Book Sale

Thursday 30 June 2022

Replenished From The East


To follow on from yesterday's blog, I just wanted to highlight how clear it is that the Bible teaches the dangers of multiculturalism. This is very clear if you understand how strict the law was in limiting Israel's interactions with foreign peoples. They were to shun all foreign religious influences (Ex. 20:3), refuse to marry women from certain nations (Ezra 10:10), they were not allowed to let foreigners rule them (Deut. 17:15), they were to ensure all who settled in their land submitted to the law of God and did not practice their own religions (Ex. 20:10; Lev. 17:15, 22:18, 24:16, 22), some settlers from certain nations were not allowed to become citizens for multiple generations (Deut. 23:7-8), and people from other nations were banned from becoming full citizens in perpetuity (Deut. 23:2-6). Full citizenship in Israel meant being able to come into the assembly of the Lord, and foreign influences were to be kept from changing Israel's religious culture. 

All these laws were designed to protect the Biblical culture of Israel. The Bible is not quiet about this issue, and there are many times in which the Prophets condemned Israel for allowing multiculturalism to flourish in its nation. For example, Isaiah 2:

"5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. 7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: 8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made..." (Isaiah 2:5-8, KJV).

Note especially verse 6, Jacob, or Israel, has allowed itself to "be replenished from the east", become fortune tellers like the pagans, and they have also become reliant on foreigners. In other words, they were filled with things from the East, religious things, things like this:

2 Kings 16:10-14 - "10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it 13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar."

Because they were filled with innovations from the East, they had become just like the pagans in their religious outlook, and this had been facilitated by them becoming too close with foreigners. The ESV says they struck hands with foreigners. In other words they engaged in all sorts of trade and military alliances with foreign peoples which allowed those foreigners to influence them in religion and other matters. Because of this, by Isaiah's day, Israel had lost its unique culture and become condemned. 

Now does this sound familiar? 

This is exactly what our nation has done, indeed this is what all western nations have done to varying degrees. These influences are not hard to work against either. All that needs to be done is you need to believe in the culture and identity of your own people, and believe it should be protected. You need to limit your nation's reliance on foreign nations, because reliance on foreign nations causes you to mimic those nations. You need to have strict multigenerational laws about who can be citizens and leaders of your country, like Israel did. And you need to make sure that those who come into your land come in very small numbers and anyone who settles in your land adopts the laws, customs and culture of your people, if they wish to interact as full citizens. 

These principles all sound antithetical to the modern multicultural western mind. But these are all biblical principles, that were applied in different ways throughout Church history. And as long as they were applied they protected western culture from decline into paganism. A couple of generations after we rejected such standards, and now many people deny that any nation of Christendom was ever even a Christian country, contrary to the foundation identity of many of those nations. For example, the Church made England a whole nation from the antagonistic Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and now people try to say England is a multicultral country...that is evil. 

The Old Testament law did not forbid interactions with foreigners, or even trade. It simply put very strict guidelines around these interactions so that their culture was protected. The Bible warned us, and we did not listen. God willing future generations will. 

Wednesday 29 June 2022

Multiculturalism Works As Designed


The latest Australian census figures are in, and the obvious state of religion in Australia has been outlined now by the statistics: Christianity is on a hard decline in Australia: "2021 Census shows changes in Australia's religious diversity"

"Christianity is the most common religion in Australia, with over 40 per cent (43.9 per cent) identifying as Christian. This has reduced from over 50 per cent (52.1 per cent) in 2016 and from over 60 per cent (61.1 per cent) in 2011. As in earlier Censuses, the largest Christian denominations are Catholic (20.0 per cent of the population) and Anglican (9.8 per cent)."

This decline has been obvious to many for sometime, just from the state of our culture. From the denigration of marriage to some of the most progressive (read evil) abortions laws in the world, it is clear Australia is a country that has rejected their God. 

But the most important point of the census is that multiculturalism works: it destroys the Christian nature of your nation as thoroughly as its critics predicted, and as it was designed to do. This was the intention of multiculturalism from the start, to break the Christianity of Western nations and undermine nationalism, both important foundations of Western society. 

The bible warns us of the dangers of multiculturalism for a righteous nation. The entire Old Testament law was designed to stop multiculturalism in its tracks, from its laws about idols through to its restrictions on food. 

We are not bound by the Old Testament law today. But to rejects all of its lessons just out of hand is foolishness. Nothing is more effective at undermining faith in God than relativism and this was as true in the days of Baal as it is in the days of egalitarianism.

Tuesday 28 June 2022

Soy Boy


There's nothing worse than a man furiously upset about Roe vs Wade. Dude you are so broken by the modern world you are desperate for your woman to be able to kill your child at will, so she can make up the second income in your relationship and you can buy a slightly better home, and go out to dinner more, or something like this? That's sad, that many layers of progressively sad.

Modern masculinity desperately needs a revival. 

Guarding the Path's Of Justice


I have been told many times in the last couple of years that it is not a pastor's job to worry about unjust laws and that we should just shut up, submit and bear and grin it. Not in exactly those words, but essentially those sentiments. 

Now, this is a wrong position in so many ways, and for so many reasons. It rejects much of the Bible's teachings, and it rejects the grand traditions of the Church's involvement in influencing and transforming nations throughout history. THE CHURCH gave the West its conception of justice. The Bible makes a mockery of the position that we should not be concerned with justice. For example, Isaiah says this: 

Isaiah 1:1-17 –

“10 Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.

12 “When you come to appear before me,
    who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow's cause.”

This was addressed to the nation of Judah whose corruption was so bad Isaiah compares them to Sodom. And what was it that could set them back on track? Isaiah is clear: “16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” Do what is right and challenge oppression.

It's not just a pastor's job to do this, it's every believer's job. Should we leave it up to the wicked to determine just laws? That very thought should be anathema to every believer. 

Proverbs 2 particularly gives some good insight into this. Verses 1-8 say:

My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
    and watching over the way of his saints.”

Look at especially verse 8, “guarding the paths of justice.” God's heart is to "guard the paths of justice". This is wisdom and he stores this wisdom up for his saints who seek it. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, and who are those who walk in integrity? Those who care about justice:

"9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
    and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
    understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
    and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose paths are crooked,
    and who are devious in their ways" (Proverbs 2:9-15).

Righteous men are God's solution to wickedness. If the righteous do nothing, if the righteous do not care about justice, then wickedness will reign. 

We are to reflect our heavenly father and long for, and seek for justice. For some reason many Christians have forgotten this, but not all of us, and we have to remind people more and more of our responsibility to seek justice in our land. It is literally one of the most godly things you can do, because to be godly means to imitate God and apply his scriptures to our lives.

Why has the Church taken its eye off justice? Well Proverbs makes this clear: they are not getting their wisdom from God. Who could have guessed that pragmatically following the ways of the world in structuring and doing Church would rob the Church of its prophetic wisdom? Anyone who had read this passage, and other's like it, and had taken on board what it says. 

 

 


Monday 27 June 2022

2021 The Year That Civilisation Began To Crack

 


In May 2022 something remarkable happened. The United States military bravely used their resources to land emergency supplies of baby formula on their shores to plug a gap in their own food supply chain.[1] America had run out of baby formula and their military bravely came to the rescue, or so their commander in chief would frame it. The correct way to view this is that America is in trouble. Not just America, really every country that is reliant on the American-centric vast, intricate, supply chain network to supply it with basic products, is in trouble.[2]

We are watching something happen in real time that most of us had only read about in history books: the collapse of the international supply chain. This is an interesting and frightening thing to observe in real time, because it was utterly predictable, and it appeared either no one in power was interested in avoiding this, or that they were deliberately seeking to make this happen. You cannot shut down the supply chain again and again and again, and expect it to always come back online because each shut down does different damage.

Think of the international supply chain like a drunk man in the pub with a thick skull. He can take a bunch of punches and get back up after them several times. He can show an insanely high level of resilience to each punch. But each punch is doing damage, and eventually it is too much. Shutting down the supply chain in one area, say place A, may be intended to be temporary, but in place D they were waiting on products from place B and C, that used the supplies from place A to keep their business going. If place A shuts down for too long, or too many times, then place D suffers and goes out of business. Places B and C now start to struggle. They may be able to sell to places E and F, and make up the business they lost from place D. But places E, and F were waiting on supplies from place G, which is also shut down. The many redundancies give the system resilience, but eventually they break and the complexity of the system means there is no easy fix. You can understand the problem. 

The advantage of a highly complex system of trade and supply is that it is resilient. But this resilience becomes fragility when too many points are broken. Because of the highly specialized nature of our supply chain today, with country 1 specializing in making say steel, and country 2 in making silicone chips, and countries 3-7 not really making anything but purple haired gender studies majors, eventually this all breaks apart. If too many of these supply chains are broken, the whole system begins to suffer, which leads to supply shortages, inflationary pressure on prices, and cascading system collapse.

I have been following this since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 out of interest, and a little bit of concern. The reason being that a few years ago I read a fascinating book titled: 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline. My title of this piece is a deliberate riff off of that book. Kline’s work is a brilliant examination of the time civilisation fell, that many people are not aware of, even though it is etched in our cultural memory. This is the era that gave us the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the introduction of the Palestinians (Philistines) into Canaan. Many of Europe’s ancient ideas and myths originate from the time before the 12th century. Tales of Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, the Minitour of Crete and more. This was the era when Egypt was still the greatest civilisation in the World. This is also the era where that came to an end. Egypt survived the collapse of the Bronze Age civilisation, but it was never quite the same again.

The reason this is all relevant, and not just interesting, is because, just like our civilisation, the civilisation of the Mediterranean world in this era was incredibly complex. We tend to think of the ancient world as being very primitive and disconnected. But there were vast trading networks within the Mediterranean and beyond. Some anthropologists and historians posit that even the Americas were within reach of this Mediterranean civilisation. The discovery of tobacco in Ancient Egyptian mummies would seem to suggest this is true.[3]

The fact that genetic discoveries show that up to 70% of British men are related to the Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamun again highlights that ancient people were more connected than we generally think.[4] Some historians present the history of Europe as if Briton was this dark land shrouded in mystery until Julius Caesar took the Romans there and encountered the Britons. But remember you can travel across the channel in a dinghy today, in calm weather some people even swim across[5], and you can see the coast of France from the coastline in the South East of England. It is also well-known that the Pre-Roman Brits traded with the Gaul’s on the mainland of Europe.[6]  

Cline shows that before the collapse of the Bronze Age civilisation around 1200 B.C., the Mediterranean civilisation was an intricate, interconnected and complex system, with specialization in industry in different cities and regions, embassies spread across the region, a trade tongue or lingua franca, and multicultural communities in every area of the civilisation. We even see in the Bible that there were colonies of Philistines in the land of Canaan, long before we know that the sea peoples called the ‘Peleset’ or Philistines moved into the area as permanent settlers.[7] These were likely earlier groups of traders and migrants in the area, who were there long before the major migration of the sea peoples.

There is evidence of interconnected trade between Minoa and Mesopotamia (the region of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon and Persia).[8] And not just Minoa either, The archives included records of trade and contact with other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East, with specific mention of unusual items that were received.”[9] A fascinating example is that of a dagger and clothing “made in the Caphtorian manner”, that is from Crete,[10] which is where the Philistines came from.[11] Kings even exchanged gifts with each other across these long distances,

“…Zimri-Lim, the king of Mari, sent a pair of Minoan shoes from Crete as a gift to King Hammurabi of Babylon. The text says simply, “One pair of leather shoes in the Caphtorian style, which to the palace of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, Bahdi-Lim (an official) carried, but which were returned.”[12]

There was even ancient re-gifting! 

These gifts were brought directly to the king by emissaries in what would today be called a diplomatic embassy. Such was the level of intricate connection between these ancient societies, something many people do not often thing about. We think of the Classical Greek or Roman society as being intricately connected, but so was this ancient Bronze Age society. So many other examples could be given.

“We must keep in mind that the goods mentioned above represent only a tiny portion of those that once crossed the Mediterranean Sea, for many of the goods traded during the Late Bronze Age were perishable and would be unlikely to leave much in the way of identifiable remains today. Grain, wine, spices, perfumes, wood, and textiles almost certainly have long since disappeared. Raw materials such as ivory, precious stones like lapis lazuli, agate, and carnelian, and metals such as gold, copper, and tin will also have been locally converted long ago into other objects such as weapons and jewelry. Thus, the most abundant signposts of the trade routes and of international contacts may have perished, disintegrated, or otherwise disappeared in antiquity. However, the existence of perishable trade goods can sometimes be identified in written texts or by depiction in wall paintings that have survived to the present.”[13]

15th century tombs in Egypt show Aegean (proto-Greek) people, and Minoan people, along with others.[14] These same inscriptions show them carrying their trade goods and gifts. Perhaps the most incredible example of all of this interconnectedness, is the discovery that British tin may have been used in the construction of the temple of Israel, which was built after these trade networks collapsed.[15] This was a vast and complex interconnected civilisation stretching over large areas of the ancient world. We even see similarities in the concepts of the gods from Babylon to Egypt, to Greece on and up to the Norsemen of Northern Europe.

Then in 1177 B.C. this entire civilisation collapsed, so thoroughly, it appeared as if those civilizations had entirely abandoned the region. Cities like Troy and the Hittite Empire disappeared so thoroughly they were considered myths and legends. For a long time historians believed that a mysterious people, originating from somewhere in the Mediterranean, the Sea Peoples, were responsible for this destruction. And in part this is correct, they caused much destruction and even threatened Egypt for a time, before being defeated by that ancient Empire:

“In 1177 BC, as previously in 1207 BC, the Egyptians were victorious. The Sea Peoples would not return to Egypt a third time. Ramses boasted that the enemy were “capsized and overwhelmed in their places.” “Their hearts,” he wrote, “are taken away; their soul is flown away. Their weapons are scattered in the sea.” However, it was a Pyrrhic victory. Although Egypt under Ramses III was the only major power to successfully resist the onslaught of the Sea Peoples, New Kingdom Egypt was never the same again afterward, most likely because of the other problems faced by the entire Mediterranean region during this period, as we shall see below. The succeeding pharaohs, for the rest of the second millennium BC, were content to rule over a country much diminished in influence and power. Egypt became a second-rate empire; a mere shadow of what it had once been. It was not until the days of Pharaoh Shoshenq, a Libyan who founded the Twenty-Second Dynasty ca. 945 BC—and who is probably to be identified as Pharaoh Shishak of the Hebrew Bible—that Egypt rose to a semblance of prominence again.”[16]

Egypt had defeated these invaders, but it had suffered greatly from their attacks. But so did the entire region.

“Beyond Egypt, almost all of the other countries and powers of the second millennium BC in the Aegean and Near East—those that had been present during the golden years of what we now call the Late Bronze Age—withered and disappeared, either immediately or within less than a century. In the end, it was as if civilization itself had been wiped away in much of this region. Many, if not all, of the advances of the previous centuries vanished across great swaths of territory, from Greece to Mesopotamia. A new transitional era began: an age that was to last for at least one century and perhaps as many as three in some areas.”[17]

An entire advanced civilisation, not too dissimilar to ours in the way that its various nations interacted with each other, disappeared so thoroughly it was as if for many that it had never existed. Still many people in the modern era are shocked to learn about it. The ancient world went from interconnected and inter-reliant to scatterings of small and backward city states across the same region. But were the Sea Peoples the only cause of this collapse? No.

“Moreover, while we do not know for certain the cause, or all the causes, of the collapse of the Bronze Age world in Greece, Egypt, and the Near East, the weight of contemporary evidence suggests that it was probably not the Sea Peoples alone who were to blame. It now seems likely that they were as much the victims as they were the aggressors in the collapse of civilizations. One hypothesis suggests that they were forced out of their homes by a series of unfortunate events and migrated eastward where they encountered kingdoms and empires already in decline. It is also quite possible that they were able to attack and ultimately vanquish many of the kingdoms of the region precisely because those monarchies were already in decline and in a weakened state. In this context, the Sea Peoples might perhaps be considered simply opportunistic, as one scholar has called them, and might have settled down in the Eastern Mediterranean much more peacefully than has previously been assumed."[18]

The Sea Peoples were likely a result of, and also took advantage of, system wide cascade failure. That is, the Bronze Age civilisation had fractured so badly, that it collapsed on its own weight, and then migratory peoples were able to exploit these weaknesses.

“In our current view, as we shall see below, the Sea Peoples may well have been responsible for some of the destruction that occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age, but it is much more likely that a concatenation of events, both human and natural—including climate change and drought, seismic disasters known as earthquake storms, internal rebellions, and “systems collapse”—coalesced to create a “perfect storm” that brought this age to an end.”[19]

The Bronze Age civilisation of the ancient Mediterranean was a remarkable achievement of human connectedness and society, but it fell, and spectacularly. The more complex a civilisation becomes, the wealthier its members can also become. But the more complex it gets the more fragile it becomes as well. All of those things which made this civilisation strong, also made it vulnerable to collapse, such as specialization of industry, international trade of goods, local specialties in skills and products and more. Once the trade networks broke, an entire civilisation came to an end in roughly 1177 B.C.

So how is this relevant to today?

Well for the last two years supply chains have been cracking very badly, and in 2021 it became clear that this is not a temporary thing, indeed the continued disintegration of supply chains has reinforced this. Here are just a smattering of the articles I have read on this issue: 

“Fears grow as UK factories hit by worst supply chain shortages since mid-70s”[20]

“Inside America's broken supply chain.”[21]

“The commercial pipeline that each year brings $1 trillion worth of toys, clothing, electronics and furniture from Asia to the United States is clogged and no one knows how to unclog it.”[22]

“Toyota customers will be waiting up to 10 months for its most popular models. Here is the latest forecast as the global semiconductor crisis goes from bad to worse.”[23]

“It’s likely that if you are reading these words on this website, you already know how hard it can be to get your hands on the new consoles. Well, I’ve got some bad news straight from Xbox VP of gaming Phil Spencer: Finding a console ain’t getting easier anytime soon.”[24]

“Growth in the global market for cars and SUVs will slow in the second half of 2021 after the initial spurt to celebrate recovery from the coronavirus lockdown, but sales in the rest of the decade will suffer initially from chip shortages while the second half will be disrupted by a lack of batteries for electric cars.”[25]

“Chinese antimony prices rose sharply to a seven-year high today as a shortage in concentrate feedstock supplies showed no signs of easing.”[26]

“Our customers are currently experiencing high prices and a low supply of aluminium.”[27]

“Global shortage in computer chips 'reaches crisis point' Consumer price rises loom while dearth of semiconductors slow production from Samsung to Ford.”[28]

“‘We’re sorry’: Toyota Australia apologises, outlines lengthy delays as stock crisis worsens. Toyota customers will be waiting up to 10 months for its most popular models. Here is the latest forecast as the global semiconductor crisis goes from bad to worse.”[29]

“Store shelves are empty again, and COVID is only part of the reason.”[30]

“Rising fertiliser and energy prices could hit Aussie supermarkets hard. A crisis with unprecedented consequences is likely to hit Australia with shoppers being forced to make difficult decisions as prices skyrocket.”[31]

“One of the car industry's biggest computer chip suppliers has warned that a major fire at one of its factories in Japan could have a "massive impact" on its ability to fulfil orders.”[32]

“My prediction is that nothing is going to change and the shipping crisis is only going to get worse. Nobody in the supply chain wants to pay to solve the problem. They literally just won’t pay to solve the problem.”[33]

“2022 Ford Explorer, F-150 Among Vehicles Waiting For Chips…Currently, Ford has around 53,000 vehicles that are awaiting chips, which is a significant number by any measure.”[34]

“Indianapolis — Enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles arrived Sunday in Indianapolis, the first of several flights carrying infant formula from Europe expected this weekend to relieve the deepening shortage in the U.S.”[35]

“Almost 25% of all container ships in service are currently stuck in traffic. Most are waiting to enter crowded ports and around 30 percent of ships are stuck off China's coasts. This is mainly due to the country's strict Covid policy.”[36]

“Why vegetables are missing from shelves and when you’ll see them back again. If you’ve noticed gaps in the grocery aisles, it’s not going to get better any time soon. Woolworths has issued a grim warning about prolonged shortages across a range of foods.”[37]

Many more articles like this could be referenced and linked. Why have I put this long list of articles here? Because I have been following this for a couple of years now. Indeed, I have been expecting to see something like this in our life-time for a while now, simply because our civilisation has been in decline for some time. You could argue the decline of the West began with World War 2, or even earlier with the first World War, or maybe a little later with the final bloom of the Anglo-American Empire, an extension of Europe, in the mid-twentieth century. The West once extended its power at will over any nation in the world it so desired. But in the last 50 or 60 years it has lost wars to a succession of lower end, even third world, powers showing that either the rest of the world is catching up, or the West is slipping, and the fractures in the West show it is a combination of both. This is all now finally coming to a head.

I can imagine that as the Bronze Age civilisation began to fall couriers carried the ancient equivalent of these news bulletins all over the place warning about problems in the supply chain, about production lines going dormant, or not being able to get supplies, or many other issues. Until finally they stopped coming, and then the fall of these societies set in.

Are things going to get better? Maybe, but nothing in all of this shows that this is about to happen. What were supply shortages that were supposed to last into 2021 are now worsening in 2022, and are being predicted to go on for many years now. As one article notes above, these shortages could extend for the next decade in certain areas of manufacturing.

Our civilisation is beginning to crack, these cracks really ramped up in 2021, and our leaders have not the wherewithal to turn this around. Do Biden, Albanese, Johnson, Macron and co. seem like the kind of statesmen that can rebuild our civilisation? Of course not. There are interesting times ahead. I hope you are learning to grow, build and develop strong local communities, because there’s a good chance such skills will be necessary.

List of References -



[2] Ironically, America had for some time previous to this point produced all of its baby powder locally, but local manufacturing issues and regulations had ground this production to a halt.

[7] C.f. Genesis 21:25-34.

[8] Cline, Eric H.. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) (p. 18). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

[9] Ibid, p.19.     

[10] Ibid, p.19.

[11] Genesis 10:14, Jeremiah 47:4, Amos 9:7.

[12] Cline, Eric H.. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) (p. 19). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

[13] Ibid, p.22-23.

[14] Ibid p22.

[16] Cline, Eric H.. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) (p. 9). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. 

[17] Ibid, p.9.

[18] Ibid, p.11.

[19] Ibid, p. 11.

[22] Ibid.       

[26] China’s antimony prices at 7-year high on ore shortage, 2021, https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2191864-chinas-antimony-prices-at-7year-high-on-ore-shortage