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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The previous section was the Gospel to the House of Israel.
This section is the Gospel to the Gentiles.
We also get to look at the first of the four Servant Songs.
But what I think is interesting is the identity of the Servant… there is more depth there than I originally supposed.

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Recent events have helped me understand the Book of Mormon better. That’s no surprise. Since the Book of Mormon is written for our day, it follows that living through the events the Book of Mormon was written for illuminates the Book of Mormon. Expect it to become clearer and clearer as time goes on.

The people repent and then fall apart remarkably fast in the Book of Mormon. How? Why? One answer is that repentance isn’t flipping a switch between righteous and wicked. Repentance is some collective embrace of something good even if the people on the whole have a bunch of wicked practices they still adhere to. In the same way, the turn to wickedness isn’t them going all black, its the population choosing some evil, while still otherwise mostly remaining the same including the good they already have. Life goes on. Even as they choose wickedness after wickedness, each step may not have obviously changed a great deal. They continue to marry and be given in marriage.

It’s not some insane step function

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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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This Christmas the JG is honoring forgotten Christmas traditions of yore that have unfairly fallen by the wayside.

Absent Calendars

This fun tradition is simple and easy. Simply remove your calendars. Voila! Instant cheer.

Dissing under the Missile Tow

This Christmas, make your way over to your local truck-hauled missile launcher (we suggest a HIMARS), sidle up to the hauler, and really let the illegitimi know what you think of them. Dis away in the fine old festive style.

While rap-battle disses are always appropriate, this year Shakespearean insults are trending. Give them a try.

But in any case, abide the custom, an ye be not a scapegrace poltroon!

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The Lovely One and I have been exploring the parallels between premortality—mortality—heaven, Eden—mortality—millennium, and childhood-adulthood-old age

She had an insight that surprised me. The very common desire to regress to Eden—the very common desire to regress to childhood—are both gnostic in that they are both deeply connected with a disgust with the body and the flesh. Sexuality and illness and fatigue and bodily functions and desires almost too strong for your spirit is what we were meant for. Going back is retreat. The way to salvation is through.

Flesh and blood, that is the way.

No more a stranger nor a guest, but like a child at home

I know what I want for Christmas and I know I can’t have it.

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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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It started out with me musing about teaching even young children about budgeting and maybe trade-offs.

Imagine a young mother sitting at a table doing some budgeting by a woodstove.  The clear sunlight of winter streams in through the window.  She’s doing it partly in paper and pencil so her children can see and experience her doing it.  Having them learn about budgeting is important to her.

She gets an idea.

She calls over her little girl.  The child is maybe 3 to 4, maybe even 5.  The mother takes out some wooden blocks of different colors and labels them, including maybe with little drawings.  She uses some long plain blocks to create a square.

“Here,” she said, “let’s play the the Big Person Game.”  The kid is excited.  The mother explains that the square is the money they have to spend each month, the blocks have to fit inside it.  Any blocks that cannot fit they cannot use.  Fitting blocks is something the child does, so she understands.  Then the mother lays down some blocks.  “Here’s paying for the house, here’s a block for the lights and the electricity, here’s a block for the car, here’s the basic food we need, here’s some clothes.”  Then, as the mother designed, she shows the child there is a little space left and shows the child some blocks that could fit into it.  Ice cream, maybe.  Toys.  A trip to the ocean.  Small things that are discretionary where letting the child have some say can do no harm and possibly good.

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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.

The virtue set is a tool that was originally intended to help understand virtues and vices.*

*Briefly, every virtue had a vice that is its opposite but also a vice that is a distortion of it. There is a second virtue that the vice that distorts the first virtue of the opposite of. The vice that is the opposite of the first virtue will be a distortion of the second.

Surprising me, it turns out the Virtue Set has some uses for goods and evils in general.

Let’s take the town mouse and the country mouse childhood experience for instance.  (more…)

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

We were talking here a bit ago about how odd it was for the Nephites to have the Three Nephites living among them, could have been their  neighbor down the street, and the Nephites just go about their ordinary lives sinning and repenting and dissenting.  While they are face to face with a living, talking miracle.  I made the point that it would be as if we still mostly had our Apostles the way we do, this guy graduated from the U and worked in business, this guy’s a surgeon, this guy the former commissioner of CES, but also there’s Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Hyrum, still rolling along, deathless immortals.

I bought a new copy of the Book of Mormon a year back. It’s from some publisher. Just the simple act of having the text in a slightly different format in a book that feels different in the hand made me see it with new eyes. Reading the Book of Mormon this year has been a real experience for me.

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