Choose: Run, Hide, or Fight

And know the default option if you don't choose...

My wife and I just returned from our first vacation away from the kids ever. Twenty years. It was great. Getting away is the best way to create space and think big thoughts. We must step outside the problems to see them. Over dinner, and lounging in the pool, and on walks, we talked of our home, our children, and our lives. We saw problems, and made choices to fix them.

There’s a problem in front of all of us who live in the West, specifically the USA, and thus there’s a choice about how to fix it.

But first we must realize we have a choice, then the choices must be weighed, then the choice made. Easy enough, right?

But this particular choice is a big one, the biggest, and there's a concerted effort in play to keep us from making it. And we aren't going to choose once and be done - No, this is a daily choice, like the choice to still be married, or be a parent, or keep the faith. It's what they call a lifestyle choice.

The big choice? Run, Hide, or Fight.

I'm a follower of Jacque Ellul. If you haven't read Propaganda yet you should.¹ One big theme of Ellul's work is that propaganda isn't meant to change a man's ideas, or to replace his worldview. A man's education, especially in his younger years, sets his worldview pretty solidly, and if he doesn't bother with reading or thinking after that it will remain unchanged. No, what propaganda is meant to do is induce ACTION; or the lack of it, depending on the target.

When it comes to the State, it mostly benefits from people not taking action. There's a concept called Via Negativa, which simply put is: Removing a bad thing is better than adding a good thing.² If you're a smoker, the best health choice is to stop smoking. Not smoking is better than say, eating a plate of kale every day. Do that and you'll still die, either of lung cancer or pure disgust because you just ate kale, AGAIN. Has anyone ever considered that kale is nasty because it's poison? Plants that want to be eaten and are good for us taste good (Blueberries), plants that are bad for us and don't want to be eaten taste bad (Kale).

Anyway, to remove is better than to add. Take this from an older guy - Follow that health advice and you'll do very well. Remove your doctor first because doctors are just sales engineers for pharmaceutical companies.

Via negativa also applies to the State. The majority of its propaganda, and there is a lot, is dedicated to discouraging and confusing opposing targets. Removing poison, if you will. Better to remove a few trouble-makers from play than add mindless mass. Heads up: If you're reading this, you're a poison and an opposing target. Unless you're Fed/CCP trying to ruin Substack, in which case my message to you is - Eat kale and die.³

The State worries us. I'm an old Millennial, verging on Gen X, and in my lifetime the State has become considerably more totalitarian. (We always like to say more rather than is don't we? How many rapes before a rapist is a rapist, and not just more rapey?) Totalitarianism is a heavy word that's thrown about far too much, but I mean it here. The definition deserves an entire essay, but I can briefly summarize totalitarianism as as an entity that totally controls a subject populace by dominating their thoughts.⁴

The totalitarian State is an omnipresent danger, and those of us who love freedom want to do something about it, but we're not sure what. We've got three basic reactions to any danger: Run, Hide, or Fight. Hide is the easiest and first reaction, especially in our pathetic modern age, where the mettle of men is so rarely tested. When a deer freezes, it (thinks) it's hiding.

Just look at any of these school shootings. A drug-addled freak with no job but somehow loaded up with $10k of guns and ammo enters the building. The entire school could just flood the doors (Run) and most would get out. But they don't. The teachers and bigger kids could rush the freak and beat him to death with Chromebooks and iPads (Fight), but they don't. Instead, they hide. Or as the State so adeptly calls it, "Shelter in Place." When a madman is executing your friends or students, you shouldn't fight, or even run, but "Shelter in Place." A propaganda euphemism for cowardice.⁵

And it's not just the schools that "Shelter in Place." Remember the Vegas shooting? There was an open field of sorts with a big stage at one end. A freak set up shop in a tall building that overlooked the field, and systematically murdered sixty people. He injured another four hundred. This was a country music festival. If any crowd should have been red-blooded, tough, and good under pressure, it'd be a conservative country music crowd. A lot ran. But a whole lot more just laid down in the field while the bad guy took his time. They thought that if they “Sheltered in Place” long enough, they might survive until the cavalry arrives.

So know that, as you analyze your choices, and analysis is difficult in a crisis, your modern lily-livered gut is going to prefer inaction or hiding, then maybe running, and absolutely last, fighting. Especially if by fighting we mean doing something risky.

As you've probably guessed, a fighting spirit isn't what the State wants in the common folk. Heck, even the modern soldier isn't really expected to fight with zeal and honor. The State knows Via Negativa better than anyone, and so they know removing that particular instinct can make things so much easier for them. The surest sign you're no longer ruled by a government of, and for, your society is that it sets out to disarm and infantilize the populace.

But it goes past that. They aren't just trying to make you choose "Shelter in Place" as a lifestyle. The entire propaganda power of the Cathedral,⁶ which is almost unbelievably huge, is directed toward you not making any choice at all. By not choosing, you choose nothing, which is to freeze, which is to hide.

The choice is that distinct moment in our mind when our course is set. We make the choice by weighing options and information, risks and rewards, what's to gain, and what's to lose. It's hard to have any good information on those options though, which is by design.

If we knew without a doubt our situation and its inevitable end, the decision would be easy. But we don't. It's not as if the State has a "Dictatorship" meter that's in the red right now. This isn't one of those simplistic Civilization-type games we all used to play, where we're a "14" on the freedom track, with all the requisite rewards and penalties. +1 to military strength, -1 to serf happiness! Nope, we have no idea how free we are. We have a vague idea that things aren't right. Sometimes, like when the TSA agent is sodomizing our son, or COVID lockdowns are ruining our business, we see with clarity, but usually we just don't know. Too hazy.

Our own human tendencies also make a coherent choice really, really, hard. People hate failing to keep something much more than failing to gain it. Especially when existence is on the line. "Sheltering in Place" feels like the best bet if the alternative is taking a risk and losing your life.

If you're of the bourgeois mindset, like me, "Sheltering in Place" means you put your head down and just work harder. Just lie low. Don't make trouble and trouble won't come to you. Keep the crosses off your desk, don't donate to the wrong charity, and attend DEI meetings with a look of placid acceptance, and Karen in HR will leave you alone.

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it…”

But, the data available to us is almost impossible to sift through, so we usually don't choose one or the other.

We’re in a civilizational-level school shooting and we’re all doing jack shit to stop it. We’re just standing here with a dumb look on our face while people are dying. That's because the bad guy has tears in his eyes, crocodile tears, and he seems like he really doesn't want to be harming us. Or he's wearing SWAT gear. Or an American flag is draped across his shoulders. Or he's carrying a cross. In our modern time, the villain is rarely purely evil in appearance.

Honestly I think modern media, shows and games, are to blame for this. The Emperor is obviously the bad guy, listen to him cackle! He's wearing a black hood! Bad guys in fantasy games are in black armor, covered in spikes or whatnot, with pointy teeth and growling voices. Bad news. If you see one of them enter the room, you gear up.

But our modern villains are more like a friendly anime waifu with a knife behind her back. She's all smiles and kindness when she comes in the room. So innocent! So lovely! Then she stabs one of your friends to death in front of you. We're not sure we even saw what just happened. She's telling us about her day at the store while she saws off Ted's head. The psychic disparity is so great we're paralyzed.

The Feds say constantly that this or that agenda is for the people, or they’re trying to help the disadvantaged, or whatever, but the actual action they’re taking is totally obverse to the words spoken. Honeyed words, bloody hands.

Let's say though, that despite all that you make the choice to fight. Well... how?

You see, the USA does propaganda the best, and that means not only is choosing difficult, but most of the choices are only approved choices. You will be directed towards choices that result in nothing (which results in freezing, which is hiding. Seeing a trend here?).

"Fighting" in America today is voting, especially if you're a Republican. Fighting at the polls is our sacred right as free Americans! And look, basically no risk - This fight will cost you nothing but standing in line and having an old lady put an "I Voted" sticker on your chest.

She may not know it, but that sticker is propaganda. Those that don't vote are made to feel as if they've let the people down. The State spends millions getting people to vote. Just vote. On anything, we don't care what. The State really wants to look legit. If no one votes but the President, the opposition candidate, and their moms, things aren't legit.

Voting is the semblance of the action - Control of government by the people - without all the work. Civic virtue without the effort. Voting is as much like civic action as masturbation is like romance. The bourgeois thinks, “I have a business to run - I’ll outsource the civic work so I can focus on what’s important.” Such thinking has led to our ruin.

But there's other ways you can fight! Looking to plant a garden this year? Then make sure to stock up on Freedom Dirt TM - And bury those libs once and for all! This dirt is 100% native soil and GUARANTEED to make you more independent than the Founding Fathers. Buy a case for that worthless foodstamp mom down the street so she can learn the REAL meaning of work!⁷

And so on.

I think this is less a temptation now, as the game is nearly up and we see the results first hand, but for years "fighting", if it wasn't voting, has been that quintessential American action: Buy shit. The corps gotta eat too, you know. Choosing to "Fight" means you buy guns and ammo, an NRA membership, and post Boomermemes on Facebook. That's fine, please do. You choose "Run"? We have a nice selection of RVs and sailboats. You choose "Hide"? Build that bunker, buy that emergency food, and pile up that gold.

I must admit I was firmly in that space for some time. After the 2008 financial crisis and Republican treatment of Ron Paul in 2012, I was completely disillusioned with politics. On all important matters the two parties were, and are, largely in unison. So I looked for an alternative, and Zerohedge (And other sites like it) was right there waiting for me. Go there (After you finish this essay, of course) if you want a good dose of Boomerdoom fatalism - First you are trained to despair, then in the midst of your despair, you're shown a light - The umber glow of gold! And brass ammo. And Emergency Essentials Ready-to-Eat meals, and so on.

Zerohedge and other blogs like it taught a self-indulgent cowardice justified by a false superiority over the normies, all of which resulted in a slavish stasis.

By the grace of God I broke out. Sick and depressed, I knew something needed to change, but didn't know what. Suddenly, an insight - Via Negativa. Remove the poisons. So, I embarked on an universal media fast. For one year I read no news sites, watched no movies, and played no PC games. I figured afterwards I could slowly re-introduce media to see which were the most poisonous.

After that year I returned to Zerohedge and its ilk but I only felt revulsion. I abandoned it and almost all forms of news forever. And good riddance.⁸

That opened up my thought-space and put me on a course leading to here.

The system we live in, the people that rule us, are rotten to the core. For our children's sake, and I have many, we MUST take real effective action. We must make a choice, whether to Run, Hide, or Fight, and so making, the means must effectively result in our chosen end. If we choose run, let us run well and far. If we choose hide, let us disappear forever from the public gaze. If we choose fight, let us be implacable, for our enemies have much to lose; let us be powerful, for victory comes from no other source; let us be merciless, for our enemies deserve to be crushed.

Choose what you will, but I've chosen to fight. The State would like nothing better than for us to "Shelter in Place" forever. No more. We must fight. How though? The best place to figure out how to fight is right here, on Substack. The camaraderie, the intelligence, and this glorious constellation of ideas in constant motion are all a man needs. It's wonderful, and I hope it lasts long enough to gestate whatever it is the Dissident Right will do.

But my plan for fighting I don't see much spoken of here; or at least, I haven't found it yet. So I will humbly offer it up to the creative maelstrom. I'll be building a case for that plan in subsequent essays. So subscribe!

1. Then subscribe to Isaac Simpson's Substack for a useful modern comparative.

2. Read Talib's Anti-Fragile for more. Talib, unfortunately, turned out to not be the man we all thought he was. COVID was truly the big reveal of the heart's of men...

3. And I mean “die” only in the figurative sense. I would never threaten the King’s Men. Winter is coming, my friends. I'm already seeing the incoherent and combative comments on the rise. Substack is still small and thus hasn't fallen under their gaze, but when it gets big enough to be a problem get ready for the Fedbot/Combot NPCs shouting nonsense into our conversations. It’s gonna suck.

4. I consider Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism to be an excellent overview of what totalitarianism is and a worthwhile read in these troubled times.

5. There have been notable acts of courage in these tragedies, but Uvalde especially revealed troubling signs of systemic cowardice.

6. There are so many different names for the entity that runs the show. King Moldbug alone didn’t originate the idea but I find his symbology the most compelling.

7. Ryan Long does a hilarious parody of typical conservative adverts here, which I shamelessly stole from. But it’s not stealing because I cited him.

8. The first movie I watched after one year of no media of any kind was.... Pacific Rim. I think as moderns we don't really realize how *intense* movies are. That movie broke my brain a bit it was so awesome. When Mako Mori used her sword to slice the dragon-kaiju in half and said "For my family!", I wept.