tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1636157128315691395.post224422576448820087..comments2023-05-19T09:47:33.420-06:00Comments on Seldon's Gate: GUEST POST: on social collapse and the Christian RightReave Vanshar (Steve McAllister)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04967498644616503968noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1636157128315691395.post-25224196472455552002010-08-15T18:15:58.518-06:002010-08-15T18:15:58.518-06:00Kir'Shara the emissary of ancient Vulcan wisdo...Kir'Shara the emissary of ancient Vulcan wisdom will bear with you, Reave! Send along more stuff any time. You too, Ilorien, if you'd like. Because you're both grad students and have nothing but free time. <br /><br />I too have been thinking a lot about Reave's post. The intense focus on personal preparation is part of what made it so memorable. I take long bike rides around Albuquerque, and every time I pass one of those little strip mall Bible churches I wonder upon the doings within. And what those engaged in the doings would say if I were to walk in and take a seat and be open about who and what I was. <br /><br />On a related point, after reading Reave's post, I checked out the web site for our local tea party here in the Burkee. For some reason, I found that even scarier than some of the Abq church web sites I looked at. Although, I suppose there's much overlap between tea parties and evangelical prophecy churches. Any way, at least the tea partiers urged victory at the ballot box rather than on a battlefield. For now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1636157128315691395.post-66502235810326753812010-08-15T13:02:07.186-06:002010-08-15T13:02:07.186-06:00Thanks, ilorien! You raise a good point about &quo...Thanks, ilorien! You raise a good point about "infiltrating" larger cultures and vringing about tolerance through familiarity. I didn't address that directly in this post because my emphasis was on personal preparation and survival; if Kir'Shara will bear with me, most of any future posts I make will focus on that. I want to provide information and insight for people who lack the desire/resources to get involved in the preparation of SOCIETY for the coming hard times. What you suggested is an interaction between communities, which is beyond the control of any but the most involved and ambitious of individuals. Clearly, I would be joyful beyond measure if integration could proceed to the point where the kind of bigoted violence I forsee does not occur, but history has shown that to be a slow process, and I want people to think of their own personal safety as well.Reavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1636157128315691395.post-73758431601950355402010-08-14T17:37:54.399-06:002010-08-14T17:37:54.399-06:00Excellent post. I had many similar thoughts while...Excellent post. I had many similar thoughts while driving solo through Utah, Idaho, and the Eastern parts of Oregon and Washington recently. As one does when driving long distances trying to remain alert, I listened to a genre of radio broadcast that I'd usually avoid like rotten fish heads. And then when I'd exhausted my tolerance for country western music I tried a little right-wing talk radio. Wow. Scarier than I'd imagined (and I grew up attending fairly conservative Christian churches). <br /><br />Back at the peak of my Christian zeal I thought I'd become a missionary to the dark and distant parts of the globe and I took a course called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. One of the speakers emphasized the importance, for a long-term missionary wanting to be accepted by a target community, of accepting, embracing and participating in all aspects of the communty's culture that are not in direct opposition to the missionary's beliefs. <br /><br />Reave, your advice about attending rodeos and 4H events reminded me of this. It's so easy, now, while civil order prevails, to exclude the "right-wing nut jobs" from our spheres of consciousness and continue our daily lives as though they do not have any impact on us. But as you so eloquently described, such thinking may indeed prove dangerous.<br /><br />When you touched on this idea of integrating with society, however, you seemed to focus primarily on the relative level of personal security that might be achieved. What about the possibility that by integrating adequately on a much larger scale, we may prevent persecutory behaviors in the first place? For any given community, if it's possible for one minority (of any sort) person or family to prove itself valuable to the majority (or even just likable), then maybe it's possible for a larger group of such minorities to so infiltrate their society that enough of the majority group would already be affected by them and would never be able to achieve the critical mass necessary to initiate any sort of persecution of said minorities.<br /><br />Anyway... great post. It's gotten me thinking and I think I'll be thinking about it for some time to come. Thanks.<br /><br />P.S. Kir'Shara, I did google your handle a while back, but neglected to mention it. Also like the name of the blog! Just read Foundation for the first time last year.M. Huw Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15608919632549675452noreply@blogger.com