Monday, April 3, 2023

"The Fourth Turning Tipping Point"

"The Fourth Turning Tipping Point"
by Jeff Thomas

"A Fourth Turning is a period in history when all the negative developments over a four-generation period reach a crescendo – a time when the sociopaths are the rulers and are putting the squeeze on the populace. In addition to an effort to institute totalitarian rule, symptoms include the breakdown of both morality and logic. Black is white; up is down. Confusion and chaos increase in both frequency and magnitude as the Fourth Turning advances.

Those of a libertarian mindset tend to be especially sensitive to and cognizant of these symptoms as they unfold. Since a classic Fourth Turning takes place over roughly twenty years, by the time the halfway mark is reached and the symptoms are peaking, it may appear that "It just keeps getting worse. Won't people ever wake up and understand that this is crazy?" Well, historically, the answer has always been "Yes."

There's always a turning point, even if it seems that it's not only a long time coming but that there's no level of oppression that won't be tolerated by the masses. The reason for this is that a Fourth Turning is made possible by complacency. Although there has been a deterioration in self-reliance and reasoning for three generations, a population does not become truly complacent until the latter stages. The deeper the complacency, the greater the oppression by leaders.

Interestingly, complacency is at its greatest in populations where there previously was the greatest prosperity. Therefore, in the present Fourth Turning, the countries that have been most dramatically impacted have been those that had previously been the most prosperous.

Not surprising, then, that the level of governmental controls and, indeed, the oppression of social wokeness is now most extreme in the US, UK, Canada, EU, etc., as, since the last Fourth Turning in the 1940s, they have been the world's leaders in prosperity. In Second and Third World countries, the level of oppression – and the chaos and confusion that go with it - has been significantly less.

So, if we are to see a turning point, when will it be, and what will cause it? Historically, there is generally both a political turning point and a social one. They're not always concurrent, and that's the case this time around.

In February of 2022, the US placed sanctions on Russia as a result of the Ukraine war. This was predictable. However, the US concurrently confiscated the private property of Russian citizens. At the time, this didn't get a lot of publicity in the West, but I believed that, in retrospect, it would be seen as the political turning point. The reason is that most of the countries in the world do not see themselves as world powers. They see themselves as countries that are continually impacted by world powers.

As such, they try to cooperate with the big boys and suffer as little as possible from what the big boys do.For them, the announcement by the US was a direct threat: "Omigod, if they confiscated assets of the Russian people, they could do the same to us." This generated a quiet move away from US influence. Representatives of many countries started to travel to Moscow and Beijing to form new alliances, new trade agreements, and new loyalties to replace the ever-riskier relationship with the US.

Such changes don't happen overnight, but in the last year, we've seen moves away from the petrodollar, the US reserve currency, and increased applications to join the BRICS. Recently, Malaysia became the first country to announce that its preparation to step away from the US is now complete, and they are formally distancing itself from the US. This trend will expand over the coming year as more countries "come out" in their intention – a trend that will serve both to isolate the US and to increase the collective strength of the BRICS.

But what of that other concern – the social tipping point? Again, complacency is the overriding stumbling block. In recent years, conservative thinkers have become more and more irate over socialistic notions and, particularly, wokeism. The overreach of Black Lives Matter, climate change, LGBTQ rights, presumed white privilege, and vaccine mandates have become increasingly dominant and seemingly unending.

But recently, there have been cracks in what seemed to be a developing permanence of wokeism. To wit:

o Stanford Law School students drove out a conservative speaker, with angry insults, with students even calling for his daughters to be raped. The moderating Administrator added to the fire, denouncing the speaker as he left. But, in a surprise move, the otherwise liberal Dean suspended the Administrator and announced that all students would be required to attend training on "freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession."

o Ana Kasparian of the left-wing "Young Turks" broke with her peers to state, in no uncertain terms, that "I'm a woman. Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, a birthing person, or a person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is?"

o Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer, has become extremely popular with young men and boys due to his presentation as ultra-masculine. His followers comment that Tate represents "everything about their nature that they've been forced to suppress."

This is just a sampling of an increasing surprise reversal of the woke trend. And the key to it is that it has not emanated from the conservative side; it's coming from liberals themselves. Essentially, what we're seeing is the effects of overload – those who previously supported wokeism… until it had taken over their lives. A breaking point is being reached in increasing numbers of liberals as wokeism is simply becoming intolerable.

So, what does this mean for the future? Is the globalist push nearing an end? No, unfortunately, even if it is to be defeated, it still has years to go. And the worst is yet to come. But the pushback is now quietly underway for the first time. Is wokeism a dead duck? Hardly. But we may be witnessing the turning point – the point at which the narrative becomes intolerable to increasing numbers of people, and the tide turns.

To be sure, leaders never tire of the rhetoric that they create. But sooner or later, their minions - those who are pushing their propaganda - get a bellyful and move on. This doesn't happen overnight, but we may be reaching a turning point when it begins to lose its appeal to the very people who are spouting it."

"Demise Of The Petrodollar Means War. Crude And Energy Prices Surge"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/3/23
"Demise Of The Petrodollar Means War. 
Crude And Energy Prices Surge"
Comments here:

"The Universal And Inevitable Excuse...

“The acceptance of ambiguity implies more than the commonplace understanding that some good things and some bad things happen to us. It means that we know that good and evil are inextricably intermixed in human affairs; that they contain, and sometimes embrace, their opposites; that success may involve failure of a different kind, and failure may be a kind of triumph.”
- Sydney J. Harris

And, of course, the universal and inevitable excuse…
“A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably
excuses himself to himself by saying, “I’m only human, after all.”
- Sydney J. Harris

I've always wondered...
Everyone says “Only human…” compared to what?
Full screen recommended.

Bill Bonner, "Cats on Fire"

"Cats on Fire"
Negative rates, fake prosperity and injustice for all...
by Bill Bonner 

"Why do fools fall in love?
Why do birds sing so gay,
And lovers await the break of day,
Why do they fall in love?"
~ Frankie Lymon

San Martin, Argentina - "Our guiding premise here at Bonner Private Research is that we are all fools. We do things that we can’t explain, governed by forces we didn’t create. So too are there basic ‘laws’ and ‘rules’ in our financial lives. We didn’t invent them; we can’t change them…and we ignore them at our peril. You can’t borrow your way to wealth, for example. Neither can you ‘print’ money and expect to get rich. To the contrary, the more you print…the more you distort and corrupt the real economy. You can ‘break the rules.’ But there’s a price. And someone will pay. What follows is another way to think about it…and discover who.

Some people succeed in life by doing extraordinary things. They strike oil. They build a home computer. They conquer England. But most of us ‘win’ by not losing. That is, we follow the rules. We fall in love. We get married. And then, in our 50s, we don’t run off with the fetching cocktail waitress! We stick to the program. We don’t steal from the church collection plate. We don’t invest all our savings in a kooky crypto. We don’t set the neighbor’s cat on fire. And if we’re lucky, things turn out all right. The feds, meanwhile, think they can get away with anything. And in important matters – war and finance – they are largely right. It’s not their money…and other people die in their wars. 

Who Pays? And now, after more than 10 years of phony negative-rate lending…and more than $8 trillion new dollars ‘printed’ since 1999…creating trillions in fake prosperity and $90 trillion of real debt…somebody is going to pay for this nonsense. But who? How? The feds? The deciders? People with Ph.Ds or accounts with Goldman Sachs?

The following news item gives us a hint: "WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday blocked a bid to fast-track a ban of popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which more than 150 million Americans use, citing concerns about free speech and uneven treatment of social media companies. "I think we should beware of those who use fear to coax Americans to relinquish our liberties," Paul said on the Senate floor. "Every accusation of data gathering that has been attributed to TikTok could also be attributed to domestic big tech companies."

When you’re among the ruling elites…and you’ve lost every war for the last 70 years…you’ve cut the nation’s GDP growth rate in half…made the common people’s lives more difficult by approximately doubling the amount of time they have to work to afford an average house…and added $50 trillion in excess debt…including $31 trillion in government debt (no one is very sure what the money bought)…every new thing is a threat. Every mob has a rope in its hand. Every market trend threatens to turn you into a pauper. And every entrepreneur may put you out of business.

So what do you do? You treat every challenge as an opportunity to grab more power and money from the public. Ban TikTok. Stop the Russians in the Ukraine…the Chinese in the Taiwan Strait…the White Supremacists in Tennessee. And don’t forget to save the banks.

Neither Russia nor China has done anything that the US hasn’t done. The US invaded Iraq. Russia invaded the Ukraine. TikTok gathers info from its customers. So does Apple, Google, Meta…etc. etc. And banks? Zombie companies? Reckless investors? All should be allowed to go broke. But the mind of a hegemon is not driven by need. It is driven by the desire to keep things as they are. Its rules are those it makes for itself. And somebody pays. No surprise, the deciders will decide that it shouldn’t be them."

"How It Really Is"

 

Jim Kunstler, "How’s That War Going?"

"How’s That War Going?"
By Jim Kunstler

“The American press, once the guardian of democracy, was hollowed out to the point that it could be worn like a hand puppet by the U.S. security agencies and party operatives…Disinformation is both the name of the crime and the means of covering it up; a weapon that doubles as a disguise.” - Jacob Siegel

"How’s the war going? Huh? Do you mean the war over in Ukraine? Or the US government’s war against its own people?

Well, the first one, the Ukraine War, is mostly destroying Europe - though, apparently, they haven’t figured that out yet. Europe’s industrial economy is toast without affordable Russian natgas. We turned off their pipeline for that in September and nobody in Europe objected. They just sucked it up and went back to smoking cigarettes at their café tables. A year or so from now, nobody in Europe will have enough money for a cappuccino (or cigarettes) and maybe then they’ll start asking the mental mollusks who run things there some questions - if they don’t just leapfrog all that politesse and burn the joint down.

The main thing about the Ukraine War is that the US doesn’t want it to end. You understand, it is not about any airy-fairy principles such as freedom for Ukraine. It’s about antagonizing Russia no matter how many dead Ukrainians it takes, because US officials developed a delusional psychosis about Russia after years of using it to mind-f*ck American citizens, and we have to justify that antagonism by pretending we have vested interests in Ukraine, which we don’t, by the way.

So far, everything we’ve done to promote the conflict has backfired on Western Civ. Most of the rest of the world recognizes that the US has gone insane and they are taking careful steps to decouple from us - mainly to stop using our money for international trade. Really, would you want to have anything to do with a crazy person? No, you’d put as much distance between you and him as possible and stop even trying to communicate. If the world stops using the dollar in trade, the dollar will lose value, and so will the trillions in US bond paper held by other countries, which said countries will seek to unload as quickly as possible. Can you spell sovereign debt crisis? Look out below….

Americans, apparently, are not emotionally exercised over the Ukraine War because we don’t have any troops coming home from there in body-bags (not yet, at least). Many have probably noticed that we’ve blown over $100-billion on the project, and, along with the aforementioned debt crisis, that might just plant a seed of resentment as prices in the supermarkets and at the gas pumps shoot up and the mass job layoffs surge, and the re-po man comes a’knocking, and more banks wobble.

Of course, our Ukraine War project (based on the mind-game Why-Don’t-You-and-Him-Fight) could end pretty suddenly if, as rumored, Ukraine runs out of cannon fodder and artillery shells (despite all our assistance). And then what? You’re left with “Joe Biden” looking like history’s all-time champeen loser, and watch out in the Taiwan Strait, where the US Pacific Fleet could get transformed into the world’s biggest set of floating ashtrays….

You get the picture? Now how about that other war: our government’s war against us? What canny reporters (Taibbi, Schellenberger) are calling the Censorship Industrial Complex has been pretty well outed. Everybody knows that the FBI, CIA, DHS, and many other agencies, via hijacked social media, have worked tirelessly to confound and bamboozle the public debate about, really, everything that matters. The odd part is that roughly half of America doesn’t seem to care. Of course, that is the same half of the country that has fallen in love with surveillance, censorship, political prosecutions, election monkey business, mandated mRNA shots, and other excursions into bad faith. Their auditors in the mainstream news media actually seem to relish their roles as enforcers of unreality.

This degenerate wickedness has been escalating since one Donald Trump stepped onstage years ago. The “Joe Biden” regime affects to have trapped him finally in the lair of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Now the game gets interesting. Since the charges are the sheerest vapor, the actual aim of this prosecution, as Tom Luongo and Martin Armstrong point out, is to goad Mr. Trump into a civil contempt citation that will allow the New York authorities to lock him up. The judge in the case will impose a gag order on Mr. Trump speaking out about the proceedings against him, and when he opens his yap - as he is certain to do - they’ll throw a net around him and drag him off to the hoosegow, and keep try to him there indefinitely, as they kept the Jan 6 suspects in the DC jail. That is, if the Bragg operation in New York City can extract the former president from the state of Florida, which may not be so easy, now that Governor DeSantis has indicated a disinclination to allow it.

As to the case itself, a judge with any self-respect would toss it in a pre-trial hearing like a six-day-dead carp at the slightest prompting by a defense attorney - based, as it is, on multiple specious novelties of criminal law, not to mention being outside the statute of limitations. If it can actually get to trial, the prosecution will be a jurisprudential joke for the ages. If they get a Big Apple jury to go along with the joke, it will be short-listed through the appeals process clean up to the Supreme Court in a New York minute.

And if that whole thing falls apart like the janky jenga tower it is, there are two other cases in the wings - the bullshit case in Fulton County, Georgia, where the grand jury process was already compromised by a jury fore-person, self-identified as a “witch, shooting her mouth off to the press"; and the operation out of the DC Federal District run by one Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago classified papers matter - another loser case, considering all the other high officials currently entangled in similar complaints, as yet unmolested by any official charges.

Sound like a plan? Yes, it sounds like a plan to foment a civil war. Especially considering all the other crap our country is being subjected to by a bureaucracy-gone-wild, the regime fronting for it, and its legions of mentally ill useful idiots disturbing the peace all over the land. Probably more than half of the people in our country realize that the legal system has been hijacked by the same rogues who infiltrated social media and the state boards of election. They are getting good and goddam sick of it, along with all the mental twerkery around transgenderism, race hustling, climate change, and Ukraine. I’m sure it means we’re in for a thrilling spring and summer."

"On A Rainy Day On The Streets of Philadelphia"

Full screen recommended.
Kimgary, 4/3/23
"On A Rainy Day On The Streets of Philadelphia"

Ray Charles, "America the Beautiful"

Look around, look at everything, look at the whole country. 
God help us...

"You Can't Afford What’s Coming"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 4/3/23
"You Can't Afford What’s Coming"
"We are about to experience a huge amount of inflation in all of our lives. Oil prices are about to spike. Everything else will shoot up from there."
Comments here:

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/3/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/3/23"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...

Sunday, April 2, 2023

"The Worst Is Yet To Come, Prepare And Prevail; Your World Is About To Change"

Jeremiah Babe 4/2/23
"The Worst Is Yet To Come, Prepare And Prevail; 
Your World Is About To Change"
Comments here:

"Target Is Dying Before Our Eyes As Perfect Storm Hits America's Biggest Chains"

Full screen recommended.
"Target Is Dying Before Our Eyes As Perfect
 Storm Hits America's Biggest Chains"
By Epic Economist

"Target is in far more trouble than people realize. New evidence shows that the popular retailer is now dying before our eyes as a perfect storm of events strikes America’s biggest chains. Facing a $400 million shortage in cash flow, declining sales, plummeting profits, and crashing shares in the stock market, the company is hanging by a thread. To make things worse, supply chain imbalances and bloated inventories are still forcing Target to mark down prices of several items due to lower demand, which is further depressing its bottom line. At this point, the store chain looks like the next perfect victim to the unforgiving retail apocalypse. And in today’s video, we compiled several worrying numbers that reveal just how ugly conditions are for this beloved retailer.

Right now, Target is undoubtedly the one coping with the hardest challenges after an extremely turbulent 2022. In its latest press conference, Target described the current environment as “very challenging” as its shoppers aren’t being attracted by the discounted products the company needs to sell before bringing forth new merchandise. “We’re competing in a constrained environment for consumer spending,” said CFO Michael Fiddelke.

The most worrying numbers released by the brick-and-mortar retailer showed a 43% drop in profits, and lower-than-expected sales for the holiday quarter, reflecting its ongoing problems of cautious consumer spending and higher operational costs. That marked Target’s fourth straight quarterly profit drop. In 2022, it faced a 40% decline in profits in the first quarter, while earnings plummeted nearly 90% in the second quarter and 52% in the third fiscal quarter.

It is estimated that the company has lost about $1.2 billion over the past 12 months alone. And part of the blame can be attributed to its chaotic supply chains. For that reason, Target forecasts annual earnings of just $7.75 per share, below investors' estimates of $9.23, Refinitiv data shows. "We're planning cautiously given the economic challenges we anticipate this year," said Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell.

The financial sector is reacting accordingly. On Wednesday, Wells Fargo published a very gloomy analysis discussing the future of the retailer amid “a murky consumer backdrop,” which led the bank to downgrade Target’s stock last week. Analyst Edward Kelly lowered his rating for Target shares to Equal-weight and cut his price target to $142 from $170. “Target’s outlook has deteriorated meaningfully and we no longer see it as an attractive investment into an uncertain 2023,” the analyst wrote in a research note.

On the other hand, loyal customers may only have a few weeks left before Target closes several stores across the country. Given the myriad of issues it is facing right now, the company is being seen by industry experts as the next perfect victim of the retail apocalypse. Retail is an industry in transition, and if stores and chains are not able to adapt to new market conditions they will face a grim future. Sadly, Target isn't standing on solid ground as most people would assume. The decay of this popular retail chain looks like a slow-motion train-wreck that is happening in plein sight. What lies ahead is still anyone's guess, but considering all of the red flags, it feels like the worst is yet to come."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Chrysalis"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Chrysalis"
“Oceans of strings and choirs, flutes and keyboards lift us
out of the trials and tribulations of our daily lives as though
we were on a ship with gossamer sails, sailing on the moonlight.”
– Steve Ryals

"A Look to the Heavens"

“In visible light the stars have been removed from this narrow-band image of NGC 281, a star forming region some 10,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars were digitally added back to the resulting starless image though. But instead of using visible light image data, the stars were added with X-ray data (in purple) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared data (in red) from the Spitzer Space Telescope. 
The merged multiwavelength view reveals a multitude of stars in the region's embedded star cluster IC 1590. The young stars are normally hidden in visible light images by the natal cloud's gas and obscuring dust. Also known to backyard astro-imagers as the Pacman Nebula for its overall appearance in visible light, NGC 281 is about 80 light-years across.”

Chet Raymo, “Moments of Being”

“Moments of Being”
by Chet Raymo

“A passage from the "Pensees" of Teilhard de Chardin: "Though the phenomena of the lower world remain the same- the material determinisms, the vicissitudes of chance, the laws of labor, the agitations of men, the footfalls of death- he who dares to believe reaches a sphere of created reality in which things, while retaining their habitual texture, seem to be made out of a different substance. Everything remains the same so far as phenomena are concerned, but at the same time everything become luminous, animated, loving..."

Whatever we think of Teilhard's Christocentric phenomenology, however much we are baffled by his vague and gushy prose, it is clear from his writing that he was a man who was in love with the world and experienced it as luminous, animated, and loving. Certainly, the experience he describes is not restricted to "he who dares to believe," by which Teilhard means a specifically Christian faith, or at least a faith which for him involved an image of the "cosmic Christ." No, I would suggest that the interior experience of the world he describes- as luminous, animated, and loving- is an predisposition of the human condition, part of our evolutionary makeup. It finds expression in religion, certainly, but also in art, music, poetry, scientific discovery, and in even in the quiet contemplation of a single flower or grain of sand.

It is an experience we all consciously or unconsciously seek, with varying degrees of success. For certain people- an artist like Kandinsky or a mystic like Teilhard- the interior rhapsodic state seems more or less permanent. For most of us, its achievement is a struggle against the humdrum and superficial, the "habitual texture" of things.

The challenge is not to abjure the world of immediate sensation, but to experience the world as fully as our present knowledge allows- not just earthworms and nematodes, wind and weather, Sun, Moon and stars, but also the ineffable flow of atoms, the ceaseless dance of the DNA, the whirling of the myriad galaxies, the infinite and the infinitesimal- to see in the mind's eye and feel in the mind's heart the fire and the flow that animates all things. We may not experience the universe as "loving," but we might certainly find it lovable.

"The whole universe is aflame," wrote Teilhard. His vision was partly informed by his science and partly by his religious faith. And partly, surely, because he was born with a particularly acute sensitivity to the ineluctable wholeness of things. Those of us of a less sensitive nature will settle for the occasional moments when the gates of our senses unaccountably fling themselves open to the unspeakable and unspoken mystery of the world."

"The Majority Of Us..."

"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."
- Leo Buscaglia

The Daily "Near You?"

Busan, Pusan-jikhalsi, Republic of Korea. Thanks for stopping by!

"Marcus Aurelius: How To Live Without Fear”

"Marcus Aurelius: How To Live Without Fear”
Developing strength by having power over the mind.
by Harry J. Stead

“The Roman Emperor Antoninus died in 161 and Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus assumed the roles of co-emperors. But, Aurelius’ rule was a challenging period for the Roman Republic. He spent the first years of his reign fighting the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166. During this war, the Empire suffered great difficulties and losses but eventually re-occupied Edessa in Greece where the deposed king was returned to the throne. However, the returning soldiers brought back with them a plague that would torment much of Europe for years, killing around five million people.

Later, from 166 to the end of Aurelius reign in 180, the Empire fought the Marcomannic Wars, where Germanic tribes continuously invaded Roman territory across the northern frontier regions. The Roman army, after a long struggle, managed to push back the invaders and re-establish the frontiers of the Empire.

Marcus Aurelius acquired the reputation of a philosopher king within his lifetime, and the title would remain his after death. He was a practitioner of Stoicism, and his personal philosophical writings, which later came to be called Meditations, are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy.

Marcus Aurelius wrote the majority of the twelve books of the “Meditations” at Sirmium (modern day Serbia), where he spent time planning military campaigns and strategy during the Marcomannic Wars. A few of the books were written while he was positioned at Aquincum on campaign in Pannonia. And, the internal notes tell us that the first book was written when he was campaigning against the Quadi on the river Granova (modern-day Hron in Slovakia).

“Meditations” served as Aurelius’ journal, a private source of his own guidance and wisdom during times of darkness. His words are simple and honest, and the sentences are delivered like entries in a diary; the pages seem to be a list of quotations, all varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs. It is unlikely that Marcus Aurelius ever thought someone would publish these writings. He simply wished to record what he believed to be true.

But, when reading “Meditations”, we do not get the sense that the author was, at the time, the most powerful man on the continent. The vulnerability of Aurelius’ words falls onto one’s heart, and you feel yourself empathising not with the vast fears of a Roman Emperor, where war and power are all that must occupy the mind, but, instead, with the melancholy struggles of a rather lonely man. For Aurelius was a man with no equals, a man who had all the wealth and beauty in the known world, yet no one to share it with. So sad are his words that the reader imagines the author to be a fragile being with the same worries and doubts as ourselves, rather than a head of state with a breast plate and a red cloak.

The journal was an attempt to counsel himself through his own darkness. The reader feels comfortable and calm with his words; we cannot help discover ourselves in each of his little splashes of wisdom. But, I suppose this is the nature of the diary. For diaries are intimate and individual, they allow the author to open their hearts and express their deepest passions.

And, by expressing our own unique message, the lyrics of our hearts, we touch upon a universal truth that speaks to everyone. Here lies the beauty of Meditations and the reason why it has been a major source of guidance to a great many people for almost two thousand years.

“A blazing fire makes flame and brightness 
out of everything that is thrown into it.”
- “Meditations”, Marcus Aurelius

John Dalberg-Acton, a 19th century British politician, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” He was correct. Power does tend to corrupt the individual, but only because power exposes the true nature of the ruler, not because it turns the ruler sour.

Marcus Aurelius is, perhaps, the exception to this law in Western history. He was the only ruler that somewhat resembled Plato’s idea of the philosopher king  –  he was the last Good Emperor. This is easy to see when reading his journal.

The central theme to “Meditations” is that if one wishes to keep a tranquil soul, then he should live according to nature. This is the underlining idea of almost every sentence he wrote in “Meditations.” Clearly, he tried hard to remind himself of this wisdom lest he become a tyrant just as those who came before and after him did.

“If you are distressed by anything external, 
the pain is not due to the thing itself,
 but to your estimate of it; 
and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
- Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”

The temptation to control and handle every movement of the European continent must have been overwhelming. Because, as an emperor, Aurelius had to stand firm against the weight of a vast and over stretched Empire; he was a god, waving a red sword over a map of the entire world. Yet, he was also a man among men, carrying the same limitations and burdens of those who served him. He was not all-powerful or all-seeing, but the people expected him to be.

But, nature made Aurelius an emperor and so he believed it his calling to live up to his greatest potential. He did not lose himself in wine and women and become a victim of lust and desire, as many others had done, nor did he rule from fear and anxiety. The man had a beautiful soul. He could have had everything he wanted, he could have fulfilled his deepest passions and desires, yet he chose instead to pursue the end that was good for everyone. Power does not corrupt, power entertains the irrational and exposes the dirt within the soul.

“You have power over your mind  –  not outside events.
 Realize this, and you will find strength.”
- Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”

The wise man, the truly good man, Aurelius thought, is in control of his own soul. This is all that concerns him –  to be at peace with his own spirit. He only fears making chaos of his soul for it is the only power that he has responsibility for. If he loses control, then he loses himself and is powerless to fulfill his obligation to nature. And, tranquility requires that one releases all that which he cannot control. But, how great of a challenge must this have been for an emperor! For Aurelius stood over a kingdom that faced continuous threats of invasion from all sides, even from within.

Marcus Aurelius lived with a radical acceptance of nature. He moved through his days with no expectations; he never struggled against his fate nor did he resign himself in self-pity if the world betrayed him. No event should be mourned or celebrated. Because the victories of today may well be the cause of our demise tomorrow. Acceptance, only acceptance. And, with acceptance you will be able to find pleasure in each thunder and lightning that befalls you. Each event, in the eyes of a wise man, is a teacher, a lesson, a chance, a sign.

Aurelius believed that life never ought to be different from what it is and so he was able to greet the future with joy and compassion. Life continues to unfold and we should rejoice in every page for it is our fate, the will of nature.

Nature is unchangeable; we must not fight against it. Fighting against that which does not fall is foolish and will only leave us with a troubled spirit. Nothing outside of yourself should have power or friction over your peace.

Leave that which you do not control in the hands of God or nature. But, for that which you do control  – your soul, your emotions, your thoughts –  learn to steer them in your favor. Because every man suffers a great deal in their life, but not all people pity themselves. There is a choice.

Aurelius constantly reminded himself of this message in his journal so that he could practice its wisdom in his day-to-day life. And, in doing so, he freed himself from all that which could harm the peoples of his Empire  –  grief, fear, anger, and anxiety. For the peace of the Empire mirrored the peace of the emperor — he was the embodiment, the great incarnation of the kingdom. Because, in an autocracy, when the emperor falls sick, so must the Empire."

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to 
look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
-  Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”
Marcus Aurelius’ work “Meditations,” written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. It serves as an example of how Aurelius approached the Platonic ideal of a philosopher-king and how he symbolized much of what was best about Roman civilization.”
Freely download, in PDF format, “Meditations,” by Marcus Aurelius, here:

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