"The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ten Years After, 1943
“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them. In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples. So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity."
Lee Simmons, Stanford Business School
"A confident, aggressive delivery style - often larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases - makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others.
They are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial - but convincing - verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.
They are known for their ability to don many masks, change 'who they are' depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim. The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team."
Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits
"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."
G. M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary
“The greatest evil is not done now in sordid dens of crime. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices by quiet men, with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks, who do not need to raise their voice.”
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
"He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison
"This is how we know who are the children of God and who are the children of Satan: anyone who does not do what is good is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their neighbor."
1 John 3:10
The PPI came in less than forecast.
And that was enough to trigger a powerful counter-rally in stocks.
Otherwise known as a wash and rinse.
Gold and silver rallied strongly.
Gold bar sales are surging at Costco.
Spokesmodels and economists are baffled.
The Dollar chopped sideways.
Geopolitical risks continue on in a rolling boil.
They will continue to be ignored - until they can't.
It's a simple concept.
Stop provoking wars, stop murdering and oppressing the innocent.
Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.
"The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned...
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
What are we doing? Who are we becoming?
How will our children remember us?
And for what?
A bunch of power hungry human husks with empty souls and hardened hearts?
'All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.'
Have a pleasant evening.
