What follows is excerpted from
by John C. Wright
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This is what I call ‘the Unreality Principle’ which is the principle that a lie is better than the truth because to lie and to believe a lie proves one’s loyalty. To lie and believe lies is morally superior than to tell and believe the truth, and the more outrageous the lie, the greater the moral superiority one can award oneself.
The Chinese have an epigram for this, as they have for most things political and practical.
It is written this way: 指鹿為馬 (zhi lu wei ma). Literally translated, the four characters mean ‘point deer, make horse’.
The word 為 for ‘make’ also means ‘to transform’ or ‘to serve as’ or ‘to make believe.’ So the epigram means ‘Calling a deer a horse.’
As with all Chinese epigrams, there is a story behind it:
Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer and presented it to the Emperor but called it a horse. The Emperor laughed and said, “Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?” Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law and had them executed instantly.
(hat tip to https://bloodyshovel.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/the-purpose-of-absurdity/ quote is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Gao#Calling_a_deer_a_horse)
You see how the Unreality Principle works. Bringing in a pony and calling it a horse won’t do. Someone might honestly mistake a horse for a pony. Only lies that are breathtakingly stupid, things no sane person could say or believe, are sufficient to show where one’s loyalty rests.
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Leftism is a convenient way for postchristians to signal to the warren that they are virtuous: by screaming about imaginary danger, hunting witches, and ignoring real dangers, they show their utmost loyalty to unreality, and their absolute defiance of their enemy.
Their enemy is reality.
Their enemy is nature, is the cosmos, is the world, and the author whose hand created nature, the cosmos, and the world.
Why else would they be jealous of prayers directed toward heaven, and not at their idol? Why else such disdain? Why else such scorn?
We are at war. The Islamic terror masters, the Imams of Iran and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia is only the visible, open, violent arm of the enemy war machine. We have barbarians within the gates already, for years, who are not only within, but are our elite leaders, social and political.
The riots and commotions on our campuses, the Occupy Wallstreet movement, the Obama-inspired race riots and cop-killings, the disgusting treachery of our Supreme Court, and the flaccid laxity of our Congress, the corruption in the Justice Department and the IRS, and on and on, are the visible manifestations of an invisible war.
The invisible war is spiritual, and it is wages with principalities and powers, dominions and angels loyal to the Prince of this World and all his false glamours.
Prayer is your weapon in the invisible war just as bucks and ballots are your weapon in the culture war, and bombs and bullets your weapon in the shooting war.
The enemy wants to make it costly, eventually illegal, to use campaign contribution or votes to influence the culture. Hence the furor over campaign finance laws and voter ID laws.
The enemy wants you not to be carrying a firearm when a jihadist or the BATF shows up to shoot you and your loved ones. Hence after every mass shooting, there are more calls to disarm the victims even more.
Of course the enemy wants you not to pray. This is war. What did you expect?
