What did you get out of reading the Book of Mormon this year?  I’ll probably ask it again at the end of the year when we have more time to think about it.  That’s what we talked about in Sunday School.  It was very nice.

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Friends, its that time of year when you have a million happy bustling things to do and so, in fear that you might have a free moment, we post our Christmas page.  Please see above in the header bar.  May we suggest that you particularly check out Holiest Madness?

Merry Christmas!

I personally am grateful for any time you spend here with me this season, and don’t begrudge it at all if the time you have to spare for your JG friends is not as much as you would like.

Last Christmas I did a long episodic fairytale.  This Christmas I plan a short parable for each of the 12 Days of Christmas.

One idea that will drive conventional historians screaming from the room is that civilizations have cycles. A lot of Americans have heard of the Strauss and Howe ?? theory on generational cycles. Peter Turchin is an actual historian doing work on historical cycles that you may have also heard of (He’s an elite overproduction theorist with a quantitative focus).  Or maybe you’ve just seen the meme HARD MEN GOOD TIMES or Thomas Cole’s paintings on the Course of Empire.

But these are only the latest of many. From antiquity on, a number of independent thinkers from different starting points have hit on surprisingly similar versions of an overall civilizational cycle. There is a rise where the civilization is on a growth swing. The confident civ gets experimental with various cultural standards. The original unity is lost and there is quarrelling over the spoils. This goes on until the weakened civ goes under during a crisis.

The Book of Mormon has a pretty clear reflection of this cycle that its writers mostly seem to be unaware of. (This overall civilizational cycle is different from the pride cycle, which can occur at a much faster rate and on a much more local scale.)

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We already discovered that the rapid Nephite cycles of repentance and sin make more sense when you realize that repentance is not total righteousness and falling back into wickedness is not total depravity. Each one just represents a course change. Just like with individual people, a society that is objectively in a bad moral state could be described as repenting and worthy of blessings if it has recently rejected some evil and is trying to do better, whereas a society in quite a high moral state is still falling into wickedness if it has recently discarded some good thing or embraced some new evil thing.

If you looked back over your last few years, it would not surprise you at all if the chronicler of the Book of You described you as repenting and righteous one year and wicked the next. It would not surprise you if the Book of You described you that way on a monthly, a weekly, or even perhaps a daily basis. Not that you have been transfigured and not that you were depraved, but just that you have seasons of change for the better and seasons of change for the worse. (Let the first predominate. I.e, let God prevail.)

But how does applying a common-sense understanding of repentance to the Nephites explain the rapid changes in their prosperity and levels of conflict each time they make a spiritual change for the better or for the worse? Is God just putting a thumb on the scales? (more…)

Sorry.  We are really quite sorry.  Sorry, sorry.

On Christmas morn

a mouse forlorn

At 12 it could speak

But now just a squeak

That hymn moves me greatly. When the choir sung in General Conference this last time I was rapt. I had a sort of a reverie or daydream.

There is a vast, corrupt empire. There is a little frontier war being fought. The center of the Empire hardly cares, but it is a desperate struggle for the ones fighting it. Their foe, a people of tribes and villages, is outnumbered but deadly. And of course in the way of things in a vast corrupt Empire, their strength isn’t being brought to bear. Funds and men are frittered away, bizarre orders are given, competent leaders seemingly reassigned at random.

But the Empire soldiers are far enough away and left enough to their own devices that over time they develop their own identity and even something like elan. Perhaps the single biggest factor is the enemy’s battle song. It is not a fierce song.  It is unspeakably sweet.  It is a song of the tragedy and glory of the fighting both sides do, and of respect for all who stand and fight in spite of fears. It points to something greater than this fight or even this war.  The song includes the Empire soldiers. They are greatly moved by it. They have a higher conception of who they are because of it. They act with greater valor, but also with greater kindness to their foe. They respect their foe. Unlike in every other imperial campaign, they don’t commit atrocities or tortures or brutalities. Even though they are engaged in a campaign of naked conquest for a nasty imperial center, in some ways the struggle has become noble on both sides.

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I have recently been very interested in a young historian, Rudyard Lynch (WhatIfAltHist) who is making some bold claims about pending war in the United States and in the World at large. Of course, we are not so much in the “loot the treasury” stage of imperial decline as we are in the “burn the treasury down” stage. Truthfully, considering Isaiah 19, I would not be surprised if an economic collapse were not initiated partly to styme and discredit Trump and MAGA.

I have listened to quite a bit of what he says and I don’t have a lot of objections. I was already aware of people like Peter Turchin who also predicted similar things. I expect he is likely correct about war (not condoning) and the only thing currently preventing it is too many young men and women enervated and numbed with porn.

This is an interesting topic, though I do wish he would spend a bit more time on things like the next Great Awakening or how this could usher in a new Axial Age.

But my real objections are not that he predicts war, but that he predicts Right or Left will win. While I think the Left will decline, he presupposes there will be a winner.

There is no sense in talking about how we need God, while ignoring the words of the prophets (regardless of whatever denomination or even religion you are).

So what have prophets said?

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The word comprehend has two  meanings.  You can only comprehend Christ’s message in one of those meanings.

You can’t understand the  message.  You can only become the  message.

I typically avoid, strenuously avoid, discussion on the Mark of the Beast. This is a topic that brings out the crazies. I say this as someone who reads up on UFOs and a multitude of fringe topics.  Still, this one deeply resonates with me and I can’t easily forget it.

And of course, all the standard caveats about dreams and inspiration given to others.
So, a lady has an accident and Near Death Experience. She has a conversation with the Savior about the Mark of the Best. It was interesting how it was described as a solution to several problems, all very reasonable and the next big thing in tech. But what really struck me, was the counsel the Savior gave, both temporal and spiritual. He gave it in three sets.

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https://x.com/BradWilcoxIFS/status/1861412587704881386#m

https://nitter.poast.org/BradWilcoxIFS/status/1861412587704881386#m

Seventy percent of children in intact, stable families is low by the standards that prevailed within living memory, but when you look at how the gentiles are doing… Oof.

We need better gentiles. We live way below our privileges, content with mediocrity and failure, because the gentiles are doing so much worse.

I have too many irons in the fire to give the virtue set theory the reach that it deserves. And in case I lack the intellectual marketing chops (Intellectual marketing is real.)

Too bad because it’s a useful cluster of tools even for ordinary people who are not inclined to abstraction or knowledge for its own sake.

For those of us who are infinitely curious of course we can use it to shake insights loose and that’s valuable to is. For everybody else I see two main uses of The Virtue set. (more…)

Overheard from some very young people:

-Elon Musk probably doesn’t even know who my ancestors are

-You shouldn’t assume the worst about people, that’s not nice

Stop by on Thanksgiving.  We have something a little special that we think you will like.  It’s a short little three-minute read which we hope you will agree made your Thanksgiving better.

If you share it with your family and friends, feel free to claim it as your own unless they don’t like it.

Sunday School was split into two halves. The first half was Mormon 9:7-11, 16-25, on miracles and revelation. The second half was on the Brother of Jared’s stones. But we never got to the second half.

After Capital God and other discussion, we ended with Moroni 9:25

And whosoever shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him will I confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth.

A missionary fresh to the field raised his hand, bravely it turns out.

So what if, he said, you do have doubts? I grew up in rural Idaho where every one is LDS. This is the first time I’m with people who are challenging me.

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