If there ever was a good time to keep your nose clean and keep your head down, it is now. We aren’t entering into troubled times: we’re in the thick of them. Rough waters ahead, girls and boys. Our jobs now, nay, our duties, are to take care of our families and our communities as best we can. And the best ways to do this are to STAY ALIVE, STAY HEALTHY, and STAY OUT OF JAIL.

It galls, believe me. I get it. We all want to be the brave crusader standing up for this lofty principle or that, but you have to understand that those days are gone. Unless you toe the line set before us by the mass media, the government, the journalistic profession, the educational establishment, and big business–all different fingers clenching into the same iron fist–you will be put down ruthlessly and harshly.

The truth, though, is that every single successful mass movement, at least in America, had huge amount of official power, influence, and money behind it. Ask yourself this: why are certain movements allowed to flourish by the authorities, while others are suppressed and ground down into the dust? It’s because the ones that succeed serve our oligarch’s interests.

None of these were organic, and the ones that are, get squashed and receive no official support. In fact, every single institution is arrayed against them. Movements like these are the true danger to the pre-existing power structure. 

We have a multi-tiered legal system–note, not a justice system–here in the United States. Punishments will be meted out according to who and what you are, and what you did to whom. In the Soviet Union, it was all depending on your class. Here in the Land of the Free, it’s more based on other, more superficial and visual characteristics, as well as what your ancestors may or may not have done to the ancestors of other people. It’s evil and insane, but the sad fact is that the evil and insane are far more willing to fight and die for their evil insanity than normal people are for good, true, and noble ideals.

There are faint glimmers of hope. The Polish church in England who successfully fought off the cops trying to end their Easter services was a good morale booster. But those congregants must still watch themselves, since retaliation will likely come their way. The State never forgets those who embarrass it or give it a bloody nose. 

YOU WILL BE TESTED. It might be something small, like getting you to parrot an idea you don’t really believe in. It might be large, like saying you can’t go to church anymore. But it will happen.

YOU WILL BE PUNISHED. It might be relatively tiny, or it might involve a small, barred room and a giant individual named Tiny who really wants to be your best friend. Chances are, it’ll involve removal from your job or other means of financial support and ability to even use things like banks, but it will happen.

The best we can do is mitigate our risk and attempt to avoid ruinous punishment at all costs. 

GET HEALTHY. Lose weight, hit the gym, stop smoking and drinking so much, and so on. One easy way to avoid the system is to not need to be shoved into it in the first place.BUILD COMMUNITY. Whether online or, preferably, in real life, you need a support network of the like-minded who can provide moral support and give aid when required. Help others and they will help you. It’s impossible to build anything all alone despite what these “rugged individualists” might tell you (also: look at what lasting things people like this have built–oh right, you can’t because there isn’t anything). Get over your hatred of being in groups and “collectivism.” Start going to church. Put out an ad in your town about some shared interest and try to build a community that way. It’s never been easier to connect. A lot of times when one person starts something, and a second person joins, it snowballs from there. Do it!EXPLORE ALTERNATIVES. It’s already happening that people are using banks and payment processors and technology from China, Russia, and other parts of the world in order to have more freedom of speech and freedom of commerce than they can from ostensibly American corporations, financial institutions, and technology providers. Divest yourselves as much as possible.STOP GIVING MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU. Not much else needs to be said about this, but if you need to learn more, read this.SAVE MONEY. This might mean investing in precious metals, stocks, cryptocurrency, real estate, or all of the above. Or it might just involve squirreling away as much money as possible. All are valid. DON’T BE A HERO. Stay out of the streets. Don’t “counterprotest” a protest. Don’t try to stop rioting and looting. You are a second-class citizen and will be treated as such. And yes, you will he killed without hesitation, and nothing will happen to those who kill you. Know this, internalize this, and deal with the injustice of it all. Remember, no one in power gives a rat’s ass about the Constitution, your rights as a citizen, or an impartial reading and application of the laws of the land. The Founders are dead and literally nobody who matters cares about what they had to say or what they thought about government and its relationship to the people. The bad guys won. We are living in occupied territory. It sounds dramatic, but this is how you have to think if you want to survive and thrive.

There are opportunities to succeed. You just need to be strategic and smart about it. It’s easier said than done, but you can:

Start an online business. It’s easier said than done, but you can start small and try providing some service to fill a need you see. Maybe it’ll never replace your day job, but it sure can supplement it.Get into the arts. Music, movies, books, whatever. Several hundred million people are thirsty for alternatives to the slop thrown before them. Run for office in your town, or join some other board or committee. Want to get involved? Forget the national, or even the state level. Those formerly august halls of power are run by greed, corruption, and creepy perverts who only allow the compromised who play along to make a career out of it. Stick to local if you want to make a difference and keep your soul.Join a church. I can’t urge this enough. Find a good, non-converged church–Orthodox and Catholic churches are good starts, but there are others–and go. Pray. Read Scripture. Maybe you don’t believe in the supernatural, but I guarantee if you’re on this side of the divide, who are not happy with how things are going, you probably have way more in common with Christians than you do with nearly anyone else.

You will do your family and community no good broke, in jail, or dead.

I’m doing my part–my books are available here.