Vandalism, Pure and Simple

 

Why would Nolan vandalize the Odyssey the way he is, and still hold his head high?

Now of course, this BabylonBee article is satire, but it is only slightly satire. And that is the problem. Rather than retell one of the greatest stories in history as faithfully as possible, Nolan has sought to reimagine it for our day and age, which is simply Hollywood speak for trash it, subvert it, and seek to profit from it.

As Caldron pool notes,

“Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film The Odyssey is already facing a barrage of criticism, and it hasn’t even been released yet. Much of the fire has largely been directed at Nolan’s painfully “woke” casting choices.

His retelling of Homer’s legendary Greek epic will include transgender actress Ellen Page, rumoured to play Achilles, rapper Travis Scott as a Greek poet, Zendaya as Athena, and Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o portraying Helen of Troy...

…The backlash has been fierce, and arguably well-deserved. Many see it not as creative licence, but as the deliberate defacement of Greek history and one of antiquity’s greatest works of literature. This is not material that should be remoulded to satisfy Hollywood’s diversity quotas…

…Nolan’s defence of the casting hasn’t done much to help his cause either. When asked why he cast rapper Travis Scott in the film, Nolan reportedly explained: “I cast him because I want to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”

Author and Christian commentator, Eric Metaxas, came out guns blazing, stating on X: “As a lover of Western Civilization—and the proud son of a Greek immigrant—I denounce Nolan’s sacrilege in perverting this great epic with DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] and trans lunacy.”[1]

The Odyssey, along with its brother story, Troy, is not simply a fantasy, or a legend, or an ancient action story. It transcends all those genres and styles completely. It is a version of theological narrative, much like the Bible is. Do not misunderstand me, I am not putting the Odyssey on the same level as the Bible, that is not my point. My point is that just as the Bible seeks to understand Israel’s history in light of her relationship with the Lord God, so does Troy and the Odyssey seek to understand Greece’s victory over one of the great empires of that day, Troy, and why the gods chose to favour Greece over the Trojans. You might call it poly-theological history.

That is why this story is so long lasting, and perpetually relevant. It transcends storytelling and crosses over into meaning of life territory. It seeks to cast the actions of the gods and the Greeks and Trojans in light of their understanding of morality in their day. That is why the story moves between the battles on the field, likely based on a true historical battle, and the actions between the gods, based on the Greek understanding of their divine pantheon in that era. It probably even served, to some degree, as political propaganda used to vindicate the Greeks before the other nations of their day for their role in the destruction of one of the greatest cities of their age. While at the same time being used by the Greeks to explain to themselves who they are in the world, and how they should act to keep the “gods” on their side.

These stories were beyond a phenomenon in the ancient world, they were foundational narratives taught to every Greek child, and far beyond. Alexander the Great carried a copy of the Illiad and Odyssey around, a personal copy, like a modern Christian would the New Testament and Psalms. Achilles was not simply a heroic character to him, but a template, an archetype of the ideal Greek. This was one of the purposes of this story, to show the Greeks who they should be.

This is why this story is still remembered today, because it transcended story telling and moves into the mythic narratives which inform culture and society. And Greece is one of the most influential elements of our own history, one of the underpinnings of our own western civilisation. Yes, we have come to understand that the Greek views on God and the divine were idolatrous, for sure. But their stories still tell us something about who we are and where we come from. Indeed, even the Romans claimed in their own mythic narratives to be descended from Trojan refugees, so you can see why these stories remained so popular for so long and why these stories should be preserved faithfully. They inform us of our ancestors. This is not just true for Greeks, but for Europeans in general. These two civilisations run under the foundations of every western nation.

It is my view that this is why this story has been targeted for vandalism. Almost every grand narrative that was loved by those who grew up in the late 20^th century has been successively subverted by Hollywood (may they keep their corruption away from Back to the Future), now they are seeking to move through the historical catalogue to the great timeless stories.

Nolan might be diversifying the cast for pragmatic reasons. The Hollywood academy demands this for any movie that wants any recognition through their awards ceremonies. But there is a simple response to that:

In 3000 years, what are the chances that anyone will exist who has ever heard of Christopher Nolan, or even still remembers any of his movies? What are the chances? Probably less than zero. He might not even be remembered in 100 years.

Even if his most famous films are remembered, the Dark Knight Trilogy, and they are some of my favourite movies, they will be remembered for Batman, and the Joker, far more than they will be for Nolan. More likely they will be forgotten because of a long line of remakes and retellings, and all that will remain is a future catalogue of some of their main stories, kept as artefacts of the myths and legends of our age.  

Yet this upstart has the gall to think he can improve on one of the most successful adventure stories in history, and in Western civilisation! The only stories from history that are more famous are the accounts in the Bible, maybe King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Troy itself. But outside of those stories no other stories have remained so well-known and so much an integral part of history and storytelling itself.

Even The Fellowship of the Ring, which is a story that might survive that long (if Amazon does not succeed in killing it, like Disney has with Star Wars), is a version of the Odyssey story. In fact, "Odyssey" is not just a story, it is a genre all of its own. That is how famous it is.

The arrogance of some living people towards the past never ceases to amaze me. The impudence, even. I truly hope people give this Odyssey movie as little respect as it deserves. The only way to stop these historical vandals is to shun them, entirely. Read the book, you won’t regret it. In this case that is much more important than you may realize. They are trying to change your history right in front of you, and get you to pay for the privilege of watching them do it.

List of References

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[1] https://substack.com/home/post/p-197654432

Chemical Castration

 

I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago about how antidepressants are destroying marriages by creating a plague of sexual inability. It was one of my longer articles. Every so often I decide to put a decent size piece on my page, so that people can have a deeper look at a certain topic, though I usually like to keep my writing down to a few pages.

Because that last article was so long, I thought I would simply highlight some of the main points of that article in a shorter piece. Essentially, many people do not realize that they are being effectively chemically castrated by anti-depressant medication, or to put it another way, they are being chemically lobotomized. Not everyone of course, some people take these medications, feel fine and then stop taking them and life is pretty normal. I personally know people who have this story. However, there is a massive proportion of people in the category where these medications are causing harm, and I think it is important for people to know this.

Part of what inspired me to write this article is because I am becoming personally aware of a plague of sexless marriages in society. And it is not simply through anecdotal evidence, others are writing about this, researching this, and seeking to find the causes. I even just found out yesterday that a reasonably prominent Christian teacher whom I had followed a bit when I was younger identified this as the cause of his marriage breakdown. So, this is a massive issue, and it is one I intend to come back to from time to time, because it has powerful implications for the church and for society in general.

So let me just touch on three important points from my previous piece which you can read here.

Firstly, young people are being harmed by over exposure to drugs like antidepressants, and this is effecting their ability to function in adulthood,

“And yet people are having less sex, in fact some are calling this a sex recession, because of how many people are not having sex or are having little sex:

“The sex recession, also known as the sexual recession, refers to a decline in sexual activity among adults, particularly among young adults. This phenomenon has been observed in various studies and research papers, and its causes and implications are still being debated.

Several studies have investigated the sex recession, including a 2021 study in the Journal of Sex and a 2019 study published by The Atlantic that found young adults in the United States are having less sex than previous generations. This trend has been observed in various countries, including Australia, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom.”1[1]

One of the causes of this, identified in the article, is of course antidepressants,

And to bring us back to the start of the article where we noted that kids are being raised on these things,

“Only over the past few years has Ruth learned, from her daughter, about the sexual side effects she still lives with and about her grief. “Her erogenous zones don’t work,” “I have huge, terrible regret” about allowing her child to be medicated. “I can’t believe I so easily said yes.”24[2]

There are of course other factors that are leading to this situation as well, like the always online nature of our lives, and the death of communal spaces. But this is a much larger factor than many people realize.

This is a serious problem. My nation has a replacement birth rate of 1.481. It is a dying country. This is no joke, and in a dying country we should be very focused on identifying what is killing society. And raising kids with an inability to have relationships as adults as a side effect of this medication is tragic. It truly is a form of chemical castration, that is not even an exaggeration.

Secondly, these negative side effects are far more common than people realize,

“You may be surprised, and I hope a little horrified, at just how common sexual disfunction is from anti-depressants,

“Sexual side effects from psychiatric drugs, especially SSRIs, SNRIs, and antipsychotics, are not “rare” inconveniences. They’re well-documented, common, and in many cases, long-lasting.

Research shows:

SSRIs cause sexual dysfunction in 50–70% of users (we bet even more) (Montejo et al., 2001; Serretti & Chiesa, 2009).

Effects include loss of desire, arousal difficulties, genital numbness, and inability to orgasm and a basic loss of disconnection.

Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)—a condition where sexual function never fully returns even after stopping the medication has been documented in peer-reviewed journals and acknowledged by the European Medicines Agency (EMA, 2019).

Yet despite this, patients’ concerns are routinely minimized or dismissed.”[5]

50-70% of users!! Think about that. 50-70% of users. I am becoming increasingly aware of a plague of sexless marriages in our society. There could be many contributing factors causing this. For instance, regular porn use is known to decrease libido and affect sexual function. Relational issues are also known to decrease libido. Work-life balance is also a contributing factor. The fact that both men and women work so much today that many couples have little time for connection and are often too tired for physical connection, is a serious issue. But another underlying problem, that many people are not aware, of is that their spouse might not be interested in sex because their sexual organs have been numbed or damaged by antidepressants.”[3]

One major reason for depression for someone in a marriage can be the lack of physical intimacy and sexual fulfilment. Imagine a situation where a man or a woman is depressed about this in their relationship, and then they are prescribed drugs which take away their ability for intimacy completely, or at least in a large capacity. Imagine what that does to people.

This takes normal, healthy people, who were upset about something, and further breaks them, with the very medication that was given to them to help them cope, and by the very people who were supposed to be helping them. This again is a literal form of chemical castration, especially for those who experience the more extreme side effects.

And lastly, I just want to highlight this point: it can be permanent, “And in some cases this function NEVER FULLY RETURNS!!”[4] If more people knew that they could be permanently sexually damaged by this medication, do you think they would be so keen to take it? I have personally had people tell me that they had no idea that lack of sexual desire and possible permanent sexual dysfunction could be a result of these medications. Again, they can cause a form of permanent chemical castration. A cruel fate, a cruel fate.

What also concerns me is how many young people in difficult situations, who have genuine reasons for being depressed, are given these medications. This is a serious problem because as your brain is developing you are creating the neural pathways you will lean on for life that will help you deal with a wide variety of situations and contexts you find yourself in. If you face hard times in your youth, you need good people around you to help you identify what is going on to cause the depression and how to bring about change. But also you need to learn to cope with difficult situations so that you can learn to maintain your own mental health.

Some people get into sport, writing, art, marshal arts, running, reading, or some other hobby as a way to help themselves emotionally regulate. Whereas today, many people are just given a chemical solution upon which they become dependent. This creates people with an inability to handle many difficulties in life, a skill everyone needs. When I was young I loved to roam far and wide on my mountain bike. If I was feeling down about something I could get on my bike and ride to a friends house, ride to a bush track, or ride to the movies. I learnt through this how to regulate myself emotionally, while doing exercise at the same time, and I did not even realize I was doing something that would lead to great benefits both then and still now. To this day there are times of severe stress in my life, where I find myself just getting on my bike and going for a ride, and it helps, it helps massively.

How many young people are not learning healthy skills like this, because they are told to just take a pill?

How many young people are not being taught how to change their situation, because they are told to just take a pill?

This is why I speak of both chemical castration and chemical lobotomisation.

People are being ruined sexually, and this is devastating for them, their development, their marriages, and for society. But people are also being damaged mentally, because they are not learning from a young age how to cope with their environment, experiences, difficulties and more.

It is very common in our day and age for people, especially older people, to mock younger Millennials and Zoomers who they see absolutely losing it online, because they have had an emotional breakdown over some minor thing, or perceived wrong. But how many of these older people take drugs for their ailments and are not factoring in that this is exactly how we should expect young people who were not taught how to cope, and were drugged since they were 13, to act? How many of these older people stop to ponder this?

Some might not think a pastor should write about these things. But I how can any of us who see this cruelty happening not address it?

List of References

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[1] https://substack.com/@revmatthewlittlefield/p-195319536

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

Our Culture Does Not Treasure Women

 

I have had many people over the years tell me I am wrong to challenge our societies values about women and work. I admit that I don't always make my case the best, who does.

But I'm not wrong about our cultures degrading way it treats women like men. And it needs to be challenged.

The situations we put women in on a day-to-day basis in our society are simply wrong. Putting women in front line roles is cruel, and I am convinced a major cause of increasing stress and depression amongst women in our society.

Egalitarian cultures don't treasure their women. They make them into economic markers. Egalitarianism is simply a way to train a society to ignore all of its God given inbuilt instincts about the differences between men and women.

This attacker is evil. In my view, so is the society that encouraged this pregnant woman to be in that situation. I think the Bible teaches this too.

And from a scientific perspective this position is incredibly defensible as well. Because Australia's birth rate is 1.481 births per woman. This is far below the necessary replacement birth rate. In other words, we can know scientifically we are doing something wrong, because our society is actually dying before our eyes. Take away immigration, and Australia's population would begin a massive nose dive, if changes were not made. Something is deeply wrong with our culture. It needs to be addressed.

Women Can Be Abusers Too

 

If you were to listen to modern domestic violence discourse, you would think that domestic violence is unique to the male species and that if all men were tamed and controlled than domestic violence would disappear. However, this is far from the case. A large proportion of domestic violence victims are men, and often it is their wives or girlfriends, or sometimes their friend who is the perpetrator, as happened in this alleged instance,

“A woman who angrily doused an "old friend" in petrol and set him alight for making a misogynistic comment was suffering from depression and substance abuse, a court has heard.

Corbie Jean Walpole, 24, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of burning or maiming by using corrosive fluid.

Her victim, Jake Loader, was 23 when he was found with life-threatening burns at a southern New South Wales home in Howlong on January 7 last year.

Walpole tearfully appeared before the Albury District Court today expecting to be sentenced.”[1]

Men, don’t taunt someone who can hurt you. Just do not be that stupid. That being said, this case is a clear example of how women can be dangerous too. Which brings to mind something I am writing about in an upcoming book,

“Before we finish this chapter and this discussion, we need to address two more considerations.

Firstly, what about when the wife is being violent or otherwise abusive? Here are some statistics on this issue: In the UK 712,000 men experience domestic violence every year.^[2] That is about 1/3 of all domestic violence victims, and about 3% of the male population. In the United States 1 in 9 men will face domestic violence in their lifetime.^[3] When all crimes by partners against men are totalled 25.7% of men will face sexual abuse, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.^[4]

It is not well known that men make up about 1/3 of all domestic violence victims. It should be, because there are plenty of men’s activists and activist groups who talk about this. However, they are shunned from media attention, are not given the same kind of funding as feminist domestic violence organisations, and are often disbelieved anyway. And, what is worse, it is very likely the numbers of men being abused are higher because most men are too ashamed to talk about it.

As I said earlier many women crush their husbands with their words, and this might not seem like a big deal, but men have killed themselves over this sort of thing. In fact, many more men commit suicide than women, and relationship breakdown is often at the centre of their situation. Plus, many of the ways women are cruel to their husbands are not included in the statistics. Denying her husband any intimacy or sex will not be seen as abusive by any modern court, or even by many modern women, but it crushes many men in our society, turning them into shells of their former selves.[5] Women tearing their husbands down behind closed doors for every perceived or real failing, however, minor, also cushes men’s spirits. If you also included this and also how many bad women use false accusations to get the state to abuse their husband “legally,” then I suspect the statistics would even things out.[6] Using a false accusation to destroy her husband's life, reputation, and finances is as violent a form of abuse as any employed by a man, yet it is not accounted as such by many.

If you as a man are facing domestic violence you need to separate and move somewhere safe as well. If a woman can do this, why can’t a man? It is not unknown to have violent women hurt or even kill their husbands. Maybe he was also abusive, but not necessarily, either way, staying in a dangerous situation is not good for either the husband or the wife. If you are provoking each other continually, you are playing with fire. Did you hear about the woman who threw fuel on her friend and then set him alight, because he said something insulting?[7] If that can happen between friends who are constantly provoking each other, do not think it cannot happen in your marriage too.”

Men can be dangerous to women, no one with sense denies this. But plenty of people who should have sense deny the other reality that there are really dangerous women in this world. Often, when a woman hurts a man people will seek to explain it as provoked, or a response to something he did. But is there anything a person can say that justifies being burnt alive? No.

Be careful, both men and women need to be careful who they bring into their inner circle. Parents, teach your boys to be wary of the dangerous woman. There are countless men in our society who are now a smoking ruin of their former selves, because no one taught them this wisdom.

List of References

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[1] Erin Somerville, 2025, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-08/corbie-walpole-sentenced-burning-jake-loader-howlong-sentence/105265038

[2] https://www.bing.com/search?qs=UT&pq=how+many+men+suffer+from+domesti&sk=CSYN1&sc=4-32&pglt=931&q=how+many+men+suffer+from+domestic+violence&cvid=73c5fa28cf374766b8a98a4583376449&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIARAAGEAyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQNIBCDY5ODlqMGoxqAIIsAIB&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=NMTS

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid. 

[5] Yes, I am aware that some men do this their wives as well. It is much rarer, though it is real. I addressed this in an earlier chapter (maybe note the chapter and page).

[6] The new anti-coercion laws that feminists are seeking to get enacted across this country, and other parts of the West, might actually open up the opportunity for harassed men to hold to account the bad women who use the kinds of abuse strategies that were up until recently consider below the threshold of being a concern to law enforcement. They might have actually opened up their own constituency to the very kind of encroaching state power they have been seeking to bring men under for decades.

[7] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-08/corbie-walpole-sentenced-burning-jake-loader-howlong-sentence/105265038

The Alien Delusion

 

*

*Just don’t throw chairs in your evangelism, it is not wise.

Could the alien revelation be the delusion people were waiting for? As some have noted (although they clearly wrote their post with AI, still let’s reflect on the situation):

“THE RELIGION OF THE ALIEN AGE

How Alien Disclosure and the Antichrist Forge the Final Global Faith…

…The Reframing of Every Religion Under a Cosmic Banner

Alien disclosure does not destroy religion — it absorbs it.

• Angels become “higher intelligences.”

• Demons become “malevolent non‑human entities.”

• Prophets become “early contactees.”

• Miracles become “advanced technologies.”

• Scriptures become “encoded transmissions.”

• Ancient temples become “landing sites.”

Every faith is reinterpreted as a fragment of a larger cosmic revelation. The world is told:

“All religions were reaching for the same truth. Now the full truth has arrived.”

This is the universalizing mechanism of the final deception.

It is the spiritual equivalent of Babel — not the confusion of languages, but the unification of them.

The Antichrist as the Fulfillment of Every Tradition

Once all religions are reframed as incomplete cosmic encounters, the Antichrist steps forward as the center of the new story.

He becomes:

• the Messiah of Israel,

• the Maitreya of Buddhism,

• the Mahdi of Islam,

• the Kalki of Hinduism,

• the World Teacher of the New Age,

• the “chosen representative” of the cosmic visitors…

…The convergence produces a religion with six defining features:

1. Universalism — all paths lead to the same cosmic source.

2. Evolutionary spirituality — humanity is ascending to a higher state.

3. Extraterrestrial cosmology — the universe is populated with guiding intelligences.

4. Technological mysticism — miracles are framed as advanced science.

5. Mandatory unity — religious exclusivity is dangerous.

6. Allegiance to the Beast — loyalty becomes a spiritual duty…

…The Continual: The One Faith That Cannot Be Absorbed…”

What is the faith that cannot be absorbed? Christianity. We know this will be the case. Sure, there will be attempts from false teachers among the Church to seek to accommodate Christianity to the new one world religion. That is nothing new. Whatever pagan ideology is put forward, there are always those who are quick to want to subvert Christianity with it; the Churchians. But true believers will aways stand against this.  

Because of this, orthodox (little ‘o’) Christianity will be cast as the villain, the threat to one world peace, the opponent to the unification of belief, and the roadblock to progress. In many ways it will be the French Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution all over again. The sins of Christians will be magnified, and the exclusive claims of Christianity will be reframed as arrogance, and they will seek to turn the common man and woman against the believer.

Paul warns us about the strategies of the coming antichrist,

“8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:8-12).

He will use all sorts of apparent or actual supernatural power to deceive. Even Pharoah’s magicians could turn staffs into serpents, remember. Many will fall for the antichrist’s supernatural deception. Many have fallen for this in the past.

Yes, I know there have been many antichrists, John himself tells us this, “18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). But he appears to strongly imply there will be a final boss as well, as does Paul, and many others. In fact, I see no good reason in scripture to not believe there will be a series of boss fights, and then the final boss fight.

Could this “alien revelation” be the strategy?

It could be, and it could also be another strategy that fails. Just like past attempts for evil to take world power have failed. Only the Lord God knows the hour and time of the end, the devil does not. So just because he is attempting something through his servants does not mean that it will succeed and this will be the final boss encounter. But be vigilant. And study the strategies of the antichrist powers, they are very consistent and laid out in scripture, as I discuss in this article you can read here.

There is nothing in the Bible that should shake a Christian’s faith if aliens are shown to exist, or at least it is claimed that they do. The Bible is clear that human beings are not the only intelligent beings which exist outside the triune God. Angels and demons exist, in fact, the Bible even refers to “extraterrestrial beings” in a manner of speaking.

For example, David refers to the “benoy elohim” or heavenly beings several times in the Psalms. One example is Psalm 29, “1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” (Psalm 29:1-2). The word extraterrestrial means, “of or from outside the earth or its atmosphere.” The “sons of God” mentioned in Job 1 and 2, the beings we would call archangels, among which exist both evil (Satan) and good versions (Gabriel, Michael, etc.) are by definition “from outside the earth or its atmosphere…” They exist in other dimensions, they can appear in this dimension, they are not limited in their movement like human beings are. It is not outside of the realm of possibility that such beings on the evil side would seek to deceive human beings about their origin and intent. This is precisely what happened in the past with their claims to be false gods.

Same trick, slightly different costume. A reframing of an old deception for a technological age. One where the ground work has been well laid, as well.

However, we know that there is no force from this world or outside our world that will convince genuine believers to deny Christ…well, unless you believe that a believer can reject Christ. But that is a discussion for a different post. Christians will stand firm in their belief in Jesus, they will reject false messiahs, and will be cast as the villains for doing so. This is a tale as ancient as the Church itself.

The point is, many and varied deceptions will be thrown at us in our lives. This might be the next one. It might simply be the product of fringe ideas on the internet and in the media. But as Christians it is very simple for us to prepare how we should respond to this possibility. We simply need to be ready to tell any being that denies Jesus Christ is Lord, that they should repent. It is that simple.

Hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, friends, more lies are coming. We might not be exactly correct about what they will be, but we know more lies are coming. This is a world of lies.  

How To Judge Possible Rate Rises

 

I am not a financial advisor, so please take my advice with a grain of salt. However, I was having a conversation with someone once about why I saw rate rises coming, and why I believed they would be the trend up or relatively high for some time, and he said, “Why did you not tell me this?” I said, “Would you have listened?” He just looked at me...we both knew the answer.

However, I thought it might be helpful me to note how I approach analysing what is happening in the financial markets, so that my family can be best placed to deal with different challenges in the economy, especially regarding rate hikes.

The Australian Reserve bank has only one approach to inflation, only one: increase rates.

Hence, you should not follow the financial analysts who seek to predict whether or not rates will rise one month, or another.

Rather, you should take note of what is happening with inflation. If inflation is strong. Then rates will rise. But more than that, take note of the things that cause high inflation. Things like:

- High Immigration.

- Increased government spending.

- Wars in fuel rich regions. Like the Middle East, or Russia. These regions produce so much fuel any war in them will cause economic pressure, increased fuel prices, and therefore inflation.  

- Housing stimulus packages.

- Significant interference in the economy (like when they shut things down during the big cough).

- Labor governments being in power (this is not a pro LNP point, it is just true that Labor governments tend to spend more and increase immigration more, both of which cause inflation. But LNP have been known to do this too, at times). But Labor’s general approach is to stimulate the economy in various ways which generally causes higher inflation.

If you follow these causal factors you will have a rough idea of when rates are going up and when they will go down. And when you see these factors beginning, or advancing, then you can lock rates at the low and ride out the high with fixed rates.

The cool thing is, if you have decent equity on your home, then if you lock and economic factors change, then you can simply refinance with a new bank. This is much harder if your loan is new, or you just upgraded your house for a bigger loan. But if you have done that and locked rates you have a fixed payment and you can budget better.

The point is: All the things that cause inflation are running rampant right now, and have been for some time, with no indication that this will stop. Hence, you can look at the macro picture and have a general idea of where things are headed in the medium term.

I would never recommend playing the variable game. There are very few, if any, advantages.

Also, pay down your debts as fast as you can. I really believe things are going to get rockier. 

 

Does Trump Understand This?

 

I have no idea what Trump understands or does not understand. Unlike many people online I do not consider him to be as dumb as is often claimed by some, nor as brilliant as is often claimed by others. For a long time he had good instincts about how to get support from a broad base in society. He has shown good instincts on domestic policy, and even some of his international excursions have worked out better than some predicted they would. But I think the old adage, “the seeds of defeat are sown in victory” apply to this situation with Iran. Things he had done well have caused him to over extend and land the US in a much more difficult situation.

With Venezuela he got away with a bold and, in the modern mind, unique style of strike. It was not as unique as some think, if you read the Old Testament there are very similar actions taken by other nations. For instance, at one point both Syria and Samaria plot to take out the leader of Judah, so that they can get Judah on board with their foreign policy (Isa. 7:1-9). However, in the context of recent US foreign policy it was quite unique, and the quickness with which Venezuelan ships started taking their oil where the US and its allies would prefer, really even got many critics to support the actions after the fact. But it has caused his most avid supporters to overestimate his abilities.

Iran has proven a much harder nut to crack. There are various reasons for this. The ancient nature of their society. The fact that for decades now they have forged a relatively successful economy under sanctions. The ideological nature of their leadership which makes it far more impervious to pressure. The distance from the US to the Middle East. Iran’s placement in the world trade system and its ability to turn around and put sanctions on the much of the world in response to attacks. The US’s intricate relationship with Israel, which makes it harder for the US to act completely in its own interests (though I suspect this relationship is being strained by this conflict). And various other factors make this situation much harder to handle. But there is also one other, very significant reason why this nut is much harder to crack.

Trump’s policies towards Iran are accelerating the very fracturing of the world trade system that many of his supporters argue that he was seeking to protect with this war. Some argue he was really seeking to address the city of London’s hold on global trade through ancient legal structures, and remove the United States from under the sway of these influences. There may even be some solid reasons to agree with this analysis. The problem is that the city of London’s hold on trade was already declining, because as many analysts have observed, the world is bifurcating into an economic zone centred in Asia which includes China, its allies and its satellites, and another zone which includes much of the historical west led by the USA, along with its allies and satellites, this is where the city of London still has power as well. In other words, if the city of London and the Trump administration were competing, they were competing over and already shrinking influence.

This is the part of the analysis many people are not factoring in. They think it is Trump verse the globalists. Others think Trump has been co-opted by the globalists. But there is no reason to be so binary about how world power works, there are clearly many factions and centres of power, and they are competing with each other. The Western centres of power are increasingly losing their dominance.

This can be seen in different ways, but one of the core ways is how nations on the Asian continent are increasingly seeking to build more land trade routes. I touched on this as being one of the real reasons behind Israel and the US’s attack on Iran back in June 2025,

“Iran is succeeding to grow its economy, and it is succeeding in a way that it should not be under some of the harshest sanctions in the world. It is succeeding in a way that presents a challenge to the US dominance of the world economy, and the US/Israeli dominance of the Middle East.

You have probably heard of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative? This is China’s attempt to create a trade network all across the world, with interlocking infrastructure to increase China’s trade power in many regions of the world. But did you know how closely China is working with Iran to achieve this trade dominance in the Eurasia? China and Iran have jointly created a successful China-Iran railway corridor, and guess what, it just went operational,

“On May 25, 2025, the first freight train from Xi’an, China, arrived at the Aprin dry port, Iran, marking the official launch of a direct rail link between the two countries. This new logistical artery significantly reduces transit times (from 30–40 days by sea to roughly 15 days by land) yielding a direct impact on transportation costs.”[1]

This railway is part of a much larger and broader East-West Corridor that is designed to link China, physically, with a trade route directly to Africa, and to Europe, without having to use the more traditional sea trade routes. Think of it as a new railway-based silk road, the very concept that China implemented in the past to make itself an economic powerhouse is previous eras.”[1]

The United States, along with Britain before it, and France and Holland before that, built their wealth and their power around being sea powers. This is one of the reasons that after World War 2 the dominance of the world system moved so readily towards the United States. During the war America had so focused on sea power to crush Japan, that its navy remained unquestionably the dominant navy. The Soviet Union had the chance to do what China is now doing and turn its place on the Eurasian continent into a power that could bypass US controlled sea lanes, but the corrosive nature of communism made it quickly collapse from within. However, China is a much more resilient nation, has learnt from the mistakes of the Soviets, and is seeking to build its influence in a much slower and methodical way, while the US galivants around the world using a combination of force, threat of force and economic warfare to harangue everybody to stay in line. However, this influence is waning, as wealth concentrates in Asia.

This war is quickening the rise of the Eurasian continent, emphasis on Asia, and now Pakistan is following the approach of China. As Simplicius notes,

“From the above—Pakistan has created “an overland sanctions-resilient corridor [to Iran] capable of reshaping regional trade geometry”:

Pakistan’s decision to formally open its territory for third-country goods bound for Iran marks far more than a customs adjustment, because it inserts Islamabad directly into one of the most strategically sensitive logistics contests now unfolding across the Middle East and the northern Arabian Sea.

At a moment when the Strait of Hormuz faces severe disruption, Iranian ports remain under intense maritime pressure, and more than 3,000 Iran-bound containers are stranded at Karachi, Pakistan has effectively created an overland sanctions-resilient corridor capable of reshaping regional trade geometry.

By activating Gwadar, Karachi, Port Qasim, Taftan, Gabd, Quetta, Khuzdar and Ormara as integrated transit nodes, Islamabad is not merely facilitating commerce but redefining force posture, strategic access, and geopolitical leverage between Washington, Tehran, Beijing, and the wider Indo-Pacific maritime system.”[2]

Pakistan is taking the opportunity this war presents to restructure how it trades with Iran through land routes. This is the kind of situation that sea powers fear, one where land-based powers can simply ignore them, or largely work around their influence and power. Britain worked hard for centuries to support rising powers in Europe to challenge the dominant land powers, in an effort to stop any one continental power becoming too dominant. This policy eventually culminated in two of the worst wars in history, WW1 and WW2, where the size and power of the British Empire drew most of the world into their final two attempts to maintain their dominance. World War 1 was indecisive, and World War 2 ended with Britain in steep debt and then decline and the US, a sea power, and the Soviet Union, a land power, squaring off for dominance of the world system.

While the US was dominant over the West for much of that time, it really only became the true singular world power when the Berlin wall fell, and with it the Soviet empire. But rather than maintain order and stability, the US has engaged in foreign war after foreign in the Middle East severely weakening its prestige in the world, and incentivising the switch to land based trade in the Eurasian continent. In other words, Trump’s efforts to stop what is happening are accelerating the bifurcation of the world system. He may have intended to fight a different type of war, but the Middle East is not known as an ancient quagmire for empires for no reason. 

Even Ukraine can be seen as part of this trend. Prior to the Ukraine war Europe’s dependence on Russian resources was increasing, and this would have concerned the powers that reside in Washington. Most of the world, and most of the wealth of the World is concentrated in Europe and Asia. If that continental block was able to draw together, they would be able to exchange wealth and grow prosperous without any real need for US naval power or influence. Empires do not like seeing themselves become obsolete.

It is for reasons like this that I analyse the Iran war through the lens of collapsing US dominance and growing Asan dominance. Or in other worlds, through the historical lens of the rise and fall of empires. The sad thing is the rise of Asia came about as a direct result of Anglo-American free trade policies that moved technology and industry to that region. And now, whether he knows it or not, Trump’s policies are accelerating the very thing that Anglo-American powers have sought to avoid for centuries: a European/Asian trade network which they cannot dominate. I do not see them letting this happen without fighting hard to stop it, therefore, we can conclude that there are worse wars to come.  

List of References

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[1] https://revmatthewlittlefield.substack.com/p/what-they-arent-telling-you-about

[2] Simplicus 2026, https://substack.com/home/post/p-195899035