Never underestimate the powers in authority. Particularly when they lose. There is a context to this: Elijah had called down fire from heaven to consume a sodden sacrifice, that the priests of Ba’al could not do.
Elijah mocked them: he told them to call louder, perhaps Ba’al was out-of-town or stuck on the bog. Then when the people saw that there was a God in Israel, he ensure that no priest of Ba’al remained breathing.
This was mocked by the Petunia Jim Hines. To his detriment.
The man had a spine. But the power of the cuckold king was in the hands of his wife, and she decided it was time to rid this world of this unruly priest.
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:1-8 ESV)
Let us, as the spineless twerp in the White House says, be clear. There is an enemy, and it is not us. It is that which would make us gelded: not good, not righteous, for that requires that we use anger and hatred to motivate us to that which is better.
But fuel for their sense of entitlement and hypocrisy.
As I said, hypocrites
In a world where looking righteous is more important than doing good, making pure, socially-just art is preferred to, say, discussing the sex slaves of ISIS. Policing Twitter is more urgent than policing a neighbourhood. Superficially kind words and intentions replace genuinely kind acts. According to social justice, a savage world is fine, as long as our art, media, news and humour remain milquetoast.
It’s now clear that progressives, lecturing the rest of us on how we ought to live from their bully pulpits in the media, academia and the entertainment industry, are terrified of the internet and don’t want to know what we have to say. Well, tough. In 2016, it’s time for the counterculture to go to war. Over the past year, I’ve seen people from all over the world stand up and fight back against the authoritarian, censorious world being built around us.
From video games to reddit to college campuses, we’re beginning to realise that there are more of us than there are of them. Our YouTube videos get more views, our fundraisers smash their targets, our numbers on social media eclipse theirs. And by the way: we see your hypocrisy. Social justice is always a cover for something, as the endless queue of progressives who get busted for being sex pests or worse continues to grow.
We must stand for what is right and true. We must honour those who show courage, and those who capture beauty. The Stoics knew this: and all that is of good repute is from God.
But expect opposition. Because the powers of this time are evil: they have swallowed the poison of Jezebel and think force trumps the moral high ground.
For that, they will become one with the Soviet. Do not be with them or like them.