In working on “Be an Instrument of Light,” I found it necessary to first return to a post on freedom outlined earlier but set aside as a lower priority.

Here’s why.

It appears that Jordan B. Peterson has gone all-out in his verbal war against the “bloody post-modernists” – to the point of distraction. He’s taken the high-visibility lead in controversial “transgender wars.” He ardently hammers so-called Social Justice Warriors (SJWs), defending freedom of speech as the Number ONE priority, foundational to preserving Western civilization.

In all this, his powerful arguments are admirably presented. BUT . . . however noble and technically correct, arguing is not enough.

Put another way, the initial goal of letting adversaries expose themselves for who they are has been accomplished. Now, having succeeded in persuading those of us willing and able to follow his logic, it’s time to move on. There are other, more urgent and fundamentally important battles to be fought.

I’ll explain why I say this and show you where it leads.

A Youtube video triggered the following, earlier thoughts on freedom:

In Sorting Yourself Out, Stefan Molyneux questioned Jordan Peterson. How can his libertarian followers relate to the Self-Authoring process?

Because Peterson’s answers closely parallel the premise of Rethinking Survival and its companion Handbook, I quote his comments, Molyneux’s reservations and then put the subject in Life Wheel context.

In describing the Self-Authoring process, Dr. Peterson says:

If you’re not united within yourself – united in relationship to a higher purpose – then you’re weak [fragmented]. And the world will take you apart.

He continues:

A more sophisticated approach is, you formulate a question and you wait for an answer. A prayer might be, I would like to do the best thing I could with my life now.

You have to open yourself up to that. That’s to knock so the door will open. I would like to do the best thing with my life . . What might that be?

. . . you could say you’re leaving yourself open for a revelation or an intuition, but you’re communing with whatever it is that enables you to receive wisdom.

. . . you’re really communing with the structure of the cosmos when you’re asking such a question – especially if you do it properly. It’s really necessary because it orients you properly.

So the demise of prayer – to commune with the better part of myself to determine how I should orient myself in the world . . .  It’s a catastrophic loss not to do that.

Suffice it to say here that his comments presuppose the unified components of the Life Wheel whose hub centers around a creative source experienced as conscience. Reintroducing this ancient concept remedies what has truly been experienced as a catastrophic loss for the good guys, a horrific score for the bad guys.

Taking Dr. Peterson up on the question of “higher purpose,” Molyneux observes:

I think this question of a larger purpose to one’s life – I have a very libertarian-ish independence-minded audience. Whenever I talk to them about the need to subjugate mere personal will and desire to a larger mission in life, it strikes them in a very odd way.

I’ve already addressed the libertarian free-will issue in Practical Ethics. In essence, without a multi-dimensional paradigm of reality, you can’t fully and realistically define free-will or ethics:

What is fundamentally (fatally) missing from logician’s concept of ethics is the dynamic action of karma. The Law of Karma is a fact of life which can’t be argued, but rather is known through direct experience by those who pay attention. It’s axiomatic.

Here’s the kicker: Divine Law at the center of the Life Wheel allows for free will, so dear to the hearts of libertarians. We are created innately free to choose. However, this does not exempt anyone from the psychological consequences at the middle, e = energy level of Natural Law, much less karmic pay-back in the material world on the surface of the Wheel.

One of Webster’s definitions of “freedom” is  “being free from the usual rules or patterns.” While it may be possible to cut loose from behavioral customs and rituals associated with the surface level of the Life Wheel, exemption from the operations of Natural Law at the middle, energy level of the Wheel is impossible. Even worse, presuming to placing oneself superior to Divine Law, as if it exists to give you what you want, is a sure recipe for total disaster.

Now, here’s where my concern with the current focus on the SJW war is leading. It’s why I chose to return to multi-layered subject of freedom sooner rather than later:

Debating with ignorant, irrational enemies whose “minds” are already made up is as effective as pissing on a forest fire. To my Sun Tze way of thinking, at this late stage, the best response to provocation is to get safely out of their reach and regroup to minimize loses. For the most part, the motives that drive protesting mobs are neither pristine nor positive. Their methods are vulgar at best, if not violently destructive.

Worse, it’s futile waste of precious time better spent on urgently important issues being overlooked.

So here’s my problem. By grabbing center stage attention, immature Luciferian Alinsky minions are serving as unwitting decoys. They’re distracting public attention away from urgent survival issues that REALLY MATTER, running out the clock on precious time left. There’s a high probability that there’s malevolent method to this madness.

The real issues they’re obscuring are ones of basic survival. For if/when our cities are demolished by natural catastrophe, the grid goes down, and the masses are on the brink of starvation, freedom of speech will be the least of their concerns.

As instruments of dark forces pulling the strings from behind the scenes, noisy SJW protesters (an ironic contradiction in terms if ever there was any) are acting as agents of evil, distracting us away from the urgently positive work to be done NOW if mankind is to survive.

As just one example, here’s a summary of James Wesley Rawles best-seller, Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse:

America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse— the stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. Practically overnight, the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure fall, and wholesale rioting and looting grip every major city.

Let’s not forget other threats: solar flares generating CMEs, asteroid strikes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, volcanoes, and wars both civil and international. There’s also Einstein’s worst nightmare – nuclear holocaust. One or any combination are eminently possible.

You wouldn’t know it from mainstream media. Even Glenn Beck’s site featured as the #1 Story That Matters Most, “Woman who said Hobby Lobby cotton decoration is racist speaks out after widespread backlash.” But in fact, hurricane-ravaged islands in the Caribbean are already playing out worst-case disaster scenarios.

Given the seriousness and immediacy of survival issues which trump idealism, I urge JBP as well as his many friends and countless followers to conserve their resources. Focus attention and action where it will do optimal good. Teach those who are open.

There’s some macho satisfaction to be had in crushing ignorant SJWs with powerfully presented pristine logic. But it’s not a fair fight. He has them out-gunned, so to speak, in every respect. Unfortunately, if anything, being so handily humiliated just fans the flames of hatred. It ratchets up the impulse to vengeance.

Like pissing on a forest fire, winning debates is a Pyrrhic victory.

Now, character, as they say, is fate. I haven’t JBP’s strength of will to engage in verbal wars. I personally prefer not go wading in quicksand. The motto of my choice: Resist not evil; persist in the good.

Heeding lessons learned from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, it seems far better to win the battles that really count, on our own turf, in our own terms and at the time of our choosing. Not the other guys’.

Essay 40 on Freedom has already been posted, so I’m including only the most pertinent parts below. Written in the year 2000, it serves to define the middle and inner levels of freedom, expanding on a libertarian view of personal freedom.

THE FRONT

Freedom is the state or quality of being free, implying exemption or liberation from the control of other people or arbitrary powers.

• It means liberty and independence.

• It implies exemption from arbitrary restriction or a specified civil right.

• It can mean exemption or release from imprisonment, or being able to act, move or use without hindrance or restraint.

• It means being able of itself to choose or determine action freely, at will, implying ease of movement performance or facility.

• It means being free from the usual rules or patterns.

• It can also mean easiness of manner, or sometimes an excessive frankness and familiarity.

Like the words peace, love and unity, freedom is a state attained on the inside first, only then reflected in external circumstances. Freedom is a state of in-dependence, depending on inner resources for guidance, protection and peace. The freedom sages seek is the cessation of negative, involuntary patterns of behavior. Breaking the chains of destructive cause and effect is a function of focus combined with self-correction, forgiveness and positive action.

Those secure in themselves dedicate their lives to extending the freedom they value for themselves to others without prejudice. . .

Legal prohibitions cannot end of slavery. Nor is saying and doing whatever one wants as a puppet of blind impulse true freedom. Seeing through negative filters of fear, pride, or apathy is as limiting as literal blindness. Even in a society that calls itself democratic, to the extent we’re unaware of inner wisdom and the laws of natural change, we’re not really free.

Self-mastery attained by thinking and acting consistently from a paradigm that is simple, complete and correct is the most precious and only inalienable freedom.

THE BACK

The opposite of freedom is imprisonment or slavery. This includes not only external, physical incarceration, but internal, self-imposed limitations. Bad attitudes, negative emotions and self-destructive habits can be as addicting as tobacco, alcohol or drugs, undermining personal freedom.

Recklessness and heedlessness are perversions of freedom. If a mistrusted authority says not to drink, smoke or drive too fast, for example, the first thing a rebellious teen will do to assert “freedom” is disobey, regardless of the consequences. Sadly, this is the hard way to learn the connection between foolishness and disaster.

Hey, guys. It’s time to get real!

Restore Conscience to its central place in your decision-making process.

Return the ancient, complete and accurate reality paradigm to generally accepted, conscious awareness as your top priority.

All else follows.