Being an Existential Prepper

It may seem that an analysis of the prepper cultural phenomena is a trite endeavor, but if you delve into the philosophical underpinnings of human instincts for survival, a worthy lesson can be the result. Since life is a gift, the conditions upon which it ends or voluntarily forfeited, are not necessarily dependent upon the will of the individual. A calculated act of placing your life at risk is not equivalent with a deliberate suicide. The functions and purpose of the prepper community is in direct conflict with those individuals that languish in hopeless despair and desperation. The response of the prepper to social turmoil is to prepare for contingencies. Yet that defensive posture avoids the essential question, what is the point of surviving if the communal environment is a hopeless wasteland.

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Descartes and Western Civilization Individualism

The philosophical condemnation of the supremacy in individual liberty verses the reigning doctrine of collective dominance, is a primary cause for the destruction of Western Civilization principles. Rene Descartes preferred to do his radical doubt thinking in solitude. In today’s society, thinking is about as foreign as rational behavior. In order to understand the timeless values and precepts that fostered the underpinnings of our Western thought and heritage, the significance of Descartes needs a close examination.

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Atheism to Secular Humanism and Objectivism

At first thought, the different philosophical positions of Emma Goldman and Ayn Rand seem to be well defined. Notwithstanding, the contrast between a propensity towards anarchism with an advocacy for laissez-faire capitalism, both Russian born "Khazar Jewish" theorists and activists shared a rejection of a theist metaphysics. When Emma Goldman states: (speaking from a Detroit pulpit in 1898, quoted from Annie Laurie Gaylor, Women Without Superstition, p. 382), "I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made", her mindset distinctly sets her apart from the main body of Western Civilization thought.

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Bilderberg Authoritarianism Destroys Humanity

Knowing the accuracy of historical reality is difficult, but accepting the truth in that chronicle is almost impossible for most people to accept. This reluctance to deal with the stark and calculated obliteration of societal freedom is the ultimate curse of the human condition. The denial of the authoritarian plan by elites like the Bilderberg cabal is the equivalent of Satan's greatest lie, convincing us he does not exist. Well, the days of casting the smear of conspiracy over any reporting on the secret and hidden conclave of global manipulators, is officially over.

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Jean-Paul Sartre and the Theory of Individualism

The condition of society in the 21st century has a pronounced fear of individual freedom. The relevance of Sartre’s philosophy remains intact because we desperately need a counterweight to a world that promotes dictatorial compliance. As a seminal thinker and most celebrated existential proponent, Sartre stirred a post World War II generation to view their existence from a non-traditional perspective that caused extensive establishment criticism and apprehension. The liberation and awareness celebration that distinguishes the realization of personal freedom during the 1960’s counter culture revolution owes a debt of gratitude to the French philosopher.

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Cultural Relativism and Ethical Obscurity

If you wonder, why the world is so confused and incoherent, look no further then the concept that All Truth Is Local. "Cultural Relativism is the view that moral or ethical systems, which vary from culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system is really "better" than any other. This is based on the idea that there is no ultimate standard of good or evil, so every judgment about right and wrong is a product of society. Therefore, any opinion on morality or ethics is subject to the cultural perspective of each person. Ultimately, this means that no moral or ethical system can be considered the "best," or "worst," and no particular moral or ethical position can actually be considered "right" or "wrong."

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Statist Philosophy the Scourge of Christianity

The normal condition of man ruling over men resorts to the practice of coercive force. Statism so aptly reflects this system of compliance. When you strip away all the rhetoric and institutional validation, what is left is a doctrine of kingship. Governments are fashioned to exert control over people. Contemplate the intrinsic contradiction of this structure of dominance with the message of the Golden Rule.

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Political Socialization in the Absence of Reason

Culture is the fabric that binds society. Socialization or the lack thereof, is a cognitive operation of acceptance. What a person recognizes as valid is a process of giving consent to the underlying principles and norms that make up a value system. The actual method of internalizing a view of life is usually the end product of institutional design and political indoctrination. In order to define the nature of political socialization, examine some popular definitions.

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The Sovereign Man is the Real Prisoner

According to establishment officials, the concept of the Sovereign Man philosophy is a direct threat to the authority of the State. Depending upon your perception of reality and the degree of legitimacy for government, given to the prevailing order, fundamental inalienable rights of the individual may vary widely. In the extreme, government statists consider most if not all natural rights as capricious and arbitrary, if conflicts challenge the dictates of the regime. This unending and interminable struggle to defend undeniable individual basic rights drives bureaucrats to use unconscionable measures to coerce citizen compliance.

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The Political Significance of Gore Vidal

The Gore Vidal legacy encompasses his numerous novels, literary writings, plays and essays. Few 20th century authors can match the volume of his compositions and consistency in the quality of his thoughts. If one can ignore his anti-religious beliefs and get past his complex sexuality, one can justly focus on the significance within his political viewpoints. Not since Oscar Wilde, has there been a man of letter with comparable wit and ridicule, that capsulate the age of his lifetime. Based upon a keen command of history and a flare for original insights, Vidal was the master political polemicist. 

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A Different Philosophy of Civil Disobedience

Conventional civil disobedience usually engages localized agencies and domestic government. Redress of grievances, constitutionally protected under law is a myth in practice. The courts operate as protectors of state authority, while crushing the safeguards of individual natural rights. Petition to elected officials for recourse resembles begging for sustenance. Allegiance to country is confused with deference to decadent dictates. Conscience and moral imperatives draw sincere and aware citizens to resort to necessary measures of dissent. The question is what kind of civil disobedience is appropriate and effective?

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The New World Order Zeitgeist

The "spirit of the times" for the New World Order worshipers is essentially anti-God sentiment. There is no longer an issue if the NWO is real. It operates as the dominant social matrix that engulfs the planet. Look around and the only cogent explanation for the absurdity that inflicts universal suffering rests upon an admission that humanity is evil to the core. Once religions recognized redemption and accepted that salvation as a divine gift. However, since the age of humanism and the supposed death of a supreme being, the planet has entered into an asylum of insanity and collective anguish. A detail examination of Humanism: Philosophy of the New World Order defines the parameters of the heterodoxy from all human history.

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Psychology of Tyranny for a Philosophy of Despotism

The underpinnings that fallaciously attempt to justify despotic regimes rely upon the perverted practice of controlling the public mindset in weak societies. The indisputable evidence that civilization is regressing at lightning speed is all us. Governments are becoming irrelevant with the passage of illegitimate authority consolidating into the hands of oligarchic cabals and global tyrants. An objective study of the voluntary abandonment of individual sovereignty is worthy of an entire scholarly discipline. 

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The Evil that is Democratic Thought

The mantra that democratic rule exists in the realm of governmental affairs has proven false. The fact that deficit spending is commonplace and acceptable to their populace links the social democracies in a feudal structure that most are unwilling to acknowledge. The practice of debt created bank money underlies every social policy and expenditure. The notion that paying for public projects, based upon popular support and taxes, is extinct. 

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NWO Overman is the Eupraxsophy of Transhumanism

The concept of Übermensch, is a German term generally associated with a superman. This Overman concept is much more than a school of thought viewpoint. It is a nightmare of untold propositions. Paul Kurtz is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. He states, "There is no word in the English language that adequately conveys the meaning of secular humanism. Secular humanism is not a religion; it represents a philosophical, scientific, and ethical outlook.

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Existential Political Therapy

In a world gone mad, the politics of disturbed behaviour has no parallel.  But treatment for individual disorders is a robust field that affords troubled individuals a remedy to overcome their personal plight in the world.  Maybe such an approach has an application as a destructive political illness that so often is the basis of public policy.  Examine the patient and ask can the professional ‘pols’ be cured?     

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The Henry David Thoreau of Philosophy

Civil disobedience would never be the same after Henry David Thoreau - it became a mission.  Although for Thoreau a sense of duty is not in a crusade to change the world, but to achieve authenticity for oneself.  The injustice of the world is a consistent fact of the human condition.  Yet wrongs and righting them seems to be the calling for a culture of altruism.  How much obnoxious revulsion has been planted from the seeds of philanthropy?  The disconnect from the essence of Thoreau has produced more branches of evil from social intrusion than substance for striking at the root.  Was this man a philosopher of worldly fundamental nature or was he merely an icon for non-conformity living?  Who is the Thoreau of Walden and what does his philosophy mean for our age?

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American Existentialism Real or Fiction?

Were the French Existentialists correct in concluding that the "American character swaggered with confidence and naive optimism?"  Sartre observed, "evil is not an American concept. There is no pessimism in America regarding human nature and social organization." Beauvoir chimed in that Americans had no "feeling for sin and for remorse." And Camus, thought Americans "lacked a sense of anguish about the problems of existence, authenticity and alienation."  In Carlin Romano's book review of Existential America by George Cotkin, Mr. Romano argues "On the contrary, Cotkin shows in the bulk of his study, "the French missed certain darker and deeper elements in the history of the American mind and spirit." For Cotkin, the "very notion of America as bereft of anguish is absurd. Death and despair appear as much in the American collective consciousness as does the luck-and-pluck optimism of Horatio Alger's heroes".

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The Choice For Political Freedom

The existential conflict in all societies stems from the natural urge of individuals to be free, as the ruling factions seek to limit citizen choices and their inborn drive.  The rationale that governments have a legitimate function and role to regulate and enforce civic conduct, so that public order can be maintained, is the universal axiom used for justifying the State.  If there is an organic purpose to maintain a civil order, does it automatically follow that the desired formula for compliance rests within the mechanisms established by government?  The posing of this question and familiar popular reaction reflects the intense discomfort most individuals have dealing with innate essentials.

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The Political Philosophy of Jacques Maritain

No other modern day Christian philosopher is more traditional and consistent with time-honored values than Jacques Maritain.  The embodiment of the philosophical convention of Thomas Aquinas, this twentieth century Catholic revitalizes the intellectual foundations upon which all Western Civilization is based and fosters as a culture. His relevancy has grown with every passing year.  The absurdity in the political insanity of our age is a direct result of an abandonment in the primacy of the meaning in life.  The diktat that stems from the secular society is meant to eradicate Christianity from public existence.

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Simone de Beauvoir: feminist vs. revelation

Known typically for her association with Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir exerted an enduring influence upon modern day feminism. "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman" is the primal theme in The Second Sex. Some may not deem her a major philosopher, but to humanists, socialists and Marxists, she is an original thinker.  Philippe Knab deduces that in the Second Sex, “firstly, she put forward a series of empirical claims about women as the Other, that is, about what the role gender played in her society.  Secondly, she puts forward a philosophical argument for why sexism is wrong.  Clearly, the validity of the empirical part of the argument depends on one's historical cultural background.  

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Kierkegaard as a Political Man

How can anyone be considered apolitical when his earliest writing was a polemic against women's liberation? Could he be depicted as a nineteenth century misogynist or is his intuition well-founded for the ages? In  “Another Defense of Woman's Great Abilities”, using the pseudonym “A”, Kierkegaard “paints exaggerated pictures of transformations that, in his opinion, are likely to occur in the wake of female liberation. He resorts to ridicule […] and pokes fun at the woman presumptuous enough to cross the boundaries naturally allotted to her sex”.

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The Grand Inquisitor Planet

Understanding the world is difficult at best. However, knowing how the world works is a task that can be readily recognized. The ability to grasp and admit both functions, is seldom achieved by most souls. Those who accomplish a rare and accurate comprehension of the human condition, appreciate the social conflict that permeates civilized life. Society is an invention to effect dominance. The Grand Inquisitor exacts compliance, for that is his function. Not that it is essential, but because it is ingrained and instinctive.

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Nikolai Berdyaev and the Eighth Day of Creation

Freedom is a topic that consumes our modern day society. While, it is assumed, by most; that being free is natural and essential, few understand the boundaries that fix the limits of freedom. Nikolai Berdyaev may not be a well known philosopher, but his fresh outlook offers valuable insights. A Russian who in 1909 contributed to a symposium which reaffirmed the values of Orthodox Christianity was later appointed by the Bolshevists to a chair of philosophy in the University of Moscow. Imprisoned and exiled, he remained a Russian. He announced his adhesion to the Soviet government, while criticising the return to a policy of repression.

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No Escape from Existential Reality

Finally agreement! No one can dispute the reality that we all will die. Since most choose to block out this fate or find it discomforting to consider, the roots of denial are sown. Refusal to confront the one great similarity that all humans share, is a trait that has greatly affected our political and social lives. Life is to be lived, no doubt. But how you live it greatly depends upon how you treat the final ending.

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Paul Tillich: the 'Apostle to the Intellectuals'

During this modern age few theologians have had more influence than Paul Tillich. His approach to cosmic questions dealt with the method of correlation found in science and the meaning of faith. In terms of his theological method Tillich's basic presupposition is that 'faith need not be unacceptable to contemporary culture and contemporary culture need not be unacceptable to faith' (Ford p. 88). Thus he sought to develop what has been termed a 'theology of culture' using the method of correlation. His appeal can be seen in his remarks: “Theology must be "answering theology"; it must adapt the Christian message to the modern mind while maintaining its essential truth and unique character” (Grenz/Olson p.117)

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Religious Meaning as the Art of the Existential Experience

As any devoted person to the search for the meaning of life knows and admits, the question of God is central. The decision to accept not only the existence of God but his supremacy over the universe is the most significant decision that one can make. Those who reject this conclusion, set themselves up for a man centered cosmos. Logical evidence, intelligent arguments and rational proof are unnecessary, for in the end only belief is needed. All the scientists who ever lived can’t disprove God, while every theologian who ever preached can’t certify his existence to those who are unwilling to believe.

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Dasein for Authentic Conservatives

For individuals who are sincere in searching for authenticity, confronting their own prejudices is an essential step. The standard to determine if those propensities are valid, must answer the question: “is it so”? Attempts to reach an exegesis of life, needs to rely upon honesty about the texture of one’s own life and the spiritual nature that underpins our existence. Heidegger offers an insight that can be applied to the real world of politics.

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Democracy and the American Hero

Published by the Clairmont Institute, an essay by Thomas S. Engeman - Why The American "Frontier" Will Always Be Populated By Democratic, Christian Knights - deals with a historic theme within the American experience. The perspective of the hero within our culture has influenced more than the motion picture genre. The hero has long been considered a model for aspiration and conduct. How one defines such inclinations, shapes actions for admirable behavior and forms a popular cultural view of human possibilities.

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Albert Camus, Anarchism and the Individual

Few concepts are more misunderstood than anarchism. Much of the efforts of civilization have been devoted to define anarchy as chaos, disorder and turmoil. For the powers that govern, the threat of mob rule is the decisive risk to their privileged status. But is this the correct conclusion to describe the essence of anarchy? That nebulous abstraction known as society, exists as an artificial fabrication, designed to synthesize individuals into a unified structure. Even the most avid proponent of law and order must concede that the organization of institutions is based upon singular components. The entire purpose of society demands restrictions upon the unbridled freedom of individuals.

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Nietzsche: America’s Gnostic Superman

A heritage founded upon faith has transmuted into a secular society that replaced God with a belief in the superman culture of egalitarianism. With each interminable message that every deviant behavior is equivalent with moral conduct, we are told that only the enlightened are able to dispense the aptitude for ruling. The modern day Gnostics that preach the gospel of materialism have adopted Nietzsche as their patron saint, while they crucify without exceptions, the last remnants of ordained obedience.

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Thomas Jefferson’s Revolution

No doubt you will recognize the popular wisdom of Thomas Jefferson regarding Liberty, but are you familiar with what he said in a letter to John Adams, late in his life? "To attain all this (universal republicanism), however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation." - September 4, 1823

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Alienation For Lost Marxists

Economic determination is essentially based upon a flawed notion of human nature. After decades of rehashing the major themes of Marxism, we are left with a void in anthropological insight, mutations in evolutionary dogma and social futility in oppressive governmental regimentation. The confined alignment of existence that Karl Marx assigns to man, requires that God becomes a fatality of an economic order of contrived conflict, that only the commissar can correct.

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Group or the Individual

A central theme of politics is the tension between the primacy of the individual or the group. How this conflict is resolved, bears directly upon the kind of policies that are implemented and accepted in most societies. Martin Buber was a deeply religious man and equates religion with interhuman relations and the performance of loving deeds.

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Alienation Inevitability

In a world where estrangement is prevalent, it is not unusual that the forces of cultural socialization will preach a doctrine that rejects the reality of this common condition. Refusal to acknowledge the systemic occurrence of social alienation is the sign of the success that conditioning has achieved. Institutions, organizations and bureaucratic organisms all share a mutual root tenet - they are the embodiment of the social order. If one is to believe in their correctness, then conflict should be minimal. Just look around, the planet is hardly a friendly social environment. Maybe, all is not well in paradise . . .

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Intro & Index

Politics, while essential to human interaction, is seldom properly understood. Those who practice the art of the craft, often claim the title politician. As they slant their rhetoric to appeal and tap into the fears or dreams of citizens, substance in purpose and solutions rarely brings relief. The outcry for the good of society is heard with each utterance that offers a seductive optimism, while corrupts mankind with the distortions of a failed structure, based upon a false maxim. Solitary Purdah is the individual in a state of social isolation. It is a way of thinking that breaks the restraints of current convention and restores the wisdom of the ages to the proper balance.

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