If you're like me, the news cycle is one smack to the face after the next. It's not even a "cycle" at this point; it feels more like crawling out of bed under relentless machine-gun fire of bad news and trying to survive the day without getting hit.

In this sense, getting "hit" is letting the bastards get you down (excuse my French). It's not easy, and it's not for the faint of heart. I look at it as a special challenge that all normal, non-woke, patriotic Americans must accept as part of living through this period of great change.

Can you witness all the cultural chaos and national hara-kiri, take a deep breath, give an affirmative nod to the Almighty, and say, "Lay it on me; let's have it; I can take more"? Because, at the end of the day, this spiritual contest for the West's future will not be won by those with the most money, power, or spy toys at their disposal. It will be won by those who take everything in stride and continue to stand. In a battle of wills, strength of character alone determines who will prevail.

Now, that's a pretty simple truth that we all often ignore, is it not? It is easy to look at the vast array of forces set against us — a corrupt central government dedicated to censorship, political persecution, and open borders; a corporate oligarchy intent on eliminating private property for all but the reigning few; a new world order where Marxist globalism trades freedom for servitude — and conclude that there is little else to do but grab the nearest cardboard sign and scrawl a final, lamentable warning: "The End Is Nigh."

To surrender and accept defeat just as things get tough, though, is almost like giving away our principles for free. Surely, that doesn't make sense. Let me ask you this: "Who are more committed to their beliefs — faithful servants of God who know that family, friends, fellowship, and freedom are worth the cost of any fight, or an army of woke foot soldiers who just learned yesterday what they claim to believe today and will decide tomorrow that what they believe today should be outlawed?" Beliefs made from sand soon blow away; those toughened through pressure and time become as resilient as diamond. Should that answer change just because the woke foot soldiers are backed by central bank thieves, corporate propagandists, Machiavellian politicians, and an ocean of Marxist bureaucrats? Or do those social pressures only further strengthen time-tested truths? I would say that the more concern you have for your immortal soul, the less worried you need to be about those who sold their souls long ago.

From that standpoint, this ensuing cultural struggle is important because it allows those who know the difference to once again separate the wheat from the chaff. The more highly we value our principles, the more vexed those with great wealth and power but no principles will become. The more we embrace struggle as a necessary part of life, the more astounded those who choose physical comfort over spiritual salvation will be. The more we dedicate ourselves to the preservation of truth and virtue, the more invulnerable we become to the machine-gun fire of State-sanctioned lies.

The vital thing to remember is this: don't panic. Things are never as good or as bad as they seem. This world has a funny way of pulling the rug from underneath your feet just when you feel most secure and throwing you a lifeline just as you begin to sink. History is imbued with the same effervescence. Few expected the American colonies to subdue the eighteenth century's undisputed global superpower...until they did. Few expected the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain to collapse...until it did. Few expected America's Cold War victory to take us down a thirty-year march toward Marxist globalism and a deepening loss of personal freedom...until it did. Few expected the World Economic Forum's New World Order to go belly-up...until it did?

Strange things happen when people with character and perseverance stand in the road and tell History, "This is where you will fork." The beneficiaries of those salubrious course corrections tend to look back at great epochal shifts and think, "That was to be expected." But for the people who lived through those moments of volatile change, the only thing certain was that a growing tide of people chose to stand in History's way. In hindsight, those present consistently record that they did not know what would happen but that they did have faith.

It is faith that steadies the doubters. It is faith that readies the strong. It is faith that shields against dangers. It is faith that settles past wrongs. In the end, one thing remains indubitably true: faith wins the day.

So we won't panic. We will keep our faith. And when enough of us choose to stand in History's way, any mountains before us will move. I believe that, and I hope you do, too.

Many who work against us are shallow and cruel, and those deficiencies do not win hearts and minds. Whips and chains enslave, but they do not rally people to action. No punishment has ever stirred the soul. These people with power today are, in many ways, just as artificial as the A.I. systems they wish to build for our maintenance. They fear free thought, so they criminalize dissent as "hate." They fear free speech, so they make sure that only some people can be heard. They fear free will, so they build more elaborate prisons to keep us under their control.

Notice, though, that it is they who fear the people who think and speak and act freely. Because those who "rule" us are shallow, they are afraid, and because those who "rule" us are afraid, they are cruel. People with those character flaws cannot lead; they can only use force to control how others behave. That kind of unnatural system does not last.

I am reminded of a political cartoon showing a feudal king gazing worriedly at an angry mob of townspeople outside the castle gates. A Machiavellian-like adviser says nonchalantly, "Oh, you don't need to fight them — you just need to convince the pitchfork people that the torch people want to take away their pitchforks." Maybe no other cartoon so incisively describes government's inherent rottenness. Irrespective of century, region, or political system, every ruling faction's hold on power ultimately depends upon its capacity to successfully divide and conquer its own people. When people appreciate this truth, they demand personal freedom and limited government. When they fail to see that government is a parasite and that they are its host, the people are drained of their vitality and wither away.

It is no surprise, then, that the only political language today's ruling factions know is social division. People are divided by their race, sex, ethnicity, religion, class, ideology, citizenship, body weight, family history, attractiveness, health, fetishes, gender fantasies, "vaccination" status, and a smorgasbord of other traits that bureaucratic manipulators can use to divide us all. While the "trans" kids are fighting the biological realists and the race-obsessed are fighting the colorblind, the ruling class smiles because it knows that no one will contest its power.

What if this centuries-long psychological operation is finally starting to fail? What if government control mechanisms are kicking into higher gears not because the ruling factions have become more powerful, but rather because they are becoming more vulnerable? What if, hidden behind the censorship, propaganda, and surveillance, a real movement for change is taking hold? The future always seems certain...until it isn't.

Image: Pashi via Pixabay, Pixabay License.