"You want to distance yourself to the degree possible from
conflict entrepreneurs. These are people or pundits or platforms that intentionally exploit conflict for their own ends. People who really delight in every twist and turn of the conflict. And right now we tend to amplify those voices. On social media and other places."
Amanda Ripley
"Dividers speak evil about things that are different, 'the other,' or which they do not understand. Like instinctive animals, they follow wherever their passions lead them, and so they bring about their destruction.
People like this are detractors and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They are loudly boastful and arrogant, bragging loudly about themselves, and flattering others to get what they want."
Jude 1:10-13,16
"I urge you, brothers and sisters, to be wary of those who cause divisions and undermine the faithful, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned. Avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord, but their own appetites and desires. And by clever words and flattery they deceive the hearts of many of the innocent and easily led."
Romans 16:17-18
"But avoid fruitless controversies, dissensions, and foolish quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. After a first and second warning, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes division and disputes, since you know that such a person has been warped into sin, and will condemn themselves."
Titus 3:9-11
"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty. As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or
blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving
smiles."
Simone Weil
Why do conflict entrepreneurs, and deceivers, and con men seem to flourish in times like these?
They offer simplicity, the fantasy of a cartoon like picture of the world, relieving their listeners of the burden of thinking and caring and loving.
They nurture feelings of powerlessness and confusion by portraying those on the edge of darkness as victims of 'the other.'
They fill the dull emptiness of hardened hearts with strong emotions like fear, hate and rage.
Those who cultivate hate and pride for their own purposes, and those who spread their hate and lies to others, will see a reckoning of sorrows, no matter how carelessly they approach their actions and their consequences now.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will reap.
Stocks managed to drift higher in the afternoon, going out near the highs.
Gold and silver were largely unchanged, with gold a little higher.
The dollar move to just below the 93 handle.
This market is edgy.
Have a pleasant evening.
