births, but sex is now a hobby or something to have recreationally rather than within the confines of marriage. And from those women I’ve spoken to, it doesn’t seem to make them any happier in life.
Mind closed down. No longer thinking, everything is done for them. It frees up a lot of time, but for most, it is spent on vegetating. Even the news tells them what to think, never challenges people to think of different opinions, other than degrees of socialism, of course.
They are offended at any perceived slight, unable to deal with it. With braindead mobs piling in. If you can find it, look up on YouTube, Kenneth Williams on Parkie, with a union boss discussing how one should approach life. Then see how well ordinary people in the audience were able to articulate points. These were not party faithful placemen told what to say. Nor did it turn into a baying mob, the crowd took on board what was said and considered it. Now try to watch Question Time!
Music is all self-absorbed and maudling. All about anxiety, being understood and respected and dealing with breakups. No Madness, no Abba, no Queen, or Bowie for this generation. Yes each generation needs its own music and I appreciate my time was somewhere within Phil, the ex-test manager’s catalogue, but I don’t think modern music (at the moment) is a touch on what went before.
We try to sort out criminals’ lives at great expense, rather than leave them to sort themselves out.
Nice instead of good
People now want visible expressions to show they are loved and that their values are valid as their truth, however far removed from reality these views may well be. Looking to be respected regardless and knowing within yourself that you have value is seen as uptight.
Need for self-control – and how this relates to indulgence
To achieve in life the need for the following is well understood
- Ability to grow from adversity and to deal with disappointment.
- Sportsmen learn to control emotions and keep a level head when the pressure is on.
- Artists learn to channel emotions.
- Survivalists will say that irrational/emotional decisions cost lives.
- Armies need discipline, otherwise you are going to be on the losing side.
Being in control is to be human/civilised, it is what separates us from animals. It is what has enabled us to live peacefully together, and then enjoy manufactured goods and services, high art, and care in old age.
Violence is not uncivilised. Uncontrolled violence is to be an animal. Pacifism is seen as a higher virtue and, especially by the modern Christian church. It is just the route to extinction. This is why physical punishment is perfectly valid for criminals.
Knock-on effects
Indirectly indulging people rather than making them face reality has brought about many knock-on effects.
People that can no longer think for themselves, end up being enslaved. And that is what is happening now. I personally believe covid was a cock up in a lab in Wuhan. However, the lessons learned in population control are now being used by a common purpose movement (and maybe the ‘ruling elites/WEF’) to force us all into the lives they think we should be living.
So covid (and the jabs), Russia, climate, diet (eat bugs) etc are being pushed onto us despite easily refutable science and understanding of the real world.
Companies now monitor your social media and will sack you if they claim your private life brings them into disrepute. On both sides, the company and their customers, a private life should have no bearing on the reputation of a company. In past times an emotional mob would have great difficulty bullying a company over their employees. I recognise in some cases it is partly because we do not believe the justice system serves us well, but it is the justice system that needs the change.
Digital currencies, like the internet, are no longer our way to independence of way of life. Government has now worked out how to control both. They now censor the internet effectively for most people, and their version of digital currencies will enforce behaviours on people at the expense of penury otherwise. An indulged population, used to all being done for them, will go along with it.
Skill, craftsmanship and design are no longer appreciated, especially subtlety/delicacy. It is all about more and bigger, tackier, crasser. I long for fine turnings on furniture, sturdiness, longevity. Most is squared and nailed together and falls apart quickly. All a knock-on effect from indulgent living.
Comedy is another casualty. The quiet gentleman is mocked as dull, naff, boring. Chasing younger members of the opposite sex and making fools of themselves, is now in your face and graphic with little clever innuendo. All too lazy. Satire has become nasty, slagging off of anyone that isn’t of the correct political flavour of the moment.
Veganism is another knock-on effect that goes hand in hand with indulgence. When describing vegans as sheep, it is very much correct; low brain function, panicking and being frit of anything and everything, while the hunter relaxes, reflects, and calculates. To be a sheep you only need to know how to eat grass and run faster than the sheep next to you – it doesn’t take much intelligence. Working out how to catch a sheep takes planning, several steps of thinking, and often cooperation.
Asceticism!
Science has all but disproved God, but has also taken moral teaching away with the loss of it. And the harm done to society by it mustn’t be underestimated. Religion has always been about socialism to others, but was moral fibre to one’s self. At its best, it was also a way of keeping rulers from turning their populations into slaves.
Now Christianity has unapologetically lost its intellect. It follows the same siren voices calling its laity to be anxious and fearful. But allows for no effort to be a better person to oneself. And it is perverse in the notion that as the church has expected less of its flock in an attempt to hold onto numbers, Sunday attendances keep falling. Islam still has its moral fibre as demonstrated when modern sex education was attempted in Muslim majority schools, it is going from strength to strength.
There is a need to look at what makes people as happy as a situation can allow. The sad thing is that it was probably all worked out before the invention of writing and carried for thousands of years through local customs. And has been lost within a little more than a hundred. I think looking towards the Stoics is a good place to start especially if you are not expecting a reward in a future life, for a life lived well now.
How to fight back
Short answer is I haven’t got a clue.
Hayak said that the ballot box wasn’t the answer. The IEA was born out of his book, The Road to Serfdom. Their intention to win the arguments among the intellectuals. At best they won the odd battle. Mostly they have been brushed aside.
A break away from the Tories will not get the airtime and make fair arguments, and will be pilloried by almost the whole of the MSM. Those that watch GB News are in such a minority that they can be ‘almost’ ignored. Watched and allowed, to keep us happy until we get traction, at which point, the presenters are snubbed out.
The minor parties have it very difficult anyway. I don’t think being fragmented makes much difference. It will need famous faces and a viral movement starting from minor social media platforms and then somehow exploding around some cause before the MSM and big parties can deny them the oxygen of publicity. Even then they will claim to take on board popular policies and most will end up voting for what they know. Brexit is the perfect example, green policies another.
Another way may be for like-minded people to live together in communities. Then try to argue for being outside of the main state. Some hope – it would mean leaving for lands new, and there aren’t (m)any. And the WEF wouldn’t like people showing how to live prosperous happy lives without their enlightenment. The IOM has been mentioned and I have looked quickly at properties. Possibly doable, but we would be invaders ourselves then, and the locals may not like it.
Maybe we can incorporate ideas within ourselves as a movement, slowly expanding over time, until a critical number is reached. The socialists played the long game and they have just about won.
In the meantime – we must stop defending ourselves based on their values. Don’t claim to be nice despite how it looks. Tell them they are nasty and immoral and you don’t care what they think of us. They rely on our shame to control us. A good example is this. On GB News recently, when Nige suggested that a ULEZ protester is being called far right, his response was to say he had a few German relatives. I think that was the right sort of riposte. Laugh it off as ridiculous – stop defending ourselves against their values because at that point we have lost the emotional game, which is more important than the rational one.
Leading on from that, how many of us are held back from airing our views to protect our families? This is another area that needs a workaround – but heaven knows how.
There are diverse groups around along many similar themes and they need to come together with one message, which will mean working for a few views we consider wrong and doing our best to faithfully implement these policies if power is ever obtained.
On the one positive side, there are still a lot of us out there and it probably is still possible to fight for our way of life.
Conclusion – Round up
This is the article that replaced a book review of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I think she got it right that we would all be sunk by stupidity. The problem was that the review would have been a book in itself.
I have therefore written this from a different standpoint. It is sort of being discussed in its different parts in the fringe media. I think it needs to be tied together and this is my attempt.
We cannot fight it directly, at least not in the short term. Maybe people can bang their heads together and come up with a long-term plan to move forward.
Literally within our lifetimes we have seen profound changes in our way of being, for the worse, and the direction is accelerating. We need to start organising now and find a way for normal people to engage, not just us eccentrics.
Finally, I loved a phrase in one of Claudio’s recent articles. We are living in a system of personal responsibility redistribution – maybe I should have tailored the article to that phrase, rather than using the word indulgence.
Finally, finally. Ayn Rand has held me up for months. It is time for me to be good to this article and start reaching out and participating in a few areas, see where it leads…
© Jerry Mandarin 2023
