Rejoice in economic crashes [Phil 3]

I was watching the news last night and under “politics” there was a discussion of how interest rates may rise, and because NZ borrows capital and the NZ dollar is not a reserve currency, this means the banks may have to raise their interest rates. And how this will trump whatever the reserve bank does.

The narrative was that NZ is doing well and is low interest because we have a booming economy. Apart from dairy, which is struggling, and dairy debt is some 34 billion. The contradictions were in plain sight.

But there are still holiday homes selling for over a million dollars near the campground where I’m blogging. The bubble has not burst.

But we should consider what to do when it does. And the first thing is that we should praise God: the second is that we should continue to live righteously and do good.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

(Habakkuk 3:17-18 ESV)

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

(Philippians 3:12-21 ESV)

Why should we rejoice? Because a crash or correction reduces waste and minimises virtue signalling or other conspicuous corporate showmanship. Nic Cole writes a book in which aliens look at the Kardashian type reality show and decide that humans are too evil to allow to live. Good plot device: but he bought in a Kardashian type terminating a pregnancy from a one night stand as the last straw.

Book killed.

Contract gone. He’s now independent, selling on Amazon.

He sells. In bad times, editors hold their noses and let those who sell get published, because they need the income.

In bad times, you cut human resources to the bone and stop having diversity propaganda, for you do not want to be diverse. You want to be excellent.

And in bad times, you better tell the truth.

I am a writer.
A writer is often the last defense in a society collapsing into a one-mind totalitarian state where the rights of people are trodden upon by the ruling elite in the name of the “greater good.” Where freedom of speech and independent thinking are also curtailed in the name of the “greater good.” Where writers and other artists disappear either by blacklisting or “disappearing” because they say, or write, something that the intellectual elite hates. I am a writer. It is my job to stand up and say what cannot be said. It is my job to play with unpopular ideas. I would not deny anyone from doing so, and I expect not to be denied. I expect the same courtesy others are being extended. I expect not to be discriminated against merely because I am different. Better people than myself have written the truth at the cost of their lives. Many dead writers have paid for the freedom of others with the truth, and their lives. Writers are often the last flame of freedom on the flickering candle of civilization in the darkness of a world going mad.

There is often a vocal defense that Science Fiction editors do not have a liberal bias. Well, here’s your proof. They do. So you may not agree with me on the idea I advanced. But what happens the next time when some potentate decides they don’t like your idea? There is no place in publishing for this kind of Censorship. This is an issue, regardless of the idea, that affects all of us and our freedom.

What are we to do? We are to tell the truth about ourselves. We are to simplify. We are to ignore the 20 emails I will get today from companies I have traded with offering me sales. We are to be content. It is better that we do good.

And we are to let the elite live with their untruths: we can work around their censorship. We are to tell truth, and have honour. We are not to be as the elite, nor like them.