Flee from Babylon.

A lot of people accuse anyone who tries to correct another of being angry. It is not anger. It is akin to saying if you drop from 10m you will break something, or if you drive a car at 120 mph (200 kph) into a barrier the airbags will not save you.

Basic physics don’t care. Which is why the boffins would not put crash test dummies into a car crashing at those speeds.

It is not nice, nor merciful, to not warn. It is the loving thing to do. There is a place for quarantine: if you have a nasty virus (and I have one today) it is better for all to take a day off and not share such because you being away for one day causes less damage than all the workplace falling over with something infections.

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And there are consequences to holding onto hatred too hard. You cannot forgive, and you blind yourself from the gospel.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

(Matthew 5:21-26 ESV)

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

(1 Thessalonians 2:13-20 ESV)

What we are reaping now is the consequences of errors we have made, and instead of correcting them, we have doubled down. It is starting to affect not merely individuals, but populations. Our litigious anger is literally killing us. I should not need to add this, but in a population as large as the US and an event so easy to define as death, life expectancy is measured with considerable precision, and a drop of a thousandth would be significant.

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This unusual down-tick in life expectancy — from 81.2 to 81.1 years — is consistent with other research showing that drug overdoses, suicides and diseases related to smoking and heavy drinking are killing unprecedented numbers of white Americans, particularly women in mid-life.

“Taken by itself, it could just be a random fluctuation from one year to the next,” said Elizabeth Arias, a demographer with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. But the data, which was released Wednesday, also showed that Americans collectively have lost momentum when it comes to greater longevity. Life expectancy at birth has remained virtually stagnant for the nation since 2010.

Arias said another study by her agency, to be published soon, will document the sharp increase in suicides, alcoholism-related diseases and overdoses.

“Despite the positive influences of declines in heart disease and cancer and stroke, increases in other causes like suicide, chronic liver disease and unintentional poisonings were so large that they had a negative effect on life expectancy,” she said.

One of the reasons that one is not angry is that I know that I am part of my generation and I have the biases of my generation. I can look from the outside only so much. And I am quite aware of my own flaws and own difficulties. I find it hard to blame others when I know, but for Christ, I am equally guilty.

Which is the point Christ was trying to make. You may think you have nor murdered, but you have trolled. You have not assaulted; you have instead complained to the human rights commission and let the process be the punishment. You are polite, civilized, and hating.

And then you are surprised that others hate you. That GamerGate exists. That Trump has gained traction, and Brexit is likely, For the masses now hate the elite.

And if you are part of it, now is the time to separate from Babylon.

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