Situational Awareness For Sojourners–Teddy Roosevelt Knew About “Weak and Vicious Minds”

The Modern Prevalence of “Weak and Vicious Minds”

Today many Americans are discussing yet another mass shooting.  Unlike the Black Marie Antoinettes and other “perpetually surprised” African-Americans who don’t pay attention to the prevailing conditions that exist around them, Sojourners take careful note of the world they live in. Including the violent, entitlement-mentality nuts who live in the world. Including the not-infrequent common denominator among more than a few violent nuts of having served in the U.S. military after 9/11 (with or without actual combat experience).

Nobody talks about the risk factors created by the presence of modern day U.S. military veterans. In this hyper-nationalistic era, it’s sacrilege for anybody to point out that a decade of wars fought by an all-volunteer force means that the military hasn’t been screening those volunteers as strictly as they would in peace time.

The endless wars also mean that the military hasn’t been telling the entire truth about how damaged and broken many modern veterans are. Oh no, it’s all swept under the rug with the cooperation of the masses of civilian American sheeple. Facing unpleasant realities might mean an interruption in the bread and circuses of watching Snookie and American Idol.

 

From Shot in the Chest 100 Years Ago, Teddy Roosevelt Kept on Talking (emphasis in bold):

On October 14, 1912, an unemployed saloonkeeper shot former president and Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt outside a Milwaukee hotel. Rather than being rushed to the hospital, Roosevelt insisted on delivering his scheduled 90-minute speech. By slowing the bullet, those lengthy prepared remarks may actually have saved his life.

Theodore Roosevelt’s opening line was hardly remarkable for a presidential campaign speech: “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible.” His second line, however, was a bombshell.

“I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.”

. . . The horrified audience in the Milwaukee Auditorium on October 14, 1912, gasped as the former president unbuttoned his vest to reveal his bloodstained shirt. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” the wounded candidate assured them. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bullet-riddled, 50-page speech. Holding up his prepared remarks, which had two big holes blown through each page, Roosevelt continued. “Fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet—there is where the bullet went through—and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.”

Only two days before, the editor-in-chief of The Outlook characterized Roosevelt as “an electric battery of inexhaustible energy,” and for the next 90 minutes the 53-year-old former president proved it. “I give you my word, I do not care a rap about being shot; not a rap,” he claimed. Few could doubt him. Although his voice weakened and his breath shortened, Roosevelt glared at his nervous aides whenever they begged him to stop speaking or positioned themselves around the podium to catch him if he collapsed. Only with the speech completed did he agree to visit the hospital.

The shooting had occurred just after 8 p.m. as Roosevelt entered his car outside the Gilpatrick Hotel. As he stood up in the open-air automobile and waved his hat with his right hand to the crowd, a flash from a Colt revolver 5 feet away lit up the night. The candidate’s stenographer quickly put the would-be assassin in a half nelson and grabbed the assailant’s right wrist to prevent him from firing a second shot.

The well-wishing crowd morphed into a bloodthirsty pack, raining blows on the shooter and shouting, “Kill him!” According to an eyewitness, one man was “the coolest and least excited of anyone in the frenzied mob”: Roosevelt. The man who had been propelled to the Oval Office after an assassin felled President William McKinley bellowed out, “Don’t hurt him. Bring him here. I want to see him.” Roosevelt asked the shooter, “What did you do it for?” With no answer forthcoming, he said, “Oh, what’s the use? Turn him over to the police.”

Although there were no outward signs of blood, the former president reached inside his heavy overcoat and felt a dime-sized bullet hole on the right side of his chest. “He pinked me,” Roosevelt told a party official. He coughed into his hand three times. Not seeing any telltale blood, he determined that the bullet hadn’t penetrated his lungs. An accompanying doctor naturally told the driver to head directly to the hospital, but Colonel Roosevelt gave different marching orders: “You get me to that speech.” [Khadija speaking: Now that’s an old-school man!]

. . . Blasted by political opponents and elements of the press for being a power-hungry traitor willing to break the tradition of two-term presidencies, Roosevelt told the Milwaukee audience that the campaign’s inflamed political rhetoric contributed to the shooting. “It is a very natural thing,” he said, “that weak and vicious minds should be inflamed to acts of violence by the kind of awful mendacity and abuse that have been heaped upon me for the last three months by the papers.”

 

Ladies, be advised that the baseline level of decency, character and resilience among the majority of modern Americans (of all races and ethnicities) is  FAR below what existed in previous eras. Recognizing this reality means being much more cautious about who’s around you than the average American sheeple (or the “perpetually surprised” masses of African-Americans). There has always been a certain amount of bullying among children and teens. There have always been romantic disappointments. There have always been workplace disputes. Injustice has always existed.

All of these things existed without an unending series of mass shootings. What’s the difference between previous eras and today? The difference is that modern day America is jam-packed with the “weak and vicious minds” mentioned by Teddy Roosevelt. Modern minds that are weaker and more vicious by several orders of magnitude.

Take Careful Note Of The Post 9/11-Era U.S. Military Veterans In Your Work And Home Environment

I know this will anger and offend more than a few audience members, but it needs to said out loud. For your safety and your loved ones’ safety. Let me repeat some of the comments I made during a recent email conversation:

. . . I’m so very sick of watching gullible AA slaves continue to speak of the US military as an “opportunity” for their children. None of the AA fools I've known who have signed up for that bs can explain why they’re risking their lives, except for a meager paycheck they feel they can’t get anywhere else. None of the AA cannon fodder or their parents will acknowledge that warfare tends to drive people crazy. Or that if a job literally destroys you, then it’s not accurate to call that job an “opportunity.”

 

The same applies to the AA wannabe cannon fodder and their parents. They get very angry when my response is to say that AAs need to stop encouraging/allowing their children to sign up for that bs. As the economy continues to fail, there won’t be enough money to try to fix these people’s broken minds and/or broken bodies. Better to avoid having those problems by not volunteering for military service.

 

Quiet as most affected folks are keeping it, the US is reaping and will continue to reap the whirlwind with all these deranged soldiers coming back. The AA military families I know don’t openly talk about how crazy their sons (and daughters in some cases) are when they return from the last decade of wars. But they quietly ask friends and acquaintances to pray (and keep praying) for their now-deranged veteran children.

 

The stories I’ve heard from the mostly working class, single AA military mothers I know about some of their veteran-sons’ behaviors after they get home are scary. I wouldn’t want such persons living in the same house with me. Or anywhere around me. Too many of these veterans are ticking bombs waiting to go off. The government keeps quiet about all of this as much as possible (for obvious reasons). Unfortunately, the numbers of veteran suicides and murders of spouses, etc. will increase to the point that the powers that be won’t be able to keep all this on the hush-hush.

 

. . . Guurl, these AA cannon-fodder parents are cray-zee!

They get enraged when anybody points out that this country has been engaged in wars for over a decade. And God forbid that anybody mentions that volunteering for military service during wartime equals signing-up to get killed or maimed. They and their foolish adult children are “perpetually surprised” when bad things happen as a result of Voluntary. Military. Service. During. Wartime.

 

Meanwhile, they’re constantly asking for donations of toys, money, food and prayers “to help the soldiers” (who didn't have to sign-up for that bs). And extra prayers for their now-deranged children. I’ll add that these requests/demands are typically framed in such a manner that anybody who doesn’t donate is made to look “un-patriotic.”

 

I feel bad for the Vietnam-era veterans who didn’t have any choice. Not to mention that was a previous era–before the US government’s massive corruption had been exposed to the masses. I don’t feel sorry for the modern day idiots who volunteer for US military service–to fight wars they can’t even explain why or who they’re fighting–after 10+ years of non-stop war. Similar to how I don’t feel sorry for the Iraqi and Afghan collaborators . . . err, interpreters who are “perpetually surprised” when the US military abandons them to their fates with their angry countrymen.

 

Didn’t the educated ones among those fools see the YouTube footage of the last US military helicopter taking off from the US embassy in Vietnam–while leaving all the Vietnamese collaborators behind to meet their fates with the victorious Vietnamese communists?

 

In both situations, a little bit of forethought goes a long way. Hmmph!

Previous eras’ American military veterans didn’t present as much of a security risk to the rest of the population because they were draftees drawn from a more random selection of earlier, old-school Americans. Old-school Americans had a higher baseline level of decency, character and mental resilience. Not the widespread

• spoiled,
• weak,
• poorly-socialized (grew up playing computer games instead of playing outside in the real world with other children; prefers impersonal digital communication over actually talking to other people*),

and all too often vicious minds of the current day American masses.

From an article in today’s edition of Veterans Today, Veteran Suicides and Family Killings – What Can We Do? (emphasis added in bold):

But perhaps a more frightening trend is the rate of veteran suicides, which Veteran Affairs (VA) placed at 22 every day as of February 2013. Every 65 minutes, a veteran takes their own life. And at least 1 soldier lost to suicide every day is on active duty. Veterans with PTSD are four times more likely to commit suicide. So what has changed to cause this continual rise in veteran suicides? Why are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans so much more likely to commit suicide than Vietnam-era veterans?

We know it is not duration of deployment, because Vietnam veterans spent year in country without any breaks at home like today’s soldiers get.  And, in anything, war is carried out more efficiently now thanks to technology and knowledge born of experience. 

According to professionals in both the field of psychiatry and long-time military members, it may very well have to do with the way today’s generation of soldier was raised. The young men who went off to fight in World War II had far greater responsibilities and faced more significant hardships due to the Great Depression.

And just as the nation’s worst economic crash to date crawled to a close, we entered World War II. Those fighting in Vietnam grew up exposed to a great deal of hatred and violence as the Civil Rights movement reached its peak. 

According to David Rudd, the scientific direction of the National Center for Veteran’s Studies, “My worry is that they have not dealt with enough challenges, enough disappointments, in life for many of them to build the kind of resilience that is foundational when you go to war.” 

How do you build that resilience? Through adversity and difficulty. Going through trials and tribulation, while a terrible experience no one wants to see repeated, granted young men in the 1940’s the coping skills necessary to mentally survive war.

Large numbers of modern day American veterans aren’t like previous generations of U.S. veterans. The same way large numbers of modern day American politicians aren’t like previous generations of U.S. politicians. The vast majority of modern politicians are unworthy of your trust. They’re certainly not worth you sacrificing your life to support their lies and political ambitions.

 

Ladies, take careful note of the post 9/11-era U.S. military veterans in your work and home environment.

 

[*Bonus Note: Anybody who wants to thrive in the real world will have to learn how to build rapport and make connections in person. As far as I'm concerned, the main underlying source of the decline described in THIS POST is that certain types of “virtual” things can’t be effective long-term substitutes for more direct forms of interaction. The whole point of this online crowdsource thing was to replace personal appeals for contributions based on personal knowledge or respect for the persons asking for donations.

No matter how much many of the under-30 set want to evade and elude the personal touch, there’s really no way around it in the long run.  Stable, sustainable networks are based on in-person interactions. The same applies to business. 

 

Stable, sustainable businesses  are based on some form of personal investment into something. Even with purchases that aren’t so apparently personal. Like the way many readers buy fiction: They actively seek out some writers’ books because they like those particular writers’ individual voices. Not because they thought their internet campaign was cool. 

 

Readers will do a one-off experiment with ebooks based on cool marketing, etc. But they go out of their way to purchase ebooks, movie tickets, and so on based on things like word of mouth recommendations from sources they trust, like friends and relatives, and so on. 

 

Ladies, it would be wise to cultivate your in-person charm.] 

Next Steps Along The Sojourners’ Path, Part 2

HERE'S  an excellent blog post for you to consider. Regarding these sorts of media issues, do you know what the underlying problem is? As far as I’m concerned, the underlying problem is that African-American (AA) women consume way too much media.

The vast majority of us watch FAR too much TV, we listen to too much radio, we spend too much time online. In short, like AA males, the vast majority of AA women are too plugged-in. And not cultivating their virtues, talents or charms.

Unlike the typical AA female zombie consumer who eagerly laps up anything at all that features Black-skinned faces—even when it’s something degrading—the Sojourners:

1. Don’t watch reality TV, Tyler Perry movies, Lee Daniels’ movies, Steve Harvey-related media, Rev. TD Jakes-related media,
2. Have no idea what folks are talking about at negro-slave-oriented gossip blogs.
3.  Have no idea what most negro slave celebrities are up to (because these are generally nonproductive people who aren’t doing anything worth knowing about).
4. Have no idea who the latest (c)rappers are or what they’re doing.

The Sojourners have more common sense than to waste their time with such mess. Sojourners know that the traditional opening strategy for many upstart, minimal-quality cable TV networks is to pimp the AA consumer zombies. These networks use cheap, low-quality Black-oriented programming to build an initial audience of faithful AA consumer zombies.

After establishing a stable base audience of AA consumer zombie-viewers, the cable network uses the financial base created by AA slave viewers to develop more expensive programming designed to appeal to their true target audience: White viewers.

Once the new network develops a stable of programs favored by a sizeable audience of White viewers, the network then discards the AA consumer zombies and the Black-oriented shows used to attract AA consumer zombies. The network throws the slaves away like yesterday's trash. Two good examples of this strategy are the WB Television Network and UPN. From the Wikipedia entry about the WB Television Network (emphasis in bold):

The network's first programs were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically black audience, though several series during the network's first five years were also targeted at families.

Even though four of the five shows that debuted in the netlet's first nine months – The Wayans Bros., Unhappily Ever After, The Parent 'Hood and Sister, Sister (the latter of which was picked up by the network after being cancelled by ABC) – were renewed beyond the first year, none of them made a significant impact. The WB expanded its programming on Sunday nights for the 1995–1996 season, but none of the new shows (including the Kirk Cameron vehicle Kirk and night-time soap opera Savannah) managed to garner much viewing interest.

From the Wikipedia entry about UPN (emphasis in bold):

Other notable UPN programs during the network's existence included The Sentinel, Moesha, Star Trek: Enterprise, WWE SmackDown, America's Next Top Model, Girlfriends, the Moesha spin-off The Parkers, Veronica Mars and Everybody Hates Chris. In the summer of 2005, UPN aired R U the Girl, in which R&B group TLC searched for a woman to join them on a new song. The network also produced some special programs, including 2001's Iron Chef USA. From 1996 to 2006, much of UPN's comedy programming for the remainder of the network's run (particularly those seen on the network's Monday evening lineup) was largely aimed at African-American audiences (with minor exceptions in shows such as Clueless, DiResta and Head Over Heels).

Like I said, the Sojourners know better than to watch the type of mess that the typical AA consumer zombie is watching. But one lingering issue I’ve noticed even among the Sojourners is that many of us are still consuming too much media. At the end of the day, media consumption is a passive activity. It’s the inferior experience of watching somebody else play tennis as opposed to playing tennis yourself.

The greater rewards in life come from spending less time in passive activities, and more time actively living life.         

 

Next Steps Along The Sojourners’ Path, Part 1

As I watch events continue to play out as I predicted several years ago, I thought now would be a good time to discuss some next steps for those of us who are Sojourners. We’ve already got the basics covered:

(1) We’ve left Blackistan to reside in much safer and supportive areas.

(2) We work toward actively protecting our physical and mental health with consciously-chosen healthier diets, regular exercise, and plenty of self-pampering.

(3) We’ve cleansed our social circles of male-identified women, damaged-beyond-repair individuals of either gender, along with anybody else who is unable or unwilling to reciprocate our fellowship and support.

(4) We’re forming as many mutually supportive relationships (of all kinds, romantic, friendship, religious fellowship, and so on) and networks as possible. Our relationships and interactions are based on reciprocity, not race or color. We support those people who support us. We don’t support people who don’t support us. We especially don’t support people who hate us.

We naturally gravitate toward reciprocating relationships, and away from one-sided relationships. We didn’t need a sermon to explain to us why we should not financially support Precious, Red Tails, D’Jango Unchained, The Butler, Tyler Perry flicks, etc. Because we highly value ourselves, we are automatically repulsed at the notion of giving money to people who hate us.

(5) We work toward developing additional, location-independent income streams for ourselves.

What next? Here are a few suggestions:

Become Even More Proactive About Preserving Your Health and Food Security

It’s never a good time to be sick. In this era of economic collapse, it’s an especially bad time to be sick. It’s an especially bad time to be an AA woman who treats hypertension or early onset diabetes as some sort of rite of passage. There will be more news stories like this one from the past couple of months: Cries of Betrayal as Detroit Plans to Cut Pensions.

This news story features something we’ll see more of as each day passes: A 73 year old African-American (AA) lady who is caring for a more or less invalid BM husband who needs dialysis 3x per week. Multiply that type of set-up (1 or more adults depending on ONE elderly AA woman who's carrying their burdens for them) by literally millions of AA women. It reminds me of a recent comment to this post at another blog by a commenter named Oshun (partial quote from comment #9):

. . . It seems like all the people I used to know even people in my family are on the razor’s edge. (Knock hard on wood) Underemployed or unemployed + DBR BM and BW who keep having babies like it is 1945 and we are going through an economic boom = disaster.

 

I have mule aunts who work full time and have nothing to show for it. They keep coming around asking for financial help and food because they are supporting DBR family who do nothing, but leech and keep up drama and discord and have babies. These women are too young for assistance late 40s- 50s and make too much money according to the poverty scale, but they are drowning.

 

They have taken in a lot of DBRs (sons usually) and their baby mamas, and toddlers and newborns. And the suffering is palatable.

 

I have one aunt who is supporting her son, his wife, and their two children. Sometimes their utilities are on and sometimes not. Sometimes the rent gets paid and sometimes it is 4 months behind.

 

I am not an advocate for aid, but they need to apply for it. And they won’t. They won’t even try to get food stamps, which is the least they could do, and then buy food for the whole house. They also will not clean or cook and then will cuss her out. So she comes over here hunting for food.

 

Then the people on her job are trying to force her out because they want to use temp workers not people they have to pay benefits too. If she loses her job she is up crap creek and so are they.

 

My next door 40 something neighbor is one of the sorriest things I have ever seen. He has moved in with his grandmother and is leeching off of her because I guess it is so hard out there that baby mamas and desperate women are putting these men out. I am noticing a phenomenon where DBRs are just piling up on older female family members like never before. . . .

 

The Mammy Mules whose lives are mostly filled with non-reciprocating parasites are being wiped out as we speak. The DBRs in their lives are piling up on them; and now they’ve got multiple adult parasites sleeping on their couches. As the Mammy Mules continue drowning, they’re going to try to grab hold of any nearby functional Black person. Get clear of the Mammy Mules before they drag you down with them.

Become Even More Proactive About Preserving Your Health

For those who are healthy, work to prevent unnecessary illness by making nutritional and fitness changes whose positive benefits are supported by peer-reviewed medical research.

For those who are dealing with a health challenge, use conventional medical treatments as the foundation of what one is doing while exploring alternative practices that might be helpful.

Let me emphasize this point. I repeat: Any nutritional, fitness-related, etc. regimen should be an adjunct to, NOT a replacement for, conventional medical treatments. There are a lot of snake oil peddlers who slap the words “natural,” “holistic,” “vegetarian,” “herbal,” “macrobiotic,” etc. onto their products in order to make sales.

There are also a lot of people who have semi-food cults operating.

None of this is what I'm talking about.

A now-deceased colleague initially played the herbal, “holistic,” and prayer game instead of surgery and other conventional treatments for her breast cancer. As I mentioned years ago in an earlier post, SHE IS DEAD because of this. She died after several years of suffering.

She suffered and died after the cancer spread. She allowed the cancer to spread by her initial refusal to accept conventional medical treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. She spent many months after diagnosis doing the “holistic,” “natural,” “prayer-based,” etc. practices instead of conventional treatments.

She gambled. She lost. She paid with intense physical suffering. She paid with her life. I would urge folks not to make the same mistake. Don't reject the blessings that God has created by allowing medical and scientific knowledge to advance.

From what I've read, traditional Eastern forms of medicine deal with the body's physical environment. With cultivating the patient's internal physical environment in a way that prevents disease processes from taking root and growing in that “soil.” This only makes sense in the context of before a medical crisis (such as cancer, etc.) has developed.

Conventional, Western medicine deals with health issues at the point of crisis. After a condition has developed. Conventional, Western medicine is superior for treating acute, medical crises.

The M.D./Ph.D. who wrote the book Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life (who is also a cancer survivor himself, by the way) talked about the peer-reviewed medical research indicating that it takes a matter of years for a person's body to create a cancerous tumor. It's estimated that it takes 5-40 years for a cancer cell to become a cancer tumor.

There are internal processes that support this growth (such as creation of blood vessels to divert nutrients to the developing cancer tumor, etc.).

What this author is talking about is basically keeping one's internal soil clean of cancer “weeds” by making nutritional and other changes that interrupt the tumor-generating process. There are certain compounds within various foods that hinder a cancer cell's ability to “hijack” and grow new blood vessels for its own use.

The point of all of the prevention methods that are supported by peer-reviewed medical research are to block the internal processes that enable dangerous conditions to develop. Prevention only works to the extent that a person catches the situation before an internal weed (such as a cancerous tumor) has taken root and developed. If you wait until after a medical condition develops in order to make nutritional and other changes, it's not prevention anymore. At that point, you need reputable, conventional medical treatment.

Once the medical condition is present, I believe that it's best to seek out conventional, Western medical treatment. And only use other things as an adjunct to, not a replacement for, conventional medical treatments.

Due to peak oil and economic collapse, there will come a day when the current, high-tech, energy-intensive medical treatments will only be available to the super-rich. There will be a day when most of us have to depend on herbal remedies and prevention for our health. It’s wise to learn about such things while they’re still optional.

It’s also wise to get some measure of control over your food. And, for your own health, to get away from industrialized food as much as possible. Which leads me to gardening.

Get Proactive About Your Food Security With Personal Food Forests and Victory Gardens

Sojourners need to take note of how savvy Whites are creating food forests to ensure their families’ and neighborhoods’ survival. They’re also talking about hidden survival gardens. A group in Seattle is taking action on food forests. There’s going to be a lot of real hunger in the U.S. as time goes by. Most AAs will be “perpetually surprised” (as veteran Common Sense blogger Evia calls the behavior pattern) as they starve.

The majority of AAs will be perpetually surprised that there won’t be any additional government programs put in place to rescue them from starvation. They’ll also be surprised to see the dialysis centers (that are conveniently located in AA areas) and other medical care designed to treat ailments caused by lifestyle choices (such as obesity-related ailments) disappear. They will be perpetually surprised that the U.S. government prefers to spend what little money it has left on wars, and not on propping up the dysfunctional AA collective.

Meanwhile, the Sojourners and other sensible people will continue thriving.

Addendum

Here's a comment to the latest Archdruid Report post that gives an idea of how fragile the modern hi-tech medical system truly is:

  Bogatyr said...

I posted this a few days ago, but it doesn't seem to have gone through...

Kyrgyztan: Alternative medicine tries to fill healthcare gap

For all the discussion of resistance to antibiotics, the process of manufacturing and delivering medicines of all kinds is long and complex.

In Greece, pharmaceuticals are unavailable because pharmacies can't afford them. Here in the UK, we almost ran out a few years ago because they come into the country by air, and all shipments stopped when Eyjafjallajokull erupted.

Modern medicine apparently collapsed in Kyrgyzstan with the fall of the Soviet empire. Catabolic collapse in the West means the same may happen to us.

9/2/13, 11:27 AM

Ladies, carry on with optimizing your lives!