Daily Verse | 2 Kings 5:26
But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants or maidservants?”

Thursday’s Reading: 2 Kings 6-8

Thursday and I don’t know if you’re feeling it, but I am. The latest Issues & Insights editorial is called “America Moving From A Permission Society To A Repressive Regime” and it helps illuminate the slow but perceptible movement toward a society that can only operate as the government sees fit.

The Democrats who for now dominate policy making in Washington believe there is nothing so private that they cannot regulate, nothing so personal that it can’t be intruded upon. The only question is the pace of the arrogation of our freedoms. They have to be taken down in increments, so that the country won’t notice the slippery slope toward tyranny. In many cases, often regarding energy and conservation policies, restrictions are even celebrated by the loudest factions to help numb the public to the constant attacks on liberty.

Timothy Sandefur, author of “​​The Permission Society,” and a vice president of the Goldwater Institute, has said one of the fundamental problems with living in a permission society “is that it violates the principle of equality.”

“Who,” he says, “has to ask permission?”

The answer, of course, is “an inferior has to ask permission of a superior.”

That certainly describes the country we live in. But more and more, our “superiors” are closing our options before we can even ask for approval. What requires a government permit or certificate, or some other consent today will tomorrow by verboten.

They go on to suggest that restrictions on gun ownership, building regulations, and of social media acting as an agent of the state, are all examples of what happens in a “permission” society, then conclude:

There is a reason America’s ruling class, made up primarily of Democrats with a few RINOs on the fringes, is aptly labeled. It has no interest in protecting and promoting a free society – its objective is to control the country in a way that increases and consolidates its power. Small steps such as dishwasher guidelines and pool heater rules don’t do much damage on their own.

But combined with decades of directives, mandates, and restrictions that affect personal choices, manufacturing processes, and even expression, and they become a bulwark of fascism. Small offenses add up. We’ve come to live under a tyranny of regulation that grows without rest, a regime of repressive laws, a bureaucracy that inflates itself while making life harder for the supervised masses. The government has become a blob that ate American liberty.

In a different opinion piece, author J.B. Shurk writes of the Ten Steps to Totalitarianism:

• Destruction of Religion
• Gun Confiscation
• Control Over Energy
• Control Over Communication
• Control Over Money
• Doomsday Fearmongering
• School Indoctrination
• Elimination of Family
• Elimination of Cars
• Digital Identity Tracking

All noted and agreed. The only one I think is missing is Centralized Health Care. But we’re already on our way there with the creation of Obamacare and the refusal of the RINOs under Paul Ryan’s leadership to repeal that law when they had the chance under Trump.

Everyone can name something for each of the categories on that list. Religion? See the infestation of woke thinking and social justice practice under the guise of “church.” Guns? The never-ending assault on our Second Amendment rights with new restrictions imposed every time some lunatic shoots up a subway. Energy? Look at the instant destruction of our self-sustaining energy position as soon as the fool in the White House took office. Doomsday Fearmongering? What do you think the climate change alarmism is about? Indoctrination in schools? That’s the anti-American Howard Zinn agenda in our schools along with the sexualization and moral corruption of our kids.

And we’ve all recently heard about the government’s plans to digitize money. If that happens, which is likely, our self-determination and ability to make choices will be severely curtailed. We’ll be living in a social credit society.

The worst of it is that large segments of our society don’t, can’t and won’t see what’s happening. In 1984 an ex-KGB agent named Yuri Bezmenov talked openly about how the Soviets were undermining the patriotism of Americans. Listen to it and see whether what he said then still holds true today.

“What [psychological warfare] basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American, to such an extent, that despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country. It’s a great brainwashing process that goes very slow and is divided in four basic stages.”

The KGB spent 85 percent of their time on psychological warfare against the U.S. And as he says, there’s no way to undo what has already been done. The most chilling irony is when he says that those who were brainwashed into a Marxist way of thinking and seeing and welcoming that ideology would be some of the first to be eliminated under such a regime. Why?

“Simply because the psychological shock when they will see in future what the beautiful society of equality and social justice means in practice, obviously they will revolt. They will be very unhappy, frustrated people. And the Marxist/Leninist regime does not tolerate this people … In future, this people will be simply fffp.”

They get the bullet, too.

That interview was in 1984—almost 40 years ago. Just think of how many more generations have been brainwashed and now occupy stations of influence in all of our major institutions. It would take another 40 years to replace them all if we started right now, as you read this. And starting right now is not going to happen.

I know you think I’m crazy for saying this, but … pay attention, pray, buy a gun if you haven’t, and make sure you have lots of ammo. You’re going to need it.