The Nature of Deception and Being on THIS side of the Info War, by Kelly Gneiting
October 5, 2012 Posted by: Kelly Gneiting
It is said that ignorance is bliss. But is it really? Not according to Plato.
Plato’s Cave
In the allegory of Plato’s Cave in his book The Republic, Plato argues that once truth is ascertained, being “free from the cave,” men would “feel as Homer says, and heartily desire rather to be serf of some landless man on earth and to endure anything in the world, rather than to opine as they did and to live in that way (in the cave)?”
The Book of Revelations describes a time when, “the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelations 12:9)
The fact that mass deception exists should make each person constantly on his guard.
Jesus says that, “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)
Even those people who accept Jesus as only a great teacher can appreciate these words.
It remains one of those great paradoxes that by definition those who are most selfless have an understanding of selflessness that the great masses don’t share. The latter looks on and tries to imagine what it would be like to be THAT selfless, yet they fail to truly understand, much like a movie star would fail to understand what it would be like living on the streets of Calcutta.
Likewise with those who are hard working; the masses who work less can look upon their hard working exemplar with imaginative sympathy, but not empathy.
The same goes for those with great understanding and discernment—thus able to sift through the lies everywhere about. Who knows but what tomorrow a person with greater understanding will show you and me a greater light. Plato says that light would hurt our eyes at first, and we would want to turn back to look at the shadows we were used to seeing before. Yet if we did continue, and were taken to the entrance of the cave and then out into the sunlight, the light would completely blind us. After some time, however, we would be able to see real things (as opposed to shadows) within the outside world, including the sun.
Said Ezra Taft Benson in 1987:
Today, there is a great threat to freedom… All over the world the light of freedom is being diminished. A great struggle for the minds of men is now being waged. At issue is whether or not man’s basic inalienable rights of life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness shall be recognized… In undiminished fury, and with an anxiety that his time is short—and it is—the great adversary to all men is attempting to destroy man’s freedom and to see him totally subjugated. There are evidences of this struggle all about us. A system of slavery, communism, has imprisoned the minds and bodies of over one billion of the earth’s inhabitants. Today, forty-five percent of the people of the world, in sixty-five nations, live under totalitarian dictatorships or forms of government that deny people most or all of their political and religious freedom. We further read and hear about international terrorism where nations are blackmailed and there is no regard for human life.
Americans daily wake up to the info war raging all about them, and because of agency, they are left to choose which information to believe and which to disbelieve. Again, what is at stake should make each one of us constantly on our guard—for the price of disbelieving something that is true, is high.
As an example, on May 17, 1776 a proclamation of fasting and prayer was observed. The actual proclamation, in part, reads:
“… warlike preparations of the British Ministry [intend] to subvert our invaluable rights and privileges, and to reduce us by fire and sword, by the savages of the wilderness, and our own domestics, to the most abject and ignominious bondage…”
After reading such a statement, one might think to himself, “Well yeah, those were horrible times. The people in that era were right in taking extreme measures. After all, their lives depended on it. But we aren’t at that point today… at least not yet.”
But is this true, or are we, in fact, beyond this point?
The very first principle of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is that “…to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
Could it be that our enemies are winning the battle of thrusting Americans into bondage without physical conquest?
Without fighting means the use of diplomacy, respect, reciprocity, fear, kindness, flattery or any other psychological means to get what’s wanted.
Another principle of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is “what the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.”
Is this were we are today? Have the enemies of freedom already claimed victory–winning with ease? Is the New World Order imminent?
As in all things, Jesus gives us a way to correctly understand what is going on in the world; a way to sift through the deception, and rightly know of things as they really are—and with this knowledge to act!
Says He:
He that is of God heareth (or discerns) God’s words: ye (the Jews He was speaking to) therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. –John 8:47
Going back to the 1776 Day of Fasting & Prayer, it was recorded that they were:
“desirous… to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God’s superintending providence, and of their duty, devoutly to rely, in all their lawful enterprises, on his aid and direction, Do earnestly recommend, that Friday, the Seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness;…”
THIS was the spirit that won America’s independence. THIS was the spirit that sifted through the smokescreens of deception.
As in many things the Independent American Party proclaims, in an effort to bring our country back to the original intent of our Founding Fathers, these same principles remains the answer to America’s restoration and perpetuation of freedom.
Without God, and observance to Him, categorize yourself as part of the masses who are deceived. Yet WITH God, you cannot fail in your discernment. Isn’t correct understanding worth coming unto Him, and seeking His face?
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. –2 Corinthians 7:14
The Nature of Deception and Being on THIS side of the Info War, by Kelly Gneiting
It is said that ignorance is bliss. But is it really? Not according to Plato.
Plato’s Cave
In the allegory of Plato’s Cave in his book The Republic, Plato argues that once truth is ascertained, being “free from the cave,” men would “feel as Homer says, and heartily desire rather to be serf of some landless man on earth and to endure anything in the world, rather than to opine as they did and to live in that way (in the cave)?”
The Book of Revelations describes a time when, “the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelations 12:9)
The fact that mass deception exists should make each person constantly on his guard.
Jesus says that, “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)
Even those people who accept Jesus as only a great teacher can appreciate these words.
It remains one of those great paradoxes that by definition those who are most selfless have an understanding of selflessness that the great masses don’t share. The latter looks on and tries to imagine what it would be like to be THAT selfless, yet they fail to truly understand, much like a movie star would fail to understand what it would be like living on the streets of Calcutta.
Likewise with those who are hard working; the masses who work less can look upon their hard working exemplar with imaginative sympathy, but not empathy.
The same goes for those with great understanding and discernment—thus able to sift through the lies everywhere about. Who knows but what tomorrow a person with greater understanding will show you and me a greater light. Plato says that light would hurt our eyes at first, and we would want to turn back to look at the shadows we were used to seeing before. Yet if we did continue, and were taken to the entrance of the cave and then out into the sunlight, the light would completely blind us. After some time, however, we would be able to see real things (as opposed to shadows) within the outside world, including the sun.
Said Ezra Taft Benson in 1987:
Americans daily wake up to the info war raging all about them, and because of agency, they are left to choose which information to believe and which to disbelieve. Again, what is at stake should make each one of us constantly on our guard—for the price of disbelieving something that is true, is high.
As an example, on May 17, 1776 a proclamation of fasting and prayer was observed. The actual proclamation, in part, reads:
After reading such a statement, one might think to himself, “Well yeah, those were horrible times. The people in that era were right in taking extreme measures. After all, their lives depended on it. But we aren’t at that point today… at least not yet.”
But is this true, or are we, in fact, beyond this point?
The very first principle of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is that “…to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
Could it be that our enemies are winning the battle of thrusting Americans into bondage without physical conquest?
Without fighting means the use of diplomacy, respect, reciprocity, fear, kindness, flattery or any other psychological means to get what’s wanted.
Another principle of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is “what the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.”
Is this were we are today? Have the enemies of freedom already claimed victory–winning with ease? Is the New World Order imminent?
As in all things, Jesus gives us a way to correctly understand what is going on in the world; a way to sift through the deception, and rightly know of things as they really are—and with this knowledge to act!
Says He:
Going back to the 1776 Day of Fasting & Prayer, it was recorded that they were:
THIS was the spirit that won America’s independence. THIS was the spirit that sifted through the smokescreens of deception.
As in many things the Independent American Party proclaims, in an effort to bring our country back to the original intent of our Founding Fathers, these same principles remains the answer to America’s restoration and perpetuation of freedom.
Without God, and observance to Him, categorize yourself as part of the masses who are deceived. Yet WITH God, you cannot fail in your discernment. Isn’t correct understanding worth coming unto Him, and seeking His face?